I continue to feel curious about curiosity. So here's a question: What do we hope to discover when we set out to discover ourselves?
Turn to most any spiritual magazine and you'll find articles by authors who have discovered bliss, love, compassion and other wonderful states of consciousness.
How's that working for you?
I'll never get published in those magazines - my practice feels more like archeology, like the excavation of some ancient rubbish midden. No one wants to hear about that. Really, who would set out on this path, if we knew that we weren't going to like what we found?
Chogyam Tungpa never tried to sweeten the work ahead of us:
Many people try to find a spiritual path where they do not have to face themselves, but where they can still liberate themselves.
In truth, that is impossible. We cannot do that. We have to be honest. We have to see our gut, our real shit, our most undesirable parts. We have to see that.
Archeology.
Photo by Emily Y. Wu
Quote from Chogyam Trungpa in the November 2009 Shambhala Sun
Hi Barry, thanks for your answer yesterday to my long question yesterday! I find that individuals who view compliments and criticism differently may find archeological findings especially painful. Why does one make us soar why the other makes us plummet?
Thanks for the Chogyam Trungpa quote too! He's not for weenies. He is very good at cutting through spiritual materialism.
Posted by: J | December 02, 2009 at 07:14 AM
Thanks for this post
Posted by: Steve | December 02, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Oh shit! It's all shit! Now bring me the flowers! :)
Posted by: adam | December 02, 2009 at 02:27 PM
The problem with flowers is that they don't seem to last as long as the shit they grow in.
Posted by: BuddhaFrog | December 02, 2009 at 02:39 PM
on the days when i'm particularly discouraged i long for the time when i didn't know where the smelly rubbish came from. now... can't get around it when the excavation hits a smelly pocket of ego-poop!
Posted by: Genju | December 02, 2009 at 07:04 PM
my teacher said very sweetly to me recently: "you don't necessarily think you're going to *like* nirvana, do you?"
nope, no; i guess not, eh?
(though i DO ***love*** what comes out of those old middens. i'm most curious about skara brae: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/
enjoy!)
Posted by: mama p | December 02, 2009 at 07:23 PM
Hi J - Yes, Trungpa's sword was very sharp!
You're welcome, Steve. Thank you!
Adam & BuddhaFrog - You guys are too funny. LOL!
Genju - What a fine nose you have!
Mama P - Thank you for the cool link - what a beautiful site. Oh, I think Suzuki Roshi once said something along those lines, also - "What do you want enlightenment for? You might not like it!" (or something).
Thanks, again, everyone!
Posted by: Barry Briggs | December 02, 2009 at 07:57 PM
Chogyam Trungpa - the one who single-handedly threw me head first into the septic tank I'm in now! Pretty poopy in here!
Posted by: Alice | December 03, 2009 at 05:58 PM