The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume 4 (21 page)

Some kind of interchange takes place in our life constantly, which is known as energy. We are not talking about energy as a gigantic “voom!” that suddenly zaps us and makes us feel electrified. That kind of expectation seems to be a spiritual version of playing cowboys and Indians. When a local bandit swings open the bar door and walks in, suddenly tension builds up—there is obviously the possibility of a gunfight. We are not talking about energy at that level, even spiritually. Energy here is the self-existing energy that exists in every one of us. It is not particularly a sensation of electrified vibrations of energy. Such a sensation is very rare, if it happens at all. It could happen when we are at the height of our temper, but that is just one of those things that we do when we feel weak. When we don’t feel so good, we might lose our temper to try to recharge ourselves. But energy is not necessarily so pathetic. Rather there is self-existing energy that goes on constantly, purely at the survival level. We exist, others exist, and therefore energy takes place constantly. There is energy of aggression, energy of passion, energy of depression, energy of excitement, energy of uncertainty, and so on.

According to the tantric tradition, beginning with upayoga, yogayana, and anuttarayoga, such energy is divided into three parts. The anuttarayoga model that we are going to discuss is based on
Kalachakra Tantra. Kala
means “time” and
chakra
is “wheel.” So
Kalachakra
means “the wheel of time.”
Tantra
in this context is used to designate a root text of vajrayana teachings. This tantra, as well as many others, describes three types of energy: nadi, prana, and bindu.

Nadi is like a channel. Energy has to have a channel, a way to journey, its own specialized path. Nadi is like a railroad track in that it provides a certain path or pattern that our energy follows. In this case, the phenomenal world has already created the sense of pattern for us. At this point the phenomenal world is not regarded as particularly radical or extraordinary. Rather, the phenomenal world has set up the system for us, so we personally do not have to set it up; the system is already there. We can build railroad cars with wheels, but the railroad tracks already exist. Taranatha, one of the Kalachakra tantric masters, likened the existence of nadi to putting boiled milk out in the cold air: The milk is sure to form its own skin. Boiling-hot milk has learned how to deal with reality by forming a skin. That is the railroad track that exists already. We don’t have to try to find a transcendental world, a better world, or a world suited to tantra at all. This world exists as what we experience already, which is the notion of nadi.

The metaphor for prana is a horse looking for a rider. Such a horse has to be a good horse, well fed and strong. We are not using the horse as a metaphor for speed, but we are talking in terms of conviction, strength. Again, we are willing to relate with the existing world that has been set up for us. There is a highway already built for us, a supermarket built for us, shopping centers already built for us—there is already some kind of energy and pattern. So prana is the horse that rides on that energy, that rides on the existing tracks of the world, the nadi, that have already been set up.

Then there is bindu, the rider of the horse of prana. Bindu is a particular type of consciousness. The inquisitive quality of mind that tries to explore or to set up the universe is called
sem
(
sems
) in Tibetan. The definition of sem at this point is that which responds to reference points. Such a mind is willing to survey, willing to look into areas of energy. But sem purely responds to reference points, while bindu is the quality of mind that relates with the sense of journey. When we ride a horse, the horse just walks for us. We can’t quite say the horse takes the journey; it just moves. The rider takes the journey, in that the rider controls the horse. It is the rider who looks right and left, ahead and behind, and appreciates the sights. This rider is bindu, which we could simply call consciousness.

So consciousness or bindu is journeying through the energies of the world. Consciousness is the awake quality that doesn’t have to refer to immediate reference points alone, but has greater scope, like a radar system. Such a radar system has to be mounted in some kind of mechanical framework, which in this case is functional mind, sem. And that mounting has to be connected to the track by a wheel, which is prana. In other words, we have a radar system on a mounting that has a wheel that goes along a railway track. The radar system is called bindu, its mounting is sem, the wheel is prana, and the rail is nadi. In this case, it is bindu, the radar system, that guides or controls the journey. And the whole process is based on energy, obviously.

The tantric practices that work with nadi, prana, ad bindu are based on hatha yoga, pranayama practices, and certain concentration and visualization experiences. But there is something more than that. In the application of nadi, prana, and bindu, there is still a sense of taking a journey, cranking up our machine along our railroad track. We can perceive our world in terms of nadi, prana, and bindu, and using them, we can take our journey. But then, at the highest level of anuttara yoga, we begin to transcend that journey; we go beyond using those three types of energy. We go on to something more than that, something beyond consciousness and mind, and our experience of the world alone. We begin to expand ourselves, and a greater openness begins to take place. It is like the unfolding of a flower: we don’t even feel a sense of journey anymore. In anuttara yoga, that greater openness is symbolized by the monogram
EVAM
.

Discovering the existence of
EVAM
transcends hatha yoga and pranayama experience. E is the level of basic accommodation in which the attainment of buddhahood and the state of sentient beings are no longer different. At this point, naming somebody as a buddha or naming somebody as a sentient being is saying the same thing. When we say somebody is a buddha, that automatically is saying that he or she is no-buddha. In that sense, even the Buddha is no-buddha as well. A buddha exists only by the grace of somebody being no-buddha, or the reference point of somebody who is no-buddha. So sorting out buddhas and confused persons at this point is irrelevant. That is
E
. When you say
E
, it comes from your heart. You just breathe out—
ehhh
. It is a sound of opening up, without any particular definition or definite reference point. So
E
symbolizes the nonexistence of buddha, and the nonexistence of sentient beings as either confused or enlightened beings.

Having that enormous space of
E
already, then you have
VAM
. V
AM
is called the seed or the vajra-holder principle. Basically,
VAM
is the son and
E
is the mother. When you have a mother, you have a son. That might mean that the son and the mother are separate, that they conflict with each other. However, the
VAM
principle is that energy exists within the
E
of nonduality. Within the
E
of non-samsara and non-nirvana, there is still basic energy.

Real energy exists as a sense of having a certain discipline, a certain experience, and a certain openness. If you had too much
E
you would space out and you wouldn’t find anything anywhere; you wouldn’t have any discipline. So
EVAM
brings the discipline of
VAM
together with the spaciousness of
E
. Altogether, having transcended the three disciplines of nadi, prana, and bindu, you have a sense of openness or
E
, and then you have a sense of one-pointedness with concentrated energy or
VAM
. The combination of
E
and
VAM
brings together openness or spaciousness with indestructibility and one-pointedness. E
VAM
is a central monogram or basic symbol of
Kalachakra Tantra
.

One of the basic points of anuttara tantra is that we are able to use any form of confusion or hallucination that we experience in ordinary everyday life. Actually, echo may be a better word than hallucination. First there is an experience and then there is the echo, the doubt or questioning: “Did I or didn’t I?” Anuttara yoga brings out the constant doubt that goes on in the mind: “Am I or am I not? Did I experience that or didn’t I experience that? Maybe something is just about to happen to me, maybe not.” Such chatterings of mind take place all the time, but they are never legitimized in the Buddhist teachings of the hinayana and mahayana.

In the lower yanas, such questions are ignored. Such tentative explorations are ignored: “If you have any questions, regard them as your mind. Just say it’s your mind; you’re just confused. Just come back to your practice.” But
Kalachakra Tantra
says such confusion is legitimate. In fact, such confusion has enormous potential. We have the potential of becoming an enormously successful—if we could use such a word—tantric student because we have such creepy questions about ourselves. Such double thinking, double hearing, and double vision are legitimate. They are already included. When we experience this double vision, the first vision is sharp and then there is a shadow around that. The first vision is
VAM
, and the second vision is
E
. That is exactly the process of
EVAM:
We have a sharp vision first and then we have a shadow around it. So we are seeing
EVAM
constantly. That is the basic approach of anuttara: allowing doubt, and including that doubt as part of our progress.

Rangjung Dorje, Karmapa III (1284–1339), a great vajrayana scholar and teacher, famous for bringing together the teachings of atiyoga with anuttaratantra. This painting is from the lineage thangkas at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, India
.

P
HOTO USED BY THE GRACIOUS PERMISSION OF
H
IS
H
OLINESS THE
S
IXTEENTH
G
YALWA
K
ARMAPA
, R
ANGJUNG
R
IKPE
D
ORJE
.

FIFTEEN

Maha Ati

T
HE NINTH YANA
, maha ati or atiyoga, is the final stage of the path. It is both the beginning and the end of the journey. It is not final in the sense that we have finished making a statement and we have nothing more to say, but final in the sense that we feel we have said enough. At this level, if there are any further words, they are the creations of space rather than idle remarks.

The tantric journey is like walking along a winding mountain path. Dangers, obstacles, and problems occur constantly. There are wild animals, earthquakes, landslides, all kinds of things, but still we continue on our journey and we are able to go beyond the obstacles. When we finally get to the summit of the mountain, we do not celebrate our victory. Instead of planting our national flag on the summit of the mountain, we look down again and see a vast perspective of mountains, rivers, meadows, woods, jungles, and plains. Once we are on the summit of the mountain, we begin to look down, and we feel attracted toward the panoramic quality of what we see. That is ati style. From that point of view, our achievement is not regarded as final but as a re-appreciation of what we have already gone through. In fact, we would like to retake the journey we have been through. So maha ati is the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning.

Ati teachings talk of enormous space. In this case, it is not space as opposed to a boundary, but a sense of total openness. Such openness can never be questioned. Atiyana is regarded as the king of all the yanas. In fact, the traditional Tibetan term for this yana,
long gyur thap kyi thekpa
(
klong gyur thabs kyi theg pa
), means “imperial yana.” It is imperial rather than regal, for while a king has conquered his own country, in order to be an emperor, he has to conquer a lot of other territories and other continents as well. An emperor has no need for further conquests; his rule is beyond conquering. Likewise, ati is regarded as “imperial” because, from the perspective of atiyoga, hinayana discipline is seen as spaciousness; mahayana discipline is seen as spaciousness; and the tantric yanas, as well, are seen as spaciousness. If you review what we have been discussing throughout this book, you will see that we have been taking that point of view. We have discussed everything from the perspective of ati. Because of that, we have been able to view the characteristics of the various yanas and tantric disciplines in terms of openness and spaciousness and inevitability. That notion of wakefulness we have been discussing constantly is the final wakefulness of atiyoga.

Atiyoga teaching or discipline is sometimes defined as that which transcends coming, that which transcends going, and that which transcends dwelling. This definition is something more than the traditional tantric slogan of advaita, or “not two.” In this case, we are looking at things from the level of true reality, not from the point of view of slogan or belief. Things are as they are, very simply, extremely simply so. Therefore things are unchanging, and therefore things are open as well. The relationship between us and our world is no relationship, because such a relationship is either there or not. We cannot manufacture a concept or idea of relationship to make us feel better.