Getting to the Point

Quotes on Perception by Chögyam Trungpa

Click into the Sense of Delight

The phenomenal world is self-existing. You can see it, you can look at it, you can appreciate your survey, and you can present your view to others. It is possible to discover the inherent state of things. It is possible to perceive how the world hangs together. It is possible to communicate your appreciation to others. The possibility of freshness is always there. Your mind is never totally contaminated by your neuroses. Goodness is always there. Catch it on the spot. Click into the sense of delight that comes from basic wakefulness.

Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
"Heaven, Earth and Man,"
The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa

Buddhists Don't Con You

If you are completely confident in yourself, you don't have to think about the audience at all. You just do your thing, you just do it properly. This means YOU become the audience. What you make is entertainment, but that needs a certain amount of wisdom. When an artist does a painting for commission, there is a good likelihood that his painting will be one-sided because he is aware of the audience and he has to relate to the educational standards of the audience.

If he presents his own style without reference to the audience, they will begin to react and automatically their sophistication will develop and eventually will reach the level of the artist....You see, we have the responsibility of raising the mentality of the audience. People might have to reach out with a certain amount of strain, but it's worth it. The whole civilization then begins to raise its level of sophistication....The beautiful thing about Buddhism, if I may say so, is that Buddhists don't try to con you. They just present what they have to say as it is, take it or leave it.

Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
'Visual Dharma: Film Workshop'
Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa Volume Seven

Discovering Magic

Whether you care to communicate with it or not, the magical strength and wisdom of reality are always there....By relaxing the mind, you can reconnect with that primordial, original ground, which is completely pure and simple. Out of that, through the medium of your perceptions, you can discover magic, (which in the Shambhala tradition is called ) drala. You actually can connect your own intrinsic wisdom with a sense of greater wisdom or vision beyond you.

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.

Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
'Discovering Magic'
Shambhala: The Sacred Path of
the Warrior

Inquisitiveness

When you were very young, three years old, you didn't want to look into the possibility of escape, particularly, because you were so interested in how things were done. You used to ask your father and your mother all sorts of questions: "Why is this so, Mommy? Why is this so, Daddy? Why do we do this? Why don't we do that?" But that innocent inquisitiveness has been forgotten, lost. Therefore you have to re-ignite it. Getting into your cocoon of habitual behavior happens after that initial inquisitiveness. Once there was tremendous inquisitiveness happening and then you couldn't care less. You thought that you were being mistreated by your world, so you jumped into your cocoon and decided to ignore the whole thing....Actually using our sense perceptions properly -- inquisitiveness -- is so important. *

Chögyam Trungpa
Overcoming Habitual Patterns
Collected Kalapa Assemblies

Beyond Habitual Patterns

How on earth, how in the name of heaven and earth can we actually become decent human beings without trying to entertain ourselves from here to the next corner?...
It boils down to taking interest in what you see. I have a very frustrated feeling, actually, that when I talk about appreciating red, white, blue, and green, I'm not sure whether you actually appreciate those colors or not. Maybe you think I'm trying to tell you that you should be artists or something. And when I say that you should listen to the sounds that go on in the world, maybe you think I'm trying to tell you to be musicians. And when I talk about the textures of your body -- sense perceptions and feelings -- maybe you think I'm trying to tell you to become salesmen in the garment industry. I'm beginning to wonder.
        
We are not talking about becoming experts in marketing things, but we are talking about our own situation: how we can actually stop habitual patterns and appreciate the nitty-gritty of the real world on the spot. We can appreciate the bright, beautiful, fantastic world around us; we don't have to feel all that resentful....Once we put a stop to habitual patterns, the vividness, the magic, will begin to descend, and we will begin to become masters of our world -- individually, personally, of course. We will begin to appreciate our world.*

Chögyam Trungpa
Overcoming Habitual Patterns
Collected Kalapa Assemblies

It manifests out of nowhere
like mushrooms in a meadow,
like hailstones, like thundershowers.'*

Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
The Art of Calligraphy

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.*

Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

 

Work of Art

What a work of art is all about is a sense of delight. Touch here, touch there, delight. It is an appreciation of things as they are and of what one is -- which produces an enormous spark. Something happens -- clicks -- and the poet writes poems, the painter paints pictures, the musician composes music. *

Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
"Artists and Unemployed Samurai"
The Teacup and the Skullcup

* All quotes courtesy of Ocean of Dharma Quotes

  All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyrighted
  Diana J. Mukpo and used by permission.