[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Obviousness Becomes Sacredness

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

July 21, 2008

Of interest to readers: Yesterday, July 20, there was a ceremony to 
install 3,000 gold CDs of Chogyam Trungpa's teachings in the Great 
Stupa of Dharmakaya at Shambhala Mountain Center in Colorado. This 
was the Speech Empowerment of the Stupa, which also contains the body 
relics of Chogyam Trungpa. For photos and more information on this 
event, go to 
http://chronicleproject.com/speech_empowerment/speech_empowerment.html

OBVIOUSNESS BECOMES SACREDNESS

The approach of vajrayana Buddhism to sacredness is not so much a 
matter of things being big and enormous and beyond the measure of 
one's thought; rather it has to do with things being so true, so 
real, so direct. We know a fire burns. We know the earth carries us. 
We know that space accommodates us. All these are REAL facts, and so 
obvious. Obviousness becomes sacredness from the point of view of 
vajrayana. It is not that things are sacred because they are beyond 
our imagination, but because they are so obvious. The magic is 
simplicity. Winter gets cold, summer gets warm. Everything in every 
situation has a little magic. If we forget to eat, we get hungry. 
There is a causal aspect, which is the truth. So in this case, the 
sacredness is a matter of truth, of the obviousness of the whole thing.

 From "The Levels of Mahamudra," in ILLUSION'S GAME: The Life and 
Teaching of Naropa. Page 133.

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his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.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