Top 150 Chögyam Trungpa Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Spirituality doesn’t exist on another level different from ordinary life.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

52. “The ideal of warriorship is that the warrior should be sad and tender, and because of that, the warrior can be very brave as well.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

53. “The warrior is not afraid of space.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

54. “Compassion is not having any hesitation to reflect your light on things.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

55. “Gentle day’s flower – The hummingbird competes With the stillness of the air.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

56. “What is needed is the constant unmasking of ego’s strategy.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

57. “What the warrior renounces is anything in his experience that is a barrier between himself and others. In other words, renunciation is making yourself more available, more gentle and open to others.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

58. “The discovery of magic can happen only when we transcend our embarrassment about being alive, when we have the bravery to proclaim the goodness and dignity of human life, without either hesitation or arrogance. Then magic can descend onto our existence.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

59. “Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

60. “You do not have to force yourself to do anything at all. There is a continual exchange, a continual dance. It is similar to the sun shining and plants growing. The sun has no desire to create the vegetation; plants simply react to sunlight and the situation develops naturally.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

61. “Luxury is experiencing reality.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

62. “Sanity lies somewhere between the inhibitions of conventional morality and the looseness of the extreme impulse.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

63. “The emphasis on practice is because it is the only time in your life you can steer your karmic situation.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

64. “A genuine sense of humor is having a light touch: not beating reality into the ground but appreciating reality with a light touch. The basis of Shambhala vision is rediscovering that perfect and real sense of humor, that light touch of appreciation.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

65. “The trouble with Westerners is that they want to witness their own enlightenment.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

66. “Generosity is self-existing openness, complete openness. You are no longer subject to cultivating your own scheme or project. And the best way to open yourself up is to make friends with yourself and with others.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

67. “Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

68. “The basic wisdom of Shambhala is that in this world, as it is, we can find a good and meaningful human life that will also serve others. That is our true richness.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

69. “Begin to build up confidence and joy in your own richness. That richness is the essence of generosity. It is the essence of resourcefulness ; that you can deal with whatever is available around you and not feel poverty stricken.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

70. “Whatever shakes you should without delay, right away, be incorporated into the path.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

71. “You can almost convince yourself that you’ve accomplished things just by thinking about them. The alternative is to be more realistic. You don’t necessarily regard the dreaming process as bad or an obstacle, but it’s not realistic enough.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

72. “If you are involved with the intensity of crescendo situations, with the intensity of tragedy, you might begin to see the humor of these situations as well. As in music, when we hear the crescendo building, suddenly if the music stops, we begin to hear the silence as part of the music.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

73. “There is no need to struggle to be free; the absence of struggle is in itself freedom.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

74. “In the cocoon, there is no idea of light at all, until we experience some longing for openness, some longing for something other than the smell of our own sweat. When we examine that comfortable darkness – look at it, smell it, feel it – we find it is claustrophobic.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

75. “The epitome of the human realm is to be stuck in a huge traffic jam of discursive thought.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

76. “We say that the sun is behind the clouds, but actually it is not the sun but the city from which we view it that is behind the clouds. If we realized that the sun is never behind the clouds we might have a different attitude toward the whole thing.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

77. “When one is able to overcome the romantic and emotional attitude, one discovers truth even in the kitchen sink.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

78. “Elegance means appreciating things as they are. There is a sense of delight and of fearlessness. You are not fearful of dark corners...”

— Chögyam Trungpa

79. “Disappointment is a good sign of basic intelligence. It cannot be compared to anything else: it is so sharp, precise, obvious, and direct. If we can open, then we suddenly begin to see that our expectations are irrelevant compared with the reality of the situations we are facing.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

80. “If you must begin then go all the way, because if you begin and quit, the unfinished business you have left behind begins to haunt you all the time.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

81. “The essence of warriorship, or the essence of human bravery, is refusing to give up on anyone or anything.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

82. “As well as making friends with yourself, fundamentally one should be cynical and critical. This doesn’t mean that you should punish yourself, but you just attack the areas of ego’s indulgence. At the same time, you continue the friendship with yourself.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

83. “Hope and fear cannot alter the seasons.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

84. “Right mindfulness does not simply mean being aware; it is like creating a work of art. You can therefore trust what you are doing; you are not threatened by anything. You have room to dance in the space, and this makes it a creative situation. The space is open to you.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

85. “Meditation practice is a way of making friends with ourselves. Whether we are worthy or unworthy, that’s not the point. It’s developing a friendly attitude to ourselves, accepting the hidden neurosis coming through.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

86. “Developing confidence is like watching the sun rise. First it seems very feeble and one wonders whether it will make it. Then it shines and shines.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

87. “Sit and do nothing. Every once in a while a golden fish swims by and lays her golden eggs. You’ll know.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

88. “Even fear itself is frightened by the bodhisattva’s fearlessness.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

89. “The artist has tremendous power to change the world.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

90. “It’s no use trying to be different than you are.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

91. “Then, we realize that the degraded cocoon we have been hiding in is revolting, and we want to turn up the lights as far as we can. In fact, we are not turning up the lights, but we are simply opening our eyes wider. We catch a certain kind of fever.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

92. “The point of meditation is not merely to be an honest or good person in the conventional sense, trying only to maintain our security. We must begin to become compassionate and wise in the fundamental sense, open and relating to the world as it is.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

93. “The point is not to convert anyone to our view, but rather to help people wake to their own view, their own sanity.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

94. “We are threatened by the now so we jump to the past or the future.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

95. “When you have a brilliant sun, which is a source of vision, the light from the sun shines through every window of the house, and the brightness of its light inspires you to open all the curtains. In the vision of the Great Eastern Sun, no human being is a lost cause.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

96. “For the very reason that we expect things to be good and beautiful, they won’t be. In genuine spirituality, we don’t look for bliss.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

97. “The visual impact of the stupa on the observer brings a direct experience of inherent wakefulness and dignity. Stupas continue to be built because of their ability to liberate one simply upon seeing their structure.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

98. “The complexities of life situations are really not as complicated as we tend to experience them.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

99. “The practice of meditation is a way of continuing one’s confusion, chaos, aggression, and passion – but working with it, seeing it from the enlightened point of view.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

100. “Take a friendly attitude toward your thoughts.”

— Chögyam Trungpa