Report 80

The 'Primordial Dot'

Trungpa wrote an interesting article in which this is mentioned called "Working with Early Morning Depression."

http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/vctr/ges.html

We tend to associate the depression with a cause. We didn't sleep well. are worried about something, had a row with someone etc. but it can come out of nowhere. The best way to work with this form of depression, 'the curse of the setting sun,'  is to uncover our 'spark of basic goodness.' Instead, we tend to think up all sorts of escapist remedies. One that seems particularly prevalent nowadays is to book holidays in the sun that give us something to look forward to - and we can keep on doing this almost indefinitely. I see so many of my friends do this and feel a little envious sometimes because my disability prevents me from indulging in this kind of escapism. But as Trungpa says 'From the point of view of basic goodness, we are capable of generating our own dignity and goodness. So yielding to that setting-sun mentality seems pathetic and quite sad, very sad. '  

The 'dot' is the first thought of just staying with the depression. A step on the way. The 'stroke' is following through with developing this 'basic instinct.' It seems to be about releasing our habitual desire to cover up our basic fear by running away to something entertaining. But if we can just stay with things as they are and learn to appreciate them we recover our basic sense of wisdom and peace.