The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume 4 (37 page)

Then we have energy. This is not really a good translation. We don’t have a good one for this. The Sanskrit is
virya
, which literally means “working hard” rather than purely “energy.” Energy seems to be the product of the hard work of egolessness. “Vigor” might be better.
⁵
It is taking delight in your life situation of a bodhisattva and working hard. If we enjoy doing something, then we usually work hard. For the bodhisattva, every event is great fun, workable, wonderful. Not that the bodhisattva is on a love-and-light trip and so everything is wonderful, beautiful, and sweet. Rather, at all times everything is workable. At all times whatever happens is a learning situation that can be related with. This is possible because you relate to your knowledge as part of you rather than as information coming to you from the outside, as from some other culture or approach, or as part of some other style. Whatever you perceive—information, ideas, challenges—whatever you encounter is a learning situation, a workable situation, a highly workable situation. So there is a tremendous feeling of being human, of things being very personal. This is nothing pious, nothing philosophical as such. It is very direct. The whole point here seems to be that there is no speed involved in how you deal with your life, therefore you can’t be bombarded with demands. Usually the problem is not that we are bombarded with demands; the problem is that we’re speeding so much that we think we are being bombarded by things. In fact we are bombarding ourselves, and there’s no room for movement or intelligence or breathing.

The next bodhisattva action is meditation. In this case, meditation is almost, we could say, aesthetic appreciation. This means awareness of body, awareness of colors, awareness of things around you, awareness of people’s different styles. There’s always room for everything that comes up. Everything is treated reverently, respectfully. Nothing is regarded as rubbish. Even the garbage heap is a work of art. Things have their own place, and you appreciate this, which is meditation in the broader sense. Both the relevant and the irrelevant are respected, so you don’t have to economize on your time and energy. Because of that, everything becomes an object of meditation, of greater awareness, panoramic awareness. You take tremendous interest in different styles, people’s different approaches, and the different physical situations of objects around you, and the different emotional states within yourself. For the bodhisattva, the whole thing is constantly meaningful and workable.

Aesthetic appreciation does not mean looking for beauty alone. It means looking at things with space around them. When things are seen with space around them, they have their own pictorial quality, so to speak. Things are seen in perspective rather than as representing demands or expectations. So bodhisattvas make a wonderful audience for the theater of life and death. This is meditation. But at the same time, the bodhisattva takes part in this theater, so the whole things does not become merely a matter of impersonal observation.

The last of the bodhisattva’s six actions is prajna, or knowledge, which is a governing element in relation to all the paramitas, all the transcendent actions of the bodhisattva. In this case prajna is clear perception. Generosity, discipline, patience, energy, and meditation each have their own precise intelligence, their own clarity. That element of precision and clarity that exists within the other five paramitas is the merit of prajna. Prajna is referred to as that which is able to perceive the unbiased nature of the world, which is seeing it in its nonduality. Objects of mind are not seen as mind’s trip but are seen in their own right. An object is seen as what it is rather than what it might be or what it hopefully ought to be. Prajna perceives the shunyata experience of nonduality. That is perceived with the eyes and precision of prajna.

So we could say that the precision that exists in the six transcendent actions is transcendent knowledge, prajna, and the relationship to details involved in these actions can be regarded as the bodhisattva’s skillful means. So all the bodhisattva’s actions are an expression of the indivisibility of skillful means and knowledge.

Student:
Since you say the bodhisattva has already achieved his goal, it seems there is no evolution on the bodhisattva path. When you take the vow, it seems you are announcing that you can accomplish all the bodhisattva actions already. So how can you take that vow without being an instant pious fraud?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
It seems that you have to make some statement that sets up a landmark for you, and that is taking the bodhisattva vow. But taking the vow does not necessarily mean congratulating yourself.

S:
But it seems that when you take the vow, you’re saying that you can already manage everything the bodhisattva is supposed to do.

TR:
Not necessarily. It’s not as magical as that.

S:
I thought you implied that the bodhisattva path was not evolutionary.

TR:
The evolution here is that in the hinayana you have realized the nuisance quality of life, and now you begin to realize the possibilities of life as well. At that point you have to be pushed into the Yogachara kind of positive thinking to begin with. So you take the bodhisattva vow. Then you have no choice. You commit yourself to looking ahead. As a result, though you may not think you will be a good warrior, you become one anyway. It’s like being drafted into the army.

S:
I thought the Madhyamaka point of view was that you don’t hope for something in the future, you just assume it’s there.

TR:
Yes. And in order to do that, you need tremendous assurance that it is there already. So instead of relying on somebody to talk you into it, you just commit yourself and take the bodhisattva vow. Then you have no choice; you’ve been cornered. You begin to pull yourself out on your own then.

Student:
You said that the bodhisattva sees all situations as workable. How do you work with violence and aggression that is directed toward you? How would that be workable?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
There must be some reason for it to be happening. Nothing happens without any logic. Even if the roof falls on your head, there has to be some logic in it. You can’t generalize, but somehow if you are realistically in tune with what is happening, without being uptight and overemotional, there is a way. But, you know, there is no general prescription. You have to improvise as you go along.

Student:
If the bodhisattva is devoted to all sentient beings and also notices everything that’s irritating to him and goes against his taste—when you relate to everything so equally, how do you decide what to be involved in? How do you decide what to be devoted to?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
It’s very simple logically what should be your priority. You see all kinds of things on different levels and scales, and you pick up what the priority is. That’s prajna. Prajana is precisely what susses out that kind of thing.

Student:
Wouldn’t the priority be the thing you’re already in, whatever that is?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
Not necessarily. The thing you are in might already be taken care of.

Student:
I understand how you can have something called generosity that is giving with no thought of getting anything in return. But even if you don’t get anything in return, just having this conception of generosity and knowing, “I’m a good generous person’—that is a return.

Trungpa Rinpoche:
The approach of generosity is just being giving, and there’s appreciation of the process rather than watching yourself do it. That’s the whole point. The meditation of the fifth paramita cuts through that, so there’s no watcher involved. You just appreciate things and just do them.

Student:
I was wondering how generosity would be different from anything else a bodhisattva would do.

Trungpa Rinpoche:
In fact the six categories of transcendent action are not six categories: This is one life action. You could be talking to somebody and there would be the expression of all six paramitas happening simultaneously. You could help an old lady across the street, and the expression of all six paramitas could be there as well.

Student:
What is the determining factor in whether a person is ready to take the bodhisattva vow?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
If you’re inspired to put yourself into such an awkward situation.

S:
Well, it seemed to me that it depended in some way on having successfully completed the hinayana. Does that inspiration depend on having completed the hinayana?

TR:
Yes, I think that’s necessary. That is why the hinayana comes first. First you have to cut through your spiritually materialistic attitude. Hinayana cuts things down completely, you know: Spirituality in the hinayana consists of experiencing pain, impermanence, the lack of your ego, and all the ego’s problems. That is very important before you get into anything more than that. You have to have completely understood those warnings. This does not necessarily mean actually being completely free from spiritual materialism, but at least you have to have had those questions transplanted into your heart. That in itself might even be spiritual materialism, but nobody can just start with a complete achievement. You cannot wait for a complete achievement before going on to the next step—that would take centuries. So one has to trust that one can do it.

Student:
Is that the point that you have described as taking a leap?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
Taking the bodhisattva vow?

S:
Yes.

TR:
Well, that is a kind of mini-leap before going into tantra.

Student:
How does the warrior resist temptation without giving birth to an even larger ego? It seems that when you try to discipline yourself, if in fact you succeed at it, the ego just gets larger.

Trungpa Rinpoche:
You don’t try too hard to secure yourself. You don’t try to act perfectly. When you try to look for perfection in transcending ego, too much accuracy creates more chaos. So the whole thing has to be somewhat freestyle, if we could use such an expression. Fundamentally, you have to be willing to be a fool. You are not ashamed to be a fool.

Student:
In describing the paramita of meditation, you mentioned an attitude of reverence and appreciation. Would that be an attitude to cultivate in our meditation, rather than simply watching, simply watching our thoughts and our breathing?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
And in the everyday situation as well, not in sitting practice alone. Whatever happens in your life situation you don’t just dismiss as being ordinary and casual. Rather, everything has its own place, and there is a balance there already. You don’t have to create a balance.

Student:
What selects the object of meditation?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
One doesn’t select the objects of meditation. They come to you.

S:
Always?

TR:
Mmm-hmm.

S:
The content comes to you?

TR:
That’s saying the same thing.

Student:
But I thought each person had his own particular version of the story.

Trungpa Rinpoche:
Sure, but there’s no censor. There’s no censorship. Things don’t have to be purely dharmic. They come to you.
It
comes to you.

Student:
You say the breath is a crutch, meaning it’s something that doesn’t come to you, but you have to sort of grab onto
it
.

Trungpa Rinpoche:
Yes. That’s kind of first-grade level.

S:
Don’t we sort of make crutches out of everything?

TR:
No. Usually one doesn’t manufacture crutches, but crutches are given to one.

S:
We don’t manufacture other objects of meditation?

TR:
I hope not. Well, what else can you meditate on? It seems the technique is so spare; there’s just walking and breathing. The rest is just nothing—it comes to you. The technique should be very spare. There shouldn’t be too many techniques. There should just be one or two techniques at the beginning.

Student:
I’m beginning to see that the nine yanas are stages it’s possible to go through one after another. I’m so over my head already, I’m wondering what the practical value is of learning about nine yanas.

Trungpa Rinpoche:
It is so you can identify with the path and understand that it is not only a myth but something you can do yourself. And also, once you’re told about it, there’s no mystery. The whole map is at your disposal. You can buy it. You can have it.

S:
So as I go along the path, I’ll always be able to—

TR:
To identify with it, sure. That’s what’s supposed to be happening. That’s why they are called yanas, or vehicles. You can’t have a vehicle without passengers. Or without a driver, for that matter.

Student:
Is that how the bedroom and the kitchen sink come together, in meditation?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
Precisely! That’s good thinking! That’s the marriage of skillful means and wisdom, the bedroom and the kitchen sink.

FOUR

The Juncture between Sutra and Tantra

W
E DISCUSSED THE
transition from the hinayana level to the mahayana level in terms of the perception of reality involved. At this point I would like to emphasize once again that egolessness, impermanence, and suffering are a prominent part of the path, an important part of preparation for the mahayana. The basic idea of the mahayana is to realize shunyata, emptiness, through the practice of the six paramitas. But at the same time we should not lose our valuation of impermanence, egolessness, and suffering, which remain definite and important.