This daybook contains 365 quotations from the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa (1939 - 1987), a meditation master, teacher, and artist who founded Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and an international association of meditation centers known as Shambhala International. Carolyn Rose Gimian is the compiler and editor of this resource. She has taken the material from more than two dozen books by Chogyam Trungpa and another dozen published sources, as well as unpublished sources.
Many of the quotations deal with the benefits that accrue to those who practice sitting meditation. Gimian notes that Chogyam Trungpa wrote that wisdom can only be taught in the form of a hint. So consider these quotations as mind, body, and soul caresses whether they cover fear, chaos, kindness, suffering, boredom, purification, or enlightenment. Here are two examples of the high quality of the material on these pages:
• The Path Includes Everything
"Aggression is very deep rooted. Anger is like the heart of the earth: It has brewed for years and years and years, thousands of years. And when it is just about to give a little peep out on the surface of the earth, that is aggression. Don't try to make it go away, and don't try to invite it — that is what's called the path. The path consists of collections of dirt, stones, grasses. It includes everything — passion, aggression, and ignorance. Without those, you have no path. So you shouldn't try to build a highway and have everything smooth under your car. That's the difference between the Buddhist path and the American materialistic path."
• We Are Indebted
"We can't give up the world all together and dissociate ourselves from the past or from that which irritates us. In fact, compassion is the only way. It is what brings us back to the world. We have to work with people. We have to work with our fathers, our mothers, our sisters, our brothers, our neighbors, and our friends. We have to work with them. We have to relate with them. Those who are our relations, who represent our relationships or our associations with life situations, are the only inspiration. They inspired us to undertake a spiritual search. Without them, we wouldn't be able to look into spirituality at all. These people provide irritation, negativity, aggression, demands, etc. They provide everything to us. Because their kindness and their energy inspired us, therefore we are indebted to work with them."
