[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Make the First Move

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

October 2, 2006

MAKE THE FIRST MOVE

Usually we are in a stalemate with our world: "Is he going to say he is 
sorry to me first, or am I going to apologize to him first?" But in 
becoming a bodhisattva [a Buddhist who takes a vow to help others and put 
them before oneself] we break that barrier: we do not wait for the other 
person to make the first move. We have decided to do it ourselves. People 
have a lot of problems and they suffer a great deal, obviously. and we have 
only half a grain of sand's worth of awareness of that suffering happening 
in this country alone, let alone in the rest of the world. Millions of 
people in the world are suffering because of their lack of generosity, 
discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and transcendental knowledge. 
The point of making the first move by taking the bodhisattva vow is not to 
convert people to our particular view, necessarily. The idea is that we 
should contribute something to the world simply by our own way of relating, 
by our own gentleness.

 From "The Bodhisattva" in the SHAMBHALA SUN magazine, November 2006, page 52.

Of interest to our readers: Today's quote is excerpted from Chogyam 
Trungpa's presentation of the bodhisattva ideal in the November issue of 
the SHAMBHALA SUN. This issue also contains excerpts from DRAGON THUNDER: 
MY LIFE WITH CHOGYAM TRUNGPA by Diana J. Mukpo with Carolyn Rose Gimian and 
features an interview with Diana.

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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 
unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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