Monday, August 15, 2005

Buddhadharma magazine covers Blazing Splendor

Here's an excerpt on their web site where Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche speaks on "The Kind of Guru I Had": Samten Gyatso was so learned and skilled, so trustworthy and matchless, that people compared him to Marpa, the master translator who brought the Kagyü teachings from India. Yet my guru never postured nor put on the air of high realization, like those meditators who never lower their vacant, glaring gaze to the ground and who spout random “profound” statements such as “Everything in samsara and nirvana are equal!” What do you gain from such pretense?http://www.thebuddhadharma.com/issues/2005/fall/guru_type.html

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It could well be pretense, but it doesn't have to mean that it's pretentious to spout some "nonsense" while staring upward at all times.

Whether something is pretense or not depends on the heart. Putting on contrived humbleness could be seen as pretense too. Anything whatsoever can be seen as pretense, and anything whatsoever can be seen as humbly honest. When Shakyamuni called himself samasambuddha, was he pretentious or just sincere? I don't know! Maybe.

When I am lying to myself, I am lucky if I know it. When I am lucky and I know that I am not lying, that's OK too. It's ok to call someone pretentious if that's how you really feel. What else can you do? But it doesn't mean it is an absolute truth and it's good to know the limitations of such expressions.

Erik Pema Kunsang said...

Hi Buddy, did you read the whole review in the Buddhadharma Mag?