Everything is naturally perfect just as it is, completely pure
and undefiled.
All phenomena naturally appear in their uniquely correct modes and situations, forming ever-changing patterns full of meaning and significance, like participants in a great dance.
Everything is symbol, yet there is no difference between the symbol and the truth symbolised.
With no effort or practice whatsoever liberation, enlightenment, and buddhahood are already fully developed and perfected.
The everyday practice is just ordinary life itself. Since the under-developed state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special way or to try to attain or practice anything.
There should be no feeling of striving to reach some exalted goal or higher state, since this simply produces something conditioned and artificial that will act as an obstruction to the free flow of the mind.
One should never think of oneself as “sinful” or worthless, but as naturally pure and perfect, lacking nothing.
When performing meditation practice one should think of it as just a natural function of everyday life, like eating or breathing, not as a special, formal event to be undertaken with great seriousness and solemnity. One must realize that to meditate is to pass beyond effort, beyond practice, beyond aims and goals, and beyond the dualism of bondage and liberation.
Meditation is always perfect, so there is no need to correct anything. Since everything that arises is simply the play of the mind, there are no bad meditation sessions and no need to judge thoughts as good or evil. Therefore one should not sit down to meditate with various hopes and fears about the outcome—one just does it, with no self-conscious feeling of “I am meditating,” without effort, without strain, without attempting to control or force the mind, without trying to become peaceful.
If one finds one is going astray in any of these ways, stop meditating and simply rest and relax for a while before resuming.
If one has experiences that one interprets as “results,” either during or after meditation, do not make anything special of them, but just observe them as phenomena. Above all, do not attempt to repeat them, since this opposes the natural spontaneity of the mind.
Source: Chögyam Trungpa and Rigdzin Shikpo. “The Way of Maha Ati” in Chögyam Trungpa, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa. Volume One. Edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian. Boston & London: Shambhala, 2003.
When performing meditation practice one should think of it as just a natural function of everyday life, like eating or breathing, not as a special, formal event to be undertaken with great seriousness and solemnity.
(Chögyam Trungpa and Rigdzin Shikpo)