[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Openness to Where You Are

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

November 9, 2008 

OPENNESS TO WHERE YOU ARE

In human life, if you feel you have made a mistake, you don't try to undo the past or the present, but you just accept where you are and work from there. Tremendous openness as to where you are is necessary. This also applies to the practice of meditation, for instance. A person should learn to meditate on the spot, in the given moment, rather than thinking, "...When I reach pension age, I'm going to retire and receive a pension, and I'm going to build my house in Hawaii or the middle of India, or maybe the Gobi Desert, and THEN I'm going to enjoy myself. I'll live a life of solitude and then I'll really meditate." Things never happen that way.

From "The Bardo of Illusory Body," in TRANSCENDING MADNESS: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE SIX BARDOS, page 96.


Of interest to readers:

    Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, prominent Buddhist teacher and the author of What Makes You Not a Buddhist, will be teaching a public seminar in Halifax, Nova Scotia, November 28 to 30. Rinpoche will comment on Transcending Madness: The Experience of the Six Bardos, Chogyam Trungpa�s book on the bardo states and the six realms. Khyentse Rinpoche's dynamic style and brilliant intellect, as well as his deep appreciation for Chogyam Trungpa�s teachings, are sure to make this a memorable weekend.

The program begins Friday evening, November 28, and runs until the afternoon of Nov. 30. For more information on registration, phone 902-420-1118, x 10, or go to: http://www.halifax.shambhala.org/eventdetails.php?id=2764

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

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Carolyn Rose Gimian

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Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications,  the Archive of his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.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