Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior - Chogyam Trungpa

Some unknown gut instinct drew me to take this book off the library shelf. (I've always liked to read about spiritual stuff, so it's not out of the ordinary that I've picked this book.) I really enjoyed reading this. It was thoroughly inspiring, refreshing and has made a tangible (and quite likely, long-term) impact on my life.

The book essentially advocates the "way of the warrior", a symbolic and ideal way to live one's life that's based on ancient Tibetan / Buddhist principles. It advocates a raw, truthful and ego-less approach to life, for one to be fully open, conscious and exposed to life in it's full brilliance. Through this, one will be able to live fearlessly and bring greater good to the rest of the world.

There are a few major points about the philosophy that are worthy of writing here.

First, if I'm not interpreting / generalising it too widely, the Tibetan / Buddhist (as far as this particular branch is concerned) / Zen view towards goodness is not extrinsic but intrinsic. To discover true human goodness, one does not look for answers or exhortations from scriptures or tomes (though they are useful as guides). The answer lies within oneself, and comes through disciplined meditation and introspection. This intuitively makes quite some sense to me, and I think I'll try to ingrain regular meditations into my life. (Had stopped for a long time.)

Second, there is a significant focus on the concept of being "centred". Meditation focuses and disciplines the mind, and creates a sense of awareness that pervades through one's life. This is a source of strength that will allow one to live with more presence, and deliberateness. This concept of deliberateness has come at a very timely point. Increasingly I've been finding myself to be constantly distracted, to be thinking of B when doing A, thinking of C when B comes, and when C has arrived my mind is already thinking about D, E and F. I'm missing out the full brilliance of now, the precise instant where my future joins melds into my past. (Apparently, when one has become skilled enough, one can then appreciate the world properly through the five senses because one has learnt to observe without judgement. Not there yet, man.) Worse, I'm often doing things without thinking.

Third, this flows directly from the second point. We often become victims of habits because we stop being conscious of what we are doing and thinking. And gradually, we drift further and further away from realising the full potential of what we can be. In addition, I sometimes think that all the mindless distractions are but results of us being afraid of the silence and what the introspection might lead us to find out about ourselves. I noticed that after I've stopped my endless and mindless iphone surfing, I actually feel alot more attuned to who I am and what I'm doing, and I experience more moments of calmness and alertness. The obsession with activity and being occupied actually diminishes my quality of life. It's like scratching away at a scab - it feels really good for now but in the long term, the wound doesn't heal.

This sums up my attempt at understanding my spiritual side more. There are alot more deeper philosophical issues in the book that I do not yet understand, but I hope to be able to someday. p.s. The more I read, the more I think that Buddhism / Zen is alot about studying and understanding the mind.