On Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche is the quintessential spiritual guide. His teachings—steeped in ancient tradition and presented with relaxed fluency in western language and culture—are profound, accessible, and fresh. In addition to the buddhadharma, he offered the secular path of Shambhala, cultivating an appreciation of inherent bravery, dignity and goodness beyond cultural and religious bounds. Through his many books, Trungpa Rinpoche continues to be an incomparable source of wisdom and courage in the world. The Chronicles is an ongoing celebration of his profound teachings and life example.
Copyright Diana J. Mukpo. Used here by arrangement with Diana J. Mukpo and Shambhala Publications, Inc.
These teachings by Chögyam Trungpa are selected at random from Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week: the email service that brings Trungpa Rinpoche’s dharma to your inbox several times each week. For more information, or to add your name to the list, visit OceanofDharma.com.
Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week is edited and produced by Carolyn Rose Gimian. Thank you to Lady Diana Mukpo, Mrs. Gimian, and Shambhala Publications for making these teachings available on the Chronicles.
Be Friendly Towards Problems
To develop ahimsa, or the non-violent approach, first of all you have to see that your problems are not really trying to destroy you. Usually, we immediately try to get rid of our problems. We think that there are forces operating against us and that we have to get rid of them. The important thing is to learn to be friendly towards our problems, by developing what is called metta in Pali, maitri in Sanskrit or loving kindness in English translation.
All of these problems and difficulties are fundamentally generated from the concept of duality, or separateness. On the one hand, you are very aware of other and also very aware of yourself, and you want to do something to work with and make use of others. But you are unable to do this, because there is such a big gap between other and yourself. So a sense of threat or separation develops. That is the root of the problem.
















