“Hyperactivity, to
which Westerners are addicted, is full of exhalation, full
of physical exaggeration, all the time throwing off
equanimity and working toward death, in fact”.
Edited from a Chronicles
interview on 18 March 2002
My first
recollection of the Vidyadhara was when he gave meditation
instruction to all the new students at the first session of
Naropa in 1974. I remember sitting in a large auditorium
with hundreds of other people waiting for him. When he
finally arrived, it took a few moments for my mind to catch
up with its expectations and realize that the little man in
the dark suit, walking with a pronounced limp was, in fact,
Chögyam Trungpa. I remember that he
smiled a lot and joked a lot and in particular I remember
that, after he gave meditation instruction, a student raised
his hand and said: “Rinpoche, why the outbreath? Why not the
inbreath?” And my recollection of what he said (and of
course I’m paraphrasing here) was: Well, it’s like
this. When you come home at the end of a long day and you’re
really stressed out and tired, you go into the kitchen, you
open the refrigerator, you take out a beer, you open the
beer, you go into the TV room, you turn the TV on, you sit
down on the couch. You don’t go (loud sound of sudden
inbreath). After that I never
had any misunderstanding about why it was the
outbreath. http://www.chronicleproject.com/stories_11.html by Frank Berliner Edited from a Chronicles
interview on 18 March 2002
See more on Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
from the first issue of the Garuda
magazine published in 1971.
“The Bodhisattva’s practice of
breath is the exact opposite of such grasping. On every
exhalation, through – visualization, he makes a gift of all
his health, wealth, understanding, Realization – all virtue,
whatever he might have that could benefit any being, is sent
on his breath for all beings to absorb and benefit from.
Then, on every inhalation, every problem, predicament,
illness, or disease, all suffering and every cause of
suffering, is absorbed to create relief for
others.”
Adi Da Samraj
“The Bodhisattva’s practice of breath is the exact opposite
of such grasping. On every exhalation, through –
visualization, he makes a gift of all his health, wealth,
understanding, Realization – all virtue, whatever he might
have that could benefit any being, is sent on his breath for
all beings to absorb and benefit from. Then, on every
inhalation, every problem, predicament, illness, or disease,
all suffering and every cause of suffering, is absorbed to
create relief for others.”
by Frank Berliner