[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: The Truth of Awareness

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

June 28, 2008

THE TRUTH OF AWARENESS

The practice of meditation is not designed to develop pleasure, but to understand the truth of suffering; and in order to understand the truth of suffering, one also has to understand the truth of awareness. When true awareness takes place, suffering does not exist. Through awareness, suffering is somewhat changed in its perspective. It is not necessarily that you do not suffer, but the haunting quality that fundamentally you are in trouble is removed. It is like removing a splinter. It might hurt, and you might still feel pain, but the basic cause of that pain, the ego, has been removed.

From THE TRUTH OF SUFFERING: AND THE PATH OF LIBERATION, forthcoming from Shambhala Publications in April, 2009. Published in association with Vajradhatu Publications. Based on teachings given at the Vajradhatu Seminaries by Chogyam Trungpa. Edited by Judith Lief.  

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Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications,  the Archive of his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Death Is Real

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

June 25, 2008

DEATH IS REAL

Student: What should we try to communicate to a dying person?

Chogyam Trungpa: You see, death is a very real experience. Usually, we do not connect with a sense of reality. If we have an accident -- or whatever happens in our lives -- we do not regard it as a real experience, even though it may hurt us. It is real to us as far as pain and physical damages are concerned, but still it's not real for us because we immediately look at it in terms of how it could be otherwise. There's always the idea of first aid or some other redeeming aspect of the situation. If you are talking to a dying friend or relative, you should transmit the idea that death is a real experience, rather than that it's just a joke and the person could get better. Often people tell the dying person things like, "Life is really a joke altogether. The great saints say it's not real. Life is unreal. What is death, anyway?" When we try to take this kind of approach, we become jumpy ourselves, and that jumpiness is what we end up communicating to the dying person. We should help them to understand that death is real.

From "Death and the Sense of Experience," in CRAZY WISDOM, page 138.

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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[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Let Anger Be in Its Own Place

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

June 22, 2008

LET ANGER BE IN ITS OWN PLACE

Student: If I'm angry, instead of either expressing or suppressing my anger, how can I just relate to it? Should I stop the anger and just relate to the thought process?
 
Chogyam Trungpa: You don't stop the anger, you just are the anger. Anger just hangs out as it is. That is relating with the anger. Then the anger becomes vivid and directionless, and it diffuses into energy. The idea of relating with the emotion has nothing to do with expressing yourself to the other person. The Tibetan expression for that is rang sar shak, which means "leave it in its own place." Let anger be in its own place.

From "Death and the Sense of Experience" in CRAZY WISDOM, pages 137 to 138.

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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[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: The Wisdom of Fear

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

June 19, 2008

THE WISDOM OF FEAR

The crazy wisdom approach to fear is not regarding it as a hangup alone, but realizing it is intelligent. It has a message of its own. Fear is worth respecting. If we dismiss fear as an obstacle and ignore it, then we might end up with accidents. In other words, fear is a very wise message....The point is, you can't con fear or frighten fear. You have to respect fear. You might try to tell yourself that it's not real, that it's just false, but that kind of approach is very questionable. It is better to develop some kind of respect, realizing that neurosis also is a message, rather than garbage that you should just throw away. That's the whole starting point -- the idea of samsara and nirvana, confusion and enlightenment, being one. Samsara is not regarded as a nuisance alone, but it has its own potent message that is worthy of respect.

From "Fearlessness" in CRAZY WISDOM, pages 124 to 125.

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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[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Constant Rejuvenation

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

June 16, 2008

CONSTANT REJUVENATION

The main focus of crazy wisdom is the youthfulness of the enlightened state of being. This youthfulness is the immediacy of experience, the exploratory quality of it. "But wouldn't exploring age us, make us old?" we might ask. We have to put so much energy into exploring. Do we not become like a traveler who grows old through traveling? From the point of view of crazy wisdom, this is not the case. Exploring is no strain. You might have to do the same thing again and again, but each time you discover new facets of it, which makes you younger.
        Discovery is related with energy that feeds you constantly. It brings your life to a very full, healthy state. So each time you explore, you gain new health. You constantly come back to a sense of being up to date in your experience of the world, of your life. So the whole thing becomes constant rejuvenation.

From "Fearlessness" in CRAZY WISDOM, pages 118 to 119.

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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[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Just There

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

June 13, 2008

JUST THERE

Being open means being free to do whatever is called for in a given situation. Because you do not want anything from the situation, you are free to act in the way genuinely appropriate to it. And similarly, if other people want something from you, that may be their problem. You do not have to try to ingratiate yourself with anyone. Openness means "being what you are." If you are comfortable being yourself, then an environment of openness and communication arises automatically and naturally.
        It is like the idea of the moon shining on one hundred bowls of water, so that there are one hundred moons, one in each bowl. This is not the moon's design nor was it designed by anyone else. But for some strange reason there happen to be one hundred moons reflected in one hundred bowls of water. Openness means this kind of absolute trust and self-confidence. If the bowls are there, they will reflect your "moon-ness." If they are not there, they will not. Or if they are only half there, then they will reflect only half a moon. It is up to them. You are just there, the moon, open, and the bowls may reflect you or not. You neither care nor do you not care. You are just there.

From "The Open Way," in CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM, pages 10102, 103 to 104.

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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[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: The Records that Count

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

June 10, 2008

THE RECORDS THAT COUNT

The basic problem we seem to be facing is that we are too involved with trying to prove something, which is connected with paranoia and a feeling of poverty. When you are trying to prove or get something, you are not open anymore, you have to check everything, and you have to arrange it "correctly." It is such a paranoid way to live and it really does not prove anything. One might set records in terms of numbers and quantities -- that we have built the greatest, the biggest; we have collected the most, the longest, the most gigantic. But who is going to remember the record when you are dead? Or in one hundred years? Or in ten years? Or in ten minutes? The records that count are those of the given moment, of now -- whether or not communication and openness are actually taking place now....In the sacred writings, you never read stories of the bodhisattvas, the great practitioners of mahayana, receiving medals. And quite rightly so, because there is no need for them to prove anything. Their action is spontaneous. It is the open life, open communication, which does not involve struggle or speed at all.

From "The Open Way," in CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM, pages 102 to 103.

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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[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Developing Universal Love

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

June 7, 2008

DEVELOPING UNIVERSAL LOVE

There have been so many speeches about love and peace and tranquility in the world. But how do we really bring love into being?...Many people get very romantic about love, in fact get high on it at the very mention of the word. But then there will be a gap, a period when we are not high on love. Something else takes place which is embarrassing, a private matter. We tend to seal it off. It is "private parts," shameful, not part of our divinity. Let's not think about that. Let's simply ignite another love explosion, and on and on we go, trying to ignore those parts of our being we reject, trying to be virtuous, loving, kind. Perhaps this will put off a lot of people, but I am afraid love is not really the experience of beauty and romantic joy alone. Love is associated with ugliness and pain and aggression, as well as with the beauty of the world. It is not the re-creation of heaven. Love or compassion, the open path, is associated with "what is." In order to develop love -- universal love, cosmic love, whatever you would like to call it -- one must accept the whole situation of life as it is, both the light and the dark, the good and the bad. One must open oneself to life, communicate with it.

From "The Open Way," in CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM, pages 100 to 101.

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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[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: The Bridge of Compassion

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

June 4, 2008

THE BRIDGE OF COMPASSION

Compassion becomes a bridge to the world outside. Trust and compassion for oneself bring inspiration to dance with life, to communicate with the energies of the world. Lacking this kind of inspiration and openness, the spiritual path becomes the samsaric path of desire. One remains trapped in the desire to improve oneself, the desire to achieve imagined goals.... Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people, because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy. They recharge your energy, because in the process of relating with them, you acknowledge your wealth, your richness. So if you have difficult tasks to perform, such as dealing with people or life situations, you do not feel you are running out of resources. Each time you are faced with a difficult task, it presents itself as a delightful opportunity to demonstrate your richness, your wealth. There is no feeling of poverty at all in this approach to life.

From "The Open Way," in CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM, pages 98 to 99.

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.
TO SUBSCRIBE visit the Chogyam Trungpa website by clicking on the following link: http://OceanofDharma.com