The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness

by Chogyam Trungpa

  6. Lower tantra refers to the first three tantric yanas (kriyayoga, upayoga, and yogayana). Higher tantra refers to the second three tantric yanas (mahayoga, anuyoga, and atiyoga), and more generally to the maha ati or dzokchen teachings.

  7. Traditionally, before being formally empowered in the vajrayana path, students must complete a series of preliminary practices, called ngöndro. The four main preliminaries include 100,000 recitations of the refuge vow, 100,000 prostrations, 100,000 recitations of the Vajrasattva mantra, and 100,000 mandala offerings. For a discussion of ngöndro and these practices, see part 7, “Preliminary Practices.”

  8. “In postmeditation, be a child of illusion” is one of the fifty-nine mind-training slogans attributed to Atisha. See volume 2 of the Profound Treasury, part 7, “Mind Training and Slogan Practice.”

  9. Shinjang refers to the suppleness and thoroughly processed quality that results from shamatha practice. See volume 1 of the Profound Treasury, part 3, "Meditation/Samadhi."

  3

  Entering the Diamond Path on a Solid Foundation

  The vajrayana, or diamond vehicle, is powerful because it is derived from the tranquillity and readiness of the hinayana and the purity and soft heart of the mahayana. When students have developed those qualities, the vajrayana becomes ready to launch its diamond ship into the oceans of those who are ready for it.

  THE POSSIBILITY OF FEARLESSNESS

  The precision of hinayana and the larger-mindedness of mahayana enable you to become fearless. Even though you still might be fearful, there is at least the potential or possibility of fearlessness. Fearlessness is based on making a commitment that from now onward until the attainment of enlightenment, you will continue working with yourself. It is based on developing maitri, or loving-kindness, thoroughly and fully. By doing so, you begin to feel that as a student of vajrayana, you have actual ground. There is something that you can hang on to, which is that you have already made friends with yourself. The vajrayana point of view enables you to maintain that basic trust or basic ground.

  HEIGHTENED NEUROSIS

  Having developed that ground of maitri in yourself, you begin to find that nevertheless there are all kinds of neuroses. There are possible neuroses and actual neuroses. You might actually have to face hundreds of thousands or even millions of those neuroses. And in studying the vajrayana, you begin to find that your neuroses are heightened. Because you have developed openness and clarity, in the vajrayana even a little neurosis, such as having resistance to putting your mail in the mailbox, becomes tremendously heightened, dozens of times more heightened. At this point, we do not particularly want to borrow Freudian or Jungian ideas of neurosis. We are talking about a simple neurotic connection or attitude to ourselves..

  Three Levels of Neurosis

  This neurotic attitude to ourselves breaks down into three levels: body, speech, and mind.

  BODY NEUROSIS. First we have body. In the vajrayana, our attitude toward our body is important and becomes unusually clear. Our body is that which receives impressions. It reacts to hot and cold weather, relates to pleasure and pain, hunger and fullness, and all sorts of situations. But in the case of body neurosis, our body is something that we would like to hold on to, to keep back as our private property, our personal project.

  SPEECH NEUROSIS. Next we have speech, which is related with our communication with the world. Speech neurosis includes any expressions coming from the subconscious-gossip level, such as expressions of hate or love, whether frivolous or meaningful.

  MIND NEUROSIS. Then we have mind. Here, mind is basic mind, the mind with which we actually begin to make connections with our life. This mind seems to be comprised of both body and speech. In mind neurosis, our body neurosis and our speech neurosis team up, so we begin to develop passion, aggression, and ignorance throughout our life.

  Basically speaking, all three neuroses are unreasonable from the point of view of vajrayana. But if you look at them from another point of view, they are all extraordinarily reasonable. They are all studies in cause and effect, in how you feel good, how you feel bad, how you feel you are hassled by the world, how you feel empty or lonely, how you feel needs of all kinds. In the vajrayana, you actually use all of these original, basic, fermented piles of shit as your working basis. You have had body, speech, and mind neuroses taking place all along, but they become much more vivid and real in the vajrayana, due to the very fact that you begin to work with them quite precisely.

  WORKING WITH NEUROSES

  In entering the vajrayana, your neuroses actually become heightened. Because you are face-to-face with the real world, you begin to feel hurt. You are scorched by so much brilliant sunshine. Because of its closeness, you are bound to panic more. It is very immediate. When you work with neuroses, you clean them up. It is like using toilet tissue to wipe your bottom. You do not just say, “I don’t want to work with my shit. I don’t want to use my toilet tissue.” You do not just go off like that; otherwise, you end up with a dirty bottom. So you just keep working with your neuroses as they come up.

  If you try to get to the end of those neuroses, they never end. That never happens. Why would you want to end your neuroses, anyway? There needs to be some kind of bravery. But at the same time, we are trying to get rid of our neuroses. We are trying to get rid of them and create a vajra world, and we cannot be too sophisticated about that. You have to take that sort of hinayana and mahayana stand. You cannot just say, “I couldn’t care less. I am going to change my shit into food.” We are not talking about recycling here, but about the immediateness of the whole thing.

  In the vajrayana, we are not very hip. We are talking about very basic things. If the tantric texts tell us to eat meat and drink liquor, what can we say about that, except to take it literally, on the spot. We eat meat, drink liquor, and expand our mind victoriously, and that brings us a tremendous sense of humor. We eat, drink, and make merry, but not in the Sunset Strip style or the California approach of naked bodies on the beach lying in the dirt. We are talking about some kind of celebration in eating meat and drinking liquor. It is very simple. This may seem to be somewhat crude and forceful, but it works. It is mysterious, but there is some kind of delight in the whole thing. We might add one more thing to the list: eat meat, drink liquor, and make love.

  This process of working with neurosis begins with the idea of mindfulness-awareness in hinayana, and continues with the dedication and gentleness of mahayana. It is the development of hinayana and mahayana that actually enables us to make our body, speech, and mind neuroses so vivid. We cannot just jump into the vajrayana right away without them; it is impossible to do so. First, the doctor finds symptoms of disease in you; then you go to the hospital and get operated on; and finally there is the transplantation of the various organs you need, which is what happens in the vajrayana.

  We are so stubborn. Sometimes we glorify our body neurosis; sometimes we glorify our speech neurosis; and sometimes we also glorify our mind neurosis. We use animalistic language, intellectual language, or intuitive language. We try every possible way to get out of our particular neurosis, but not necessarily in the vajrayana style. We are always trying to fight. We declare our neuroses as if we were the kings and queens of the universe. We would like to hoist our flag of neurosis all along. Whether we speak the language of communism, women’s liberation, men’s liberation, psychosomatic liberation, parent’s liberation, children’s liberation, or whatever liberation, we always try to declare ourselves as if we were the world’s greatest, most glorious, most powerful, most neurotic kings and queens.

  This leads to two possibilities: either we recognize all such declarations as neurosis and immediately get into the vajrayana, or we remain stuck with our neurotic stuff all along, swimming in our own shit, piss, and blood. The vajrayana teaching instructs us to get out of, or resign from, that situation. It tells us that we should no longer declare our body, speech, and mind neuroses.

  The interesting point here is that at
the hinayana and mahayana levels, you are still able to hoist your flag of neurosis. I have met quite a number of students who are actually thriving on their neuroses. They feel great that they can hoist their flag of body, speech, and mind neurosis in the name of the hinayana or mahayana dharma. It might even be possible to find students who hoist their flag of neurosis in the name of the vajrayana. But thanks to the Great Eastern Sun, that has not yet happened, thank heavens.

  At the same time, however, there is a kind of pride in the vajrayana. That kind of proclamation or declaration is the working basis of the vajrayana. It is why we call it the path in which the fruition is the journey. In the vajrayana, we do not talk about developing buddha nature, but we say that buddha nature is right here, on the spot, right now. We say that your potential is your fruition, that you are a fully realized being right here, on this very spot.

  To discover the ground of vajrayana, you actually have to heighten your body, speech, and mind neuroses. You have to experience the fullness of those neuroses, in terms of their enlightened possibilities and their energetic aspect. Combining these different elements, bringing them together by means of discipline, is called dompa, which means “bondage” or “binding together.” In dompa, skillful means and knowledge, or upaya and prajna, are bound together. That kind of bondage brings you into a one-level situation.

  This message—that your emotions, or your body, speech, and mind neuroses, can be worked with by means of upaya and prajna—brings you into tantra. Basically, what we are saying is that in the vajrayana, you have a washcloth with which you wash your face and your body. You put soap on the washcloth and rub yourself all over. When the washcloth has collected enough soap and dirt from your body, you wring it out so the dirty water can be drained into the bath. That is the basic idea of tantra: neurosis can be taken off. Body, speech, and mind neurosis can be taken off by means of tantric-style upaya and prajna. Your washcloth can be twisted so that at the end you have tantra, which means continuity.

  What is continuing is that you are constantly going through the process of washing and cleaning up body neurosis, speech neurosis, and mind neurosis. You are washing continuously; you are trying to push them out. You might ask, “Isn’t that a drastic measure?” You are quite right. It is a drastic measure, due to the very fact that the bather has to stay in the bathtub or shower throughout the whole process. But after you have taken the shower, what is left is confidence. It is absolutely everything put together, which is much more delightful, fantastic, and quite haughty. However, if you try to run out halfway through, you come out half-dirty. You might catch something much more severe than pneumonia. You will be devastated, and you will have no way out.

  AN AWAKENING OF INSIGHT

  The next point is that vajrayana provides an awakening of insight. We awaken our intrinsic insight, which is not particularly buddha nature or enlightened genes or bodhichitta—it is much more than that. We begin to experience what is known as freedom from fixation on our practice, and freedom from grasping onto our practice. In the lower yanas, practice is regarded as the only hope, but in the vajrayana, practice is not regarded that way. In fact, it is sometimes regarded as an obstacle. So fixation on practice and regarding practice as the only saving grace is freed. Therefore, there is the possibility of vidya, or “knowledge.” Vajrayana knowledge is knowledge that does not cling to or fixate on any kind of personal desire or ego-centeredness, on anything that would allow you to recover your egoism. That is the definition of vidya, in this case.

  This is a very simple skeleton of the whole vajrayana approach. The idea is that trying to understand your body, speech, and mind neurosis does not seem to work. Thinking about how you do not want to hear any vajrayana and how you wish that you did not have to also does not seem to work. Thinking about how Buddhism is good for your system, good for your jogging, or good for your evolutionary setting-sun schemes does not seem to work. If that is what you think, maybe you should stop right now.

  THE VIEW OF REALITY IN THE THREE YANAS

  The vajrayana teaching is beyond words. It is exceptional, extraordinary. But such a thing can only come about by having properly understood the individual enlightenment of hinayana, and dedicated yourself to others by means of mahayana. Only then will you be able to hear and practice the vajrayana properly. We cannot forget what we have already discussed in the previous yanas.

  We could look at the three yanas as three different ways of seeing reality, or as three different approaches to enlightenment. In the hinayana, we see reality in a factual, ordinary, but extremely wise way: as cause and effect, the manifestation of pain, the origin of pain, and so forth. In the hinayana we look at the way things function in terms of interdependent origination, or the twelve nidanas, and trace things back to the origin of reality, of matter and mind.1

  In the mahayana, we see the world in terms of the logic of the path. Although we experience the ordinary world in its true four-noble-truth nature, we see that even that is empty. According to the mahayana, reality is nonexistent, so there is a great emphasis on absolute truth, which is regarded as the highest truth. However, the picture of absolute truth in the various mahayana schools is somewhat cloudy and confused. Although they each have a different approach to the truth, and they might have seen just a fraction of the truth, nevertheless there is a sense of coming to a true understanding of absolute reality.

  The bodhisattva comes to this understanding by means of studying sutra literature on the nature of reality and emptiness, in which the energy of reality is described in terms of compassion. This allows bodhisattvas to work with the experience of both emptiness and compassion, or shunyata and karuna, and by doing so they discover the perfect skillful means for dealing with reality. So the mahayana is about much more than just seeing critically; it includes the experience of openness, warmth, and compassion.

  In the vajrayana, we are finally coming back or returning to the world. This is important and necessary. The vajrayana perspective is not one of entirely dwelling on the absolute truth or the absoluteness of reality, but it is based on paying more attention to the relative truth. According to the vajrayana, in order to understand the complete meaning of the whole thing—the dharmadhatu, or whatever you would like to call it—we have to understand and respect every aspect of truth.

  The hinayana view of relative truth is too critical. So the saving grace for not being stuck with the hinayana focus on relative truth is the mahayana’s transcendental truth. But having transcended the hinayana view of relative truth, we have never looked back toward the relative truth thoroughly and properly. Although we respected and studied reality in the mahayana, we missed something by rejecting relative truth halfway through. So tantra re-views the relative truth.

  The vajrayana, or diamond vehicle, is powerful because it is derived from the tranquillity and readiness of the hinayana, and the purity and soft heart of the mahayana. When students have developed those qualities, the vajrayana becomes ready to launch its diamond ship into the oceans of those who are ready for it. At that point, students are prepared to practice the reality of the truth of Buddha’s teaching.

  REVISITING RELATIVE TRUTH, OR KÜNDZOP

  The Tibetan term for relative truth is kündzop, and the term for absolute truth is töndam. Tön means “meaning” or “sense,” and dam means “superior”; so töndam means “higher meaning” or “higher understanding.” In terms of kündzop, dzop means “outfit,” and kün means “all”; so kündzop means the “outfit of everything.” It is similar to dressing up for Halloween: kündzop means that everything, the whole phenomenal world, is dressed up in your particular version.

  But although kündzop is usually referred to as “relative truth,” that may not be the most appropriate translation. “Relative” implies that relative truth is not self-sufficient, that it is dependent on something else that makes it relative. But in the vajrayana, we view kündzop as another form of absolute truth. We could almost say that kündzop is “primary
truth” or “first truth.” That is, with the experience of kündzop, the practitioner sees the phenomenal world from a certain distinct point of view, but the relativity of that point of view is not important. Kündzop is simply your outlook or your first glimpse of phenomena.

  In the vajrayana, there is more of an emphasis on interest than on profound wisdom. On the mahayana level, profound wisdom is regarded as the working base, but here the working basis is simply interest. In tantra, the experience of interest is raised up almost to the level of sybaritic pleasure. You take a real interest in reality, and there is trust in what you see, what you hear, and what you do. That simple interest becomes highly significant. All kinds of tantric disciplines go along with this emphasis on relative or primary truth. The relative truth is emphasized, not in order to understand the absolute or ultimate, but to understand the relativity as the ultimate. It is to understand the relativity as the full truth, the complete truth, the primary truth, or kündzop.

  BRILLIANCE AND SACREDNESS

  Vajrayana teaches that our existence as Joe Schmidt is no longer Joe Schmidt. According to the vajrayana, it is not that we have to transcend ego, but that ego does not exist. We know that ego does not exist because we realize what is known as vajra nature. Vajra nature is basically good. It is warm and living. So in the vajrayana, we are not studying or practicing a myth or a concept, but we are studying and practicing reality as it is, direct and obvious.