[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Let the Phenomena Play

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

March 20, 2008

LET THE PHENOMENA PLAY

A very important indication of the way the great Tibetan teacher 
Padmasambhava related with samsaric or confused mind is this: Let the 
confusion come through, and then let the confusion correct itself. It 
is like the story about a particular Zen master who had a woman 
student. The woman became pregnant and bore a child. Her parents came 
to the Zen master, bringing the child, and complained to him, saying, 
"This is your child; you should take care of it." The Zen master 
replied, "Is that so?" and he took the child and cared for it. A few 
years later, the woman was no longer able to bear the lie she had 
told....She went to her parents and said, "My teacher was not the 
father of the child; it was someone else." Then the parents became 
worried and felt they had better rescue the child from the hands of 
the teacher. They found him and said: "We have discovered that this 
is not your child. Now we are going to rescue it from you; we are 
going to take it away." And the Zen master just said, "Is that so?"
         So let the phenomena play. Let the phenomena make fools of 
themselves by themselves....So an important feature of 
Padmasambhava's style is letting the phenomena play themselves 
through rather than trying to prove or explain something.

 From "Let the Phenomena Play," in CRAZY WISDOM, pages 51 to 52.

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his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.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