Be Grateful To Everyone.

“…Without this world we cannot attain enlightenment, there would be no journey. By rejecting the world we would be rejecting the ground and rejecting the path. All our past history and all our neurosis is related with others in some sense. All of our experiences are based on others, basically. As long as we have a sense of practice, some realization that we are treading on the path, every one of those little details that are seemingly obstacles to us becomes an essential part of the path. Without them we cannot attain anything at all—we have no feedback, we have nothing to work with, absolutely nothing to work with.

So in a sense all the things taking place around our world, all the irritations and all the problems, are crucial. Without others we cannot attain enlightenment—in fact, we cannot even tread on the path. In other words, we could say that if there is no noise outside during our sitting meditation, we cannot develop mindfulness. If we do not have aches and pains in our body, we cannot attain mindfulness, we cannot actually meditate. If every thing were lovey-dovey and jellyfishlike, there would be nothing to work with. Everything would be completely blank. Because of all these textures around us, we are enriched.” ~from Taming The Mind by Chogyam Trungpa

The observation of neurotic energy is the path and it starts right now. It doesn’t matter if right now is filled with a pristine awareness of life’s grandeur or neurotically preoccupied with trying to manipulate someone into fulfilling some selfish need. Right now is all you have. You will never have anything more. So, whatever arises–regardless  of how neurotic it might be–it is the path. It is all you have to work with. There is nothing else. So, listen to it. Find the intelligence which underlies your habitual commentary, because that intelligence is not only the path, it is the goal! ~from What We Call Suffering, The Buddha Called Enlightenment by Ben Riggs

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