Chogyam Trungpa Quotes

Sit and do nothing. Every once in a while a golden fish swims by and lays her golden eggs. You'll know.

The charnel ground is that great graveyard in which the complexities of samsara and nirvana lie buried.

Take a friendly attitude toward your thoughts.

Life is a straight drink - straight pleasure, straight pain, straightforward, one hundred percent.

The attainment of enlightenment from ego's point of view is extreme death.

Too often, people think that solving the world's problems is based on conquering the earth, rather than touching the earth, touching ground.

Disappointment results from the removal of illusion.

If kindness doesn't work, try more kindness.

When we let go of the self, we are more inspired to work with others; and when we are generous to others, we realize that the self is lost.

You must personally accept the responsibility of improving your own life.

The point is not to convert anyone to our view, but rather to help people wake to their own view, their own sanity.

The complexities of life situations are really not as complicated as we tend to experience them.

Becoming "awake" involves seeing our confusion more clearly.

Hope and fear cannot alter the season.

The epitome of the human realm is to be stuck in a huge traffic jam of discursive thought.

Buddhism doesn't tell you what is false and what is true but it encourages you to find out for yourself.

As in music, when we hear the crescendo building, suddenly if the music stops, we begin to hear the silence as part of the music.

In the garden of gentle sanity,
May you be bombarded by the coconuts of wakefulness.

The challenge of warriorship is to step out of the cocoon, to step out into space, by being brave and at the same time gentle

Opening to oneself fully is opening to the world.

We are caught in a traffic jam of discursive thought.

We are threatened by the now so we jump to the past or the future.

It's easier to put on a pair of shoes than to wrap the earth in leather.

Everyone loves something, even if it's only tortillas.

We must continue to be open in the face of great opposition. No one is encouraging us to be open and still we must peel away the layers of the heart.

You are sitting on the earth and you realize that this earth deserves you and you deserve this earth. You are there - fully, personally, genuinely.

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.

Gentle day's flower - The hummingbird competes With the stillness of the air.

The courage to work with ourselves comes as basic trust in ourselves, as a sort of fundamental optimism.

It's possible to be completely enlightened ... except with your family.

The bad news is you're falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is, there's no ground.

Elegance means appreciating things as they are. There is a sense of delight and of fearlessness. You are not fearful of dark corners ...

To be a warrior is to learn to be genuine in every moment of your life.

It's no use trying to be different than you are.

We are always in transition. If you can just relax with that, you'll have no problem.

When one is able to overcome the romantic and emotional attitude, one discovers truth even in the kitchen sink.

We must see with our own eyes and not accept any laid-down tradition as if it had some magical power in it.

Enlightenment is ego's ultimate disappointment.

If you are telling the truth, then you can speak gently, and your words will have power.

Chaos should be regarded as extremely good news!

The warrior is not afraid of space

The artist has tremendous power to change the world.

The ideal of warriorship is that the warrior should be sad and tender, and because of that, the warrior can be very brave as well.

The essence of warriorship, or the essence of human bravery, is refusing to give up on anyone or anything.

Fearlessness comes from working with the softness of the human heart.

Why don't we just expand ourselves into our perfect form, our perfect being?

There are many, many details of action involved in the simplicity and sharpness of being in this very moment, here, now.

This whole world is mind's world, the product of the mind.

Our bodies demand our attention; our bodies demand that we actually pay attention to what is going on with our lives.

The idea is not to regard the spiritual path as something very luxurious and pleasurable but to see it as just facing the facts of life.

Luxury is experiencing reality

Ego is constantly attempting to acquire and apply the teachings of spirituality for its own benefit.

What is needed is the constant unmasking of ego's strategy.

The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, even spirituality.

For the very reason that we expect things to be good and beautiful, they won't be. In genuine spirituality, we don't look for bliss.

Ultimately, the definition of bravery is not being afraid of yourself.

You can't feel the earth if you can't feel the space.

No matter what the practice or teaching, ego loves to wait in ambush to appropriate spirituality for its own survival and gain.

Spirituality doesn't exist on another level different from ordinary life.

There is something suspect about our inability to enjoy anything.

The strongest of us are those that are spiritually strong, and a spiritual warrior is one of vulnerability.

If we really prefer basic sanity or enlightenment, it's irritatingly possible to get into it.

Artistic vision comes from a mind clear enough to fall in love with what we see.

Sanity lies somewhere between the inhibitions of conventional morality and the looseness of the extreme impulse

We should see money in terms of the expenditure of energy and how we are going to transmute that energy into a proper use.

There is no need to struggle to be free; the absence of struggle is in itself freedom.

Fearlessness is extending ourselves beyond our limited view.

The emphasis on practice is because it is the only time in your life you can steer your karmic situation.

Developing confidence is like watching the sun rise. First it seems very feeble and one wonders whether it will make it. Then it shines and shines.

Compassion is not having any hesitation to reflect your light on things

The trouble with Westerners is that they want to witness their own enlightenment.

It's all Ati. Now, let's be practical.

Even fear itself is frightened by the bodhisattva's fearlessness.

The path of truth is profound - and so are the obstacles and possibilities for self-deception.

Watchfulness is experiencing a sudden glimpse of something without any qualifications - just the sudden glimpse itself.

Nowness or the magic of the present moment is what joins the wisdom of the past with the present

Sanity is permanent, neurosis is temporary.

Language should fulfill your individual existence as a wholesome human being ... Language should be more than just getting by.

But, if we regard knowledge as an antique, as "ancient wisdom" to be collected, then we are on the wrong path.

Shambhala vision teaches that in the face of the world's great problems, we can be heroic and kind at the same time.

It has been said that sleeping, dreaming, and meditating, or developing awareness, are the only states in which we do not sow further seeds of karma.

There is no such thing as talent, only awareness.

If you must begin then go all the way, because if you begin and quit, the unfinished business you have left behind begins to haunt you all the time.

If we go somewhere on foot, we know the way perfectly, whereas if we go by car or airplane, we are hardly there at all. It becomes merely a dream.

Someone who is seriously interested in meditation should not expect any feedback or promises from the practice. Most

Things get very clear when you're cornered.

The simplicity of meditation means just experiencing the ape instinct of ego.

Magic is the total delight (appreciation) of chance

Artistic vision is having the clarity to fall in love with what you see.

A great deal of the chaos in the world occurs because people don't appreciate themselves.

Whatever shakes you should without delay, right away, be incorporated into the path.

Good and bad, happy and sad, all thoughts vanish into emptiness like the imprint of a bird in the sky.

Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy.