I’m a little late to the party in reading and reviewing Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s latest book -“Work, Sex, Money”, but there’s no time like the present and I’m finding myself a bit behind in catching up with all of the great dharma books filling up my shelves. As is true with the majority of  Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s books that I’ve had the chance to read, without fail, there’s always something within the pages that leaves me thinking that it was exactly what I need to read at a this point in my life. The ability for Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s to provide this kind of spiritual and personal guidance transcends the fact that the material this book is comprised of, comes from talks he gave in the 1970′s. Just when I thought that so much of the themes of work, sex and money may have changed considerably since the 70′s, I really do see that things are absolutely the same, despite the sheen of it being 2011.

The crux of this book is on the practice of mindfulness in our day to day and how there is a richness in practicing the dharma in this 24/7 human realm we in habit. With Shambhala’s vision to create an enlightened society, there is much for us to work with when we are faced with passion, aggression, clinging, aversion and ambivalence as it manifests in our professional, sexual and financial lives. These three realms are where we display the tendencies to find escape in or from work, sex and money and all of the potential pitfalls and trappings associated with them.

The common theme of the book is ‘meditation in action’ and we see that we need to work with situations as they arise, rather than to look away. The need to apply awareness, loving-kindness and compassion in dealing with the tough bits all help to transcend the suffering from attachment or ignoring the circumstances we don’t like – or the ones we like a bit too much.

Some Buddhists wrestle with the concept of right livelihood, struggle with the misuse of sex and view money as a conduit for greed rather than viewing the energy around these elements as possessing the ability for good as well as for bad. There’s a lot of polarity going on and the potential for wrong view to rear its ugly little noggin. Our habitual patterns, self-talk, strategies and psychology all get bound up in reference to work, sex and money and neurosis can develop if we’re not careful.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche makes the point that the rubber needs to meet the road when we are engaged in relationships of a sexual, financial or work nature as this is where we are engaged with the world and have the chance to be skillful in our efforts. We can choose for this engagement to be the teacher we need in our lives, or we can run away. The book makes reference to the precepts and paramitas as they relate to work, sex and money (ie: generosity, discipline) and emphasis is made towards having a sense of humour in our day-to-day workings.

This book is packed full of teachings and many historical references from Buddha’s time that provide illumination for this modern age. Given that society has been trying to figure out how to best work with work, sexuality and finances since cave drawings likely illustrated some stick figures with money bags, genitalia and briefcases, there’s a lot of great material in this book that provides real world advice a person today who is likely posting a photo of their genitalia beside a bag of money and a briefcase onto Facebook (I don’t know any Buddhists engaging in this behaviour personally, but can only assume).

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche walked in shoes of a father, husband, lover, worker all while being a highly revered spiritual teacher. He was a Tibetan master who made it his life’s work to discover the ways of the West and this book provides an examination of his ability to convey pure Dharma with an understanding of the Western experience and our specific hang-ups, abilities, obsessions and tastes.

This gem of instruction ended up in my inbox and helped to light the way… Courtesy of the Ocean of Dharma Quote of the Week, here’s something to consider.

PREVENTING TOO MANY ACTIVITIES

One characteristic of a dharmic person, someone who practices meditation and the teachings of the Buddha, is to prevent too many activities, or you could say, reduce too many activities. According to tradition, that actually boils down to cutting nonfunctional talking, cutting the baby-sitter mentality, the entertainment mentality. You can get yourself into all kinds of projects, all kinds of engagements. You can become chummy with the world so that you don’t have to hold your discipline or your mindfulness properly. ….If you don’t like tea, you can have coffee. If you don’t like coffee, you could switch to Coca-Cola. If you don’t like Coca-Cola, you can drink scotch or vodka. You involve yourself in constant, constant activity. Sometimes you don’t even know what you are doing; you just come up with the idea that you need to be occupied with something, but you can’t put your finger on anything:” Do I need sex or do I need money or do I need clothes? What do I need?”….You could think about anything; the possibilities are infinite. Getting chummy with the situation involves lots of activity. According to the basic principles of Buddhism, you have to cut that down. When you become too chummy with your world, too familiar with your world, it becomes endless.

From “Seven Characteristics of a Dharmic Person,” in THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, Volume Two, pages 486 to 487.

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo

I read this and thought “Holy Buddha Batman!” This is what I’ve been doing all these years on this blog. Picking and choosing selected videos that resonate with me (although many of them are old punkrock or skate videos!)

So here for you dear readers is the day-long TMcG sponsored “Pixelated Buddhist Conference”. Please join in and create your own as I’d love to see what other great Buddhist videos are out there circulating on the web. Drop me a line if you decided to post your own “Pixelated Buddhist Conference”.

Venerable Robina Courtin – “Be Your own Therapist

The 4 Noble Truths – in Claymation

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche – Spiritual Materialism (2)

Noah Levine- “Anger”

Ram Dass – “on Experience”

Pema Chodron – Why I became a Buddhist

Ethan Nichtern – “One City: A Declaration of Interdependence” reading at Google

His Holiness the 17th Karmapa- “How can we deal with everyday distractions?”

Brad Warner – “Skillful Means”

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche:
From “The First Foundation: Mindfulness of Body,” in the 1973 Hinayana-Mahayana Transcripts, page 39

From OCEAN OF DHARMA: The Everyday Wisdom of Chogyam Trungpa.

Maybe I wasn’t ready for you to be my teacher. To sit in the meditation hall while you taught your students about life, fearlessness, being humble and warriorship.

I feel like I know you from your words, your writing, the grainy images I see of you from taped talks. You are a teacher which transcends. Transcends all. Beyond conception.

To read others who have posted their thoughts on this great teacher this time of Parinirvana, please visit the Chogyam Trungpa Tribute Page