What's In Your Mind?

Spiritual teaching and plagiarism

Sometimes, I hear or read (e.g. some readers’ comments on Power of Now here) someone saying that such and such spiritual teacher is plagiarizing such and such other spiritual teacher!

This makes no sense: there is no such thing as plagiarizing spiritual teaching! There is only one spiritual teaching, and all what spiritual teachers are doing is "pointing their fingers to the moon", hoping that you will raise your head and look up, and whoever has realized the spiritual teaching will want it to be spread, repeated, copy-pasted, as much as and in as many forms as possible, to reach as many people as possible! In other words, they will raise their own finger…

Shambhala: the Sacred Path of the Warrior

I just read Shambhala: the Sacred Path of the Warrior, written by Chogyam Trungpa, one of the "importers" of Tibetan Buddhism to the West. I heartily recommend this book to whoever is on the spiritual journey! In a way, it is a more elaborated version of this little book I love: Warrior of the light: a Manual, by Paulo Coelho. Same basic idea that life must be lived like a warrior, in utter fearlessness.

It does not knock you on the head like more modern spiritual books discussed on this blog such as Power of Now, or Conversations with God, but, not unlike these two, it is a successful attempt at, basically, extracting the wisdom and teachings from the religious traditions that convey them (in this case, Buddhism) in order to reach more people (in this case, the modern Westerner). Quite a fearless endeavor indeed! This book is now 20 years old and may have be one of the first of the kind. Also, it outlines key practices and, as far as I can tell, the Shambhala Training centers that Chogyam Trungpa set up around the world are alive and thriving!  A few quotes:

"The key to warriorship is not being afraid of who you are."

"To begin with, we should make an effort to examine our own experience, in order to see what it contains that is of value in helping ourselves and others to uplift their existence."

"In working with ourselves, cleaning up begins by telling the truth."

"When we feel healthy and wholesome ourselves, then we cannot help projecting that healthiness to others."

"A warrior doesn't need color television and video games. The world that goes on around the warrior is what it is, and in that world the question of entertainment doesn't arise."

"Renunciation is making yourself more available, more gentle and open to others. Any hesitation about opening yourself to others is removed."

"Warriorship is a continual journey. To be a warrior is to learn to be genuine in every moment of your life."

"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."

"Avoiding the truth defeats the purpose of speech as communication."

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

"You might think that something extraordinary will happen to you when you discover magic. Something extra-ordinary does happen. You simply find yourself in the realm of utter reality, complete and thorough reality."

"When you are fully gentle, without arrogance and without aggression, you see the brilliance of the universe. You develop a true perception of the universe. The world is very interesting wherever you go, wherever you look."

"The process of freeing yourself from arrogance and cutting off your habitual tendencies is a very drastic measure, but it is necessary in order to help others in this world."

"Some people feel that the world's problems are so pressing that social and political action should take precedence over individual development. They may feel that they should sacrifice their own needs completely in order to work for a larger cause. In its extreme form, this kind of thinking justifies individual neurosis and aggression as purely a product of a troubled society (...). If we try to solve society's problems without overcoming the confusion and aggression in our own state of mind, then our efforts will only contribute to the basic problems, instead of solving them."

"If you want to solve the world's problems, you have to put your own household, your own individual life, in order first."

"Slowing down any impulse is said to be the best way to begin [the warrior's path]."

"Those who have been fearless in their search and fearless in their proclamation belong to the lineage of master warriors, whatever their religion, philosophy, or creed. What distinguishes such leaders of humanity and guardians of human wisdom is their fearless expression of gentleness and genuineness - on behalf of all sentient beings."

Self-flagellation

Another little gem from Neale Donald Walsch's CWG bulletin (#141). Excerpt from a letter from Neale to Sam:

"Face your shortcomings joyfully, Sam. You can't solve a problem, ANY problem, until you know what it is. Knowing of your "shortcomings" is the first step toward eliminating them. And I want to talk about "shortcomings" here. Consider the possibility that what you call your shortcomings are merely your greatest strengths - with the volume simply turned up a bit too loud. Ever think of that?

A great strength of mine is my confidence. Turned up too much, that can look to some like boastfulness. A great strength of mine is my bravery and courage. Turned up too high that can look to some like recklessness, carelessness. A great strength of mine is my spontaneity, my willingness to move quickly, to act in the moment, decisively. Turned up too high that can look like irresponsibility.

A great teacher of mine once told me, "Everything that people love you for is what people call your shortcoming when it is simply turned up too high. Don't try to change yourself, just turn down the volume on parts of yourself in certain situations. In other situations, let those same parts blast out full volume. Never throw away anything that is "you." Just look to see how much of that is wanted and needed right now, in this moment. Learn to become sensitive to the moment, then give the gift you came to give, in proportion to what serves the moment."

I never forgot that. It stopped me from my until-then constant process of "disowning myself." I reclaimed myself again, reclaimed my own magnificence, and could again share it with others.

Sam, you're magnificent. Cut it out. Stop it. Stop all this self-flagellation and let's get on with it. We've got a world to change."

Yesterday, as I was coaching someone, I "recycled" that metaphor of "turning the volume up/down". I asked him: "What are those qualities/attributes in you that you would like to turn the volume up a little?" He told me that was a very nice, non-threatening, non-judgmental way to address self-improvement - say, as opposed to: "where do you think you are being deficient"? ;-)

Direct experience

Another great little piece from Walsch (from CWG bulletin #145), a quite elegant summary of the whole "cosmology":

"It is one thing to know yourself conceptually, and another thing to know yourself experientially.

For example, you may know conceptually that you are a loving person, but if you have never actually expressed your love to anyone, you will merely know love as a concept, not as an experience. You will have an idea about yourself, but not an experience of yourself. Do you see? Do you understand?

Now, God chose to have more than a mere concept about Itself. God chose to have an experience of Itself. God wanted to know Itself in Its own experience.

God chose to know what it felt like to be all-powerful, to be all-knowing, to be all-loving.

God chose to know what it felt like to be wisdom personified, courage displayed, love expressed.

God chose to know, experientially, every aspect of Its Being - that is to say, every aspect of Divinity. 

To merely "know" about Itself was not enough. To merely understand was insufficient. For God, only the Direct Experience would do.

So God created you. You are the Direct Experience. You are God, "Godding." You, and everything else in creation.

Since you are God, having the experience of Itself, and since God is The Creator, you, too, have the power to create.

You are using that power every moment - usually without even knowing it, usually without intending to. The creative power of God is enfolded into your every thought, your every word, your every deed. This process is thoroughly explained in CwG, Book 1.

So God’s desire was to experience about Itself what It knew about Itself.

That is the greatest desire of your soul, too. All your soul really wishes to do is to have the direct experience of Who You Really Are. And that is what you are doing here. That is what your life is all about.

How it is working, the process by which all of this takes place, is what the Conversations with God dialogue is all about."