Chogyam Trungpa Quotes

The Buddha over and over again spoke clearly and definitely on post-mortem states - as in his conversation with Vasetta.

The first thing I would like to tell you about death is that there is no bigger lie than death. And yet, death appears to be true. It not only appears to be true but also seems like the cardinal truth of life - it appears as if the whole of life is surrounded by death. Whether we forget about it, or become oblivious to it, everywhere death remains close to us. Death is even closer to us than our own shadow.

And as long as you're subject to birth and death, you'll never attain enlightenment.

Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood.

Buddhas move freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will.

When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.

I think the membrane - I say that the membrane between life and death is perilously thin. And I do think the story of Jesus, this great mythical story, can have transforming value in our lives.

Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead.

Working on 'Beyond,' I try to give an explanation to death that's different from the explanation religions have to give. So I made up my own story around all this and how life and death and souls work.

The living are just the dead on holiday

If everything that ever lived is dead, and everything alive is gonna die...where does the sacred part come in?

Your faith is very important. I have done the math, and you are going to be dead a whole lot longer that you will be alive.

Death is wonderful because you can't think about it. How are you gonna think about it?

As a Buddhist, I view death as a normal process, a reality that I accept will occur as long as I remain in this earthly existence. Knowing that I cannot escape it, I see no point in worrying about it. I tend to think of death as being like changing your clothes when they are old and worn out, rather than as some final end. Yet death is unpredictable: We do not know when or how it will take place. So it is only sensible to take certain precautions before it actually happens.

At a personal level, as a Buddhist practitioner, I deliberately visualize and think about death in my daily practice. Death is not separated from our lives. Due to my research and thoughts about death, I have some guarantee and some conviction that it will be a positive experience.

Perhaps the only misplaced curiosity is that which persists in trying to find out here, on this side of death, what lies beyond the grave.

When I think of death, I only regret that I will not be able to see this beautiful country anymore unless the Indians are right and my spirit will walk here after I'm gone.

I realized that I had died and been reborn numberless times but just didn't remember because the transitions from life to death and back are so ghostly easy, a magical action for naught, like falling asleep and waking up again a million times, the utter casualness and deep ignorance of it.

A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.

Life will continue on the other side of the veil.

Life will go on - until it doesn't.

Life is mortal. There are all these rewards and consequences. Sometimes you embrace them, and sometimes they knock you over.

Death is just a continuation of life.

I believe humans have a soul that continues to exist after they die, but I don't know what form that will take.

There is no death. The body withers but the spirit still lives.