[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: The Secular and the Spiritual

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

February 2, 2008

THE SECULAR AND THE SPIRITUAL

We could discuss the question of the amateurish and the genuine warrior, in connection with the secular and the spiritual. When we talk about the secular, we're referring to looking directly at ourselves and discovering our existence and our health and our glory without being influenced by any religious outlook. We are simply discovering ourselves. Vajrayana Buddhists might say that's what they are doing too, and maybe that's true. When we talk about a secular approach, we're not talking about something desecrated. We are simply talking about a situation where you have your own resources and your existence, and you discover whatever is to be discovered from that. We don't have to debuddhicize our discovery. We might find that what we are actually looking for and experiencing in a secular way coincides with Buddhist discoveries, the discoveries described in Buddhism.
        Within the secular situation, we still have to use the discipline presented by the Buddhist path. This is the discipline of mindfulness and natural exertion, which is there so that we can actually be open to ourselves, so that we are constantly checking on ourselves, so to speak. In some subtle way, we might find that the secular becomes very sacred, and very real, genuine. From that point of genuineness, where the secular becomes sacred, we begin to discover the true warrior as opposed to the mimicking warrior.

From Talk Three, Talks to Shambhala Training Directors, January 17, 1978. Unpublished.

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo and used by permission.

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Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week: teachings by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications,  the Archive of his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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