About this title: Freedom is generally thought of as the ability to achieve goals and satisfy desires. But what are the sources of these goals and desires? If they arise from ignorance, habitual patterns, and negative emotions-psychologically destructive elements that actually enslave us-is the freedom to pursue them true freedom or just a myth? In this book, Ch ...
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Description: Good. No Dust Jacket as Issued. Ex-Library. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Book shows moderate wear/ spine tight, pages clean/ covers creased; moderate edge wear/ corners and spine hinge creased/ usual library stickers, stamps and check-out envelope/ several pages and page tips creased. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780877730842ISBN:0877730849
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Near fine with covers showing very light corner curl. Clean and unmarked inside and out. No creasing to spine. Tightly bound. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 176 p. Contains: Illustrations. Shambhala Dragon Editions. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Shambhala Pubns
Date Published: 2005-10-11
ISBN-13:9781590302897ISBN:1590302893
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781590302897. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Shambhala, Berkeley
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780877730842ISBN:0877730849
Description: Very Good. Religion. Chogyam Trungpa's books are among the most accessible works of Buddhist phi losophy. In THE MYTH OF FREEDOM, Trungpa explores the true meaning of freed om, showing us how our preconceptions, attitudes, and even our spiritual pr actices can become chains that bind us to repetitive patterns of frustratio n and despair. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Shambhala
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781590302897ISBN:1590302893
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781590302897ISBN:1590302893
Description: Reprint in hardcover with dust jacket. 219 pp. Illustrations, appendix, index. Jacket has hint of shelfwear otherwise Fine/Fine. read more
Description: Good. Only lightly used. Book has minimal wear to cover and binding. A few pages may have small creases and minimal underlining. Book selection as BIG as Texas. read more
Description: Satisfaction Guaranteed. Shipped quickly. 1988. Paperback. Used, very good. Very good overall with light to moderate wear. No dust jacket. read more
Description: Acceptable. Less than standard, but still an acceptable copy. May have underlining, margin notes, or significant shelf wear. We are the Twin Cities' largest independent book store. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Shambhala, Boston and London
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780877730842ISBN:0877730849
Description: Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. General shelf wear, tight binding, clean pages, spine is slightly cocked, corners are creased and bent, sticker on front cover, edgewear, light soiling. read more
"3 to 3 &1/2 stars. Mostly a very general overview of some the tenets, principles, teachings, and all the rest, of, I believe, the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Aside from that, the book is a common sense primer for the truly oblivious, or an invaluable affirmation for those even half aware, thus motivating persistence in ordinary observation of the whole of thought and perception and its inherent unalterable disorder. The practical advice jolts insofar as it reminds that many need reminding, namely about things like the importance of understanding to the extreme of "becoming" what it is one is "against" (capitalism, Cartesianism, dualism, the ego, etc.), or the importance of brushing and wiping. (Quotes = my words, not Trungpa's.)
I was drawn particularly to the discussion of spiritual materialism, specifically as it pertains in meditation and practice. Since the discussion is philosophic-theoretical, I'm inclined to be skeptical about the notion that one overcomes spiritual materialism through commitment to a "spiritual friend." Krishnamurti, who argues that meditation risks becoming just one more problem for humans already with innumerable problems, seems more open; when one invites the "gang of gurus" one is more likely to create colossal disorder. One could say that perhaps here I've treated as guru Krishnamurti, and so forth and so on, an argument I would anticipate and respond to fully if I had more time and ambition. Good chance that I just don't know what I'm talking about, and so I look forward to reading Chogyam's book about spiritual materialism.
Anyhow, these thoughts are cursory and provisional. I found the book an indispensable and accessible intro to Tibetan buddhism."
"For starters, this is not a book for reading only; instead, it is a companion to regular contemplative practice (albeit not necessarily one that is "Buddhist").
I was "forced" to read this book as a graduate student at The Naropa Institute (in the same way that all students are "forced" to read textbooks) and found that I got very little out of the book. While at times his presentation was incredibly lucid, at other times Trungpa's turns of phrase made little sense, leading our circle of student heretics to coin the descriptive phrase "Trungpa-babble." (Full-disclosure: One of the reasons that this book appeared so jargon-laden at the time I first read it probably had to do with the fact that my sitting practice was very new and so I had little experience with which to compare Trungpa's ideas.)
On re-reading this book as one of the titles on my guru's reading lists, I was impressed by how much of the same material that had once left me cold now applied directly to my life and practice. Trungpa definitely takes the "romance" out of spiritual practice and reveals it to be as mundane as going to work, eating dinner, or taking a bath. Like those other activities, though, meditation (in this context the basic practice of sitting with oneself and familiarizing oneself with the neurosis and clarity that make up the mind) is essential to a life fully lived."
"LOVE - is a vast store of energy which is not centered, which is not ego's energy at all. It is this energy which is the centerless dance of phenomena, the universe interpenetrating and making love to itself. It has two characteristics: a fire quality of warmth and a tendency to flow in a particular pattern, in the same way in which fire contains a spark as well as the air which directs the spark. And this energy is always on-going, whether or not it is seen through the confused filter of ego. It cannot be destroyed or interrupted at all. It is like the ever-burning sun. It consumes everything to the point where it allows no room for doubt or manipulation.
But when this heat is filtered through ego, it becomes stagnant, because we ignore the basic ground, refuse to see the vast space in which this energy occurs. Then the energy cannot flow freely in the open space shared with the object of passion. Instead it is solidified, narrowed and directed by the central headquarters of ego to move outward in order to draw the object of passion into its territory. This captive energy extends out to its object and then returns to be programmed again. We extend our tentacles and try to fix our relationship. This attempt to cling to the situation makes the communication process superficial. We just touch another person's surface and get stuck there, never experiencing their whole being. We are blinded by our clinging. The object of passion, instead of being bathed in the intense warmth of free passion feels oppressed by the stifling heat of neurotic passion.
Free passion is radiation without a radiator, a fluid, pervasive warmth that flows effortlessly. It is not destructive because it is a balanced state of being and highly intelligent. Self-consciousness inhibits this intelligent, balanced state of being. By opening, by dropping our self-conscious grasping, we see not only the surface of an object, but we see the whole way through. We appreciate not in terms of sensational qualities alone, but we see in terms of whole qualities, which are pure gold. We are not overwhelmed by the exterior, but seeing the exterior simultaneously puts us through to the interior. So we reach the heart of the situation and, if this is a meeting of two people, the relationship is very inspiring because we do not see the other person purely in terms of physical attraction or habitual patterns, we see the inside as well as the outside.
This whole-way-through communication might produce a problem. Suppose you see right through someone and that person does not want you to see right through and becomes horrified with you and runs away. Then what to do? You have made your communication completely and thoroughly. If that person runs away from you, that is his way of communicating with you. You would not investigate further. If you did pursue and chase him, then sooner or later you would become a demon from that person's point of view. You see right through his body and he has juicy fat and meat that you would like to eat up, so you seem like a vampire to him. And the more you try to pursue the other person, the more you fail. Perhaps you looked through too sharply with your desire, perhaps you were too penetrating. Possessing beautiful keen eyes, penetrating passion and intelligence, you abused your talent, played with it. It is quite natural with people, if they possess some particular power or gifted energy, to abuse that quality, to misuse it by trying to penetrate every corner. Something quite obviously is lacking in such an approach- a sense of humor. If you try to push things too far, it means you do not feel the area properly; you only feel your relationship to the area. What is wrong is that you do not see all sides of the situation and therefore miss the humorous and ironical aspect.
Sometimes people run away from you because they want to play a game with you. They do not want a straight, honest and serious involvement with you, they want to play. But if they have a sense of humor and you do not, you become demonic. This is where lalita, the dance, comes in. You dance with reality, dance with apparent phenomena. When you want something very badly you do not extend your eye and hand automatically; you just admire. Instead of impulsively making a move from your side, you allow a move from the other side, which is learning to dance with the situation. You do not have to create the whole situation; you just watch it, work with it and learn to dance with it. So then it does not become your creation, but rather a mutual dance. No one is self-conscious, because it is a mutual experience.
When there is a fundamental openness in a relationship, being faithful, in the sense of real trust, happens automatically; it is a natural situation. Because the communication is so real and so beautiful and flowing, you cannot communicate in the same way with someone else, so automatically you are drawn together. But if any doubt presents itself, if you begin to feel threatened by some abstract possibility, although your communication is going beautifully at the time, then you are sowing the seed of paranoia and regarding the communication purely as ego entertainment.
If you sow a seed of doubt, it may make you rigid and terrified, afraid of losing the communication which is so good and real. And at some stage you will begin to be bewildered as to whether the communication is loving or aggressive. This bewilderment brings a certain loss of distance, and in this way neurosis begins. Once you lose the right perspective, the right distance in the communication process, then love becomes hate. The natural thing with hatred, just as with love, is that you want to make physical communication with the person; that is, you want to kill or injure them. In any relationship in which the ego is involved, a love relationship or any other, there is always the danger of turning against your partner. As long as there is the notion of threat or insecurity of any kind, then a love relationship could turn into its opposite."
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