What Does It Mean To Embrace Who You Are?
In this well-known quote, Chögyam Trungpa offers us a vision of what it could be like to live in a constant state of self-trust. He suggests, in a single line, that’s it’s possible to move beyond our hangups with our ourselves, our lives, our world, to discover the innate bravery, beauty, and delight that lies at the core of every person.
Here, Chögyam Trungpa introduces the idea of a spiritual warrior: a person who faces each moment of life with openness and fearlessness. A warrior is someone who realizes that they are fundamentally “awake,” and has the trust to relax into that natural confidence no matter what that moment may bring.
See the complete passage from Chögyam Trungpa’s Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior below.
You can learn more about discovering natural confidence in our upcoming “Shambhala Training Weekend I: Feel Human Again,” with teacher and author Ethan Nichtern. Learn more here!
“The key to warriorship and the first principle of Shambhala vision is not being afraid of who you are. Ultimately, that is the definition of bravery; not being afraid of yourself. Shambhala vision teaches that, in the face of the world’s great problems, we can be heroic and kind at the same time. Shambhala vision is the opposite of selfishness. When we are afraid of ourselves and afraid of the seeming threat the world present, then we become extremely selfish. We want to build our own little nests, our own cocoons so that we can live by ourselves in a secure way.
But we can be braver than that. We must try to think beyond our homes, beyond the fires burning in the fireplace, beyond sending our children to school or getting to work in the morning. We must try to think how e can help this world. If we don’t help, nobody will. It is our turn to help the world. At the same time, helping others does not mean abandoning our individual lives. You can begin with your relatives and friends and the people around you. In fact, you can start with yourself.”
– Chögyam Trungpa, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior
