You've heard about the twitter and Facebook phenom "Sh*t My Dad Says" (which I love by the way)?
Then welcome to the newest feature of this blog: Sh*t a Crazy Old Yogini Says.
"Practice itself is the vehicle of enlightenment. There are those rare among us who instantly become self-realized, but for the rest, it takes work.
I've heard the Dalai Lama say that westerners think too much, we are always lost in thought. A daily diet of words stirs up the mind, which in and of itself is not necessarily bad. But there is the risk that students will practice with their brains instead of their guts and thereby become enmeshed in the dharma instead of liberated by it."
I like Susie Essman playing me in the TV pilot.
8 comments:
great idea! love it! looking forward to more of your crazy and straight-talking sh*t!
Most of the things the Dalai Lama says can be applied to the game of golf as well as to life. Could make for an interesting cross-over book.
I'd call it "Gunga-Galunga".
yup, that Lama...heavy hitter...
The Dalai Lama is right. Sometimes when I get to feeling this way (too much brain and not enough gut and heart) I just stop reading altogether for a few months and just practice. This is especially important to me because of my strong Jnana (Yoga of Understanding) preference. Someone like me, in particular, needs to make sure he is getting outside his brain, as Linda and Svasti have rightly pointed out.
That said, if you read the Dali Lama's books, there is no doubt that he has extreme "Jnana" tendencies himself. Who else would name a book The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality and spend a lot of his time at conferences about science and spirituality? In this particular book he relates how, as a young initiate, he was deeply attracted to the learning, but just tolerated all the ceremonies and rituals of the monastery.
Actually, I think one can mistake the Dali Lama's intellectual nature with being overly Jnana oriented. Certainly, his role as spiritual leader of his people requires him to present a very logical and rational appearance. And Tibetan monks are trained in logic as well as many other cerebral past times.
But the thing is - none of us knows what goes on behind closed doors. One thing I do know from various reports I've read is that he unfailingly wakes up very early and I'm convinced he has a body practice of some description, considering how spry he is for his age.
And certainly, he has a meditation practice of some kind.
So for him to say "Practice itself is the vehicle of enlightenment" suggests he is in fact, more balanced between practice and study than he might appear whenever he greets western media or audiences.
"Practice itself is the vehicle of enlightenment"
actually a Crazy Old Yogini said that....;)
and in one of his teachings I attended, he said he did not do very well in his logic courses (I'm sure he was being modest!)
You're right, Svasti. The Dalai Lama has a rigorous meditation practice, too. In either this book or in his Charlie Rose interview he said he mediates for two hours a day.
And of course, Charlie Rose, being Charlie Rose, asks great questions like, "So what does a Dali Lama do all day?". And because it's Charlie Rose, the Dalai Lama answers!
He loves learning, science, Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and meeting people of all types from all over the world. What he dislikes, by his own admission, is ceremony, ritual, perfunctory appearances, etc.
One of his favorite stories is how, as a monk, he used to sneak away from all the prayer rituals and session to go off and disassemble cars and machines. He had a passion at an early age for all things mechanical, which was pretty out of sync with what was expected of him as the young Dalai Lama. But obviously he managed to satisfy both in the end.
Bob Weisenberg
@svasti: I go to a Tibetan yoga class in Chicago, and my teacher (a Tibetan) tells me the Dalai Lama does practice an advanced form of Tibetan yoga- you are right, for someone in his 70s to be that spry and strong, he must be doing something
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