[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: The Charnel Ground

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

March 8, 2008

THE CHARNEL GROUND

As a young prince who had been recently turned out of his palace, the 
great Tibetan teacher Padmasambhava roamed around the charnel ground, 
the burial ground. The genteel young prince seemed to fit in to that 
scene quite well, as incongruous as it might seem. He was quite 
fearless, and his fearlessness became accommodation as he roamed 
through the jungle charnel ground near Bodhgaya. There were 
awesome-looking trees and terrifying rock shapes and the ruins of a 
temple. The whole feeling was one of death and desolation....He 
regarded this place as another palace in spite of all the terrifying 
sights. Seeing the impermanence of life, he discovered the eternity 
of life, the constant changing process of death and birth taking 
place all the time....
         Our civilized world is so orderly that we do not see places 
like this charnel ground. Nevertheless there are the greater charnel 
grounds of birth, death, and chaos going on around us all the time. 
We encounter these charnel-ground situations in our lives constantly. 
If we identify with Padmasambhava, we could relate with that 
fearlessly. We could be inspired by this chaos -- so much so that 
chaos could become order in some sense. It could become orderly chaos 
rather than just confused chaos, because we would be able to relate 
with the world as it is.

 From "Eternity and the Charnel Ground," in CRAZY WISDOM, pages 39 to 40.

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his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.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