[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Peak Experience

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

December 1, 2008

PEAK EXPERIENCE

At the very moment of enlightenment, the Buddha experienced hosts of 
maras, or obstacles, attacking him with aggression and trying to 
seduce him with beautiful girls. That is a peak point, or (what is 
called) a moment of bardo experience. The point is that once we have 
achieved some higher state, a so-called higher state or more profound 
state of something, the negative aspect, or the mara aspect, is also 
going to be there -- equally, exactly the same. And they both become 
more subtle. The subtleties of awakeness are exactly the same as the 
subtleties of sleepiness or confusion. Such subtleties continue all 
the time, side by side. Therefore, samsara and nirvana are like two 
sides of a coin. They occur together in one situation, 
simultaneously. Such bardo experiences happen all the time with us. 
We don't have to have a peak experience or a dramatic experience -- 
in ordinary everyday situations as well, we are not quite certain 
whether we are learning something or whether we are missing 
something. There is that particular point of doubt.

 From "The Bardo of Birth," in TRANSCENDING MADNESS: THE EXPERIENCE 
OF THE SIX BARDOS, page 77.


Of interest to readers:
Emacs!
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, prominent Buddhist teacher and the author 
of What Makes You Not a Buddhist, taught a public seminar to an 
audience of 550 this past weekend in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Rinpoche 
commented on teachings on the bardos, using Transcending Madness: The 
Experience of the Six Bardos, Chogyam Trungpa's book on the bardo 
states and the six realms.  For a review of the weekend and links to 
an interview with Dzongsar Khyentse RInpoche, go to:

         http://www.shambhalasun.com/sunspace/

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his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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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his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.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 website at http://oceanofdharma.com
For the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project and the blog of Carolyn Gimian 
go to: http://ChogyamTrungpa.com


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