A Gift of Dharma for 2.4.10 February 4, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in A Gift of Dharma, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.Tags: Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
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Today’s dharma quote is yet another from the Vidyādhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche(1939-1987), whom I first quoted and wrote a little bio for here. I know I said I would keep the kyping/re-posting of quotes from other sources to an absolute minimum, but this one was too good to pass up. It’s from the chapter “Helping Others” in his book Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala, page 180, and it comes to us via James Shaheen at the Tricycle Editors’ Blog (via Ocean of Dharma):
When you are trying to help someone, you have to have humor, self-existing humor, and you have to hold the moth in your hand, but not let it go into the flame. That’s what helping others means. Ladies and gentlemen, we have so much responsibility. A long time ago, people helped one another in this way. Now people just talk, talk talk. They read books, they listen to music, but they never actually help anyone. They never use their bare hands to save a person from going crazy. We have that responsibility. Somebody has to do it. It turns out to be us. We’ve got to do it, and we can do it with a smile, not with a long face.
Queer Sangha February 4, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in homosexuality.Tags: Lawrence Grecco, Queer Sangha
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Check out the work of our friend Lawrence Grecco and others by clicking the image below:
“Japan’s Rapping Monk” February 4, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in Buddhism and music, Japanese Buddhism.Tags: Japan, rapping monk, Reuters
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A.O. Scott Talks about Groundhog Day February 4, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in arts and entertainment, Buddhism and film.Tags: A.O. Scott, Bill Murray, Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis, The New York Times
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A Gift of Dharma for 2.3.10 February 4, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in A Gift of Dharma.Tags: Jetsun Milarepa
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Today’s quote comes to us from the great Tibetan saint Jetsun Milarepa (1052-1135), whom I previously quoted and wrote a little biography for here. This is it:
Though grief in the Ocean of Samsara
Is preached, and its renunciation is urged,
Few people are really convinced
And renounce it with determination.
Though knowing that life will ever turn to death,
Few feel uneasy, or think that it will end.
Though their life is blessed with good prospects,
Few can practice abstention for a day.
Though the Bliss of Liberation is expounded
And Samsara’s pains are stressed,
Few can really enter the Dharma Gate.
Though the profound Pith-Instructions
Of the Whispered Lineage are given without stint, few
Without fail can practice them.
Though the teaching of Mahamudra is expounded
And the Pointing-out demonstration is exercised,
Few can really understand the Essence of Mind.
To the hermit’s life and the Guru’s wish
One can always aspire, but few
Can put them into practice.
The perfect, skillful path of Naropa
May be shown, without concealment,
But those who can really follow it
Are very few. My dear lad,
You should follow in my footsteps
If in this life you want to do
Something that is worthwhile.