Chögyam Trungpa Quotes

101 Sourced Quotes

Humans are the only animals that try to dwell in the future. You don't have to purely live in the present situation without a plan, but the future plans you make can only be based on the aspects of the future that manifest within the present situation.

Chögyam Trungpa
You can almost convince yourself that you've accomplished things just by thinking about them. The alternative is to be more realistic. You don't necessarily regard the dreaming process as bad or an obstacle, but it's not realistic enough.

Chögyam Trungpa
Begin to build up confidence and joy in your own richness. That richness is the essence of generosity. It is the essence of resourcefulness ; that you can deal with whatever is available around you and not feel poverty stricken.

Chögyam Trungpa
The emphasis on practice is because it is the only time in your life you can steer your karmic situation.

Chögyam Trungpa
Developing confidence is like watching the sun rise. First it seems very feeble and one wonders whether it will make it. Then it shines and shines.

Chögyam Trungpa
We must see with our own eyes and not accept any laid-down tradition as if it had some magical power in it.

Chögyam Trungpa
If you are telling the truth, then you can speak gently, and your words will have power.

Chögyam Trungpa
Right mindfulness does not simply mean being aware; it is like creating a work of art. You can therefore trust what you are doing; you are not threatened by anything. You have room to dance in the space, and this makes it a creative situation. The space is open to you.

Chögyam Trungpa
Our path is sometimes rough and sometimes smooth; nonetheless, life is a constant journey... whatever we do is regarded as our journey, our path. That path consists of opening oneself to the road, opening oneself to the steps we are about to take.

Chögyam Trungpa
When you drop your unnecessary things, you finally can swoop and fly in vast space. It is so blue, so bright, and so nice, so airy and fresh. You can stretch your wings and breathe the air. You can do anything you want. You have experienced cheerfulness and joy, and finally the bliss of freedom occurs in you.

Chögyam Trungpa
Meditation
practice begins by sitting down and assuming your seat cross-legged on
the ground. You begin to feel that by simply being on the spot, your
life can become workable and even wonderful. You realize that you are
capable of sitting like a king or queen on a throne. The regalness of
that situation shows you the... dignity that comes from being still and
simple.

Chögyam Trungpa
The meditator develops new depths of insight through direct communication with the reality of the phenomenal world... He or she is able to see not only the absence of complexity, the absence of duality, but the stoneness of stone and the waterness of water. One sees things precisely as they are, not merely in the physical sense, but with awareness of their spiritual significance.

Chögyam Trungpa
One day passes and another day comes along, and everything happens the same. But basically, we are so afraid of the brilliance coming at us, and the sharp experience of our life, that we can't even focus our eyes.

Chögyam Trungpa
Ego is constantly attempting to acquire and apply the teachings of spirituality for its own benefit.

Chögyam Trungpa
When you have a brilliant sun, which is a source of vision, the light from the sun shines through every window of the house, and the brightness of its light inspires you to open all the curtains. In the vision of the Great Eastern Sun, no human being is a lost cause.

Chögyam Trungpa
No one can stop or control your thought process or your thinking. You can think anything you want. But that doesn't seem to be the point. The thinking process has to be directed into a certain approach... not in accord with certain dogma, philosophy, or concepts. Instead, one has to know the thinker itself.

Chögyam Trungpa
Our bodies demand our attention; our bodies demand that we actually pay attention to what is going on with our lives.

Chögyam Trungpa
Whatever shakes you should without delay, right away, be incorporated into the path.

Chögyam Trungpa
Meditation should not be regarded as a learning process. It should be regarded as an experiencing process. You should not try to learn from meditation but try to feel it. Meditation is an act of nonduality. The technique you are using should not be separate from you; it is you, you are the technique. Meditator and meditation are one. There is no relationship involved.

Chögyam Trungpa
There is more to fearlessness than merely having overcome fear... This state of being is not dependent on any external circumstances. It is individual dignity... that comes from being what we are, right now.

Chögyam Trungpa
The point is that whatever one is trying to learn, it is necessary to have firsthand experience, rather than learning from books or from teachers or by merely conforming to an already established pattern.

Chögyam Trungpa
If we really prefer basic sanity or enlightenment, it's irritatingly possible to get into it.

Chögyam Trungpa
You don't know how to take off your suit of armor. You have no idea how to conduct yourself without the reference point of your own security... You can expose your wounds and flesh, your sore points. You can be completely raw and exposed...

Chögyam Trungpa
The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, even spirituality.

Chögyam Trungpa
Generosity is self-existing openness, complete openness. You are no longer subject to cultivating your own scheme or project. And the best way to open yourself up is to make friends with yourself and with others.

Chögyam Trungpa
The complexities of life situations are really not as complicated as we tend to experience them.

Chögyam Trungpa
Then, we realize that the degraded cocoon we have been hiding in is revolting, and we want to turn up the lights as far as we can. In fact, we are not turning up the lights, but we are simply opening our eyes wider. We catch a certain kind of fever.

Chögyam Trungpa
The simplicity of meditation means just experiencing the ape instinct of ego.

Chögyam Trungpa
Warriorship is so tender, without skin, without tissue, naked and raw. It is soft and gentle. You have renounced putting on a new suit of armor. You have renounced growing a thick, hard skin. You are willing to expose naked flesh, bone and marrow to the world.

Chögyam Trungpa
For the warrior, every moment is a challenge to be genuine, and each challenge is delightful. When you let go properly, you can relax and enjoy the challenge.

Chögyam Trungpa