Today, May 21, 2008

Today is Wednesday, May 21 and I am reading "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" by Chogyam Trungpa. Rinpoche's insight into many things in astounding to me. When I read his books I feel like he is right there speaking to me. Indeed, he is there in the presence of his books.

I have taken the book to heart and try not to get too involved in all of the spiritual haughtiness that one can end up with in a spiritual journey. I remember once when I was a member of an online community that was a spiritual group. It was very common for us to have those who became members of the group that liked to identify themselves as the "the fourth priestess of the Order of the Regal Sun." I remember one guy that told all of us right away that he directly received revelation knowledge regularly from Jesus who was his physical ancestor and that we needed to let him exclusively "minister" to the group. Those are extremes, but I am glad I had the experience because I realized that I had some of the same thing in me and it is very hard to not want the world to know that we think we are hot stuff. The human ego wants to take the throne of our lives and rule. It isn't easy letting mindfulness become a way of life, and I am certainly not there yet, but I am trying.

I have to give Suzuki Roshi and Thich Nhat Hanh for helping me to understand that I need always to keep a beginners mind, a humble attitude and be mindful of every thing I do. Thay speaks of how everything is part of everything else. When I see a flower, it doesn't exist on it's own. In the flower there is the sun, the wind, the rain, the soil, the work of my hands to tend to the flower, which is me in the flower. The elements in the air around us are part of the flower and so is the food that I eat to have the strength to care for the flower.

So, I want to co-exist and understand more about interbeing. That is why I posted the Sandokai here. I love the way it teaches us about innerbeing: "All objects of the sensess interact and yet do not. Interacting brings involvement..... The spiritual source shines clear in the light; the branding streams flow on in the dark." Dark and light, one and the same actually from the standpoint of existing. There can be no light without dark and no dark without light. Suzuki Roshi has a commentary that he wrote on the Sandokai. I am ordering it.

One sentence in Chogyam Trungpa's book that helped me understand that there is not a magic potion that will lead me directly to where I think I want to go (wherever that is).

"... I am saying that we have the notion that there must be some kind of medicine or magic potion to help us attain the right state of mind. We hope that by manipulating matter, the physical world, we can achieve wisdom and understanding. We may even expect expert scientists to do it for us. They might put us into a hospital, administer the correct drugs and lift us into a high state of consciousness. But I think, unfortunately, that this is impossible, we cannot escape what we are, we carry it with us all the time"

Not escaping what we are means to me that I cannot escape the nature of the Buddha that is within me. No magic formula or any kind of voodoo will assist me. I am responsible for myself and for embarking on a path to calm my mind. It is not difficult to find those who claim to offer the easy way out of samsara. But I always like to say, easy is another four letter word.