The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness

by Chogyam Trungpa

  Samaya and the Vajra Master

  All three aspects of samaya depend on the vajra master. The seed cannot take place without the vajra master, skillful means cannot take place without the vajra master, and fruition cannot take place without the vajra master. The vajra master is the lover, the master, and the conqueror of your particular wretchedness. In any aspect of samaya, the vajra master is very important, absolutely important, for conquering you and bringing you into the situation. This seems to be one of the recurring themes in the vajrayana.

  Without the relationship with the vajra master, there is no vajrayana at all. That is quite definite. The vajra master is the buddha, the dharmapalas, the dakinis, and everything else at the same time. So it always comes to the same point: in order to have electricity, you have to have both a negative and a positive pole. In this case, you could say that you are the positive electrical element; you are putting energy in. But there is also the negative element, somebody who subtly plays with the energy you put in—that is the vajra master. By combining those two, you come up with vajra tape recorders, televisions, and telephones.

  THE SAMAYA OF THE BUDDHAS

  In order to understand the samaya principle, you have to understand the two principles playing together in your life: “samaya-ee” and “samay-a.” The samaya-ee is the practitioner, and samay-a has to do with the rules imposed on the practitioner.

  We could look at this in terms of the symbol EVAM.1 In EVAM, the samaya-ee corresponds to E, and samay-a to VAM. Together they make EVAM. Here, E is basic space, while VAM is the basic energizer. We could say that E is connected with the feminine principle, the giver of birth, and VAM is the son that comes out of the feminine principle.2 In the EVAM symbol, the two aspects of E and VAM, samaya-ee and samay-a, are brought together by skillfulness. Trained students, because of their experience, their understanding, and their intellect, are able to bring the two aspects together; this is known as the samaya of the buddhas.

  EVAM, one of the seals of the Trungpa Tülkus.

  THE SAMAYA OF THREEFOLD VAJRA NATURE

  Samaya is the only way to make the tantrika’s whole world sane. It is connected with the deities you are practicing and with the vajra master’s body, speech, and mind. The samaya of vajra nature comes in three categories: samaya of vajra body, samaya of vajra speech, and samaya of vajra mind. As far as vajra body is concerned, the phenomenal world is viewed as a self-existing vajra world; in regard to vajra speech, all utterances are regarded as self-existing vajra speech; and in regard to vajra mind, all thought processes are regarded as vajra mind completely and utterly.

  Samaya of Vajra Body

  The samaya of vajra body, or the samaya of mudra, is based on the idea that any apparent phenomenon you experience is connected with the sacredness of the total environment: you do not have any doubt as to whether your world is sacred or not. The Tibetan word for this is chaggya kü tamtsik. Chaggya means “symbolism,” “mark,” or “mudra,” kü is the honorific term for “of the body,” and tamtsik, again, is “samaya”; so chaggya kü tamtsik is the “samaya of body.” With this samaya, your total world or existence develops into sacred outlook. All forms, whether visual, auditory, olfactory, tastable, or touchable, evolve into the sacred outlook of form. The notion is that whatever you perceive can be transformed into sacredness.

  Body refers to forms or images. So when we talk about body, we also mean the room or space in which experience takes place, like the room you are in, or the room where your meditation cushion is placed. The samaya of vajra body means that you do not hang on to any solid substance, but you continuously and devotedly involve yourself with vajra form. This means respecting and beautifying your body and, at the same time, regarding phenomenal activities and experiences as part of the mandala setup. Because of that, you could not write such a poem as: “Ugly New York truck drivers fucking themselves and producing pollution.” That would be disrespecting New York City, which is sacred.

  Body samaya means that you begin to see everything as a sort of adornment. You actually can work with what is known as shunyata form. In the tantric tradition, shunyata form means something more than in mahayana. Shunyata form in Tibetan is tongsuk, which means “empty form,” or form that is intrinsically empty and nonexistent. According to this samaya principle, you are actually supposed to relate to form in that way. You do not lay heavy interpretations or heaviness of any kind on things: you simply see form. You perceive table-ness, chair-ness, foodness, car-ness, ceiling-ness, and floor-ness—the “ness” quality of all these things—as manifestations of transparency. At the hinayana level, you see the transparency of küntak, or random labeling; at the mahayana level, you see the transparency of aggression; and at the vajrayana level you see the transparency of that and this, of fixation of any kind, of hanging on to anything.

  It boils down to this: even when you drink a glass of water, you usually lay a tremendous trip on it. You think, “I need this glass of water. I’m drinking it now because I am so thirsty.” There are so many, many conditions involved with it. Likewise, you think, “I’m hungry; I’m going to eat,” or “I feel chilly; I’m going to fetch a sweater,” or “I feel lonely; I’m going to find a companion.” Everything you do has an exaggerated aftereffect. If you are cold, it is okay to go and get your sweater, but you are making the sweater-ness more meaningful than just going to your room, getting your sweater, and putting it on. There is that aftereffect.

  Each time you conduct an activity in your world, in your life, you bring along your hang-ups—and not only your hang-ups, but your hangovers. Each time you do something, it is as if you have had a heavy drink and now you have to suffer for it. Having put your sweater on, you still suffer from the hangover of the sweater; having had a glass of water, you still feel hung over from it. Maybe that is why tantrikas are supposed to drink and find out about hangovers, for in everything you do, you are inviting hangovers all the time. Whatever you do, you feel bad. You may even feel too warm and comfortable. But in any case, your mind is completely bursting into something else: you are drifting all over the place in a completely unreasonable way.

  Initially, you may simply have a need for some comfort, like a glass of water or a nice sweater. At that point, you are very reasonable, because you feel constricted by your demand. But when you have put on your sweater or had your glass of water, you go crazy. You no longer seem to have any binding factor of sanity at all, absolutely not. Instead, you think of the past, future, and present. You might emulate your past or complain about the present or do something else with the future. Your mind goes all over the place. The point of the vajrayana teachings is to keep you away from those little indulgences.

  With the body samaya, you can actually keep yourself very tight and tidy. If you need a sweater or a glass of water, you can go ahead and get what you want. You have the body samaya already, so you can maintain yourself. You can remain very tight and dignified and, if necessary, you can prevent yourself from farting or burping. You just hold tight.

  We are not particularly talking about the Victorian style, but about tantric Victorian style, which is necessary. Often we have been slaves of ourselves, as everybody knows very well. You should do something about that. You should never become a slave of yourself; that is the worst slavery of all. The United States of America has achieved freedom from external slavery. That is fantastic! Great! But what about the internal slavery inspired by democracy? By promoting the democratic ideals of individual freedom and individual salvation, and by trying to help others sociologically and politically from the point of view of ego-centeredness, we have actually achieved imprisonment. If a political group would like to put in its two cents’ worth to promote the cause of freedom from self and how we can free ourselves from ourselves, that should rouse the biggest cry, the biggest proclamations, and the biggest demonstrations, with posters and everything!

  Samaya of Vajra Speech

  The second samaya is the samaya of vajra speech. It is the
samaya of the ghanta, or tantric bell. The Tibetan for this samaya is trilbu sunggi tamtsik. Trilbu means “ghanta,” sung is the honorific word for speech, gi means “of,” and tamtsik is “samaya”; so trilbu sunggi tamtsik is “the samaya of speech or sound.”

  The samaya of vajra speech is related with passion and with communication. It does not just mean talking, but it includes emotional communication. Passion is said to bind together form and emotion, so communication could take place by means of body, by means of sight, by means of smell, by means of sound, and so forth. At this point, we could regard all the emotions, including the kleshas, as forms of fundamental, subtle communication, which, for that matter, could also be very crude.

  The meaning of this samaya is that speech is invincible, which means that when you communicate, you actually communicate. Every word you say—“hello” or “goodbye” or whatever might occur to you in whatever state of mind—is always mantra. So your communication or speech becomes extremely powerful, and at the same time it becomes bondage or samaya. Speech is about the intellect and about communication. If you respect the sacredness of vajra speech, you could not write such a poem as: “Illiterate mumbo-jumbos hanging themselves as spiders on webs.” That would be mocking the world, mocking the universe.

  The samaya of speech occurs on the level between mind and body. It is connected with the idea that any utterances and thoughts are sacred. Subconscious gossip or ongoing discursiveness is transformed into sacredness, so there is no chatter. In the past, you may have been told to drop subconscious gossip when it appeared in your shamatha practice, but here, subconscious gossip is transformed into energy. The fickleness of subconscious gossip is used as enlightened energy. This only happens when you drop the neurosis associated with subconscious gossip. When you do not negate your subconscious gossip, but just drop its neurotic aspect, its energy is still maintained in your basic being. So although neurosis creates subconscious gossip, the inquisitiveness that exists in subconscious gossip could be described as having the possibility of prajna.

  The samaya of speech means that you relate with speech as sacred. Whatever you say or talk about, whatever you utter, including your sneezes and burps, is sacred because it indicates that you are actually relating with the world, communicating with the world. If you are by yourself in a retreat, or alone in your own bedroom, you might only burp or fart, but that is communication. It has its own sacredness, glory, and goodness. You are an individual person, and in the case of vajra speech, you are an individual person communicating a relationship to the world. You are actually doing something to the world; you are communicating to it.

  The reason you are able to communicate in that way is that, if you first take the basic attitude of pre-thought—aah!—you find that every expression you make in relationship to the world makes sense. If you start with pre-thought, each sound you make, each word you say is unconditional. From the mahayana point of view, this is shunyata expression.

  When you say, “Hello, how are you?” it usually does not particularly mean anything. But saying “Hello, how are you?” does not have to be a small-talk approach. With the samaya of speech, you begin to experience that something more is being said than “Hello, how are you?” You realize that something more than that is being said all the time. We always undermine our speech. When we say, “Hello, how are you?” we think that is just a tiny little thing that we just burped. But somehow, as you project that to the world or to your partner, it means a big “Hello! How are you?!” It actually magnifies to double, triple, a hundred times the size.

  There is always that kind of projection going on. This does not mean that you should project all kinds of neurosis. Sometimes you may do that, but you are breaking your samaya vow by making such a proclamation of neurosis. If you shout “I feel shitty! Who are you?!” you begin to pollute the world of speech. But when you respect the sacredness of speech, speech is regarded as invincible. Once you have said something, you have said it. That kind of speech comes from a mind that is in a state of impartiality.

  Samaya of Vajra Mind

  The samaya of mind is the basic space in which the other two samayas can take place. States of mind such as delusion or wakefulness are in this category of samaya. The samaya of vajra mind is known in Tibetan as dorje thukkyi tamtsik. Dorje is “vajra” or “indestructible,” thuk is the honorific term for “mind,” or in this case, “enlightened mind,” kyi, again, is “of,” and tamtsik is “samaya”; so dorje thukkyi tamtsik is the “samaya of vajra mind.” It means that the vajra mind samaya is invincible and unchanging. That is to say, within the state of mind of the first impulse—aah!—from that reference point, when we look at objects we begin to feel the objectivity or solidity of things. This includes our body, our world, and our relationships to the whole society. Whatever we feel and whatever situations we encounter become very solid.

  By mind, we mean wakefulness; we mean that day and night you realize the awakening and falling asleep of your thought process. In terms of vajra mind, you could not write such a poem as: “This is my mind so crazy, I’m completely upside down.” Such a poem would disrespect the phenomenal world, which is already sacred, powerful, and beautiful.

  Situations are usually and ordinarily very solid. Our body is very solid and our world is very solid, and we maintain that notion of solidity. But on top of that, with this samaya, we begin to develop further solidity, or vajra solidity. That is, when we look out, we feel that we are totally here. It is like waking up and feeling yourself breathing the air, inhaling and exhaling, and experiencing your solid world properly. You think about eating breakfast in the morning, or lunch at midday, or dinner in the evening. You think about taking a walk or taking a shower. You think about relating with your personal thingies and phenomena such as making a telephone call. In whatever you do, you have that sense of thingness. You sense that in all your activities, you are dealing with solid things. When you are walking into a building, changing your sheets, taking a shower, or eating food—in whatever you do there is a thingness involved.

  In the vajrayana, relating with this kind of thingness is based on the understanding that thingness is very genuinely solid. This is not because we would like to gain security from that solidness, particularly, but we simply feel that the objects around us are workable. This solidity is the same kind of perception through which we experience the Great Eastern Sun. It is direct perception, with no bureaucracy involved, very clear and precise. Things feel good and solid. You do not feel at all claustrophobic, and you do not perceive things as confirmation. You are simply seeing things as they are.

  This is particularly so when your mind is crystallized in first thought, or actually in what is previous to first thought: in “prime thought.” When you have prime thought as you look at objects, things are much more solid, real, and good. They are absolutely good and beautiful at the same time. We could almost deify such a world as being a heaven filled with all the deities that one could imagine. That is the samaya of oneness with the mind, in which there is joy and solidity.

  Usually when we experience solidity, we feel either depressed or excited, but in this case we are even-tempered. Whatever we see, any solid world we experience is fine, no problem. We are dealing with a solid world, but that vajra world has a kind of light-handedness in it. The usual heaviness of depression is not involved; therefore, the vajra mind is unchangeable or invincible.

  With this samaya, you are using your senses to work with all sorts of forms, such as visual, perceptual, or olfactory forms. It is your world, the solid world: when you bang on something, you hear it and feel it at the same time. You feel thingness or solidity, which is okay and good. It feels as if you are driving in a luxury tank that has guns and catapults on its outside and is made of solid metal, but on the inside the tank is very comfortable, with a leather interior. You do not feel particularly aggressive, you are just driving this luxury tank—and you feel transparent. That is how a student of vajrayana should feel: you sho
uld feel good and solid. So the samaya of vajra mind is connected with the idea of indestructibility. It never allows any possibilities of neurosis to enter into your state of mind, because the whole world is sacred and blessed already with the bondage of abhisheka, the mutual bondage of student and teacher.

  Samaya of vajra mind frees us from from any conceptions that would cause us to regress. Without it, we could regress into a lizard, an ant, a snake, or a worm. For that matter, we could regress into an amoeba, just one cell reproducing by itself with no mate, which is supposedly the lowest form of existence that is still regarded as a sentient being.

  To avoid regressing, you could develop more patience. As a result of patience, you will learn to have exertion in the dharma; as a result of exertion, there will be peace of mind. In the beginning you need to have a sense of wonder and devotion. But if you have no exertion, there will be no wonder, and your mouth will not be able to smile. The vajrayana dharma is like that: there is a sense of humor.

  If you work with situations in the style of enlightenment, in accord with the samaya principle, you not only cease to regress, but you also experience further development. You are finally cutting through. It is the same kind of experience as when the physician cuts your umbilical cord after you are born. You begin to experience the mixing of your mind with the vajra master’s mind. And having mixed your minds together, you begin to experience an intense, extraordinary orgasm.