Personal thoughts on Cultivating the Path of Protection

Kristen Mullen writes about why she is looking forward to participating in Cultivating the Path of Protection: Hearts and Minds in Action with Dr. Michael Gayner & Steve Seely  on August 8th and 9th:

“As a Chaplain in training here at Portland’s regional trauma center I work with conflict and confusion daily.  Confusion/aggression arises and dissolves around families and staff situations.  Whether it be about a patient who struggles with their family as they seek to help the patient die the way they would like to, or it is one of those heightened situations between medical staff and patients.  I am faced with other people’s fear and confusion and the fear and confusion in my own mind. In this program I look forward to discovering the elements of  what ‘mind protection’ entails, be it in the form of security or a family’s fear of loosing their loved one to cancer.  The importance, as I see it, is to recognize the sanity within each situation and apply the wisdom principle to protect it.  I invite everyone to join in for this weekend program to learn about how to cultivate a path of protection by engaging our hearts and our minds.

“In any situation or society, conflict can arise. This weekend training program is open to all who are interested in developing skillful means for working with difficult situations. It is an opportunity to study and practice teachings given by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche which are spiritual and service related for any community. The focus is to work with conflict and over come aggression.

“Initially these teachings were given to the protective guard of the precious teachings, the Dorje Kasung. The motto of the Dorje Kasung is ‘Victory over War’. War represents the struggle created by the three ‘poisons’ identified by the Buddha: grasping, aggression and ignorance. Victory is acknowledging these poisons and meeting them with insight and loving kindness.”

Here’s a quote from the Vidyadhara on working with conflict:

Question : What would you do if there were no conflict? 

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche: “It would be deadly. Working with conflict is precisely the idea of walking the spiritual path. The path is a wild, winding mountain road with all kind of curves; there are wild animals, attacks by bandits, all kinds of situations cropping up. As far as the occupation of our mind is concerned, the chaos of the path is the fun.”