Ocean of Dharma: August 2008

Saturday, August 30, 2008

[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: The Power of an Autumn Leaf

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

August 30, 2008

THE POWER OF AN AUTUMN LEAF

In working with the setting sun or confused world, the attitude of the warrior is like an autumn leaf floating down a river. It doesn't change its color, and it doesn't struggle with the river. It goes along with it. This has a natural effect, because the brook or the river has never carried such an autumn leaf before. The setting sun world will be uncertain what to do with this leaf. So by simply being there, you make people think twice, automatically.
It puts people on the spot when you don't react to them. You don't fight back when they attack you, but you just remain as an autumn leaf, whatever they do. This is the gentle way of working. If there are hundreds of thousands of autumn leaves coming down a small brook, then the appearance of the brook will be changed by them altogether. The joke is on the setting sun people, and they have to think twice. They might smile and pretend to laugh, but really they will be crying, weeping. So you see, an autumn leaf has a great deal of power over the world of the setting sun. Such little leaves could stop the flow of water altogether. If there are enough powerful autumn leaves, that is possible. It has been done in the past.

From CONQUERING FEAR: THE HEART OF WARRIORSHIP, forthcoming from Shambhala Publications in 2009.

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Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications, the Archive of his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Riding the Ox of Mind

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

August 27, 2008

RIDING THE OX OF MIND

There are several levels of mindfulness one can achieve. It is like the images shown in the ox-herding pictures from the Zen tradition. First, there is a sense of watching yourself (searching for the ox.) And then there is a sense that you don't actually have to watch yourself, because you can feel your own footprint; (finding the footprint of the ox). That is a level of how confident you are with yourself. And then as you go along, you begin to feel that you are very much in control of everything. (You find the ox and tame it.) The sense of being is always present there. You could ride on yourself (the ox), and play a flute as you ride along. The sense of well-being is so solid, so definite, you can even extend greater awareness of, not only the sense of being or body, but the sense of well-being, of livelihood -- which leads to further levels of mindfulness.

From "The First Foundation: Mindfulness of Body," in the 1973 Hinayana-Mahayana Transcripts, page 45.

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

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Sunday, August 24, 2008

[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: A Penetrating Sense of Being

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

August 24, 2008

A PENETRATING SENSE OF BEING

In the practice of meditation, mindfulness of the body is the sense of being right there on your meditation cushion, which is partly influenced by bodily sensation and partly influenced by audiovisual sensations and consciousness. At this point, it is not so much meditating on anything particular at all, but just being with one's body fully and completely. As much as we can, we are right there, sitting there. And that kind of sense of being there is also a very penetrating experience. That sense of being transcends the ordinary level of self-consciousness even. You might occasionally experience that you feel that you are being there, you are watching yourself being there, and the watcher watches itself. But that is another little phase, another little project that wears out quickly, and then comes back into the experience of being.

From "The First Foundation: Mindfulness of Body," in the 1973 Hinayana-Mahayana Transcripts, page 40.

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

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: A Very Valid Thing to Do

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

August 20, 2008

A VERY VALID THING TO DO

One of the problems that meditators experience is that there is a slight, almost subconscious, guilty feeling that you ought to be doing something, rather than just experiencing what goes on there in your practice. And when you begin to feel that you ought to be doing something, then you are automatically presenting millions of obstacles to yourself. So if you actually feel you are what you are, and this is not particularly a project as such but just a way of being, then there is also fundamentally a feeling that sitting there, meditating and working on the breathing is valid and approved and it is okay and it's done. It is normal practice. It's nothing extraordinary, particularly. Sitting there and breathing is a very valid thing to do.

From "The First Foundation: Mindfulness of Body," in the 1973 Hinayana-Mahayana Transcripts, page 41.

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

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Sunday, August 17, 2008

[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Meditation Is a Sacred Activity

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

August 17, 2008

MEDITATION IS A SACRED ACTIVITY

When a person sits and meditates, it is a special situation; it is a sacred act of some kind. It has been said by Petrul Rinpoche, a great teacher about 100 years ago, that even if you have impure thoughts in the meditation hall, those thoughts are regarded as sacred thoughts. The most impure, most crude or confused thoughts, even those are regarded as sacred thoughts. Along with that, a sense of appreciating the discipline is in itself important, whether you have accomplished the discipline over all or not. If you fall asleep on your cushion, or feel that you haven't actually sat and meditated at all -- as soon as you sit on your cushion, you begin to mentally venture out all over the world, and the only thing that reminds you is when the ending gong sounds and you realize you are meditating, supposedly, physically -- even then, even such daydreams and things like that are important. Meditation is a sacred activity.

From "The First Foundation: Mindfulness of Body," in the 1973 Hinayana-Mahayana Transcripts, page 39.

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

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Outrageous Dharma

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

August 14, 2008

OUTRAGEOUS DHARMA

The reason dharma is regarded as sacred as opposed to other things, as opposed to a-dharmas or anti-dharmas, is because its contents are outrageous, in that the contents are in touch with the energy of the world, the cosmic flow, so to speak, of the world. So there is almost a magical element in that. And in fact the dharma is not the dharma particularly because it's so sensible and so true in the ordinary sense; therefore it is workable and it works. Rather, there is that element of the magical quality of dharma. So the unconditioned truth, the unconditioned dharma, has extraordinary power in it.

From "The First Foundation: Mindfulness of Body," in the 1973 Hinayana-Mahayana Transcripts, page 38.

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

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Monday, August 11, 2008

[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: The Magical Element of Meditation

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

August 11, 2008

THE MAGICAL ELEMENT OF MEDITATION

Even in the early stages of meditation, there is a magical element of meditation practice. You might ask where this magical aspect comes from, how it comes to be. It is because there is a sense of tuning oneself into an entirely different way of thinking, as opposed to our ordinary, samsaric or confused way of thinking. We have decided to relate with the truth, the dharma, and decided to tune into it. And that tuning oneself into, committing oneself into that stream, that flow, means that one is automatically entered into some kind of spiritual power. It is nothing particularly exciting or extraordinary, but there is a sense of power and there is a sense of mystical energy, so to speak, that one is involved with....So let us not regard practice as a purely mechanical process, which leads you to enlightenment. Tuning oneself into that higher truth is the essence behind it.

From "The First Foundation: Mindfulness of Body," in the 1973 Hinayana-Mahayana Transcripts, pages 37 to 38.

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

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Thursday, August 7, 2008

[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Bliss and Vajra Pride

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

August 7, 2008

BLISS AND VAJRA PRIDE

On the level of tantra, the mahamudra level, pleasure does not take place through the pores of your skin, but pleasure takes place on your very flesh without skin. You become the bliss rather than enjoying the bliss. You are the embodiment of bliss, and this contains a quality of your being very powerful. You have conquered pleasure and pleasure is yours. One doesn't even have to go so far as to try to enjoy pleasure, but pleasure becomes self-existing bliss. In this way every experience that might occur in our life -- communication, visual experience, auditory experience, consciousness: anything that we relate to -- becomes completely workable, highly workable. In fact, even the notion of workability does not apply. It's yours. It is you, in fact. So things become very immediate.
This is what is often called vajra pride, indestructible pride. Pride in this case is not arrogance, but is nondualistically self-contained. You are not threatened by your projections or projectors, but you are there, and at the same time, everything around you is you and yours.

From "Mahamudra," in ILLUSION'S GAME: The Life and Teaching of Naropa. Page 121.

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

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Sunday, August 3, 2008

[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Self-Existing Pleasure

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

August 3, 2008

SELF-EXISTING PLEASURE

One of the definite characteristics of the Buddhist tantra, at least on the level of mahamudra [an advanced level of practice], is not running away from sense pleasures, but rather identifying with them, working with them as part of the working basis. That is an outstanding part of the tantric message. Pleasure in this case includes every kind of pleasure: psychosomatic, physical, psychological, and spiritual. Here it is quite different from the way in which spiritual materialists might seek pleasure -- by getting into the "other." In this case, it is getting into "this." There is a self-existing pleasureableness that is completely hollow from the ordinary point of view of ego's pleasure orientation...If you look at pleasure from the point of view of nakedness, the situation of being completely exposed, any pleasure you experience is full because of its hollowness.

From "Mahamudra," in ILLUSION'S GAME: The Life and Teaching of Naropa. Pages 120 to 121.

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

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