quotes¶
brian's dad
growing old is not for sissies
THE SPIRITUAL PATH IS NOT EASY - Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
The problem is that we tend to seek... easy and painless answers. But this kind of solution does not apply to the spiri- tual path. ... Once we commit ourselves to the spiritual path, it is very painful and we are in for it. We have commit- ted ourselves to the pain of exposing ourselves, of taking off our clothes, our skin, nerves, heart, brains, until we are exposed to the universe. Nothing will be left. It will be terri- ble, excruciating, but that is the way it is.
DESTRUCTIVE ENLIGHTENMENT ADYASHANTI
Make no mistake about it— enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the façade of pretense. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true."
DISAPPOINTMENT -Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
We must surrender our hopes and expectations, as well as our fears, and march directly into disappointment, work with disappointment, go into it and make it our way of life.... If we can open, then we suddenly begin to see that our expec- tations are irrelevant compared with the reality of the situa- tions we are facing. This automatically brings disappointment. Disappointment is the best chariot to use on the path of the dharma. It does not confirm the existence of our ego and its dreams.
OUR WORLD IS RELENTLESSLY IMPERMANENT - Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
Change is continuous. Day by day, one season slips into the next. Day turns into night and night to day. Buildings don't suddenly grow old; rather, second by second, from the moment they're constructed, they begin to deteriorate... Think of beings inhabiting this universe. How many people born a hundred years ago are still alive? ... We see the play of impermanence in our relationships as well. How many of our family members, friends, people in our hometown, have died? How many have moved away, disappearing from our lives forever?.. At one time we felt happy just being near a person we loved. Just to hold that person's hand made us feel wonderful. Now maybe we can't stand him, we don't want to know anything about him. Whatever comes together must fall apart, whatever once fathered must separate, what- ever was born must die. Continual change, relentless change, is constant in our world.
WHAT ARE PHENOMENA EMPTY OF? — His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
When we speak of a phenomenon as being empty, we are referring to its being empty of its own inherent existence. • Further, it is not that the object of the negation [inherent existence] formerly existed and is later eliminated, like the forest that existed yesterday and is burned by fire today, with the result that the area is now empty of the forest. Rather, this is an emptiness of an object of negation [inherent exis- tence], which from beginningless time has never been known validly to exist.