A Gift of Dharma for 4.30.10
Photo by James Gritz.
Today’s quote is from our friend and wonderful Naropa University prof The 7th Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Karma Sungrap Ngedon Tenpa Gyaltsen, whom I previously produced a little biography for here. This is it–from his recently-publishing teaching “Finding Your Buffalo”:
From the Buddhist point of view, there is nothing within our ordinary life that we need to reject or leave behind, and the state of enlightenment is not a place we go to from here. It is not a place that is found outside of where we are right now. If you wanted to find a perfect get-away from all your stress and unhappiness, where and how far would you go? To the other side of the world, to the International Space Station, or just the nearest bar? Your body would be somewhere else, but still, you would be taking your stressed, unhappy mind with you. What we are actually trying to leave behind is the mind’s confusion, which keeps us from being happy. It is how our minds function when we are in those mountains, at the beach, at work or at home, that determines whether we are happy or unhappy, awake in our life or sleeping through it.
According to the Buddha, the actual point of all our efforts on the spiritual path is simply to return to the state of complete wakefulness, which is the true nature of our minds. Our minds are brilliantly clear and aware naturally, but that brilliant wakefulness is hidden from our view by clouds of confusion. These clouds are caused primarily by the turbulence of our thoughts and emotions. There is so much commotion going on in our minds that our view of who we are and what the world is like is distorted.
