The Chronicles of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

No Cosmic Hitchhiking

The sanity and enlightened vibrations that are created in the sitting practice of meditation are not regarded as an “inter-vibrant” trip. You may think that, when somebody receives vibrations, you are going to receive them at the same time. Then, even if you are in bad shape, you will be picked up and carried by somebody else. Such a cosmic hitchhiking situation doesn’t exist. Everybody’s in their own little vehicle, which is called a body, and there’s no room for anybody else in that body. Everybody has their own car, so in fact, you don’t have to hitchhike. Sitting practice is independent, individual, and a very lonely journey. Aloneness is the basic point. When you sit, either in a group situation or individually, on your own, there is a basic sense of loneliness. You feel that You’re on the path and your particular path is special to you; it’s extraordinary to you. It would take a long time to verbally relate such experience to somebody else. Sometimes a student may feel that they are completely isolated and cut off. However, a student might also experience this loneliness as the basis of heroism in the positive sense. You are making a journey. Nobody’s telling you to make this journey, but still you are making it. The only person who can help you is someone who tells you that others have made this lonely journey, and you can do so in the same way. This approach might seem very severe, very strict, but at the same time this approach is quite a happy one because there is a sense of conviction. We don’t hitchhike, but we do it ourselves. That sense of celebration is very powerful and important. It is the heart of the practice of meditation.