Today
Today, be happy that in all your past thinking, there has been this heart breaking struggle and confusion readily available, making itself like a second body to be dragged around, the weight which feels like the weight of the world. Now, you can begin to see how it was all completely necessary, every tear, every pang of fear, and every doubt. Now you have a sense of what you can choose to shatter and destroy by realizing, today, it was all necessary to arrive here, now. Whatever you think you are, you are more than this, and one thing is certain, you don’t know fully the complete and perfect being you already are.
Oम् णमह् षिवय, Oम् णमह् षिवय
"... Many people make the mistake of thinking that since ego is the root of suffering, the goal of spirituality must be to conquer and destroy ego. They struggle to eliminate ego's heavy hand but that struggle is merely another expression of ego. We go around and around, trying to improve ourselves through struggle, until we realize that the ambition to improve ourselves is itself the problem. Insights come only when there are gaps in our struggle, only when we stop trying to rid ourselves of thought, when we cease siding with pious, good thoughts against bad, impure thoughts, only when we allow ourselves simply to see the nature of thought.
We begin to realize that there is a sane, awake quality within us. In fact this quality manifests itself only in the absence of struggle. So we discover the Third Noble Truth, the truth of the goal: that is, non-striving. We need only drop the effort to secure and solidify ourselves and the awakened state is present. But we soon realize that just "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."
Chogyam Trungpa - Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
"... Many people make the mistake of thinking that since ego is the root of suffering, the goal of spirituality must be to conquer and destroy ego. They struggle to eliminate ego's heavy hand but that struggle is merely another expression of ego. We go around and around, trying to improve ourselves through struggle, until we realize that the ambition to improve ourselves is itself the problem. Insights come only when there are gaps in our struggle, only when we stop trying to rid ourselves of thought, when we cease siding with pious, good thoughts against bad, impure thoughts, only when we allow ourselves simply to see the nature of thought.
We begin to realize that there is a sane, awake quality within us. In fact this quality manifests itself only in the absence of struggle. So we discover the Third Noble Truth, the truth of the goal: that is, non-striving. We need only drop the effort to secure and solidify ourselves and the awakened state is present. But we soon realize that just "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."
Chogyam Trungpa - Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
posted by isaiah @ 11:30 AM
8 Comments:
wow, that was deep. That really makes you think. silent, be still and just be...
I like this, and the Clarity post. Don't worry about getting yourself somewhere, realize you are already there. Thanks for the post,
I have to follow up! This post is way, way, way better than I thought. It's perfect, exactly what it's supposed to be, but then, why wouldn't it be?
P.S. Not nuts, just lucid-in a good way
"Ego must wear itself out like an old shoe, journeying from suffering to liberation."
Well put.
This Trungpa book is one of my favorites.
I went on retreat last week, and my teacher reminded us, "Remember, this is not a self improvement project." We laughed, but then wondered. It feels like that kind of project sometimes. But what we come to realize, and what you so beautifully articulate, is that we are already That which we seek.
Thank you Tommy. Beautiful post.
Today's frusterations and tears lead us to where we need to be tomorrow. What a relief, actually.
Thanks, Tommy.
Speak then from the Being that is marked with perfection and purity. You will never know this Being, but you can be it. "...you already are."
Meredith realizes "...we are already That which we seek." And she speaks from this space, this Being; she expresses this Being, embodies this Being.
Do not emulate or imitate your teachers. Find within yourself that quality of wakefulness that is already, always present. Find within yourself that Being that animates and informs these teachers and sages.
Great insight. Thanks for sharing.
(And sometime, do translate that line of Sanskrit for us, please!)
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