Quote

When we hide from the world in this way, we feel secure. We may think we have quieted our fear, but we are actually making ourselves numb with fear. We surround ourselves with our own familiar thoughts, so that nothing sharp or painful can touch us.

Chogyam Trungpa

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Chogyam Trungpa
Age: 47 †
Born: 1940
Born: January 1
Died: 1987
Died: April 4
Erudite
Guru
Painter
Philosopher
Professor
Writer
Peking
Trungpa
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Way
Actually
Sharp
Think
Making
Surround
Thinking
Fear
Hide
World
Change
Secure
May
Familiar
Nothing
Painful
Feel
Touch
Quieted
Feels
Thoughts
Numb

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Meditation practice is a way of making friends with ourselves. Whether we are worthy or unworthy, that's not the point. It's developing a friendly attitude to ourselves, accepting the hidden neurosis coming through.
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You can almost convince yourself that you've accomplished things just by thinking about them. The alternative is to be more realistic. You don't necessarily regard the dreaming process as bad or an obstacle, but it's not realistic enough.
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Because there is something difficult and destructive involved, there must be something creative involved as well. Relating to that creative aspect is the point.
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The challenge of warriorship is to live fully in the world as it is and to find within this world, with all its paradoxes, the essence of nowness. If we open our eyes, if we open our minds, if we open our hearts, we will find that this world is a magical place.
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There seems to be a hypnotic quality to ambition and speed, so that you feel that you are standing still just because you want to go so fast. You might actually be getting close to your goal.
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The main point of any spiritual practice is to step out of the bureaucracy of ego. This means stepping out of ego's constant desire for a higher, more spiritual, more transcendental version of knowledge, religion, virtue, judgment, comfort, or whatever it is that the particular ego is seeking. One must step out of spiritual materialism.
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We must see with our own eyes and not accept any laid-down tradition as if it had some magical power in it.
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Helping others is a question of being genuine and projecting that genuineness to others. This way of being doesn't have to have a title or a name particularly. It is just being ultimately decent.
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Anything that is created must sooner or later die. Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it we have merely discovered it.
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The way of cowardice is to embed ourselves in a cocoon, in which we perpetuate our habitual patterns. When we are constantly recreating our basic patterns of habits and thought, we never have to leap into fresh air or onto fresh ground.
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When we speak of God or achieving union with God, we are often merely trying to put that great thing into a small container. One cannot drive a camel through the eye of a needle.
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When we talk about compassion we talk in terms of being kind. But compassion is not so much being kind it is being creative [enough] to wake a person up
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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.
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We cannot change the way the world is, but by opening ourselves to the world as it is, we may find that gentleness, decency and bravery are available - not only to us, but to all human beings.
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The trouble with Westerners is that they want to witness their own enlightenment.
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Begin to build up confidence and joy in your own richness. That richness is the essence of generosity. It is the essence of resourcefulness that you can deal with whatever is available around you and not feel poverty stricken.
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Take a friendly attitude toward your thoughts.
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The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, even spirituality.
Chogyam Trungpa