[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Buddhist Don't Con You

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

January 3, 2008

BUDDHISTS DON'T CON YOU

Student: You often criticize a film by saying that it is too aware of 
the audience. But when people make films, especially in the West, the 
point is to entertain people.

Chogyam Trungpa: If you are completely confident in yourself, you 
don't have to think about the audience at all. You just do your 
thing, you just do it properly. This means YOU become the audience. 
What you make is entertainment, but that needs a certain amount of 
wisdom. When an artist does a painting for commission, there is a 
good likelihood that his painting will be one-sided because he is 
aware of the audience and he has to relate to the educational 
standards of the audience. If he presents his own style without 
reference to the audience, they will begin to react and automatically 
their sophistication will develop and eventually will reach the level 
of the artist....You see, we have the responsibility of raising the 
mentality of the audience. People might have to reach out with a 
certain amount of strain, but it's worth it. The whole civilization 
then begins to raise its level of sophistication....The beautiful 
thing about Buddhism, if I may say so, is that Buddhists don't try to 
con you. They just present what they have to say as it is, take it or leave it.

 From "Visual Dharma: Film Workshop," in the COLLECTED WORKS OF 
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, Volume Seven, pages 644-645.

Of interest to readers: Go to http://www.chogyamtrungpa.com/blog.html 
for endings to THE BOY WITHOUT A NAME written by Ocean of Dharma subscribers.

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his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.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