The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness

by Chogyam Trungpa

  What happens is that pressure is put on the boundary from both sides, from within as well as from without, so that finally you have a fundamental, complete explosion. The inner space breaks into the outer space completely. At that point, the spiritual atomic bomb has finally actually exploded. The explosion takes place when there is no reference point, just pure demand. You cannot sneak out, you cannot philosophize, you cannot talk anything into anything else—you cannot do anything. The external pressure is enough, and the internal pressure is enough as well, so you go boom!

  The relation of inner to outer here is like a bomb’s view of outer space. There is pressure coming from outside and pressure coming from inside—it is as simple as that. It is purely functional, purely chemical. For example, if a bomb is made at a certain altitude, and you take that bomb higher, it might explode.

  Another analogy for this is a light inside a vase. If there is a light burning inside a vase in the daytime, then when somebody breaks the vase, the light inside the vase becomes a part of the light outside. So there is no longer any need for maintaining the external and internal lights separately. If there is no boundary, you live much more. You do not have any barrier between you and the world, so you can see it properly.

  LEAPT, NOT LEAPING

  In maha ati, form is physical involvement, and space is believing that you have to leap off an enormous cliff. But it is not really a leap, because you have already cut the cliff. If there were a cliff, leaping would be a trip, so maha ati is a state of leapt rather than leaping. Letting go could be a trip, and when that is so, you are far behind; you are somewhere other than maha ati.

  As an example, suppose someone told you that tomorrow you were going to walk blindfolded across a bridge, and that if you made a mistake, you would fall into a river. But the next day, that person just had you walk blindfolded across a plank on the ground. The trip of letting go is like walking blindfolded on a plank on the ground, with no water underneath it at all.

  NO JOURNEY

  In the maha ati tradition, your state of mind begins to dissolve. When we talk about dissolving your state of mind, usually we mean some kind of relief or unity, but in this case the dissolving does not bring any unity or relief. It is just simply mind becoming nothing, or becoming everything at once, or mind encompassing everything.

  When everything is encompassed, we begin to feel terror. That terror and confusion tends to bring about a notion of reality that does not have any sense of journey. That sense of journeylessness brings about the only pure vision of brilliance. It also brings about the possibility of seeing the colors of the buddha-families in their true nature.

  Practitioners of the maha ati tradition establish their posture properly. They sit on the meditation cushion with their back, legs, neck, and everything in the proper position, and then they extend their question out. At that point, their question is regarded as exercising long (klong), or ultimate space.1 When a person has extended and questioned, and extended and questioned further, that questioning and extension begins to become real and powerful. Sometimes nonexistence becomes clean-cut at the same time, and a vast vision of openness and universality begins to evolve.

  Still working with their breath and their sitting practice, students of maha ati evolve further penetration and further simplicity. That simplicity and ruggedness is almost at the level of backwardness. It is so rugged and so backward that relative reference points and conventional notions of good and bad, simplicity and confusion, no longer apply.

  A SUMMARY OF MAHA ATI QUALITIES BY LONGCHEN RABJAM

  The qualities of maha ati tantra can be summed up in this verse by the great Nyingma master Longchen Rabjam, which is found in the Tantra of the Pearl Rosary.2

  If you know the essence of tantra,

  It is like the king and ministers

  And subjects are together, united.

  If you know the depth of tantra,

  It is like you have arrived

  At the top of a mountain peak.

  If you know the flowers of tantra,

  It is like the gaiety of a blossoming flower;

  It is like seeing three suns in the sky.

  If you see that the various tantric approaches are based on oneness,

  It is like putting up a stone wall.

  If you see that tantra is combating confusion,

  It is like putting windows in your walls

  As you build your house.

  If you see the heart or essence of tantra,

  It is like your windows are tightly locked.

  If you see the dangerous and penetrating aspect of tantra

  And the protectiveness of the practitioner,

  It is like having a guard to protect your doorways.

  1. The Tibetan word long is the phonetic version of two separate words. Long (longs) means “enjoyment,” as in the enjoyment body, or sambhogakaya. Long (klong) means “space.”

  2. Translated by Chögyam Trungpa. Another translation of this can be found in Longchen Rabjam, The Precious Treasury of Philosophical Systems: A Treatise Elucidating the Meaning of the Entire Range of Spiritual Approaches (Junction City, Calif.: Padma Publishing, 2007), 366–367.

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  Atiyoga: Fathomless Mind

  Basically speaking, neurosis is temporary and sanity is permanent. When we begin to take that attitude, we realize that our occasional freak-outs and panic and our feeling of being trapped are no longer applicable. In realizing that we are eternally free, eternally liberated, and eternally awake, we begin to experience vast mind.

  VAJRAYANA IS A BIG DEAL

  It is good to make a big deal of vajrayana; it is actually worth it. When I studied with my teacher, I used to make a big deal of it myself. I actually used to feel physically uplifted and blissful. That feeling is like a deer frolicking in the woods: there is a sense of moving through the space, and at the same time as you are jumping up high, your movement is still very slow and good. It reminds me of a youthful tiger walking slowly in the jungle: the tiger is not particularly trying to catch any prey, but it is simply walking with its stripes on. So we are walking through this particular jungle of vajrayana, and I seem to be the tour guide.

  In vajrayana practice, we could make a big deal about everything. Big deal means personal involvement and being true to your appreciation. If you are in doubt, that is also a part of the appreciation of what you might be getting into. In the vajrayana tradition, coming and going are the same. Whether you get out of it or into it, the basic point is the journey, and you have begun the journey already.

  MAHA ATI AND THE EARLIER YANAS

  The practitioner of maha ati has already accomplished a great deal by going through the earlier yanas. That is important: if there were no relationship with the rest of the yanas, there would be no journey. However, in the maha ati realm, there is a natural tendency to see that the journey no longer needs to be made. Instead, the journey itself is the goal.

  The previous eight yanas still make reference to liberation and freedom, but this yana does not. The reason is that the logical reasoning mind of cause and effect is not important here. You are no longer trying to gain or develop a better relationship with the teachings, or with anything else. However, although atiyoga looks down upon the other yanas because they are still involved with attitude, training, and technique, that does not mean this yana does not have any techniques or training.

  I think that what we have been doing so far has been talking about hinayana from the mahayana point of view, talking about mahayana from the vajrayana point of view, and talking about vajrayana from the point of view of maha ati. So you could do practices that happen to be at the maha ati level, and then go back through the rest of the yanas. In doing so, it is possible that your perspective on the previous yanas would become much more sophisticated.

  Even seemingly complicated practices, such as the eight logos, have glimpses of maha ati simplicity. The eight logos are very close to home, they are part of our basic being; a
nd the reason they become very much a part of our being is that they are an expression of maha ati. Otherwise, we would not have anything to relate with; they would become hypothetical. So practices such as the eight logos are an aspect of the fundamental truth of maha ati, and because of maha ati’s ordinariness, the magical power found in the eight logos is accentuated. That is why maha ati is called the imperial yana. It has the powers and merits of all the yanas, but it is very simple to practice. Maybe I’m sounding like a salesperson, but it’s true!

  In maha ati, there is no inhibition about enjoying the sense perceptions or sense objects. Also, there is no need for restraint, because restraint and discipline have already been developed by the previous eight yanas. Discipline makes you see that discipline is no longer necessary, and purely for that reason, you have to practice a lot of discipline.

  To practice maha ati, you do not necessarily have to complete the formal trainings of the other yanas, but you do have to go through some kind of psychological experience. And when you have done so, you then need directions as to how you can cut through that experience. In other words, you first have to manufacture something to cut through, and after that you have to cut through it with maha ati.

  From maha ati’s point of view, the other yanas are hang-ups, a big joke. If the other yanas were not hang-ups, maha ati would not be there. Maha ati almost seems like laughter, but it is necessary to have something to laugh at. Otherwise, we would not have anything, and we would be dumb and stupid. So it is very necessary first to create something to laugh at. Then that laughter automatically opens something up.

  MAHA ATI AND MAHAMUDRA

  According to the four yogas of mahamudra, when mind is stabilized or rested one-pointedly, we begin to see the self-face of mind; we see its self-nature of ordinariness, or ordinary mind. That is one-pointedness. Then, because we see that mind has no basis, we begin to realize its simplicity. Because of simplicity, we are free from the fixations of the ego of this and the ego of that; therefore, we begin to realize one taste. And finally, because we realize one taste, we begin to be freed from the conventions that separate meditating from not meditating. We begin to transcend our habitual patterns. Therefore, we are in a constant state of meditation, which refers to the postmeditation state as well. We begin to realize the yoga called nonmeditation.

  When we use up habitual patterns, this is known as the state of realization. But there is a further step, which is known as the simultaneity of realization and liberation. So when we have realized nonmeditation, this is not necessarily the end of the journey. Nonmeditation is the state of constant mindfulness, the state where awareness is finally attained. In that state, we do not depend on the ups and downs of our day-to-day situation. There is no hassle and no struggle, although there is still practice involved. At that point, we begin to experience greater appreciation and joy; we begin to transcend mahamudra and arrive at the beginning of our maha ati journey.

  Some people might say that you do not have to go to first grade, you can just jump into sixth grade, but that does not quite work. People might say that you should only practice vipashyana, that shamatha is not necessary. But in our tradition, we are told that we should combine everything that has been taught, and work according to the map that was laid out by the Buddha. We are taught that we should do everything. Therefore, any good practitioner of maha ati is also supposed to practice mahamudra.

  Maha ati is based on the umbrella approach. It is the approach of coming down, in which fruition is regarded as the path. But in order to have fruition as the path, you need to understand that the ground is also the path. If there is an umbrella, somebody has to hold it.

  DELIGHT AND UPLIFTEDNESS

  Generally, when we view phenomena, we always view them from the point of view of poverty and neurosis. Although somebody might say, “I am extremely happy; I have everything,” the way that person says this is suspicious. Their statement has a tinge of victory in it, as though they had fought a battle and finally gained victory, but nevertheless they were still wounded, no matter how happy they may now be. That sort of war veteran’s approach always happens. And that actually seems to be anti-vajrayana, anti-mahayana, and anti-hinayana as well.

  When we begin the practice of vajrayana or when we try to understand the vajrayana teaching, instead of poverty there is a feeling of delight and upliftedness. There is an enormous amount of exertion and devotion as well. When we begin to develop that upliftedness, joy, and openness, we are actually beginning to enter the vajra world. We could even say that we are beginning to have a love affair with the vajra world and the vajra master.

  VAST SPACE

  Basically speaking, neurosis is temporary and sanity is permanent. When we begin to take that attitude, we realize that our occasional freak-outs and panic and our feeling of being trapped are no longer applicable. In realizing that we are eternally free, eternally liberated, and eternally awake, we begin to experience vast mind.

  This tremendously big mind has nothing to do with the yogacharan approach or the Zen style of big mind. Here, we are talking about big mind as unconditionally vast and completely fathomless. That mind does not need to be fathomed. It is a tremendously big space that accommodates everything. However, accommodate may not be the right word, because it implies deliberately trying to extend oneself. In this case, mind is so spacious already that we do not even have to accommodate anything. We have a fantastic, great, vast openness, which we do not actually perceive. When we begin to perceive this openness, we belittle the whole thing, so perception does not seem to play an important part.

  DOT OF COEMERGENCE

  In that vast space, a dot occurs. That dot is known as coemergent wisdom. That dot in the space of our vast mind might seem to be somewhat unnecessary; nonetheless, it helps us a lot. This dot makes it so that we can actually come down from that space to earth, and develop compassion, wisdom, and discipline. The dot makes it possible for us to help confused sentient beings who have never seen that kind of vast space, let alone the dot itself.

  That dot begins to become bigger and bigger and bigger still. That black dot begins to become tinged with purple at the edges, which is passion. It is tinged with compassion, or the willingness to work on this earth without ever abandoning anything. In maha ati language, this particular concept is called kadak, or alpha pure. Kadak is alpha pure as opposed to omega pure. It is totally pure. Kadak is pure right at the beginning, so it is not even one-pure, but zero-pure. Why is it pure? Because kadak is so innocent and genuine. It is so genuine and innocent that a maha ati level person can feel tremendous warmth and spaciousness in working with other sentient beings, and in imparting that particular kind of wisdom.

  After the black dot becomes tinged with purple, it dissolves, and then things become black and purple all over. That is to say, the spaciousness of the black as well as the purpleness of the compassion spread everywhere. So coemergent wisdom is very simple: space-dot. When the dot occurred, coemergent wisdom occurred. Space is white, and the dot is black. Samsaric people would see space as black and the dot as white, like looking at the nighttime sky, but here there is a kind of flip. You begin to flip your space altogether. That is where the coemergent wisdom happens.

  A VAST WORLD OF DECENCY

  Within that world of decency, that genuine and good vast mind, which is compassionate and willing, it is very difficult to find any neurosis. You might say: “Well, I could find it! I could come up with lots of neuroses!” But the question is, are you actually taking that attitude of vastness and gentleness at all? If you happened to be taking that kind of vast and gentle attitude, I would bet a million dollars that you would find nothing there; you would find no possibilities of any defilements.

  At this point we are not talking in terms of the fruition, but we are still talking in terms of the practitioner. So occasional ripples of this and that, “I” and “other,” passion, aggression, ignorance, and mental contents of all kinds obviously happen. But they are not r
egarded as problematic. They are just flickerings, like the ripples in the ocean.

  When we have the attitude and experience of vastness and goodness, we find that our world is sacred. It is not sacred because it is the domain of God or because it has been religiously blessed by somebody or other. We are talking of sacredness in slightly different terms than that. Here, sacredness means healthiness. When the sun rises, it dispels darkness on earth. We begin to see trees and grass, houses and landscapes, mountains and everything, precisely and clearly, and we can see each other as well. Therefore, the sun is sacred, but not because the sun is a religious thing. This nonreligious sacredness is fantastic because it is real sacredness rather than conventional sacredness, in which nobody knows what magic is going on behind the scenes, or what happens to the holy water if you dump your cigarette butt into it.

  We could actually take that attitude of real sacredness all along. The question is, why haven’t we done this before? It seems to be so simple and good. That beats me.