Sublime

the probability of easily finding a root guru among the scholars, rinpoches, tulkus, and three-year retreatants is at least greater than finding one at the grocery store.

assimilate meditation into one or another self-centered project. With a Zen of “no gain,” we step outside of our usual realm of questions and answers, problems and solutions, off the endless treadmill of self-improvement and instead experience the completeness of our life as it already is.

The renowned seventh-century Zen master Seng-tsan taught that true freedom is being “without anxiety about imperfection.”

He puts aside his prajna and dharma eyes and turns to his buddha eye (cf. Chapter Eighteen), as he brings us to the mother of buddhas, which cannot be approached as a perception but as an experience, the experience and acceptance of the selfless, birthless nature of all dharmas.

The retreat was to be under the direction of the Very Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche, a close dharma brother of Trungpa Rinpoche and one of the foremost teachers in the Kagyü lineage.

So the Buddha did something shocking. With the prajnaparamita teachings he pulled the rug out completely, taking his students further into groundlessness. He told the audience that whatever they believed had to be let go, that dwelling upon any description of reality was a trap.

In the fourteenth century, Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism and the lineage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, wrote (as translated by Thubten Jigme Norbu): The human body at peace with itself is more precious than the rarest gem. Cherish your body: it is yours for this one time only. The human form is won with difficult