from “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism” by Chögyam Trungpa, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche -
“In the process of burning out these confusions, we discover enlightenment. If the process were otherwise, the awakened state of mind would be a product, dependent upon cause and effect and therefore liable to dissolution. Anything which is created must, sooner or later, die. If enlightenment were created in such a way, there would always be the possibility of ego reasserting itself, causing a return to the confused state.”
What has impressed upon my mind with this, it’s the first thing, awakening, thay can be permanent. My sobriety, could be gone tomorrow…as my life, my “fortune”, ect…Not saying one cannot lose their way, but it give my heart, mind, and soul some reassurance
from “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism” by Chögyam Trungpa, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche -
“The lord of form refers to the neurotic pursuit of physical comfort, security, and pleasure. Our highly organized and technological society reflects our preoccupation with manipulating physical surroundings so as to shield ourselves from the irritations of the raw, rugged, unpredictable aspects of life. Push-button elevators, pre-packaged meat, air-conditioning, flush toilets, private funerals, retirement programs, mass production, weather satellites, bulldozers, fluorescent lighting, nine-to-five jobs, television—all are attempts to create a manageable, safe, predictable, pleasurable world.”
Pursuit of comfort. This hit hard. As I harvest my garden, can what I can prep meat for preservation…I give myself temporary relief from my stress and concern about the potential in a loss of food security that could be coming.
Hmmm…I think I will chew on this by the campfire tonight.
from “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism” by Chögyam Trungpa, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche -
“The lord of speech refers to the use of intellect in relating to our world. We adopt sets of categories which serve as handles, as ways of managing phenomena. The most fully developed products of this tendency are ideologies, the systems of ideas that rationalize, justify, and sanctify our lives. Nationalism, communism, existentialism, Christianity, Buddhism—all provide us with identities, rules of action, and interpretations of how and why things happen as they do. Again, the use of intellect is not in itself the lord of speech. The lord of speech refers to the inclination on the part of ego to interpret anything that is threatening or irritating in such a way as to neutralize the threat or turn it into something “positive” from ego’s point of view.”
I grew up in a household where all things were God. Something good happened, thank God. Something bad happened, must be part of his plan. Same with love of country, same with how one acts.
The lord of mind refers to the effort of consciousness to maintain awareness of itself. The lord of mind rules when we use spiritual and psychological disciplines as the means of maintaining our self-consciousness, of holding on to our sense of self. Drugs, yoga, prayer, meditation, trances, various psychotherapies—all can be used in this way.
We all have our reasons for starting the path but it is what we do once we are on the path that matters, once we begin to understand the nature of reality and experience it in the present moment.
Of course Buddhism isn’t one thing. But to be free from suffering (craving/ attachment) is one outcome of following the path. We might be attracted to this as a pleasurable sounding thing but as we learn about it we realise that pleasure is also attachment!
For some reason I thought she was connected to the book you mentioned. Which I now realise she isn’t. But regardless I thought it looked good and hope it is a worthy addition to your list!
Posted by Sharon Salzberg on FB, I wanted to share it here, as it deeply resonated for me.
"The Buddha pointed out thousands of years ago that suffering is a fact of life. Or, as I sometimes put it:
Some things just hurt.
Our dominant cultural attitude towards pain is that it’s something to be avoided, denied, “treated,” and I’ve found that it can be particularly tough for people — including me — to acknowledge painful emotions in the context of spiritual practice. One of the central tenets of Buddhism is the acceptance of suffering, but like many of the misleading expectations we hold about meditation, there is often a lot of self-consciousness about what being “spiritual” should look like. Some of us may feel that the cultivation of compassion should be a practice that keeps us from feeling those “less virtuous” emotions like anger, annoyance, impatience, and disappointment. And, yet, part of the cultivation is simple acceptance, including the acceptance of those things that just hurt.
That’s why the revolutionary statement that there is suffering in the world is so liberating. It doesn’t include the idea of how we should feel in relation to those times when we suffer. In fact, the most radical part of this piece of wisdom is its simplicity — the fact that it is merely a recognition of what is. When I first encountered this idea in an Asian philosophy class in college, I felt instantly comforted, and the comfort was unlike anything I’d experienced before. No one was trying to make sense of my pain or to rationalize it; no one was reassuring me that things would get better, or reminding me to look at the bright side — all things we are conditioned to say and believe in the face of suffering. For the first time, I felt a sense of permission and freedom to feel whatever I was going to feel."
My battle with the company that hit my truck, was an excuse to get off track…
Truth be told, it was a good lesson. I was perfectly fine when it happened. Then I tried to control the process…then my mood went south…been awhile since i felt that way…
from “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism” by Chögyam Trungpa, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche -
“For example, if you have learned of a particularly beneficial meditation technique of spiritual practice, then ego’s attitude is, first, to regard it as an object of fascination and, second, to examine it. Finally, since ego is seemingly solid and cannot really absorb anything, it can only mimic. Thus ego tries to examine and imitate the practice of meditation and the meditative way of life. When we have learned all the tricks and answers of the spiritual game, we automatically try to imitate spirituality, since real involvement would require the complete elimination of ego, and actually the last thing we want to do is to give up the ego completely. However, we cannot experience that which we are trying to imitate; we can only find some area within the bounds of ego that seems to be the same thing.”
