THE OCEAN IS A CONNECTOR

The ocean is a connector. Every part is connected and things can move freely within it: there is no obstruction. The ocean also has tremendous dynamic energy, and it has tremendous capacity. The ocean can symbolize the wisdom of the Buddha. For example, the great samadhi that Buddha entered is called the Samadhi of the Ocean. It had the attributes of the ocean that we just talked about. Also, great samadhi is perfectly clear. It can see through everything. Each thing in this phenomenal world, from the superficial to the deepest and most subtle phenomenon, is reflected in the ocean of wisdom of the Buddha. Everything is seen clearly, without any distortion. The Buddha's wisdom is also like a perfect mirror.

In both ancient and modern times, people have searched for treasures whereever they have lived. In the mountains, they search for gold or silver, and if they live near the sea, they look for pearls or treasures in sunken ships. Similarly, we can say that we enter the sea of the Buddhadharma to obtain a treasure. That treasure is not gold or silver, but wisdom, with which we can understand ourselves and our environment. With wisdom, we are always content and peaceful regardless of our circumstances.

--Venerable Master Jen-chun, Sun, Moon, Sky, and Sea Talk given at the Ch'an Meditation Center in 1989. Translated by Ming-yee Wang and edited by Linda Peer

TOUCH AND GO

"A common misunderstanding is that the meditative state of mind has to be captured and then nursed and cherished. That is definitely the wrong approach. If you try to domesticate your mind through meditation -- try to possess it by holding on to the meditative state -- the clear result will be regression on the path, with a loss of freshness and spontaneity. If you try to hold on without lapse all the time, then maintaining your awareness will begin to become a domestic hassle. It will become like painfully going through housework. There will be an underlying sense of resentment, and the practice of meditation will become confusing. You will begin to develop a love-hate relationship toward your practice, in which your concept of it seems good, but at the same time, the demand that rigid concept makes on you is too painful. So the technique of mindfulness of life is based on touch-and-go. You focus your attention on the object of awareness, but then, in the same moment, you disown that awareness and go on."

"The Four Foundations of Mindfulness" in THE HEART OF THE BUDDHA. Also in THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, Volume Three, page 332-333.

Mindfulness and Survival Instinct

[There is a] level of raw anxiety about survival that manifests in us constantly second by second, minute by minute. You breathe for survival; you lead your life for survival. The feeling is constantly present that you are trying to protect yourself from death....Instead of regarding this survival mentality as something negative, instead of relating to it as ego-clinging,,,[here] the survival struggle is regarded as a stepping-stone in the practice of meditation. Whenever you have the sense of the survival instinct functioning, that can be transmuted into a sense of being, a sense of having already survived. Mindfulness becomes a basic acknowledgment of existing....In this way, meditation becomes an actual part of life, rather than just a practice or exercise. It becomes inseparable from the instinct to live that accompanies all one's existence. That instinct to live can be seen as containing awareness, meditation, mindfulness. It constantly tunes us in to what is happening. So the life force that keeps us alive and that manifests itself continually in our stream of consciousness itself becomes the practice of mindfulness.

"The Four Foundations of Mindfulness" in THE HEART OF THE BUDDHA. Also in THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, Volume Three, page 333-334.

NOWNESS AND TRADITION

We need to find the link between our traditions and our present experience of life. Nowness, or the magic of the present moment, is what joins the wisdom of the past with the present. When you appreciate a painting or a piece of music or a work of literature, no matter when it was created, you appreciate it NOW. You experience the same nowness in which it was created. It is always NOW.

--Chogyam Trungpa, from SHAMBHALA: THE SACRED PATH OF THE WARRIOR, page 96. All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo and used by permission.

MINDFULNESS, THE ESSENCE OF HERE AND NOW
We may undertake the practice of meditation with a sense of purity or austerity. We somehow feel that by meditating we are doing the right thing, and we feel like good boys or good girls. Not only are we doing the right thing, but we are also getting away from the ugly world. We are becoming pure; we are renouncing the world and becoming like the yogis of the past. We don't actually live and meditate in a cave, but we can regard the corner of the room that we have arranged for meditation as a cave....This strong tendency is an attempt to isolate the practice of meditation from one's actual living situation. It is satisfying to regard meditation as austere and above life.

But mindfulness of life steers us in just the opposite direction. The approach of mindfulness of life is that, if you are meditating in a room, you are meditating in a room. You don't regard the room as a cave. If you are breathing, you are breathing, rather than convincing yourself you are a motionless rock. Your keep your eyes open and simply let yourself be where you are. There are no imaginations involved with this approach. You just go through with your situation as it is....You are not trying to get away from here to somewhere else. You are tuning in simply and directly to your process of life. This practice is the essence of the here and now.

--From THE HEART OF THE BUDDHA, Volume Three of THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, pages 333-334.