The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion

by Chogyam Trungpa

  Before the sixth bhumi, prajna is sort of passive. It is like an inactive grandfather sitting in the back and encouraging you to unmask. That inactive aspect of prajna and the notion of shunyata are present from the first bhumi onward. But when you are on the seventh bhumi, upaya, or skillful means, becomes more active. The prajna of the sixth bhumi is like the acquisition of weapons, and the upaya of the seventh bhumi is like having the army that could use those weapons to destroy the twenty mountains of ego.3 So from the sixth bhumi onward, prajna functions as a weapon or ornament. At this point, there are so many things happening that ego is completely bewildered. It has no role to play, so ego just slips back, and its functions become irrelevant. In tantra, the passive quality of prajna could be considered masculine, and the sword or active aspect of prajna could be regarded as feminine.

  The fifth bhumi is analogous to a king of mountains because a mountain is unshakable; it conquers the whole environment. Once you are on the top of it, you can see the entire continent. Likewise, at the level of the sixth bhumi, there is both vision and solidness. Joining prajna and shunyata, joining learning with practice and experience, makes sense.

  FAR GONE: THE SEVENTH BHUMI

  The seventh bhumi is the last bhumi in which the bodhisattva has to go forward deliberately with diligence and effort. Therefore the name of this bhumi is ringdu songwa. Ring means “long,” and ringdu means “longness,” or “far away,” songwa means “become,” or “gone,”; so the translation of ringdu songwa is “far gone.” The reason it is called “far gone” is because this is the last conventional bhumi.

  On the seventh bhumi, the bodhisattva has finally managed to destroy the twenty great mountains of ego.4

  The Paramita of Skillful Means

  The paramita practice related with this particular bhumi is upaya, or skillful means.5

  Skillful means has two aspects: knowing your own skill, and knowing how to use your skill to work with sentient beings. You need to know what other people need, and you need to know your own strengths and weaknesses. It is like knowing how much medicine to take yourself, and how big a dosage to give to others. With skillful means, you do not get carried away. You know that you have enormous resources and that you can use your effort, energy, and inspiration to help other people and yourself, but you do not use everything at once. You are very economical and careful.

  It is quite clearly stated in the scriptures, particularly by Nagarjuna, that in the end, the ego is not acceptable. Up to a certain point, we might make ego workable. We might work with it, tease it, and play with it—but in the end, ego has a philosophy that is unacceptable to the enlightened mind. So you have to attack it and kill it. That seems to be the heroic approach of the bodhisattva’s way. There is definitely the notion of warfare and destruction. It is not particularly passive, but more like launching an attack. In this attack, prajna is used as a sword, and skillful means is the soldier. At the tantric level, we talk about the transmutation of ego, but transmutation is not all that kind and accepting a gesture. It is based on using the corpse of ego and bringing it to life, but in a very enlightened way.

  IMMOVABLE: THE EIGHTH BHUMI

  The eighth bhumi is called miyowa. Yowa means “moving,” and mi is “negation”; so miyowa means “not moving.” At this level you cease to be an ordinary bodhisattva and begin to touch the level of mahasattva, or “great being.” Up through the seventh bhumi, you still have a feeling of journey, a sense of proceeding somewhere. But the mahasattva level is perpetual. You are like fully ripened fruit.

  You could visualize the bodhisattva path as a journey in which you set sail from a huge continent, namely the samsaric world, and cross the ocean to get to an island you have seen. That island consists of the first seven bhumis and the corresponding paramitas. But then, having crossed that particular island and achieved the seven conventional paramitas—generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, prajna, and upaya—you take another boat. Now you are on an endless journey, a final journey. You have no more islands to cross. You have left the samsaric world, and you have completed the first seven bhumis. You have gone through the process necessary in order to go beyond into the larger ocean, the greater end-ness—or begin-ness, for that matter.

  On the eighth bhumi, you are not moved by either the relative or absolute understanding of the phenomenal world. At the same time, you develop an enormous comprehension of other people. You see through people, you know them, and you understand completely what dharmic approach you might take with them. Tremendous communication takes place, which goes beyond the physical and verbal level to the environmental level.

  At this stage, the bodhisattva has cut through the mentality of the formless gods, as well as the mentality of the gods of form and desire. Up to the seventh bhumi, spiritual materialism is a problem, as well as basic materialism and poverty. But the closer you get to enlightenment, the higher you go in the paths and bhumis, and the less spiritual materialism you have. However, psychological materialism and the need for basic security keep coming back.6 Because you feel you are getting close to something, you are more concerned with your security. But at the eighth bhumi, spirituality is simply part of your behavior, so spiritual materialism is not a problem.

  The Paramita of Aspiration

  The eighth bhumi is connected with the paramita of aspiration. In Sanskrit, aspiration is pranidhana, and in Tibetan it is mönlam. Mön is often misinterpreted as “prayer,” or “good wishes,” and lam is “path”; so mönlam may seem to mean “wishful thinking.” However, in this case, and particularly in the context of the bodhisattva path, mönlam is more like “aspiration,” or “inspiration.”

  Aspiration is connected with vision. Generally what happens to us is that we cannot think bigger. We think that if we think bigger we are foolish, that we are speaking nonsense. We think that we cannot have a vision of something expanded, elaborate, open, and workable.

  A personal experience of such a problem took place when we hosted the sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa for his first visit to North America in 1975. We had no idea what to expect. Everybody was concerned that we might do the wrong thing, and some people thought that the visit might be too exorbitant and costly, and should be canceled. Small thinking is based on that kind of unfamiliarity and uncertainty. You are just about to approach something beyond your conception of what you can handle, and you begin to panic. When that panic happens, you become smaller and smaller, more and more practical, economical, and sensible. Because those are the only resources you have, having great vision is seen as madness and terrifying. You think that somebody who has great vision must be mad.

  Eighth-Bhumi Vision

  Eighth-bhumi vision cannot be moved or changed. It is always there. By remaining immovable, you can expand. If you actually do not move, you accomplish everything at once—but if you try to move, you miss a lot of things. While you are there, you miss this, and while you are here, you miss that. The highest speed of all is not to move. You stay completely still. Immovability is good advice.

  The eighth bhumi has two types of vision: temporary and permanent. Temporary vision means that whenever you need to be resourceful in working with sentient beings, a vision of how to help will arise. Mahasattvas do not have to think in terms of strategy—the situation comes to them. Permanent vision means that you do not step back. You never give up on your long-term projects, whatever they may be, but you expand your work infinitely and constantly. You are not panicked by expansion. The eighth bhumi is like a good friend who constantly encourages you to be brave and to expand.

  On the eighth bhumi, the bodhisattva begins to give up the concept of deep understanding. The dharma is no longer regarded as understanding, and it is not even a state of being—it is just there. You do not attempt to confirm or not confirm anything. All those processes become meaningless. You do not destroy such false notions deliberately—they just leave you. They become irrelevant.

  Ten Powers

  On the eig
hth bhumi, the bodhisattva is the embodiment of peace and nonaggression, and begins to develop what are called the ten powers: power over life, mind, belongings, karma, birth, desire, aspiration, miracles, wisdom, and dharma. You are not imprisoned by anything, even your dedication to the paramitas. You are enormously inspired by the total needlessness of any conceptual pigeonholing, either spiritual or worldly. Enormous freedom is developed, and because of that, you achieve these ten powers.

  Power over life, the first power, means that you are not threatened by life. You are no longer concerned with survival, physical or psychological threats, health concerns, or any form of discomfort.

  Power over mind, the second power, means that you approach your mental activity as inspiration, rather than as something uncontrollable that takes you over.

  Power over belongings, the third power, means that you do not become a slave to your belongings, for the very reason that you do not renounce anything—because once you begin to give something up, you become possessed by it at the same time.

  With power over karma, the fourth power, because mental volitional action is being transmuted into aspiration, or pranidhana, you do not have hopes and fears of future karmic consequences.

  With power over birth, the fifth power, your birth is not subject to national neurosis or national psychology, and it is not biased by genetics. You have free choice of rebirth: you have control over where you will be born and who your parents will be. Only the bodhisattva of the eighth bhumi has this major mark of spiritual achievement.

  The sixth power is power over desire, or longing. This power has more of a pragmatic aspect, whereas power over aspiration has a more visionary quality.

  The seventh power, power over aspiration, again refers to pranidhana, or mönlam. With pranidhana there is enormous openness, vision, and future orientation. You are bringing the future into the present. For instance, you might say that you are going to have a nice party this evening. When you project that idea of having a fantastic party and inviting lots of guests and providing good food and drink, your mind becomes open. It is as if you are already actually having the party, even though it is still in the future. It is like a great leader of a country having a vision of how the country should develop, or a good architect having a vision of a fantastic building complex. That kind of aspiration and future orientation is a form of capturing the future in the present by magical power. You are bringing the future into the present and executing your wishes accordingly. So your approach becomes up-to-date, rather than future-oriented dreaming, and your execution becomes accurate.

  The eighth power is power over miracles. The general idea of a miracle is that it is like turning water into fire, or sky into earth, but in this case miracles are based on taking advantage of a situation rather than fighting against it. We may think that if we had power over miracles, we could conjure up a million dollars if we were poor, but that goes directly against our karmic inheritance. It is said that even the Buddha cannot change the law of karma, so miracles do not go against the karmic flow. A miracle is karmically lawful. Situations provide the source of miracles, like flint and stone create the spark to produce fire.

  In a story about Milarepa, Milarepa appeared to his disciple Rechungpa inside a yak horn, without either changing or appearing to change size. That was a true miracle. It is said that Milarepa never become smaller, and the yak horn never became bigger, but Milarepa was still singing a song and sitting in the yak horn. How could Milarepa fit in a yak horn if he didn’t become smaller and the yak horn didn’t become bigger? That’s a direct contradiction. But a person who is awake, up-to-date, and present can take advantage of situations and create seeming miracles. That kind of miracle brings you into the present. The purpose of a miracle is to stop your mind. Because your logic no longer functions, you have to stop and look twice. A miracle is not regarded as a gimmick, a game, or trickery.

  The ninth power is power over wisdom. With this power, the source of wisdom is endless; the bodhisattva achieves inexhaustible wisdom, or jnana.

  The tenth power is power over dharma. With this power, the bodhi-sattva becomes the holder of the dharma. Your approach and your way of relating with the teachings, yourself, and students is such that you become a dharmaraja, a king of dharma.

  GOOD INTELLECT: THE NINTH BHUMI

  The bodhisattva of the eighth bhumi has achieved so much that it seems there is nothing left to do, but somehow there is still more—and we have not even gotten to the tantric level, or vajrayana. The ninth bhumi is called lek-pe lodrö. Lek-pe means “good,” and lodrö means “intellect”; so lek-pe lodrö means “good intellect.” On this bhumi, the epitome of discriminating wisdom is achieved. Good intellect has a nonflinching quality, and it is powerful. Once you begin to realize your own strength, you see that good intellect is much higher than ordinary intellect. The bodhisattva’s penetration is more powerful and speedy, so powerful in fact that nobody can stop you from fulfilling your power properly.

  Paramita of Power

  The paramita connected with the ninth bhumi is power: the power of fearlessness and rejoicing. Conventionally, the word power has the sense of trying to gain victory. In a theistic approach to enlightenment, power is a victory over something, but in the nontheistic approach, power is based on rejoicing and fearlessness, rather than trying to conquer the world. It is being in the state of power, rather than having power over something or somebody.

  The bodhisattva at this level has enormous ability to discriminate between this and that without dualistic neurosis. They know all the languages of the universe. The bodhisattva is able to comprehend the languages and approaches of people in many different worlds, including the realm of the gods.

  Four Types of Discriminating Awareness

  On the ninth bhumi, the bodhisattva develops four types of discriminating awareness: dharma, meaning, purpose, and confidence. In Tibetan this is called soso yang-dak-par rikpa. Soso means “individually” or “discriminating,” yang-dak-par means “correct” or “true,” rikpa means “insight”; so soso yang-dak-par rikpa means “true discriminatory awareness.”

  With the discriminating awareness of dharma, or chö, the bodhisattva understands the doctrines, customs, and cultures developed over the ages by the human race. They understand the customs of all six realms.

  With the discriminating awareness of meaning, or tön, the bodhisattva understands the meaning of words rather than just the letters. They understand that the customs of various societies have tremendous meaning behind them. Nothing is seen as adharma or non-dharma, but everything becomes dharma. The bodhisattva is very open-minded, and all traditions and customs are seen as an expression of buddha nature. There is that kind of faith and trust in universality.

  With the discriminating awareness of definition, or ngetsik, in addition to understanding the meaning, the bodhisattva also understands the significance. Nge means “certain” or “definite,” and tsik means “word”; so nge-tsik means “certain word” or “definition.” They understand the function, or the pragmatic aspect of things, such as that the purpose of a sword is to cut, or the purpose of fire is to burn.

  The last category, confidence, or poppa, is a very important one. Pop-pa is the particular type of confidence connected with Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom. Manjushri has a knowledge aspect and a confidence aspect, and of the two aspects, the confidence aspect is much more important. Confidence does not just mean being unafraid or being able to handle things. It means you are able to communicate with your own basic treasury. It means you have no notion of poverty at all. The ninth-bhumi bodhisattva possesses eight great treasures,7 which represent your basic potential. They represent fundamental confidence that does not need any help or encouragement. You realize that you have these treasures and that you are the treasurer. That sense of fundamental wealth and richness has never been questioned.

  CLOUD OF DHARMA: THE TENTH BHUMI

  Last, but not least, is the tenth bhumi, called ch
ökyi trin. Chö means “dharma,” kyi means “of,” and trin means “cloud”; so chökyi trin means “cloud of dharma.” This is the highest achievement of the bodhisattva experience, the final stage before the attainment of enlightenment. In this case, the image of a cloud is not regarded as an obstacle, like a cloud hiding the sun. Instead it implies the richness of a cloud, slowly rising, inexhaustible, basically pure, clean, and white.

  At this point, you have gone so far and so completely that you are just about to approach enlightenment. Your power and confidence are great. At the same time, it is like a nearsighted universal monarch saluting his troops from the balcony: such a monarch has the power and the energy to appear as a king, but he can’t quite make out the details of the vision.

  It is said in the scriptures that on the tenth bhumi, you can emanate millions of buddhas and bodhisattvas from your pores, become king of the gods, or turn the earth upside down. It is true that you could churn out millions of buddhas from the pores of your skin if you were filled with dedication and inspiration, but this does not mean buddhas literally pop out of your skin. For instance, my teacher Jamgön Kongtrül woke up one morning and saw a huge fresco of buddhas wherever he looked. He was very excited about that, and thought maybe he was having some kind of bodhisattva vision, experiencing the phenomenal world as the realm of the buddhas. But when he asked his guru whether it was real, his guru said, “I haven’t been deluded like that for a long time.”