Thursday, August 23, 2007

A Nourishing Resource


For some time now, I've been a subscriber to the Ocean of Dharma quote of the week. (You can sign up by clicking here.) The one I received yesterday was especially powerful. Here it is, in its entirety (thanks to Carolyn Gimiam for the permission to post this quote):

    GOSSIP AND EMOTION

    Discursive thought might be compared to the blood circulation which constantly feeds the muscles of our system, the emotions. Thoughts link and sustain the emotions so that, as we go about our daily lives, we experience an ongoing flow of mental gossip punctuated by more colorful and intense bursts of emotion. The thoughts and emotions express our basic attitudes toward and ways of relating to the world and form an environment, fantasy realms in which we live....In order to work with these realms, we must begin to view situations in a more panoramic way, which is vipashyana or insight meditation. We must become aware not only of the precise details of an activity, but also of the situation as a whole....We begin to see the pattern of our fantasies rather than being immersed in them. We discover that we need not struggle with our projections, that the wall that separates us from them is our own creation.

    From "The Bodhisattva Path," in CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM, pages 168 to 169.

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

I've been working with ideas about the power of thought and the fuel of emotion for a while now, and this quote makes some connections for me that feel profound. I hope it's helpful to you, too. :)

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