[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Individual Salvation

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

September 13, 2008

INDIVIDUAL SALVATION

Individual salvation is the first step in the Buddhist tradition. We have to be willing to save ourselves independently and personally. Nobody else is going to save you.  That�s the first footing you begin with.  The Buddhist teachings will provide a lot of help and suggestions of all kinds, of course, but at the same time, those suggestions can only be helpful to us if we actually get to the point where we are able to cooperate. You have to do it for yourself.  There are no external authorities who will make you feel good or save you from anything.  So the Buddhist approach, from that point of view,  is a non-theistic tradition. This does not mean to say that it�s anti-God, or anti-theism particularly.  But the Buddhist tradition begins with the importance of working on oneself and for oneself.  By doing so, slowly we begin to expand our vision, and our sense of sanity progresses. Then we are able to help others like we helped ourselves.

Edited from an unpublished transcript of Talk One of VIEWING AND WORKING WITH THE PHENOMENAL WORLD, a seminar at Naropa Institute, June 10, 1976. 

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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Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications,  the Archive of his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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