Notes from "The Myth of Freedom" by Chögyam Trungpa

Key points

• The everyday events of life are the best teachers and reminders for practice.
• Accepting our imperfections lets them become part of the path rather than obstacles on the path.
• True spirituality is the ultimate practice of non-violence.

Gathered notes

• The mundanity of our lives is the food for our practice.
• The events of your life act as a spokesperson constantly and you cannot get away from this guru.
• We must work with our fears, frustrations, disappointments and irritations, the painful aspects of life.
• If we try to get rid of our imperfections, they become obstacles to our “self-improvement.”
• If we accept our imperfections, they become part of the path.
• You cannot really eliminate pain through aggression. The more you kill, the more you strengthen the killer.
• True spirituality is not a battle; it is the ultimate practice of non-violence.
• There’s nothing to take over if you are not putting up any resistance.
• There is no hope of attaining enlightenment because it is nobody’s project.
• The impulse to tell people how things ought to be is an expression of our insecurity.
• Don’t take sides against traditions or our state of mind, but take delight in them and work with them.

Raw notes

I. The Myth of Freedom

• We must work with our fears, frustrations, disappointments and irritations, the painful aspects of life.
• We must see the truth of suffering, the reality of dissatisfaction.
• Doing nothing is very difficult.
• The basic practice is to be present, right there. The goal is also the technique.
• Meditation practice brings our neuroses to the surface rather than hiding them at the bottom of our minds.
• The mundanity of our lives is the food for our practice.
• Practice is a constant unmasking, peeling off of layers.
• Pain increases as the questions become more solid and the answers become more elusive.
• It is a succession of confusions that create the ego.
• There are two stages to understanding egolessness.
  • Perceiving that an ego does not exist as a solid, permanent, stable, entity.
  • Understanding that the notion of relativity needs a watcher to perceive it, which produces the watcher and the watched.

II. Styles of Imprisonment

• We use our projections as credentials to prove our existence.
• We cling to our habitual patterns because confusion provides a familiar ground to sink into.
• A heroic approach is based on fascination with what we lack. Continual comparing generates a never-ending procession of desires.
• You cannot really eliminate pain through aggression. The more you kill, the more you strengthen the killer.

III. Sitting Meditation

• We must be willing to be completely ordinary people. Accepting ourselves as we are, without trying to become greater, purer, more spiritual, more insightful.
  • If we try to get rid of our imperfections, they become obstacles to our “self-improvement.”
  • If we accept our imperfections, they become part of the path.
• Paying attention to thoughts, categorising them, trying to quiet them down, all feeds them.
• If we do not interfere with our restlessness, it becomes part of the space.

IV. Working with the Emotions

• True spirituality is not a battle; it is the ultimate practice of non-violence.
• The “lion’s roar” is the fearless proclamation that any state of mind, any emotion, is a workable situation, a practice reminder.
• There’s nothing to take over if you are not putting up any resistance.

V. Meditation in Action

• Become one with awareness, one with open space.
• Open up your territory rather than march into someone else’s.
• Learn not to make a nuisance of yourself, open yourself to other people.
• “Right” in the Eightfold Path as in “what is”, “complete”.

VI. The Open Way

• A teacher or fellow traveller can show us where we are on the map, but we have to make the journey ourselves.
• When we try to disentangle ourselves, the first thing we experience is entanglement.
• There is no hope of attaining enlightenment because it is nobody’s project.
• The path is like a busy, broad, highway, with roadblocks, accidents, construction.
• The impulse to tell people how things ought to be is an expression of our insecurity.
• Don’t take sides against traditions or our state of mind, but take delight in them and work with them.
  • Firmly root in your society’s traditions, but don’t feel obligated to follow them. Understand the wisdom and the dogma in it.

VII. Devotion

• Teachers can act as a mirror, which we find irritating or discomforting.
• The events of your life act as a spokesperson constantly and you cannot get away from this guru.

VIII. Tantra

• Your setbacks and suffering are part of the creative process of the path.
• Develop an attitude of richness and generosity.

Added 2024-11-03.