vajraGrrrl

We should feel grateful that we are in the samsaric world, the confused world, so that we can tread the path.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

If somebody is waking for the first time from a deep sleep, she might see the midnight stars. But if she waits long enough without going back to sleep, she will begin to see not only stars but the dawn, then the sunrise, and then the whole landscape being lit by a brilliant light coming from the sky. She will begin to see her hands, her palms, her toes, and she will also begin to see her tables, her chairs, and the world around her. And if she is clever enough to look at a mirror, she will also see herself. Similarly, the truth of the cessation of suffering is a personal discovery. It is not mystical and it does not have any connotations of religion or psychology. It is simply your experience.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

The third noble truth that the Buddha taught is the truth of cessation. The truth of cessation (gokpa) is related to the concept of tharpa, or “liberation.” In discussing the possibility of cessation, we should get rid of fictitious stories about how great it is to get there and become somebody at last. Such ideas may be obstacles. In relating to cessation, the question is whether we have to use our imagination or whether we actually can experience a sense of relief or freedom. The truth of the matter is, that in regard to cessation, imagination does not play a very important role. It does not help at all in getting results. The experience of cessation is very personal and very real, like the practice of meditation. Generally, however, our experiences of freedom or liberation are quite sparse and minute — and when we do have an occasional glimpse of freedom, we try to catch it, so we lose it. But it is possible to extend such glimpses.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Whenever there is doubt, that creates another step on your staircase. Doubt is telling you that you need to take another step. Each time there is an obstacle, you go one step further, beyond it, step by step. You walk or you jump one step at a time until you see the Great Eastern Sun. I wouldn’t suggest that in the beginning you look at the Great Eastern Sun directly — the light might burn you — but I wouldn’t suggest you wear sun glasses all the time either. In the shade of fearlessness, you can appreciate the light that comes from the Great Eastern Sun and then you can appreciate how it illuminates the colors of everything around you. Then slowly but surely, you will actually see the Great Eastern Sun directly without it blinding you. That is the warrior’s way, and that is the way that we can conquer fear.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Seeing our pain as it is, is a tremendous help. Ordinarily, we are so wrapped up in it that we don’t even see it. We are swimming in oceans of ice water of anxiety, and we don’t even see that we are suffering….Buddhists have realized that we are suffering, that anxiety is taking place. We have understood that anxiety does exist; and because of that, we also begin to realize the possibility of salvation or deliverance from that particular pain and anxiety. According to the hinayana teachings, the fundamental teachings, you have to be very practical: you are going to do something about suffering. On a very personal level, you are going to do something about it.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

The origin of suffering, strangely, can come either from trying to be highly disciplined and aware or from completely losing one’s awareness. Generally, if you are not mindful and aware, suffering begins to arise; whereas, if you are mindful and aware, suffering does not arise. However, suffering can also come from using your awareness discipline as a means of securing yourself by developing set patterns in life. Ego-oriented patterns arise from both attitudes and actions, and lead to suffering. They include (1) regarding the five skandhas, or aspects of ego, as belonging to oneself, (2) protecting oneself from impermanence, (3) believing that one’s view is best, (4) believing in the extremes of nihilism (that nothing matters) and eternalism (that things last forever), as well as the extreme emotions of (5) passion, (6) aggression, and (7) ignorance….

As a practitioner, you realize that these patterns don’t particularly go away, but at least you know what they are all about, and as you go along, you will probably know what you should do about it. You may think that once the dharma or the truth has been spoken, it should solve those problems automatically, but that is not the case. First you have to get into the dharma; then you can think about what you can do.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Although currently you have ended up with a very bad situation, you can suddenly change the karmic flow with a tremendous, quite sudden and forceful effort. You may have ended up in a tremendous depression, but you are able to make a jump in your life and overcome that. You are able to change the flow of your particular lifestyle. You might be used to being very lazy and sloppy, but the sitting practice of meditation could tighten up your lifestyle so that suddenly you become a tidy, vigorous and uplifting person. There are second thoughts happening each time you act. There is hesitation, and from that hesitation or gap, you can go backward or forward. Changing the flow of karma happens in that gap. So the gap is very useful. It is in the gap that you give birth to a new life.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

The connection between small ideas and large ideas is very important. For instance, sudden dramas, such as murdering somebody or creating immense chaos, begin on the level of minute concepts and tiny shifts of attention. Something large is being triggered by something quite small. The first little hint of dislike or attraction for somebody eventually escalates and brings on a much more immense scale of emotional drama or psychodrama. So everything starts on a minute scale, at the beginning, and then expands….Although emotions are seemingly very heavy-handed, large-scale, and crude, they have their origin in the subtle twists that take place in our mind constantly….We experience the arising of such thoughts right now, all the time. It is possible for people who have been practicing meditation and studying the teachings, who are opened up and intrigued, to see this pattern. If you have been practicing, you are somewhat raw and unskinned, which is good. Being able to relate with the subtleties of mental shifts is connected with the principle of paying attention to every activity that we do in smaller doses.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Chaos should be regarded as extremely good news.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

This seminar is on shunyata, although we are quite uncertain what shunyata actually is. It seems that shunyata means not that, not this. So we shouldn’t have a discussion at all. If it’s not that, not this — what else? We could sit around and scrounge up something to discuss, but it seems to be insignificant, totally irrelevant.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

No one can save us from the state of chaos or samsara unless we understand the meaning of chaos and confusion, unless we have experienced it and suffered from it.

Chögyam Trungpa