[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: A Question of Geography

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

July 18, 2006

A QUESTION OF GEOGRAPHY

Student: Tonight you mentioned the emphasis hundreds of years ago on 
students practicing meditation in their caves. What is the real difference 
between the experience of a practitioner then and our experience now?

Chogyam Trungpa: There’s not very much difference. The main difference is 
that they heard different noises then. These days we might hear airplanes 
flying above, and in those days, they might have heard flies buzzing 
about
.In actual reality, as far as the living situation is concerned, it’s 
essentially the same, then and now. In those days, caves were routinely 
used for sitting practice, not for romantic reasons but because, in that 
geographical area, there were lots of caves. You didn't have to spend money 
to build a cabin; there were holes in the mountains already. You just went 
and lived there. Nowadays, we can't find many holes in the mountains around 
here, so we have to build retreat cabins. It’s simply a question of geography.
Actually things haven't changed that much. We might romanticize the "good 
old days," but if you were there right now, you wouldn't think that those 
were the "good old days" at all. You would have the same experience then as 
now, anyway. It’s just a gap in time, a time lapse.


 From "Trungmase and the Three Idiots," Talk Three in THE LINE OF THE 
TRUNGPAS, an unpublished manuscript being edited for publication. 
Forthcoming in 2007 from Vajradhatu Publications.

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo and used by 
permission.

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Carolyn Rose Gimian

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week: teachings by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications,  the Archive of his 
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