[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: A Very Valid Thing to Do

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

August 20, 2008

A VERY VALID THING TO DO

One of the problems that meditators experience is that there is a 
slight, almost subconscious, guilty feeling that you ought to be 
doing something, rather than just experiencing what goes on there in 
your practice. And when you begin to feel that you ought to be doing 
something, then you are automatically presenting millions of 
obstacles to yourself. So if you actually feel you are what you are, 
and this is not particularly a project as such but just a way of 
being, then there is also fundamentally a feeling that sitting there, 
meditating and working on the breathing is valid and approved and it 
is okay and it's done. It is normal practice. It's nothing 
extraordinary, particularly. Sitting there and breathing is a very 
valid thing to do.

 From "The First Foundation: Mindfulness of Body," in the 1973 
Hinayana-Mahayana Transcripts, page 41.

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 
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