Everything in the phenomenal world is a footprint of Buddha, including the basic spaced-out experience we might feel. We also have the sense of relating with every detail in life, seeking answers, questioning, looking into life as it is. From this point of view, everything is a footprint, anything that goes on, whether we regard […]
Seeing the truth as it is, is the goal as well as the path. Confused existence, or samsara, is a complex situation based on passion, aggression, and ignorance. Its essence is turmoil. But unless you relate to passion, aggression, and ignorance as the path—understanding them, working with them, and treading on them—you will not discover […]
The starting point for the mahayana, the path of the bodhisattva, is that you do not regard your life as boring, nor do you try to escape from your life by any means whatsoever. You do not run after entertainment or substitutions of any kind. You are honest and direct, and you face the facts […]
If there is wisdom in sacred teachings, there should not be any war. As long as a person is involved with warfare, trying to defend or attack, then the action is not sacred; it is mundane, dualistic, a battlefield situation. One would not expect the great teachings to be as simple-minded as that, trying to […]
Look at the sun. The sun is shining. Nobody polishes the sun. The sun just shines. Look at the moon, the sky, the world at its best. Unfortunately, we human beings try to fit everything into conditionality. We try to make something out of nothing. We have messed everything up. That’s our problem. We have […]
Idiot compassion is the highly conceptualized idea that you want to do good to somebody. In order that your compassion doesn’t become idiot compassion, you have to use your intelligence. Chögyam Trungpa
The practice of meditation is a way of unmasking ourselves, our deceptions of all kinds, and also the practice of meditation is a way of bringing out the subtleties of intelligence that exist within us. The experience of meditation sometimes plays the role of playmate; sometimes it plays the role of devil’s advocate, fundamental depression. […]
We are very critical of ourselves, to the point where we are even our own enemies. Meditation is a way of making up that quarrel, of accepting ourselves, making friends with ourselves. We find that we are not as bad as we have been told we are. Chögyam Trungpa
Mahayana, the great path of wakefulness, provides an immense sense of freedom: freedom to think, freedom to react, and freedom to practice. Freedom to think means that we can work with the essence of buddha mind, with prajna, or discriminating awareness, and compassion. It means that we are free to use our insight, our basic […]
With genuine love and compassion, you just be what you are. If you can be what you are, external situations will become as they are, automatically. Then you can communicate directly and accurately. This is a balanced way of openness and communication, which automatically allows tremendous space, room for creative development, space in which to […]
Letting go is only possible for short periods. We need some discipline to bring us to “letting be.” We must walk a spiritual path. Ego must wear itself out like an old shoe, journeying from suffering to liberation. The truth of the spiritual path, the practice of meditation, is the Fourth Noble Truth taught by […]
Wild flowers extend everywhere On mountain meadows filled with the sweet smell of fragrant herbs. Seeing the gentle deer frolicking from place to place, I constantly remember the compassion and gentleness Of the only father guru and the Great Eastern Sun. Chögyam Trungpa
Synchronizing mind and body is not a concept or a random technique someone thought up for self-improvement. Rather, it is a basic principle of how to be a human being. Chögyam Trungpa
Just fully being skillful involves total lack of inhibition. We are not afraid to be. We are not afraid to live. We must accept ourselves as being warriors. If we acknowledge ourselves as warriors, then there is a way in, because a warrior dares to be, like a tiger in the jungle. Chögyam Trungpa
We have to work with what resources we have. We have to begin small, in an ordinary and simple way. Our actual present situation of what we are is our stepping stone. And we start from a simple technique such as walking or breathing. This is by no means expensive. It is a natural thing. […]
The situations of fear that exist in our lives provide us with stepping stones to step over fear. On the other side of cowardice is bravery. If we step over properly, we can cross the boundary from being cowardly to being brave. We may not discover bravery right away. Instead, we may find a shaky […]
Buddha nature is not regarded as a peaceful state of mind or, for that matter, as a disturbed one either. It is a state of intelligence that questions our life and the meaning of life. It is the foundation of a search. A lot of things haven’t been answered in our life—and we are still […]
All of your schemes and thoughts and ideas are empty! If you look behind their backs, it is like looking at a mask. If you look behind a mask, you see that it is hollow. There may be a few holes for the nostrils and the mouth—but if you look behind it, it doesn’t look […]
We call it a dot because it occurs very abruptly in the situation, on the spot. It cannot be traced by scientific examination or by an alpha machine. It is just a dot, which always occurs. The dot occurs when we are uncertain. If you are driving quite fast and you see an intersection up […]
The pattern of the practitioner’s progress on the path is as follows: First, one develops extreme exertion in uncovering one’s own neurosis. This one-pointed mindfulness brings the sense of one’s actual human quality. The second stage is marked by gentleness, allowing one’s energies to expand and be shared with the rest of sentient beings. Finally, […]
