[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Wasting Our Time

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

[Please see update on Ocean of Dharma book below.]

September 20, 2007

WASTING OUR TIME

We can actually sit on a cushion without any purpose, none 
whatsoever. It is outrageous. It's unthinkable. It's terrible -- we 
would be wasting our time. Now there's the point: wasting our time. 
Maybe that's a good one, wasting our time. Give time a rest. Let it 
be wasted. Create virgin time, uncontaminated time, time that hasn't 
been hassled by aggression, passion, and speed. Let us create pure 
time. Sit and create pure time.
         Buddha did it. Buddha did it two thousand five hundred years 
ago. He sat and wasted his time. And he transmitted the knowledge to 
us that it is the best thing we can do for ourselves -- waste our 
time by sitting. The very idea of aggression and passion could be 
tamed by sitting practice. Just sitting like a piece of rock is a 
very important point. I want you to think about the importance of 
wasting time sitting, slowing down, becoming like a piece of rock. 
It's the first message of the Buddha.

 From "The Only Way," in THE PATH IS THE GOAL: A BASIC HANDBOOK OF 
BUDDHIST MEDITATION, pages 10 to 11. Edited by Sherab Chodzin.

Book Forthcoming in March. Contest prize winners to be announced next week:

OCEAN OF DHARMA: WISDOM FOR EVERY DAY will be published by Shambhala 
Publications next March. It is based on quotations from OCEAN OF 
DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK. There are also many new quotes that 
haven't appeared on the list serv. I have just finished revising the 
manuscript, which includes 365 quotations. More than 100 subscribers 
suggested quotes for inclusion in the book, earlier this year. 
Everyone who submitted a suggestion will have a chance to win a copy 
of the book. This weekend I'll be randomly drawing twelve names from 
the pool of those who contributed. I'll contact the winners next week 
and publish the names on the list serv. Thanks again to everyone who 
contributed.

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

OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK now has 5, 202 subscribers.
Please send comments on and contributions to OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES 
OF THE WEEK to the list moderator, Carolyn Gimian at: carolyn at shambhala.com.

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.
TO SUBSCRIBE visit the Chogyam Trungpa website by clicking on the 
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