The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness

by Chogyam Trungpa

  I suppose the feeble answer for why we have not done this before is that we would like to crawl into our own little cocoons. We appreciate sleeping in our own shit; it smells good and homey and comfortable. When we crawl into our little holes, it feels like being at home. That is the only answer. We do not like crawling into our little hole, but we begin to like the not liking it as well. We are burying ourselves, burrowing into our own pain, to which we are so accustomed and which is so familiar. If we are suddenly presented with any kind of pleasure, we begin to feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. It is the same feeling we referred to when we spoke about wearing T-shirts and jeans to Buckingham Palace.

  Taking the attitude that the phenomenal world is sacred is the first and last practice of all.

  In that world of sacredness, if you drift off you always catch yourself, and therefore there is no haphazardness of neurosis happening. The instant you catch yourself is so good and open. It is as if you are lying on the lawn and looking up at the sky, and one little bird flies across. You catch yourself seeing the bird; therefore, you catch both the bird and yourself. It is very simple, nothing particularly mystical. There you have the inside story of the vajra master.

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  Atiyoga: Mind, Space, and Instruction

  In maha ati, all notions, all dharmas, are regarded as just flowing space, constantly flowing space in which there are no reference points or directions. Everything is seen simply and directly as it is, and there is no way that you can capture anything as personal experience.

  RECEIVING MAHA ATI TEACHINGS

  The same fourfold abhisheka process is followed throughout the tantric yanas, but at the level of maha ati, the focus is on what happens after the third abhisheka, at the point of receiving the fourth abhisheka. Maha ati transmission is performed in the student’s mind directly. It is the meeting of two minds: the teacher’s and the student’s. Therefore, it is called the real abhisheka.

  If you are receiving maha ati teachings, it is like staying out in a thunderstorm. Rather than running back to your home, you stay out in the storm, and then you get the teachings. You let the hailstones land on your head. They might create little bumps on your head, but that is good. This might sound crazy, but as far as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and myself are concerned, we are equally crazy.1 I asked him about that, and he said, “I think we both are crazy.” So with maha ati, whomever you go to, you get crazy teachings.

  Photo 23. Chögyam Trungpa and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche in India.

  Having received transmission and having had some kind of realization, you have to follow it up; you have to become liberated. Some people think realization is liberation, but in our case, it is not. When you realize something, you have to practice that realization, and then you are liberated. So realization does not mean that you are liberated; it means that you have just touched on the possibility of liberation. Realization is like seeing the first rays of sunshine on the horizon—you know that the sun is in the sky. But then you have to go through the whole day as the sun does, all the way until it sets. So in transmission, you may get a glimpse of liberation, but that does not mean you have become enlightened on the spot.

  THREE SECTIONS OF MAHA ATI

  Maha ati yana is divided into three sections: the category of mind, the category of space, and the category of instruction.

  The Category of Mind: Sem-De

  The first section is the category of mind, or sem-de. Sem means “mind,” and de is a “category” or “characteristic”; so sem-de means the “category of mind.”

  The description of this category is that there is no other dharma than one’s own mind. This is not a yogacharan, or Mind-only, statement; it simply means that there is no other dharma than this. Just this, whatever that may be. At this point, the conceptualized, logical, philosophical mind does not have any importance. Logical reasoning does not make any sense. There is a notion of transcending any philosophy at all, and a feeling of openness and noncaring.

  ENERGY AND PLAY. The sem-de level focuses a great deal on energy and play, which in Tibetan are known as tsal and rölpa. Tsal means “energy,” and rölpa means “play.” Energy and play are happening in the cognitive mind all the time. There does not seem to be anything else or any further truth than what we perceive on a very simple level.

  When we talk about energy, we are not purely referring to emotional energy, such as aggression energy or passion energy, but we are talking about the glittering light that comes out of sunshine. We are talking about high points or highlights. If you put an egg in the sun, you do not see the egg as it is, but you see its highlights. As the sun shines on the egg and around the egg, you see the hot spots of the egg. Those kinds of highlights are known as energy. Usually when someone says that you have a lot of energy, they mean that you are very busy and industrious. But when we talk about energy, it is not energy in the sense of activity, but energy in the sense of experience having highlights. It is the precision and clarity existing within experience.

  Rölpa is the word for playful indulgency and all kinds of other things, but in this case we are talking purely of its playfulness. Rölpa does not bring solemnity but rather delight, and the willingness to play along with your perceptions of phenomena. Whatever you see as highlights, you are willing to go along with and play with.

  STEPPING OVER THE PASS. One of the basic characteristics of maha ati is the idea of leap. The basic approach of sem-de is that you bypass or transcend, which is called lada or ladawa in Tibetan. La means a “mountain pass,” and da means “to step over”; so lada means “to step over the pass.” It means that instead of climbing up, you take one step over to the other side. Lada is divided into three parts: dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya.

  Dharmakaya stepping over. With the dharmakaya level of stepping over the pass, you are transcending in the sense that you do not have anything in your experience at all—just purely the pass.

  Sambhogakaya stepping over. The sambhogakaya level of stepping over the pass is beyond confusion, because if you have confusion, you cannot have wisdom. This level is expressed in the phrase: “It is boundless equanimity, which has never changed. It is unified into a single circle beyond confusion.” The saying, “Nothing whatever, but everything arises from it,” which is famous throughout maha ati, is another expression of this level.2

  Nirmanakaya stepping over. The third level of stepping over is the nirmanakaya of utterance or proclamation. This kind of proclamation is connected with the first of the seven categories of sem-de: stepping over without effort.

  SEVEN CATEGORIES OF SEM-DE. Sem-de is divided into seven categories: stepping over without effort, stepping over misunderstandings and obstacles, the falling apart of your home, not being extreme about proportions or directions, transcending attachment to biased philosophical beliefs, transcending attachment to intellect and to nonintellecutal fixations and bias (unintelligent fixations), and proclaiming that one’s mind is in a certain direction.

  Stepping over without effort. The Tibetan term for the first category of sem-de is betsöl mepar ladawa. Be means “effort,” tsöl also means “effort,” mepar means “without,” and ladawa means “step over”; so betsöl mepar ladawa means “to step over without effort.” The definition of this sem-de category is that the fruition is unchanging.

  You have experienced your world as a samsaric world, but in actuality things are the same. When we talk about things being the same, we are not just talking about good old samsara, or saying that nothing has changed. But things are the same because the relative and the absolute are the same; therefore, the fruition is unchanging. The fruition arises from space and dissolves into space. It is self-resting without any effort, none whatsoever. You have stepped over that.

  But talking about what you step over and where you step over, where you go and where you come from, is not necessary at this point, because it is so. If you go, you go; and if you do not go, you do not go. It is very simple. There is no point in talking ab
out it. In fact, there is no point in raising the question at all.

  Stepping over misunderstandings and obstacles. The second category of sem-de is called stepping over misunderstandings and obstacles, or göl drip mepar ladawa. Göl is “misunderstanding,” drip is “obstacles” or “veils,” mepar again means “without,” and ladawa means “to step over”; so göl drip mepar ladawa means “stepping over misunderstandings and obstacles.”

  Wisdom, or jnana, is without effort, conceptualization, thought process, memory, and all kinds of mental gibberish. From that perspective, whatever goes on in your mind is no longer an obstacle. Your experiences are no longer a problem, and the memories and dialogues within your mind, or your discursive thoughts, are no longer a problem. They are unbidden from the point of view of reality, since reality in itself is without mind, without conceptualization. It is wisdom without thinking, wisdom without thought process. Therefore, this category is called stepping over obstacles and misunderstandings. There is no room for misunderstandings.

  The falling apart of your home. The third category of sem-de is tentsik khungdip. Tentsik means “statement” or “logical statement,” khung means “home” or “hole,” and dip means “falling apart”; so tentsik khungdip means the “falling apart of your home” or the “falling apart of the logical basis of your life.”

  Khung literally means “home” or “hole,” like the holes little animals dig to make themselves a home. So khung is your household; it is your home or your security. The falling apart of your home means that the tunnel you dwell in subsides, or more likely it is deflated or falls apart.

  That home is the statement or logic of your life. Usually your statement is that in your life there is the samsaric aspect and the nirvanic aspect, there is freedom and there is chaos, there is good and there is bad. There is also a level at which you cannot make yourself at home because you find that your home is very destructive, but this still means that you are making yourself at home. For instance, in the ascetic tradition, some people make homelessness their home. They have names like anagarika because of their homelessness.3 However, although making homelessness one’s home in that way is very romantic and fantastic, it is indivisible with one’s ego.

  In this case, we are not talking about creating a home out of your homelessness; rather, you just expand. You are completely exposed and dissolved and immersed in the unborn. Since everything is unborn, what is the point of making a home out of it? There is nothing really to hang on to, nothing at all. That is why the falling apart of your home is very important. It means that there is no samsara or nirvana to nest in.

  In this category, the notion is that nature is unborn and liberated, and energy is completely all-pervasive, so there is nothing to hang on to. Therefore, your home begins to expand into a greater home—or into a greater nothing or no home, whatever you would like to work with. So a sense of homelessness is the statement here.

  Not being extreme about proportions or directions. The fourth category of sem-de is gya-che chog-lhung mepa. Gya means “proportion” or “extent,” che means “to limit” or “to cut,” chog means “direction,” lhung means “extreme,” and mepa means “not”; so gya-che chog-lhung mepa means “not becoming extreme about directions or proportions.”

  This category talks about the mind being all-pervasive. The perceptual level is not particularly unworkable, emptiness is not unworkable, and the indivisibility of emptiness and the play of phenomena are also not unworkable. You are not falling into the trap of making a big deal about the indivisibility, so the mind is empty and free from fringes or boundaries, and energy is unceasing and free from negation.

  In other words, you may be trying to nest in a philosophical hole. You may make a home in the statement that nothing exists, or that everything exists, or that everything you experience is a gigantic play of maya. The gross level of Hinduism begins to play that particular game. But here we are saying that the play of phenomena is not real. Even OM SHANTIS are not all that OM SHANTI. The play of phenomena is nonexistent. But at the same time, the indivisibility that Buddhism talks about is also nonexistent; it does not exist either. So here the final conclusion is dharmata, without yearning for pleasure or for pain.

  Transcending attachment to biased philosophical beliefs. The fifth category of sem-de is chogdzin truptha ledepa. Chog means “direction,” dzin means “fixation” or “holding,” truptha means “philosophical beliefs,” le means “from,” and depa means “transcending” or “gone beyond,” or also “death” in honorific terms; so chogdzin truptha ledepa is “transcending holding on to fixed or biased philosophical beliefs.”

  At this point, you are completely enjoying yourself in this particular yana. A feeling of boundlessness and expansiveness begins to take place. Therefore, the concepts and sophistries of truth and falsehood somehow become a big joke. At the same time, you begin to realize that your mind, which is primevally nonexistent but energetic, is very powerful. Therefore, there is a nondwelling quality to your mind. You can no longer focus your mind on one thing at a time, or absorb yourself into the higher mystical experiences. So your mind is open and free from both falsehood and truth, and at the same time it is enjoyable.

  Transcending attachment to intellect and to nonintellectual fixations and bias. The sixth category of sem-de is lodral chogdzin ledepa. Lo means “intelligence” or more likely “intellect,” dral means “without,” chog means “directions,” dzin means “holding on to” or “fixation,” le means “from,” and depa, as before, means “gone beyond,” or the death of that experience; so lodral chogdzin ledepa means “going beyond holding on to nonintellect fixations” or “transcending attachment to intellectual and to nonintellectual fixations and bias.”

  This category is based on being unceasingly without fixations. It is nonthinking. Everything arises from nonthinking, but everything also dissolves into it, so there is no question of holding on to a particular doctrine or dogma.

  Such an idea could be approached at two levels: the needlessness of dogma, or the mistake of dogma. Those two are combined together at this point: having dogma is a mistake, and attachment to dogma is also a mistake. But at the same time, the idea that it is not right to have dogma is also transcended. Trying to find the end of the problem or criticizing yourself is another imperfection, which is also unnecessary.

  So in general, the idea of the maha ati approach is that it is constantly trying to space you out. In maha ati, by using negation hundreds of times, over and over, you finally develop an enormous positivity.

  Proclaiming that one’s mind is in a certain direction. The seventh and last category of sem-de is semchok yintu mawa. Sem means “mind,” chok means “direction,” yintu means “is,” and mawa means “proclaiming”; so semchok yintu mawa means “proclaiming that everything is in the direction of mind.”

  In this case, we are talking about the higher mind of maha ati as the self-existing energy from which samsara and nirvana both arise. But there is no projector; therefore, the projection is self-liberated. In this approach, the ordinary thought process that we experience is seen as transparent and nonexistent. Because of its nonexistence, there is a lot of energy, and clean-cut inspiration begins to develop.

  In this section of sem-de, there is an emphasis on energy, which dissolves its own dualistic fixations. Effort and energy do not actually exist, but at the same time, there is a lot of effort and energy. Effort and energy function better because they do not have to keep up with their headquarters, their originator. Since there is no originator or headquarters to check back with anymore, energy and effort are free-flowing. Therefore they become more extraordinary, more able to cut through, and more powerful at the same time.

  That concludes the discussion of sem-de, the first section of maha ati.

  The Category of Space: Long-De

  The second section of maha ati is the category of space, or long-de. This level is more than purely mind: there is no thinking, and there is no intellect
. If you are completely willing to relate to the thought process as a working basis, the result is that thinking becomes nonthinking. The thought process is no longer bitchy, and you no longer resent your own activity or that of others. There is the liberation of resting; and even though trying to rest is a hang-up, here there is no problem with rest. There is the liberation of nakedness; and even though trying to be naked is a hang-up, here nakedness is no problem. There is an old-dog quality of noncaring. This discipline of noncaring is not so much the accomplishment of the path, but rather the style of the path.

  This section of maha ati refers to a state in which the sense of existence, life, or survival is liberated through realizing that you cannot escape beyond the realm of Samantabhadri, the feminine principle of the all-encompassing space of dharmakaya. You cannot get beyond that basic space. That all-encompassing space could be used as a practice or as a journey, as well as an experience of the final fruition.

  TWO APPROACHES TO SPACE: YING AND LONG. In the context of the second section of maha ati, the word dhatu—the Sanskrit word for “space” or “realm,” which appears in terms such as vajradhatu or dharmadhatu—can be referred to in Tibetan as long. However, there does not really seem to be a Sanskrit equivalent for this particular word. The Tibetan maha ati teachers used the word long rather than ying, which is the direct translation of dhatu, and they did so because long means much more than ying. Ying has a notion of direction; you are putting your effort and energy in a certain direction, toward space or into space. But long does not have any directions or perspectives in terms of this side or that side, east, south, west, or north.