The everyday practice is simply to develop a complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions and to all people, experiencing everything totally without mental reservations and blockages, so that one never withdraws or centralizes into oneself.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPAWe have a fear of facing ourselves. That is the obstacle. Experiencing the innermost core of our existence is very embarrassing to a lot of people. A lot of people turn to something that they hope will liberate them without their having to face themselves. That is impossible.
More Chogyam Trungpa Quotes
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Hope and fear cannot alter the seasons
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
My advice to you is not to undertake the spiritual path. It is too difficult, too long, and is too demanding. I suggest you ask for your money back, and go home. This is not a picnic. It is really going to ask everything of you. So, it is best not to begin. However, if you do begin, it is best to finish.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
Whatever shakes you should without delay, right away, be incorporated into the path.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
You must personally accept the responsibility of improving your own life.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
In Tibetan, authentic presence is wangthang, which literally means, ‘field of power’… The cause or the virtue that brings about authentic presence is emptying out and letting go. You have to be without clinging.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
Ultimately, that is the definition of bravery: not being afraid of yourself.
CHOGYAM 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.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
We are caught in a traffic jam of discursive thought.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
When you relate to thoughts obsessively, you are actually feeding them because thoughts need your attention to survive. Once you begin to pay attention to them and categorize them, then they become very powerful.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
The emphasis on practice is because it is the only time in your life you can steer your karmic situation.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
Things get very clear when you’re cornered.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
The ideal of helping is to make others independent of you. You help them to become more independent rather than making them addicted to you.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
A great deal of the chaos in the world occurs because people don’t appreciate themselves.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
Artistic vision is having the clarity to fall in love with what you see.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
There is no such thing as talent, only awareness.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
We need to encourage an attitude of constant questioning, which is a genuine part of our potential as students. If students were required to drop their questions, that would create armies of zombies- rows of jellyfish…The questioning mind is absolutely necessary.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
It’s easier to put on a pair of shoes than to wrap the earth in leather.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
I would like to say, ladies and gentlemen, that you shouldn’t be afraid of who you are. That’s the first key idea. You shouldn’t be afraid of who you are. You should NOT be afraid of who you are. It’s very important for you to realize that.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
In fact, a person always finds when he begins to practice meditation that all sorts of problems are brought out. Any hidden aspects of your personality are brought out into the open, for the simple reason that for the first time you are allowing yourself to see your state of mind as it is.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
We do not have to be ashamed of what we are. As sentient beings we have wonderful backgrounds. These backgrounds may not be particularly enlightened or peaceful or intelligent. Nevertheless, we have soil good enough to cultivate; we can plant anything in it.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
The trouble with Westerners is that they want to witness their own enlightenment.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
Life is a straight drink – straight pleasure, straight pain, straightforward, one hundred percent.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
There is very little distance between being a fool and being wise; they are extremely close. When we are really, truly fools, when we actually acknowledge our foolishness, then we are way ahead. We are not even in the process of becoming wise – we are already wise.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
Right mindfulness does not simply mean being aware; it is like creating a work of art. You can therefore trust what you are doing; you are not threatened by anything. You have room to dance in the space, and this makes it a creative situation. The space is open to you.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA -
The discovery of magic can happen only when we transcend our embarrassment about being alive, when we have the bravery to proclaim the goodness and dignity of human life, without either hesitation or arrogance. Then magic can descend onto our existence.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA