The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness

by Chogyam Trungpa

  Along with the one hundred families of deities, there are seventy-five different abhishekas. We could go through the details of the mandala’s deities, but the point is that in the previous yanas, going through the details made sense, whereas here the details do not matter all that much. At this level, the basic norm seems more important, and as we go on to the atiyoga level, it is the same. Instead of trying to make sense of the details, we see that there is something coming together that makes more sense.

  Flash and Thunder

  In anuyoga, the mandala has, as usual, the vajra family in the East, the ratna family in the South, and so forth. But the mandala setup is related with very directly and very simply. The construction of the mandala is felt rather than even experienced. When you begin to relate with the tathagatas as real beings in your practice of sadhana, you feel thunder resounding. There is greater vision, much more fantastic than even the vision of the eight logos of mahayoga. You feel the earth quake, or rather, you feel the space quake. There is a real feeling of living and roaring, of shakes and flashes out of nowhere. Everything happens, because nothing happens.

  With this mandala, you are absolutely, transcendently, fundamentally haunted to the core of your being by the herukas and tathagatas. That is why they are connected with death. The Tibetan Book of the Dead describes death as the real message. When death occurs, you have a chance to relate with the deities, because death is one of the fundamental, resounding sounds. It is thunder, the real fundamental message.

  The flash and the earth shaking come from the brain chakra and the heart chakra bringing together the peaceful and wrathful deities. Bringing these together is the building of “me,” as opposed to the “other.” So bringing yourself together in a good state is the expression of relating with the other as lover.

  Relating with the Dharmapalas

  You also need to make a relationship to the dharma protectors, or dharmapalas. You have to catch them as your servants, your reminders, or your guards. The problem with the dharmapalas at this level is that the dharmapalas feel better if you declare yourself. They want to know what your name is and that you are the boss, that your name is Boss So-and-So. If you do not have a boss’s name to declare, it is very difficult to employ them, because they probably will not obey you. On the other hand, they might be completely terrified, because you are in league with everybody.

  NONVISUALIZATION

  In mahayoga, visualization was a way of defining the higher level of existence, but in anuyoga, there is more emphasis on the importance of formless meditation beyond visualization. The anuyoga approach to visualization is nonvisualization. That brings us much closer to the emotions, and at the same time it gives us a clearer way of working with the emotions.

  Anuyoga nonvisualization is related with prajna. Here, prajna has the sense of working with the phenomenal world and being somewhat in the state of oneness with the other. In this yana, the other is regarded as the lover, as the feminine principle. It is the receiver or recipient; it is the entertainer. So the phenomenal world is the feminine principle.

  When we talk about the feminine principle, we are not particularly referring to a woman or a man, but to the basic nature of femininity that we all have. We are referring to fundamental cosmic femininity, the cosmic lover we all possess, whether we are a man or a woman. Your physical sexual inheritance, your karmic body, the shape your body has been formed in, is not fundamental. Basic femininity and masculinity are independent of your bodily type. The world is infinite. It is not only divided into two sexes, but there are billions of types of sexual experiences.

  In anuyoga, we refer to self-existing femininity as the lover, and self-existing masculinity as the lovemaker. In this tantra, there is a lot of reference made to karmamudra practice; but in anuyoga, karmamudra is more a practice of dissolving ourselves into space. So this yana teaches us to realize the indivisibility of space and wisdom, or ying and yeshe. The meditation practice at this level is just mixing space and wisdom. Strangely enough, this is similar to the type of meditation that I have been teaching. The practice of dissolving yourself into space, or mixing mind with space, actually foreshadows that.

  PASSION AND COMPASSION

  The emphasis in anuyoga is not so much on visualization or the forms that we have gone through already, such as the eight logos and so forth. Here, all the forms that we experience are brought together in one form. Anything we experience in the phenomenal world is subject to passion. This includes friends and enemies, liking and disliking—everything is subject to passion. This passion is slightly different from what we experienced before with the mahasukha principle, in which the whole of experience is thronged with joy or pleasure. In this case, the experience of passion is more discriminating in many ways. In anuyoga, the experience of passion is not thronged with one cosmic orgasm, but we have the discriminating wisdom of passion. The projection is the object of the passion, and the projector is the lover or lovemaker. There is a quality of friendliness.

  We could say that anuyoga is the tantric equivalent of mahayana. The difference between the mahayana and anuyoga is that in the mahayana, we are developing a compassionate attitude toward all sentient beings, and in anuyoga, the emphasis is on developing a loving or passionate attitude toward all phenomena, not just sentient beings. In the mahayana, you are trying to keep up a certain discipline or pattern of behavior, but vajrayana passion is not concerned with that, so you naturally act as a bodhisattva. There is a quality of vastness, complete openness, and outrageousness.

  Anuyoga practitioners refer to compassion as passion rather than compassion. Passion is compassion, from this point of view. This notion is different from that of ordinary people on the path of accumulation, from bodhisattvic people, and from ordinary tantric people. So there are enormous differences between normal tantrikas and practitioners of anuyoga.

  THE TWO ATTAINMENTS OF ANUYOGA

  As the end result of this experience of complete passion and the indivisibility of space and wisdom, we have two attainments. Fulfilling the desires of the yogi through devotion and fearlessness is the first attainment. The second attainment is the revelation of the great family. It is realizing the greatness of your particular buddha-family. Those two attainments act as the symbols of this yana, which is expressive of greater thinking and greater experience.

  THREE YOGAS

  In connection with the two attainments, there are three types of yoga: the yoga of seed, the yoga of condition, and the yoga of result.

  Yoga of Seed

  First, there is the yoga of seed or cause. Probably seed is a better word than cause. The yoga of seed is that all the dharmas existing in your phenomenal world are seen as the three mandalas: the mandalas of isness, self-existence, and the awakened state of mind. That is the seed or the groundwork, and we begin with that level.

  Yoga of Condition

  Once you have the seed, you have to develop it or cause it to grow, which is the second yoga, the yoga of condition. This yoga is based on understanding the hinayana and mahayana with enormous physical effort, and with the intention of transcending the samsaric world. It is based on going through the shravakayana, the pratyekabuddhayana, and the mahayana. The practitioner of anuyoga goes back to these practices, trying to see them from the point of view of the three mandalas. Such backtracking is often very useful. It gives you a solid footing, and is very much recommended.

  Yoga of Result

  Finally, there is the yoga of effect or result. Because such an enormous effort is being made to understand the basic yanas and the basic principles of the dharma, you begin to attain effortlessness. You attain hopelessness and fearlessness, and you begin to realize primordial mind. So the result is nonaction; it is transcending action.

  One reason anuyoga is great is because nothing at all is excluded. None of ego’s emotions, ego’s projections, and no skandhas are excluded. Everything is included in the flame of great passion, the great prajna principle. Everything is completely c
onsumed into the realm of the one hundred tathagatas.

  66

  Anuyoga: No Boundaries

  In the various yanas, you are working with different levels of unveiling. In the hinayana, you are working with your clothes on; in the bodhisattva path, you are working as a naked body; and in the vajrayana, you are thrown into it naked, without even your skin.

  ALL-CONSUMING PASSION

  In anuyoga, there is a quality of simplicity and dignity. The eight logos of mahayoga still carry a sense of partiality or individuality. But in anuyoga, the whole experience becomes very fundamental. It is as if you were listening to a very deep bass sound. It ceases to be music anymore, and instead it begins to be more like an earthquake because it is so deep down. It is so basic and so fundamental that the ground you are sitting on is shaking. You cannot work on anything else, because anything else would be superficial.

  Passion is the music that becomes so deep that it is like an earthquake. At this point, you do not have any other emotions at all. All you have is glorified passion, fundamental passion, all-consuming passion.

  To get an idea of what this glorified passion is, you could begin by seeing the world as a production of passion. Anything that goes on in this world is the production of passion. Passionlessness may be the meaning of dharma from the hinayana point of view, but the higher dharma views passionateness as the dharma. Cosmic passion is the ground of everything.

  The deeply fundamental approach to life is to construct something, and the first thing that you manage to construct is the split psychology of duality. That is an act of passion. You want a mate, so you make yourself into your mate; this is how you create your lover. Later on, you begin to realize that this is purely masturbation, so you look for another lover, and even that becomes masturbation. So the whole project of masturbation becomes greater and greater. Everything, including your husband or wife, becomes a part of it. This snowballs into a gigantic world of passion. But that passion is looking inward.

  In anuyoga, the idea of lovemaking is looking outward. It is anti-masturbation. Everything is your lover, including the masturbation itself. Making love to yourself is a love affair rather than masturbation. Masturbation may be a way of discovering the possibilities of passion, but you are still trying to re-create your wishful thinking in a very clumsy and cheap way. You are releasing your energy in passion, which is actually aggression.

  However, from the anuyoga point of view, you are not releasing your energy through passion, but you are perpetuating your energy. Making love does not limit your energy at all. There is a climax, which is called peyi yeshe, or “example wisdom”; and after that, töngyi yeshe, or “real wisdom,” begins to arise. The climax is the example; it is what might be. And beyond that, there is what is, and the postmeditation experience begins to arise. So in anuyoga, the climax is transformed. The climax is no longer regarded as the highlight. In fact, there is no stopping point. Instead, there is perpetual energy, perpetual openness, perpetual passion.

  NONDUALITY AND SEPARATENESS

  Passion increases because we regard it as a path rather than as a hang-up. That frees us from all kinds of conflicting ideas as to whether to indulge in passion or to take pride in passion. It brings us down to fundamental passion as the source of inspiration. Making love ceases to be masturbation, because due to discriminating wisdom, you begin to see your projections as separate from yourself, rather than just your extensions.

  Generally, we regard duality as a problem. We say that duality is a war between this and that, “I” and “other,” which creates further separation. That is the ordinary mahayana point of view of duality. So in the mahayana, you begin to remove that fence, to go beyond duality. But when you do so, you experience more and more problems, and you wish the fence were still there. Now that this is also that, and that is also this, you become so confused. Everything seems to be one. You get so freaked-out that you are constantly haunted. There is no privacy, and no room for wisdom or skillful means.

  According to anuyoga, wisdom and skillful means come from having a sense of privacy. That allows you to build yourself up, and then relate to the other. It may be disconcerting and somewhat humiliating that whatever you try to build up is being watched by the other. The whole thing may seem so absurd and embarrassing. But the point is not to create a barrier; it is to realize that you do not have to be embarrassed about exposing yourself to the other as a separate individual. The other is the other, and it has its own existence, and you are you. And you no longer view the other as the public or someone who is watching you, but you see the other as your lover, your partner. So you do not have to be resentful about the world, because you no longer see it as an extension of yourself.

  At the same time, the bodhisattva experience of giving up your territory or giving up your privacy is still necessary. That methodology is needed in order to realize your individuality. It is the reason why there is this feeling of separateness, the feeling that you are you and the other is the other. But there is still a link, and that link is making love to the other, which is called discriminating-awareness wisdom. The reason why this becomes wisdom is because you saw the oneness, you gave up the embarrassment, and you devoted yourself to others in the bodhisattva style. Beyond that, you do not have to be so mad that you are public and have no privacy at all. So in anuyoga, you have a sense of oneness and you have a sense of separation at the same time.

  That feeling of separation actually starts very minutely and humbly in kriyayoga. There is a sense that the cosmic principle is not you unless you are the lord of the cosmic principle; and although you are the lord of the tribal setup of the cosmic principle, you are still separate. So we could say quite safely, if my boss permits me to say such a thing, that in tantrayana we are trying to discover the separateness all the time, rather than the nonduality. The idea is that you and your projections are separate; therefore, the projections are your lover, and you are the lovemaker.

  At the beginning of the path, such an approach would be neurosis. You have to go through many changes before you can realize real separateness. At this point, you are not trying to reform or reject samsara, but you are trying to realize the subtlety of enlightened teachings within the samsaric style. At the beginning, you see samsara as very crude and dualistic. Then you break that logic to pieces, and you realize nonduality. That is beautiful, and you can work with it. Finally, you begin to re-appreciate what you were, and you come back to samsara.

  In anuyoga, looking from a higher level of duality, you see that this duality is not bad after all. You are just having your own lover redefined. In the state of intoxication, you begin to compose music and sing songs praising the phenomenal world as your lover, as the mother of all the buddhas. You begin to appreciate more. The passion in this yoga is trying to pull the world to you. That is the object of all the tantras, but in this case it is accentuated, because this is the highest tantra from the point of view of form. Beyond anuyoga there is only one yana, the maha ati level, which is completely formless. So this tantra is the highest tantra of form that you could ever reach. It is the highest tantra in which you could still relate to a lover.

  UNBIASED PASSION

  Another important theme in anuyoga is rangnang ri-me. Rangnang ri-me is short for ranggi nangwa ri-me. Ranggi nangwa means “one’s own projection,” ri means “extreme” or “bias,” and me means “without”; so ranggi nangwa ri-me is “projection without any bias.” In anuyoga, projections are no longer regarded as delusions, problems, or hang-ups—they are regarded as objects of love.

  When we talk about love and passion here, it is much more than ordinary love and passion. It is sexual desire. Talking about sexual desire is much more real, much more rugged and true. When we talk about ordinary love, it is hypothetical or implied love. But sexuality in anuyoga is prajna. It is expressed as the thirst or hunger to unite your whole being with the object of prajna, which is the phenomenal world, including both animate and inanimate objects. I suppose
you could say that in all tantric traditions, sexuality is an expression of friendship and inquisitiveness. You would like to explore all parts of your partner, which in this case is the phenomenal world.

  Finally, having explored all areas, having explored the whole body of your phenomenal world, you discover a quality of indivisibility. You are no longer fascinated by the other, so the other becomes you as well. There is a quality of completeness. That is why sexuality is part of the symbolism in the thangkas of the herukas and dakinis that you may have seen. It represents genuine interest rather than theoretical interest.

  Passion from this point of view is not from the head, but from the heart. When passion is heartfelt passion, or when sexual fantasy is a heartfelt experience, it ceases to be theoretical. It becomes a much more real and much more living experience. In other words, in an ordinary marriage you are bound by law, whereas in the ideal marriage you are bound not only by concepts, laws, or social norms, but you are bound heart to heart by a sense of reality. That is why rangnang ri-me is called unbiased self-existing experience, which is one of the catchphrases of this particular yana.

  EGOLESSNESS AND COMPASSION

  At the anuyoga level, you couldn’t care less which of the five wisdoms you have, because you begin to have all the others as well. The mirrorlike wisdom begins to dissolve into its neighbors: the wisdom of all-accomplishing actions, the wisdom of equanimity, discriminating-awareness wisdom, and the wisdom of all-encompassing space. So you do not really have buddha-families as such. You begin to become less identifiable.