Daily Archives: September 22, 2013

The Top Trap

Vajrayogini-0762
Vajra Yogini
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Take the story of Milarepa. He was told by Marpa that he could leave his guru and go back to his home. He had finally been accepted by Marpa, who had made him his chief disciple and an important person, the only son of the lineage. Milarepa was completely fine, feeling extremely good. Then he went back to his family home and everything was ruined, com- pletely destroyed. That kind of mishap is always apropos of the Practicing Lineage, once you begin to have any association with the lineage. Milarepa found his house ruined, his mother enskeletoned inside. Nobody had even
conducted a funeral service for her. His father was long dead, and his aunt and uncle and everybody were up in arms and there were no friends-none at all. It was like returning to a completely haunted house, like the haunted house in Disneyland. Everything is seemingly shrieking and haunting. Of course, for Milarepa this was not regarded as a ride, like in Disneyland. In Milarepa’s case it was real.

One shrieking situation after another shrieking situation, one haunted situation after another haunted situation takes place because you are on top of situations. We would like to come face-to-face with a ghost. We hear stories about ghosts, and we would like to find out whether ghosts actually exist or not. I f you are in a playful mood, ghosts don’t appear, because they are not interested in haunting you at that point. Ghosts are only interested in haunting you when you are in a transitional period or else when you are on top of the situation. On the other hand, we are not talking about the reality of ghosts here. We don’t want to get back into that psychic phenomenal world. That’s another waste of time, of course. But ghosts will come to us. They come to you. Chogyam Trungpa

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