Meditation in Action
By Chögyam Trungpa
Meditation in Action was Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's
first book of Dharma teachings published in English. It is
based on talks he gave in Britain in the late Sixties, before he came
to America.
Already present are major themes of Trungpa Rinpoche's teaching
throughout the rest of his life: the importance of personal experience
via meditation practice, going
beyond the initial excitement about entering a spiritual path,
nowness, and de-centralizing one's meditation—expanding outwards
as opposed to concentrating inwards. There is a wealth of practical
advice about how to approach being a practitioner, as useful and fresh
to the beginning or experienced meditator now as it was when it was
first published.
Topics include teacher-student transmission and the six paramitas, but perhaps the most crucial chapter in the book is 'The
Manure of Experience and the Field of Bodhi.' Here Trungpa Rinpoche
distils his characteristic (and provocative) Tantric approach to Hinayana
discipline. “Samsara is the Vehicle for
Nirvana.” Each person's particular collection of
negativity, confused emotions, and conceptual clutter is not something
to be pushed away or ‘transcended’ through endless
struggle. Rather, the smelly, unhygienic mess of our own minds is the
compost that, properly applied, allows the seed of realization to
sprout.
|
