Today is April 4th, 2008, the twenty-first anniversary of the parinirvana of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Twenty-one is the age when we are definitely considered to be adults in Western society, but have we students of Trungpa Rinpoche reached adulthood yet? I wonder.
I always imagined that there would be some clear experience of having arrived at spiritual maturity, a Buddhist bar mitzvah, or some sort of collective birthday party. Now I’m not so sure. I feel strongly connected with my gurus and the lineage, and surrounded by sangha, family, and friends, but I also feel very much alone, floating in space, with no planet in sight, and no umbilical cord to attach me to the mother ship.
Maybe twenty-one is the time to give up dreams of getting somewhere and just be. Maybe this is it.
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2 comments:
The question of spiritual maturity, collective and personal, is a sticky one, eh?
I find myself in a challenging period of my own life and my response, as in other such times, is to go back deeply into the inexhaustible mine of teachings and practices that Chogyam Trungpa left us.
To be honest, I suppose my motivation is to find some torch to hold against my own darkness and chaos, but what I discover instead is encouragement from CTR to go right into the confusion, as Padmasambhava did the charnel ground, and settle there. Yikes!
And what marvelous ironies CTR left us with: He spoke of Buddhadharma without credentials, created a sangha that seems to offer all sorts of certifications and credentials, which when pursued lead to...hanging out in space without credentials!
As promised, he haunts us now along with the dralas. Jolly good luck to us all!
Your post just reminded me of one of my favorite lojong slogans right now. Pema Chödruns talks about it in 'Start where you are':
"Abandon any hope of fruition"
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