NO PARTY LINE

From Ocean of Dharma; Chogyam Trungpa

As warriors (spiritual aspirants), how are we going to respond to real opposition when it arises in the world? You don’t need party-line logic or a package-deal response. They don’t really help. In my experience of how students usually relate with conflict, I find that they tend to freeze up when someone is very critical of them. They become non-communicative, which doesn’t help the situation. As warriors, we shouldn’t be uptight and uncommunicative. We find it easy to manifest basic goodness when somebody agrees with us. Even if they’re half-agreeing with you, you can talk to them and have a great time. But if someone is edgy and negative, then you freeze, become defensive, and begin to attack them back. That’s the wrong end of the stick….If we are in touch with basic goodness, we are always relating to the world directly, choicelessly…. The idea is to relate with whatever arises with a sense of sadness and tenderness.