[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: The Secular and the Spiritual

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

February 2, 2008

THE SECULAR AND THE SPIRITUAL

We could discuss the question of the amateurish and the genuine 
warrior, in connection with the secular and the spiritual. When we 
talk about the secular, we're referring to looking directly at 
ourselves and discovering our existence and our health and our glory 
without being influenced by any religious outlook. We are simply 
discovering ourselves. Vajrayana Buddhists might say that's what they 
are doing too, and maybe that's true. When we talk about a secular 
approach, we're not talking about something desecrated. We are simply 
talking about a situation where you have your own resources and your 
existence, and you discover whatever is to be discovered from that. 
We don't have to debuddhicize our discovery. We might find that what 
we are actually looking for and experiencing in a secular way 
coincides with Buddhist discoveries, the discoveries described in Buddhism.
         Within the secular situation, we still have to use the 
discipline presented by the Buddhist path. This is the discipline of 
mindfulness and natural exertion, which is there so that we can 
actually be open to ourselves, so that we are constantly checking on 
ourselves, so to speak. In some subtle way, we might find that the 
secular becomes very sacred, and very real, genuine. From that point 
of genuineness, where the secular becomes sacred, we begin to 
discover the true warrior as opposed to the mimicking warrior.

 From Talk Three, Talks to Shambhala Training Directors, January 17, 
1978. Unpublished.

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his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.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