Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala (Shambhala Dragon Editions)

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Great Eastern Sun THE

WISDOM

OF

SHAMBHALA

Chogyam Trungpa

I

SHAMBHALA DRAGON EDffiONS

The dragon is an age-old symbol of the highest spiritual essence, embodying wisdom, strength, and the divine power of transformation. In this spirit, Shambhala Dragon Editions offers a treasury of readings in the sacred knowledge of Asia. In presenting the works of authors both ancient and modern, we seek to make these teachings accessible to lovers of wisdom everywhere.

Great Eastern Sun The Wisdom of Shambhala

CHOGYAM TRUNGPA Dorje Dradul of Mukpo

Edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian

SHAMBHALA • Boston & London • 2001

SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, I NC.

Horticultural Hall 300 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02115

u,·u..-w.shambhala.com @ 1999 by Diana Judith Mukpo

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Printed in the United States of America @ This edition is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39.48 Standard. Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Trungpa, Chogyam, 1939Great eastern sun/Chogyam Trungpa (Dorje Dradul of Mukpo); ed. by Carolyn Rose Gimian. p. em. I SBN 978-1-57062-293-9 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-57062-818-4 (pbk.) 1. Spiritual life- Buddhism. I. Gimian, Carolyn Rose. II. Title. BQ4302.T7824 1999 99-32291 294.3'444-dc21 CIP

TO CESAR OF LING

ar~t:l·~~:t.t~·~~·~~·z;j·~~·,

ry·~Mrt~~·~rtt~~·~~·z;j·~~, ~z;j~·~~~Zfl·~~·~~~~~·z;j~~, ~13Q.·~·~~·~~~~~·~·~~·~~·~~,

~z;j~·~·a-Zfl~'t:l{~·~,

a;~~~·~~~·~mZfl~~~s, ~Zfl~'Sl~·~·~~~·~~~~·~, t:l~~~·~~·t:l·~·z:I·~sl

~t~~~(Zfl·~~'z:IJ ;:~Zfl~=~·~·~'z;j'~l

~~·~·~~·~~·C)~'C)~·~~~

~·~·ZflUJ~~·~~~·~sl

~·~~~·~~'z;j'~l

· ~·~~'111·~~~·z;j·~s1 Z'(l'~~·t:),~'z;j~~·~·~:t.J

~~·~·t~·~~~·~~·~:r~,

To CESAR OF LINC

Armor ornamented with gold designs, Great horse adorned with sandalwood saddle: These I offer you, great Warrior GeneralSubjugate now the barbarian insurgents. Your dignity, 0 Warrior, Is like lightning in rain clouds. Your smile, 0 Wanior, Is like the full moon. Your unconquerable power Is like a tiger springing. Surrounded by troops, You are a wild yak. Becoming your enemy Is being caught by a crocodile: 0 Warrior, protect me, The ancestral heir.

Contents Illustrations

xi

Lis t of Poems :riii Foreword xv Preface xvii, Prologue

The Kingdom, the Cocoon, the Great Eastern Sun

PART

0

PROFOUND

E

PRIMORDIAL STROKE

1 2

3

A Dot in the Open Sky

17

Working with Early Moming D epression Overcoming Physical Mate tialism 37

26

TH E P RI MORD I AL DOT

4

5 6

The Cosmic Sneeze .53 Disciplin e in th e Four Seasons Mirrorlike Wisdom 70 PART

7 8 9

BRILLIANT

TWO

SACRED E X ISTENCE

61

) OINir G HEA VE N A D EARTH

Sacredness: Natural Law and Order 83 The King of Basic Goodness 92 Ilow to Cultivate the Great Easte rn Sun PART THRE E

104

J UST

THE PASSION TO B E

10

Blamelessness: How to Love Yourself 117

1

11 Attaining the Higher Realms 12 Th e Big No 136

126

FEARLESS R ELAXATION

13 Aloneness and the Seven Virtues of the Higher Realms 14 The King of the Four Seasons 161 PART

FOUl'\

POWERFUL

1'H£ WARRIOR ' s CRY

15 Th e Basic Gasp of Goodness 16 Helping Others 174 17 Transmission PART

171

18.5

FIvE

ALL-VICTORIOUS

1'H£ WARRIOR ' s S!lllLE

18 A Question of Heart 191 19 Th e Mukpo C lan 19.5 20 Beyond Depression 203 21 Th e Great Eastern Sun: Th e Dot in Space Epilogue

211

21.5

Afterword Glossary Sources

233 241

Author's No tes Resources

24.5

249

Books by Chogyam Trungpa Index

2.53

2.51

208

148

Illustrations Til le page, part titles, and cove1· stamp The Croat Eastern Sun. Design by Chogyam Tnmgpa. Executed by Gina Stick. Page v The Scorpion Seal, which is the seal of the Mukpo clan and of the Sakyong of Shambhala. Jt was pre viously used as the seal of the king of Doge, a kingdom in eastern Tibe t. Design by Chogyam Tnmgpa. Page vi Tibe tan scri pt of "To Ce sar of Ling" provide d by the Nalanda Transla tion Committee. Pages 28-29 Four photographs of the author executing a calligraphy of lu ngta, or windhorse. Photographs by Andt·ea Roth. From the collection of the Slunnblwla Archives. Page 99 The Chinese and Tibe tan characters for "imperial." The middle character, three horizontal lines joine d by one ve rtical line, is the chamctcr for "king," describe d on p. 98. Calligraphy by Chogyam Tnmgpa. Page 103 Photograph taken during a luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in 1980 in honor of His Ho liness the Sixteenth Cyalwa Karmapa (see p. 102). Senator Charles Pe rcy is being inh·oduccd to Ilis Eminence Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche by the Karmapa. Chogyam Tru ngpa is shown to His Holiness's left, and the Tibe tan translator is standing to His Ho liness's right. The logo of the Karmapa can be seen on the banne r be hind the m. Photograph by U.S. Capitol Police. From the collection of the Shambha la A1·chives. Page 127 The logo o [ the Karmapa, s howing two deer on eithe r side of the wheel of dharma. The Tibe tan inscription o n the banner reads: '·The Scat of the Glorio us Kannapa." From the collection of the Shambhalt1 Archives.

ILL US TR i\TlONS

Page 131 A sta tu e of a lohan, or a disc iple of the Buddha, shown in the posture of me dita tion. From the collection of the British Mu seum. Page 143 His Ho liness the Sixteenth Cyalwa Karmapa. Photographer unknown. From the collection of the Shambhal(/ Archives. Page 146 The Big o. Calligraphy by Chogyam Tnmgpa. Reprinted from First Thought Best Thoug ht: 108 Poems, by Chogyam 'tmngpa. Page 160

Tiger. Photograph by Chiig yam Tnmgpa.

Pages 178, 179, 180, 181 The tige r, lio n, garuda, and dragon. Line drawings by Sherap Palden Beru.. Page 197 Chogyam Trungpa teaching a dharma art program in Bou lder, Colorado. Be hind him can be seen his pe rsonal Rag or standard, describe d on p. 197. To his rig ht is the Shambhala Rag, which he de scribes on p. 196. From top to bottom, the fo ur sh·ipes on the Shambhala flag are orange, white, re d, and blue. Photogmph by Rober/ Del Tredic i. Page 210

Chogyam Trungpa. Photograph by Robert Del Tredici.

Page 229 Chogyam Trungpa in a Ac id be hind the Balmoral Inn in Tatamagonche, ova Scotia, 1979. Photograph by j ames Cimian. Page 266 Tibe tan script of the closing dedication provided by the landa Translation Comm ittee.

xii

a-

List of Poems 1111 Pearl Sh·ect: OfT Beat

25

Good Morni ng withi n the Good Mo rning

Four Untitle d Poe ms

o

How to Know

80

125 145

The !'vleek: Powe rfully 'onc halant and Dange ro usly Se lf-Satisfying 159 Seasoning Life

168

Sanity Is Joyful

184

Battle Cry

188

Auspicious Co incide nce : \ 1\lealth and Vision

Exce rpt from " Haiku" An the m

207

201

200

This page intentionally left blank.

Foreword 0 N BE H A L F 0 F M Y LATE 1-1 U S B A D , Chogyam Tnmgpa Rinpochc, and on behalf of the Mukpo family, I am vc1y pleased to conhibute a loreword to C1·eat Easten t Sun. Trungpa Rinpoch e, whose Shambhala titl e was Dorjc Drad ul of fukpo, was a tmc example of a Shambhala person. Alth ough he was raised in the strict monastic tradition of Tibct, he was vety broad-minded. He was able to appreciate the fundam ental sacre dne ss of life and the live s of people hom many different traditions. He not only followe d the Buddhist path but also explored many different aspects of life, which included an inte re st in th e visual arts, poe hy , and so forth. He was abl e to see beyond his own tradition and to app reciate how the Shambhala principle s might a iTect the lives of hnman beings with othe r religio us affiliations or no particular religious affiliation at al l. This is an example of what a compassionate pe rson he was. It would have been ve ry important to my hu sband to lmow that these teachings, which he gave to his stude nts during his lile time, are now being presented in a book th at can be available to many, many people. I hope that these principles can be brought o nto whatever path people arc travel ing in the ir live s. It can help to enrich the ir lives allCI give the m perspective. Some people may already naturally e mbody many of these principles. This book will help to give th em a format and structu re within which to live their live s. In th e Shambhala teachings, we often talk about the Great

FOREWORD

Eastern Sun. The sun is always rising, which means that there is always the p otentia l for human be ings to discover th eir own goodness and the sacredness of th e world. Therefore, we have entitl ed this book Great Eastern Su.n. I hope that this book will help many peopl e, including those who are already on the path of warriorship, to expe rience furth e r Great E aste m Sun vision in the ir lives. Trnngpa Rinpoche him self lived his life by these principles and was the refore able to e nrich the lives of oth ers. I hope that p eopl e can ta ke these princ ipl es to heatt so that they, in turn, may be able to enrich the lives of those with whom they come in contact. You might say this is a bodhisattva approach to the Sham bhala tradition. It was certain ly my husband's approach to his entire life. Diana Judith ~ifukpo

Providence, Rhode Island October 17, 1998

xv i

Preface THI s voLuME I s A sEQuEL and a comple ment to Shambhala: The Sac1·ed Path of the Warrior. The first volume was like a guide book to Shambhala or a road map of th e warrior's path. Great Eastern Sun is about tran smission and about embodying and manifesting. In that sense, it is not about then; it is about now. The re is a way in which this book attempts to directly convey or transmit wisdom. Althou gh that is a rathe r difficult thing to do, it is couche d within simplicity. Great Eastern Sun is divided into a prologue and fiv e parts"Profound," "Brill iant," "Just," " Powerful," and "All-Victoriou s." The five divisions correspond to the fiv e qualities of something called absolute Ashe. The word Ashe is not mentioned in the manuscript, but it will be found in the author's notes for th e talks on which this book is based. (Sec author's notes, pp. 245- 247 .) l n the Shambhala teachin gs, the Ash6 principl e represents the life force, or the basic ene rgy that underlies and infuses all human life and activity. Readers can pmsue finther study of the Ashe principle through the Shambhala Training program.' Although this book is structured in a delibe rate order, it does not have to be read front to back. The material in the early chap te rs is more demanding logically; the later material is more atmosphe ric and sometimes more playfid. In some sense, th e structure l. For infomltttion about Shambhala Train ing, see p . 249. For infom1ation about the history and st111cture of the Shambhala Training program and its relationship to the mate rial in this book, please see the editor's aO e rword.

PREFACE

of the book is like a flower with petals unfolding. If you read it from beginning to end, you start at th e oute r petals an d spiral in to an empty cente r. But you can also start in the miclcllc or anywh ere in be tween. The material in the last two paits of the book, "Powerful" and "All-Victorious," is presented as a series of lechtres that you, the reade r, can attend . These chapte rs might be regard ed as meditations. You may want to read the m that way and sec wh ethe r that approach works for you . In presenting th e Shambhala teachings to the vVcstc m world, Chogyam Trungpa not only charted new territoty, but he also adopted a new nam e: Dotj e Dradu l of Mukpo. He signed th e foreword to Shambhala: Th e Sacred Path of the Warrior with this name. Mukpo is his family name; Dorje Dradul means "The Adamantine, or Indestructible, Warrior." In this book, he is often refe rred to as the Dotje Dradul. 2 New meditators and those who have never practiced meditation will, I think, nnd this book accessible. I hope that it will also be of inte rest to more seasone d practitioners. Many readers will be satisn cd pure ly with what they gain from reading th e book. Others may find the sitting practice of meditation to be a discip line they woul d like to pursue. The re are many qualincd meditation instru ctors and a number of organ izations that offer an introduction to Bu ddh ist and mindfu lness meditation practice.3 In the first book, Shambhala, detailed meditation instmction is pro2. In the Tibetan Buddhist lradilion, il is nol uncommon for both teachers and students lo receive new names or lilies in connection with religious vows they have taken or practices they arc given. In keeping with the usc of the author's Shamhhala name in this book, I also have signed the editor's pre face and afterword with both my Weste rn and Shambhala names.

3. The practice of med itation and th e teachings of Shambhala warriorship are offered by Shambhala Training in many locations in lorth America, South America, Europe, Australia, Africa, and parts of Asia. For informat ion about Shambhala Training, see th e resources section at the back of the book. xvi ii

PRE Fi\ CE

vid ed in the chapter e ntitled "Discovering Basic Goodness." In the present vo lume, a multilayered approach is taken to presenting the details of the sitting practice of meditation. Practice infu ses the discussion in many chapters, but no separate instruction is provided. Rathe r than defin ing a term th oroughly the first time it was used, I decided to let the de fi nition and unde rstanding of terms and concepts evolve throughout the book. The e ditor's afterword includes information on the sources used in the book a nd how th e ma te rial was edited that may he lp to put this in context. I let terms be reintrodu ced many times. I felt this approach was in keeping with how the auth or originally presented this mateiial. Like the mysteriou s primordial dot that pops up over and over again in this book, wisdom is always fresh. It is never redundant. I hope that readers will, in this spirit, e njoy and explore the repetition of concepts and defin itions in this book. Think of it, if you will, as though you were hy ing a dozen different vmi e ties of apples over the conrse of the autumn. VVhenever you bite into an apple, you expeiience the sameness, or the appleness, of the fruit as well as the particular navor of th e variety- W inesap, Mcintosh, or Colden Delicious. Or you might approach this book like sipping fin e single-malt wh iskey or exceiJent green tea or enjoyb1 g a spicy cuny . Each sip or each bite is the same, yet diiTe rent. Th e re is a deepe ning a nd ble nding of the Havors. Music has a similar quality. The repetition, with variations, is obvious in many musical forms, from traditional music--such as the Indonesian gamelon, the Japanese gagaku, or the fiddle music of Scotland an d Cape Breton- to the complexities of modern jazz. A fu gue by Bach and a symphony by Beethoven also repeat their the mes myriad times; songs have the ir choruses, which echo over and over. Indeed, it may be helpful to think of th e chapters in this book as a series of love songs. There is rarely any new b1fo1mation in a xix

PREFACE

love song. What makes it interesting is how it expresses this most basic or human e motions. T he lire or Chogyam Tn mgpa Rinpoche was one long love song dedicated to sentient beings . It is a privilege to have been ab le to edit a few of th e verses. I hope you will enjoy these songs of basic goodness. D01je Yutri, Carolyn Rose Gimian

] une 27, 1998

I-1al~fax, Nova Scotia

XX

• GR EA T E AS T E R N s UN •

This page intentionally left blank.

PR OLO GU E

The Kingdom, the Cocoon, the Great Eastern Sun

Th e Shambhala training is based on developing gentleness and genuineness so that we can hel7J ourselves and develop tenderness in our hearts. vVe no lo11ger wrap ourselves in the sleeping hag of om· cocoon. We f eel responsible for ol/1·selves, and we f eel good taking responsibility. We also .feel gratef ul that, as human beings, we can actualltj work for others. It is about time that we did something to help the world. 1t is the 1ight time, the right moment, for this training to be introduced.

hassled by the demands of life, we live in a world compl etely thronged by holding on to om state of existence, our livelihood, our jobs. People throughout this centllly and for at least th e last few thousand years have been hy ing to solve our problems 1ight and left. Throughout histo1y, in £'let, great prophets, teachers, masters, gum s, yogins, saints of all kinds have appeared and tried to solve th e problems of life. Their message has been quite definite: "Tty to be good. Be gentle to yourselves, to your neighbors, your parents, your relatives, your DR tv EN BY s u R v 1 vAL ,

PROLOGUE

spouse-to th e whol e world. l f you are good to others, you will re lieve the ir anxie ty. Then you will have excellent ne ighbors, excellent re latives, an excellent wife, an excellent husband, an excelle nt world." That message has been presented a thousand times. Our lives are e nrich ed by many sacred writings, including the anc ient tr·aditions of Taoism, Vedic texts, su.tras, tantras, and shastras1-sacred texts of all kinds. Modern libraries and bookstores are fill ed with these attempts to reach us. People hy so hard to help, even placing the Gideon Bible in hotel rooms. Many of those teach ers and saints belong to a the istic tradition. That is to say, they worship the one God, and th ey are monotheists, or they are presenting sacre d me ssages from the multithe ism of other traditions. On the othe r hand , Buddh ism is a nontheistic spiritual discipline, which does not talk in tenns of worship and does not regard th e world as somebocly's creation. Accord ing to the Bu ddhist teach ings, there was no great artificer who fashioned the world. This world is created or produced and happens to be purely through our O\VJ1 existence. We exist; the refore, we have fashion ed this particular world. Then the re are e ntirely cliiTc rcnt schools of thought, supported by scientific discoveries, that say that evety thing is an evolutionary process. vVe have Dan vinian theories of how, from a monkey or a flsh , human beings came to exist. Th ere arc many conOicting notions about the origins of existence. But wh ethe r it is according to the ism, nonth e ism, or a scientific approach, there is this particular world-which is created and which we have. To th eologians or scientists, it may be terribly important to fig ure out why we are he re or how we came to be he re. But from the point of view of Shambhala vision, the main concem is not why I am here or wh y you are here. Why you 1. Sutn1s are discourses by the Buddha; t;mtras are tantric Buddhist texts ascribed to the Buddha in his ultimate, or d/w,.,nakaya, form; and shastras are philosophical commentaries on the sutras.

2

TH E KI NGDOM , THE COCOON, TI-l E G R EAT EASTE R N SUN

happen to have a white shirt, a red shirt, long hair, or short hair is not the question. The real question is, Sin ce we' re he re, how are we going to live from now onward? We may or may not have a long time to live. I mpe rmanence is always the re. Hight now, yon may cease to live. As you walk out of the room you' re in Tight now, something may happen to yo11. You may face death . There are many eventualities of life or death . You may face physical problems, sicknesses of all kind s. Yon may be subject to cancer. None thel ess, you have to live from now onward . Th e basic point of the Shambhala teachings is to realize that the re is no outside help to save yo11 (i·om th e te rror and the horror of life. Th e best doctor of th e doctors and the best medicin e of the medicine s and the best technology of the te chnologies cannot save you from your life. The best consultants, the best bank loans, and the best insurance polic ie s cannot save you. Eventually, you must realize that you have to do some thing rather than de pending on technology, financial help, your smartne ss, or good thinking of any kind-none of which will save yo11. That may seem like th e black tmth , b11t it is th e real truth. O ften, in the Buddhist tradition, it is caJied the vajm tmth, the diamond truth, the truth you cann ot avoid or destroy. We cannot avoid our lives at all. We have to lace our lives, young or old, rich or poor. ·w hatever happens, we cannot save ourselves from our lives at a ll. Vl/c have to face the eventual truth- not even the eventual truth but th e 1·eal tmth of our live s. We are he re; therefore, we have to leam how to go forward with our lives. This truth is what we call the wisdom of Shambhala. The introduction of such wisdom into orth American cultmc is a histolical landmark. However, my purpose is not to convert you to what I have to say. Rather, the more you understand, the more you will realize your own responsibility. So I am speaking to you not only fi·om the point of view of the trumpeter but also from 3

PR O LOGUE

th e point of view of the trumpe tees . Rather than watching the trumpe ter, what is important is to hear the trumpet mu sic. Til E KI NGDOM

According to tradition, the Kingdom of Shambhala was a kingdom in Central Asia whe re this wisdom was taught and an excellent society was c reated. ln that societ)', th e citizens' condu ct and th eir behavior were based on having less anxiety. Essentially, anxie ty comes from not facing the cutTent situation you are in. The Kingdom of Shambhala and the citizens, the subjects, of Shambhala were able to face their reality . The Kingdom of Shambhala could be said to be a mythical kingdom or a real kingdom- to the extent that you believe in Atlan tis or in h eaven. It has been said that the kingdom was technologically advanced and that the c itizens had tre me ndous inte lligence. Spirituality was secularized, meaning that clay-to-day living situations were hand led properly. Life was not based on the worship of a de ity or on vigorous rel igious practice, as such. Rath er, that wonde rful world of Shambhala was based on actually re lating with your life, your body, yonr food, your household, your marital situations, your breath, your environment, your atmosphe re. According to th e legends, the vision and the teachings of Shambhala were embodied in that Central Asian kingdom . If we go deeper, we could say that such a situa tion of sanity comes about becau se you connect with your own intelligence. Therefore, th e Kingdom of Shambhala exists in yom own hca1t right at this moment. Yon are a citizen of Shambhala and part of the Kingdom of Shambhala, without doubt. We arc not hy ing to bring a myth into reality, which would be the wrong thing to do. Actuall y, I have even w ritten a book to that e ffect, entitled The M ylh of Ft·eeclom. 2 On the other hand, as hnman beings, we do possess the 2. Published in 1976 by Shambhala Publ ications. 4

TH E KI NG DOM , THE C O C OO N, TI-l E G R EA T EAS T E R N SUN

sense faculties: we can see, we can hear, we can feel, we can think. Because of that, we can do something to bring abou t th e Kingdom of Shambhala once again. This time, it doesn' t have to be a Central Asian kingdom. We are n' t talking abou t go ing over there and digging up graves, digging up ruin s, to find the remains of the truth of Shambhala. We are not talking about cond ncting an archaeological snrvey. On th e other hand, we might be talking abo ut some kind of archaeological s111v ey, wh ich is digging up om minds and om lives, which have been buried and cove red with layers and laye rs of dirt. Vve have to rediscover something in our lives. I s it possible? It is ve ry possible, extremely possible. How should we go about it? From the ve~y day of yom birth, you have neve r really looked at yomse l[, your life, and your experiences in lile. You have neve r really fe lt that you could create a good, dece nt world. Of course, you may have tried all sorts of things. Yon may have marched in the street in the name of the happiness of humanity, complained about the existing political system, writte n up new ideas and manifestos to prevent this and that-that pain, this pain, this confusion, that confusion. Yon may have been somewhat he roic, and you could say that you've trie d your best. Noneth eless, have you found e:m y real peace or rest? A real, dignified world has not been created. Often, we a re so ang1y and resentful, and we complain because of our aggression . Jnstead of short hair, we want long hair. Instead of long ha ir, we cut our hair short. Instead of a coat and tie, we want to wear jeans and a T-sh itt. Instead of this, we do that. In stead of that, we do this. We tly to flnd some easy way to gain the freedom and the vision of human socie ty. Instead of eating peanut butter, we hy eating brown rice. In stead of that, we hy this; instead of this, we hy that. That, th is, this, that. We have tried so many things. Particularly in the Unite d States, people have trie d so ha rd to reestablish a good world. I appreciate that 5

PROLOGUE

integrity, which is quite rele ntless, in some sense, and pretty good. However, the principl e of the Shambhala train ing is that, instead of hy ing so hard to remove proble ms, you should reestablish or plant something positive. The point is that you don' t have to take so many showers to re move tl1 e dirt. The real question is what cloth es you put on afte r yom shower an d how you perfume and beautify your body. One shower is good enough; it makes you clean. Then, after that, if you continue to take showers, you become stark, too clean. The re is certainly an absence of dirt, but what comes after that? There's no wannth, no dignity. Can't we do something more to bring rea lity and goodn ess into society? TH E CocooN

The point of th e Shambhala training is to get out of the cocoon, which is the shyness and aggression in which we have wrapped ourselves. When we have more aggression, we feel more fortified. We feel good, because we have more to talk about. We feel that \.VC are the greatest author of th e complaint. vVe write poetry about it. We express omselves through it. Instead of constantly complaining, can' t we do some thing positive to help this world ? Th e more we complain, the more concre te slabs wiJl be put on the earth. The less we complain , the more possibilities there will be of tilling the land and sowing seeds. We should (eel that we can do something positive for the world instead of covering it with our aggression and complaints. The approach of th e Shambhala training is to do something ve1y concrete, ve1y basic, ve1y definite, and to begin at the beginning. In the Shambhala tradition, we ta lk about being a wa1Tior. I would like to make it clear that a warrior, in this case, is not someone who wages war. A Shambhala wanior is someone who is brave enough not to give in to the aggression and contradictions 6

THE KINGDOM , THE COCOON, TI-lE GREAT EASTERN SUN

that exist in society. A warrior, or pawo in Tibe tan, is a brave person, a gen uin e person who is able to step ou t of th e cocoonthat ve1y comfortable cocoon that he or she is hying to sleep in. If you are in your cocoon, occasionally yo u shout your complaints, such as: "Leave me alone!" "Bug off." "I want to be w ho I am ." Your cocoon is fabricated out of tremend ous aggression, which comes from fighting against your environment, your parental upbringin g, yo m edu cational upbringing, your upbringing of all kinds. You don' t really have to nght with your cocoon. You can raise your head and just take a little peck out of the cocoon. Sometimes, when you first peek your head out, you find the air a bit too fi·esh and cold. But stiJ I, it is good. It is the best fresh air or spring or autumn or, for that matter, the best fresh a ir of winte r or summer. So when yon stick your neck ont of" th e cocoon lo r the first time, yon like it in spite of th e discomfo1t of the environment. You flnd that it's delightfill. Then, having peeked ont, yon become brave enough to climb out of the cocoon. You sit on your cocoon and look around at your world. You stretch yom arms, and you begin to develop your head and shoulders. The environment is frie ndly. It is called "planet earth." O r it is calle d " Boston" or "New York City." It is your world. Yonr neck and your hips are not all that stiff, so you can turn and look around. The environment is not as bad as you th ought. Still sitting on the cocoon, you raise yonrself np a littl e fmth e r. The n you kneel, and nnally you stand up on your cocoon. As you look around, you begin to realize that th e cocoon is no longe r useful. You don' t have to buy the advertisers' logic that, if yo u don ' t have insulation in yom house, you're goi11g to die. You don't really need the insulation of your cocoon. It's just a little cast that's been put on you by yom own coll ective imaginary paranoia and confi1sion, which didn' t want to relate with the world outside. Th en, you extend one leg, rather te ntatively, to touch the ground around th e cocoon. Traditionally, th e right leg goes fi rst. 7

PRO L OG UE

You wonde r whe re your foot is going to Janel. You've neve r touched th e soles of yonr fee t be fore on the soil of this planet earth. When yon first touch the earth, you find it's ve~y rough . It's made out of earth, dirt. But soon yo u discover the intelligence that will allow yon to walk on the earth, and you begin to think th e proce ss might be workable. Yo u rea lize that you inh erited this famil y heirloom, called "planet earth," a long time ago . Yon sigh w ith re lie f, maybe a medium sigh, extend your le ft foot, and touch th e g round on th e oth er side of the cocoon . The second time yo n touch the ground, to your smp risc you find that the earth is kind and ge ntle and much le ss rough . You begin to feel gentlene ss and affection and softness. Yon feel that yo u might even fall in love on yom planet earth. You can fc:1ll in love. You fee l real pass ion, which is ve ry positive. At that point, you decide to leave you r old be loved cocoon behind and to stand up witho ut touching the cocoon at al l. So you stand on your two feet, and you take a walk outside of the cocoon. Each step is rough and soft, roug h and soft: rough because the exploration is still a challenge and soft because you don' t find anything trying to kill you or eat you up at all. Yon don' t have to de fend yourself or fight any unexpected attacke rs or wild beasts. The world around you is so fine and beautiful that you know that yon can raise yourse lf np as a warrior, a powerful person . You begin to feel that the world is absolutely workable, not even me rely wo rkable, but wonde1ju.l. To yom surprise, you fi nd tha t lots of othe rs aro und you a rc also leaving the ir cocoons. Yon find hosts of ex-cocoone rs all over the place. As ex-cocoone rs, we feel that we can be d ignified and wonderful people . We do not have to rej ect anything at all. As we step out of o ur cocoons, we find goodne ss and grate lidne ss taking p lace in us all the time. As we stand on the earth, we fi nd that the world is not patticularly de presse d. On the other hand, the re is need for tremendous hard work. As we stand up and walk a round, having 8

THE KINGDOM , THE COCOON, TI-lE GREAT EASTERN SUN

finall y got out of our own cocoons, we see that th ere are hundreds of th ousands of othe rs w ho are still half breathing in the ir cocoons. So we feel vcty tmt chcd and sad, extremely sad. From the dictionaty's point of view, sadness has negative connotations. If you feel sad, you feel unfortunate or bad. Or you are sad becau se yo u don' t have enough money or you don' t have any securi ty. But from the Shambh ala point of view, sadn ess is also in spiring. You feel sad and empty-hearted, but you also feel something pos itive, because this sadn ess involves appreciation of oth e rs. You would li ke to te ll th ose who a rc still stuck in the ir cocoons that, if they got out of the cocoon, they would also feel that genuine sad ness . T hat empty-heartedness is the prin ciple of th e broke n-hearted warrior. As an cx-cocooncr, you feel it is wonde rful th at peopl e of th e past have gotte n out of th eir cocoons. You wish that you could te ll the cocoonc rs the story of the warriors of the Great Eastem Sun and the st01y of th e Kingdom of Shambhala. All the warriors of the past had to leave their cocoons . You wish you could le t the cocoon ers know that. You would like to te ll the m tha t they are not alone. There are hundreds of thou sands of others w ho have made this jomn ey . Once you develop this quality of sadness, you also develop a q uality of dign ity or positive arrogance within yourself, which is q uite diflEwent from th e usual negative arrogan ce. You can manifest yourself with dig nity to show the degraded world that trying to avoid death by sleeping in a cocoon is not the way. The degraded world, in w hich peopl e are sleeping in the ir cocoons trying to avoid the pain of death, is called the setting-sun world . In that world, people are lookin g for the sunset as a sign that the re will be a peaceful night ahead. But tha t night is never peaceful: it is always pitch-dark. Th ose w ho ari se from the cocoon are call ed th e people of the Great Eastern Sun. They arc not blinded by opening the ir eyes, and th ey are not emban assed about developing head and shoulders and stepp ing out of their cocoons. Such people 9

P .RO L OG IJ E

begin to breathe the fresh morn ing air. They experie nce br illiance, which is constant and heauti(iJI. In the sitting practice of medita tion, which is part of the Sbambhala training, we stress the impo1tance of good posture . Postme is imp01tant, not just in sitting practice, but in whateve r you do . Whe the r you are talking to a client or talking to your mate, whe ther you' re talking to yom pets or talking to yourselfwhich docs sometimes happen-hav ing a good posture of head and shoulde rs is an expression that you've stepped out of yom cocoon. One of the reasons that people sing in the showe r is that the water showering down on you forces you to stand up and have good head and shoulders. You begin to feel cleaned out, so you begin to sing or hum. This is not a myth ; it's tmc. \IVhcn you have water fa lling on your shoulde rs, your head, and your face, there's a sense that you' re relating with heaven. II EL PT NC

O TN ERS

The Shambhala h·aining is based on developing gentleness and genuin eness so that we can help ourselves and develop tende m ess in om hea rts. \IVe no longer wrap ourse lves in the sleeping bag of our cocoon. We feel responsible for om selves, and we feel good taking responsibility. We also feel gratefi1 l that, as human beings, we can actually work for oth ers . lt is about time that we did some thing to he lp th e world. Tt is the right time, the right mome nt, for this training to be introduced . The fixation of ego is manifested in the words 1 am . Then th ere is th e conclusion: "I am ... happy" or "I am . .. sad." Th ere is the fi rst thought (I) and the second thought (am), and RnaJiy the third thought is the conclusion. "I am happy," "I am sad," " I feel miserable," " I feel good" -whatever the th ought may be. The Shambhala idea of respons ibility is to drop am . Just say, "I happy," " I sad." I know there's a bit of a linguistic problem he re, 10

TH E KI NGDOM , THE COCOON, TI-l E G R EAT EASTE R N SUN

but 1 hope that you can understand '..vhat I'm saying. The point is to he responsible to oth ers, with out self~ conRnnation. To put it slightly diffe rently, suppose yom name is Sandy. The re is "Sandy," and there is the "world." You don' t need a verb be tween them as confinnation. Just be kind to others. Sandy should be gen uine . Wh en she is th e real, genuine Sandy, she can help others a lot. She may not have any training in first aid, but Sandy can put a Band-Aid on somconc's fin ger. Sandy is no longer afraid to help, and she is ve1y kind and on the spot. Wh e n you begin to he lp others, you have raised your head and shoulders, and you're stepping out of your cocoon. The point of the Shambhala training is not to prod uce fake people. Th e point is to become a real pe rson who can help oth ers. Be ing in the cocoon is almost like being a child in the womb, a child who doe sn' t pa1ticularly want to come out. Even afte r you' re bom, you aren' t happy about be ing toile t-trained. You would prefer to stay in your nappies, your diapers. You like to have something wrapped around your bottom all the time. But eventually, your diapers are taken away. You have no choice. You have been born, and you've been toile t-trained; you can' t stay forever in yom diapers. In fact, you might feel quite free, no longer having a diaper wn1pped around your bum. You can move around quite freely. You might eventually {eel quite good about being free from the tyranny that pare nthood and home life impose. Still, we don' t 1·eally want to develop discipline. So we begin to create this little thingy, this little cocoon. vVe get wrapped up in all sorts of things. Whe n we're in the cocoon, we don' t want to sit up1ight and eat with good table mann ers. We don' t really want to dress elegantly, and we don' t want to confo1m to any discipline that reqn ires even three minutes of sile nce. That's partly because of be ing raised in orth America, where everything is built for c hildren to e nte rtain the mselves. Entertainment is even the basis for e ducation. If you can raise your own children outside of the 11

PRO L OG UE

cocoon, you will raise lots of bodhisattva children, children who a re real and face li:1ets and are actually able to relate with reality properly. I have done that myself with my own children, and it seems to have worked out. As de cent human beings, we face the facts of reality. \.Yhethe r we are in the middle of a snowstorm or a rainstorm, whe ther th ere is family chaos, whatever problems there may be, we are willing to work the m out. Looking into those situations is no longe r regarded as a hassle, but it is regarded as our du ty . Although helping others has been preached quite a lot, we don' t rea lly be lieve we can do it. The traditional Ame rican expression, as I've hea rd it, is that we don' t want to ge t our fin ge rs dirty. Tha t, in a nutshe ll, is why we want to stay in th e cocoon: we don't want to get our fin gers d irty. But we mu st do something about this world, so tha t th e wo rld can develop into a nonaggressive society where p eople can ·wake themselves up. Helping othe rs is one of the biggest challenges. I appreciate your inqui sitive ness, your sense of hu n-lOr, and your relaxation . Please hy to e legantize yourselves and step out of the cocoon. The bas ic point is to become ve ry ge nuine with in yourse lves. This means being free from th e plastic world, if such a thing is poss ible . Also, please don't hurt oth ers. If you can't do that, at least trea t yourself be tte r and don' t punish yourself by sleepin g in your cocoon . F ina lly, please try to work with p eople a nd be he lpful to them. A fan tastically large numbe r of people need he lp . Please tJy to he lp the m, for goodness sake, for heaven and earth. D on' t just collect Oriental wisdoms one after the othe r. Don' t just sit on an e mpty zafu, an empty medita tion cushion. But go out and try to help othe rs, if you can. Tha t is the main point. We have to do something . We've got to do something. As we read in the newspapers and see on television, th e world is de te riorating, one thing after the othe r, eve~y hour, eve ry minute, and 12

TH E KI NG DO M , TH E C O C OO N, TI-l E G R EA T EAS T E R N SUN

nobody is helping very much. Your he lp doesn' t have to be a big deal. To begin with, just work with your fi·i ends and work with yourself at th e same time. It is about time that we became responsible for this world. It will pay for itself.

13

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PART O N E

PROFOUND

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PRI NIORDIAL STROKE

• 1•

A D ot In the Open Sky

Our theme here is tn1st. To begin with, the notion of trust is being without suspicion. That is the idea of trust from the dictionar·y's point of view. When you trust som.ebody, you're not suspicious of them at all. Trust without suspicion strangely comes from nowhere, but we are not talking about a mystical exped ence. Wh en you trust without suspicion, what are you left with? When there's no suspicion, what is yow· t·rust in anyway? You m·e ·right on the dot. Trust without suspicion.

vV E A R E

\V 0 R T H Y

T0

LI VE

l

r

T H lS W0 RLD .

Th e

Shambhala journey is a process of leam ing to appreciate and tmde rstand this worthiness. The training is based on the discipline of uplifting and civilizing ourselves, which is partly a refl ection of the buddhadlwnna, the teachings of the Buddha. Buddhism provides an idea or how to hand le ourselves: body, mind, sp eech, and livelihood all toge ther. The Shambhala trainin g is also a response to suffering and pain, the misery, terror, and honor that have developed throughout what is known as the setting-sun

PROFOU

1D

world: a world based on th e fear of death, fear of oneself, and fear of others-a world that comes with lots of wamings. \.Yc have no idea how to actually live and lead our lives in toclay's society. H ow can we be decent h uman beings, dignified human beings, awake human be ings? How can we condu ct ourselves properly in this society, without laying trips on othe rs or ourselves? Ilow can we treat 011r children be tter, om husbands better, our wives better? H ow can we relate with our business partn e rs better, 011r bosses bette r, 011r e mployees be tter? In response to those questions, th e Shambhala idc.:'l of warriorship is quite practical. It is learning how to conduct ou r lives according to what is known as the Great Eastem Sun vision. The vision of th e Great Eastcm Sun is p erpetually looking a head, lookin g forward. Bas ically speaking, .it is impossible not to go forward. You arc always getting olde r-or younger. You can't hold ofT yom death. Beyond that, every clay you learn something new. You can't deny that. You may not have a particularly extraordinary vision eve1y day. You may not make a billion dollars in a day-although sometimes such things come up as well! Nevertheless, there is always some kind of f01ward motion. The re is no proble m with going forward , but there is a difference between going forward and speeding reckJessly. When you go fon·vard, you go step-bystep. Recklessness is pushing yourself to do more than you can, or it is th e result of impatience and be in g fearful. Rath er than taking the time to prepare a nice meal, yon eat bad fast food and get sick from it. J ust go ahead. Just do it. Rebel- against something or other. There is no dignity. Dignity is having consideration for others and being gentle to yourself and othe rs. With gentleness, you go forward without recklessness, and the res ult is that you avoid any accid ents. One analogy for that is riding a horse. If you have a good scat on the horse, good posture, and proper control of the re ins, the n as the horse moves forward , you and the horse are synchronized, so that 18

t1 DOT l tV TH E OP EN S Kr

the horse never bucks and throws yo n off. Your gait is fantastic. Walk, and eve1y thing is controlled. Yon sit in the saddle as if you were on a thron e. You have a good relationship with the horse, and your riding is good. In the Shambhala world, when mind and body are synchronized, you never mess up anybody e lse's situation . Recklessness is destroying other p eople's sta te of mind as well as yom own . With Great Eastern Sun vision, that is out of the question. So the Shambhala tra ining is learning how to be gentle to om se lves and oth ers and lea min g why that works be tter. This particula r training process edu cates us to become vc1y dece nt human beings so that we can work with domestic situations and with our emotional life properly. We can synchronize om mind and body togethe r, and without resentment or aggression, with enormous gentle ness, we treat om selves so well. In that way, we cele brate life prope rly. Th e Shambhala path involves individual tra ining. You might say that there is no new message he re an d that you've hea rd these things before, which may be tme . The re is no new message, pa rticularly, or new hick. But the point he re is to actualize. That in itself is a new message-whic h might be a new trick as well. People may give you lots of advice, hy ing to help you be good. They keep saying, "H ow're you doing? Take it easy. Don' t worry. Eve ty thing's go ing to be OK." But nobody kn ows how to make that so. Can yo u really take it easy? Are you really goi11g to be OK? This tra ining presents how to do it. It prese nts th e real heart of the matte r. By joining the basic Buddhist-oriented p ractice of sitting meditation with the appreciation of our lives, the re is no discrepancy be tween dealing with ourselves and dealing with oth ers at all. Our theme he re is trust. To begin with, th e notion of trust is be ing without suspicion . That is the idea of tmst from th e diction ary's point of view. vVhen you tmst somebody, you' re not suspicious of them at all. Tm st without suspicion strange ly comes from 19

PRO F O U

1D

nowh ere, but we are not talking about a mystical experience. \tVh en yon tm st withou t suspicion, what are yon left with? \!Vhen th ere's no suspic ion, what is your tmst i·n anyway? You a rc right on th e dot. Tru st witho ut suspicion. \Vhen you are suspicious of someone or something, th en you study that person or situation, and you say to yourself, "Suppose this happens. Then that might happen. If that happens, then th is might happen." You imag ine possible sce narios, you build up your logical conclusions, and you create a plan to rid yourself of any potential danger-which prevents any Conn of trust. In our case, the idea of trust withou t suspicion involves giving up any possibilities of a waming syste m for dange r at all. In the Shambhala context, we arc talking about unconditional tmst. Uncond itional tmst means, first of al l, that your own situation is tmstworthy. You are as you arc. Kare n Doc is a good Karen Doc. Joe Schmidt is a good Joe Schmidt, a trustworthy Joe Schmidt. You tmst in your existence and in your training. You m·e trustworthy; therefore, you can work with othe rs. You don' t have to pollute the world or give in to any indulgence at all. Unconditional tmst: we are capable of being good, kind, gentle, and loving, e ith er to omse lves or to others. Why so? Because we have a gap somewhe re in our state of mind. You might be the most cm el and mean person in histo1y-a terrible pe rson-but you are capable of falling in love . The re is that possibility-not even poss ibility, but the re is that actuality already. We are capable of be ing kind, loving, and gentle. In the English language, usually those words-kind, loving, gentle-refer pu re ly to e thics or to our actions alone. But he re those te rms refe r to our fundam ental state of mind. With the state of mind of kindness and gentleness, we are capable of fallin g in love; we are capable of be ing gentle; we arc capable of shaking hands with someone and saying, "He llo. H ow are you today?" That little capability-how little it may bel But we have something the re. \!Ve are not complete monsters. vVe 20

t1 DOT l tV THE OPEN S Kr

do occasionally smile. We look a t someone, and we feel good. It may be onl y for a short p etiod, but we have some thing in ourselves, and if we cultivate that e>.:perience, that clot of goodn ess, that spot, th en we find that we have a dot in the open sky. That dot was not produ ced by anybody. It ';vasn't part of om education or our upbringing or om re lationship with our family or om Jove affairs. It's not part of om love of good food or good clothing. But that vety so ft spot, that tinge of some thing, is a dot in the sky. Th e dot is always the re; it's primordial. We didn' t even inherit it. Inhel'itecl means tha t something is handed down by gene rations. But in this case, we simply have it. Therefore, it is called the ptimordial, unconditional dot. That dot exists in a big sky. Ofte n, we think it is a small sky, and we think th e dot is just a mishap of some ki nd. We think it's a n accide nt that we have that soft spot. It didn' t mean it. We can j ust cover it up and forget it altogeth er. But th ere is a good dot in the sky, and that vety dot is primordial, unconditioned basic goodness. Th e dot is also the source of basic goodness, its fu se or sta rting point. Out of tha t primordial experience, we begin to realize basic goodn ess . To begin with , whenever the re is a clot, it is unconditiona l. You can't say whe ther it is bad or good, but it is so. Then out of that dot of un conditional goodness comes the second level of basic goodness, which is the state of mind that is willing, always willing, to do things. To begin with, you are willing to ad.'Tlowledge basic goodness . Th e obstacles to willingness are laziness and sel Rshness, which arc a tc mporaty patchwork that covers up the dot. But fundamentally, underneath that, the re is always willingness. You are willing to sacrifi ce yom self for somebody else. On a certain day, you might feel terribly uptight. Then you feel your dot. After that, you might end up saying to somebody, "He llo. How a rc you ?" That willingness is almost an automatic thing, not something that you have to crank up, but a basic human instinct that happens 21

PROFO U

1D

all th e time . Habitual patte m s of ne urosis don't provid e any rea l obstacles to it. The patte m of habitual nemosis is to hold back, be uptight, and maintain your "thingy." But such ne urosis doesn't reach ve1y far fundam entally at all, because willingness is a natural reflex. You're driving with a fri end in th e middle of the night, and you look out the window of the car and see a shooting star. You think that yom friend hasn't seen it, so without thinking, without hesitation, you say, "Did you sec that?" Will ingness and the dot ta ke place at virtually the same time. The dot is the in spiration. It provides a connection, an in spiration, to be ing fundam cntaJiy good. Boing! You feel that you are you. Therefore, you can treat other peopl e as you treat yo m selt Th e dot is first th ought. Th ere's always th e number zero. That's th e dot. O the rwise, the rest of the numbe rs can't happen. That's it: the beginning of the beginning. When you have children, you have to appreciate yourself as a mothe r or fath er and identify with being a parent. You are you, an d you are a real pare nt, a good parent. Th en you can re late with your children prope rly. It's quite organic. Plants, trees, and vegetables treat us that way. First they grow, and then they yield th eir fruit or themse lves to be eate n. We cook the m and make a good meal out of the m. But human beings are usually more fishy: we haven' t been ab le to yield to the fi ,Ji est extent. We could achl ally become more like p lants. First, just be-be a p erson-an d then be a pe rson to oth ers. Jn that way, we can setve oth ers and correct othe r p eople's problems. That kind of wanting to share, wanting to work with others, is always the re. When you are willing to relate with a situation, the re is lots of room to express you rself, thoroughly and fully. When you realize that you a re not frozen or comple tely harde ned at all , that makes you more soft, vulnerabl e, and gentle. So wh en you have experienced the dot and the will ingness, the n gentleness arises. The opposite of gentleness is doubt and lack of humor. Doubt takes a 22

t1 DOT l tV THE OPEN SKr

lot of fotms. On e of th em is th e fear that you'll hurt yourself by going forward too much. That is doubt in the Great Eastem Sun princ iple, thinking that if you go forward, you mig ht get hurt. Ano ther fotm of doubt is feeling that you have fundame nta lly misunde rstood your life. You feel that you are constantly making some kind of gene ral mistake. You feel confused and condemn ed. ln the middle of th e night, if you have insomnia, you wonder whe n the sun is go ing to shine. Your clock seems to be made of rubber: time stre tches longer and longer, and the sun never shin es . Th ere could be many levels of doubt, but all of those arc manifested in a long face witl1 out a smile. Freedom from doubt is conn ected with humor, j oy, and celebration. You tm st th e sihtation; the re fore, you can a fford to smil e. You don' t have to hold back or be uptight. I n that way, tru st brings gentleness, clou btlcssncss, and relaxation. You expe rience the ope n sky. This is all under the heading of that fu ndamental or larger vision of tmst. \Ve are not talking a bout a little tmst, here and the re, but we are talking about a big trust. In that connection, I would also like to talk about trnsting yourself in the practice of meditation. Th e discipline of meditation is designed so that everybod y can become a good person. Everybod y should have a regal existence. vVhen you sit on yonr me dita tion cushion, don' t hesita te: hy to be regal. Sync hronize mind and body and tty to have good physical posture. In meditation, you should keep everything vety simpl e. Work with cvety thing simply and directly, keep a good posture, follow the breath, ~mel th en project your mind. Work with your breath. Go along with th e breath , which is simpl e and ordinary. Then include your discursive thoughts in your practice, and continually go back to your breath. At the same time, hy to drive yourself. Be the re as much as you can-on the spot. The sitting practice is not all that arduous. Ju st hy to re late with the eartl1iness and ordinarin ess of it. 23

PRO F O U

1D

We are talking not only about the a ttainment of enlighte nment but about becoming good human be ings a nd good citize ns. Goodness comes from yom mind. The mind relates with yom body, and the body relates with your circulation, breath, poshn·e, and tempe ratme. Try to combine al l those things together. Tty to have a vety good, solid sitting practice. Be on the spot as mu ch as you can. Breath goes out and dissolves. Anothe r breath goes out. With good head and shoulders, open chest, you sit like a warrior. A sense of individual dignity ta kes p lace. If you have any doubt about whether you' re doing the med itation practice right or wrong, it doesn' t matte r all that mu ch. The main point is to have honesty with in yom se lf. J ust do what you think is best. That is called sc i f-tmth. Tf truth is unde rstood by oneself, the n you cannot be p ersecuted at all, kann ically or any oth e r way . You' re doing yom· best, so what can go wrong? Cheer up and have a good time. You have your dot already, wheth er you like it or not, so you're bound to do good . That is the saving grace .

24

1111 PEARL STREET

orr neat In th e clear atmosphe re, A d ot occurred. Passion tinged that dot vermilion red, Shaded with depression pink. Ho'vv beautiful to be in the realm of nonex istence: Wh en you dissolve, the dot dissolves; vVh en you open np, clear space opens. Let ns dissolve in th e realm of passion, Which is feared by th e theologians and lawmake rs. Pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck the wild flower. It is not so much of orgasm, But it is a simple gestme, To realize fresh mounta in air that includes the innocence of a wild fl ower. Come, co me, D.I.R., you could j oin us. The freshness is not a threat, not a burden; It is a most affectionate gesture-

That a city could dissolve in love of the wildn ess of countly flowers. To duty, no sacrifice, no trap; The world is full of trustworthy openn ess. Let us celebrate in the cool joy The turquoise blue Morning dew Sunny laughte r Humid home: Images of love are so good and brilliant.

• 2•

Working with Early Morning D epression

In the Slwmbhola tradition, we talk about how f earlessness comes out of the realization offear. S·im.ila:rly, when you experience morning depression, it is possible to cheer up. That situation is genuine and quite workable. Fmm monting depression and its terror, w e can step right into basic goodness. We learn to reject the terror of moming dep1·ession and to step into morning basic goodness, right on the spot.

T H E W H 0 L E $ H A M B H A L A T R A I N l 1 G P R 0 C E S S is con ne cted with how to manife st, so that peopl e can do thin gs without deception. VIc have to start right at the beginning, take it from the top, so to speak, or from the ground up. You are invited to join us. As they say, charity begins at home. There are many intem ational problems, and throughout the world, chaos is taking p lace all th e time-which is obv iously far from the ex-pression of e nlightened society. In the past, various disc iplines or faiths-such as Ch1istianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism- had great dign ity. There we re extraordinarily

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sane people among the ancie nts who worke d to make th e world worth while and passed down th e ir wisdom generation by gene ration. But there has been a proble m of COJTu ption . The world has been seduce d by physical materialism as well as by psychological mate rialism, le t alone spi1itual mate1ialism! The world is beginning to tnrn sour. Onr measures may be small at this point, but we're hy ing to sweeten the world up. In the long nm, we want to offe r some thing beyond a token. \1\fe want to make a real contribution to the development of enlighte ned socie ty . T hat begin s right he re. T here's always the p rimordial dot- that spark of goodness that exists even be fore you think . Vl/e are worthy of that. E ve rybody possesses that unconditioned possibility of cheerfiJlness, which is not connected purely with e ithe r pa in or p leasure . You have an incl ination : in the nas h of one se cond, you feel w hat needs to be done. It is not a product of your edu cation; it is not sc ientific or logical; you simply pick up on the message. And then you act: you just do it. That basic hu man q uali ty of sudde nly opening up is th e best part of human instinct. You know what to do right away, on the spot-which is fantastic. That is what we call the clot, or basic good ness and unconditional instin ct. Wh en yon have an instinct of the real instin ct, you don' t think: you just feel, on the spot. Basic tmst is knowing that th e re is such a thing as that spark of basic goodness. AJthough you might be in the worst of the worst shape, stHl th at goodness does exist. from trust comes re nunciation. Renunciation is traditionally a tcm1 fo r reje cting or giving something up . But in the Sham bha lian usc of th e term, re nunciation is not givin g up some thing like alcohol or cigare ttes or sex. Renunciation he re is connecte d with knowing-or with a ge neral sense of discrimination. Discrim-ination, from th e dictiona1y's point of view, m ight mean throwing away something bad and picking up on something good. But dis27

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in the ShambhaJa world means clear seein g or cl ear thinking. What it boils clown to is precision. Anything that is not precise is rejected. \.Yhen we talk about a Shambhala style of livelihood or about synchronizing mind and body together, those points arc conn ected with how to be there, how to be precise. By means of discipline and training, mind and body can be we ll groomed. Renunciation doesn' t mean that you deve lop one-upmanship and criticize or reject oth ers who have n' t practiced. vVe simply take pride in our own life, our own existence, our sparkin ess, biilliance, fearl essness, and warriorship. The joy of basic goodness is the key to that. Having expe rienced that first dot, what comes ne xt? What comes next is th e appreciation of that Orst good thought, which is calle d the stroke. Com ing out of the first clot is the bwshwork, just as when you tou ch an actual brush and ink to paper. First, you tout:h the gro11nd, th e canvas or the paper, an d th en you create a stroke, a calligraphy or a painting. The stroke of goodness is con-

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nccted with second th ought. Front the Grst th ought, the dot, you exte nd the second thought, which arises from gentleness. You arc not trying to fi ght with your world or to destroy anyth ing, nor arc you hy ing to gain anything personally. The re is just the Grst nash, and then there is the sense of continu ing that. l f you're true to yom scl f, as you draw out your stroke , you begin to real izc w hat is good for yo11 and what is bad for )'O IL We're talking here about working furth e r with our basic instinct as human beings rathe r than opera ting on a purely mate rialistic, scientific, or analytical level. ll owever, we're not saying that human beings are an imals who need to be made into h uman beings . That is not the idea of e nlighte ned society . .Rathe r, we' re sa)fing that you have yourse lf, yom existence as a human being, and you can work with what you have. You can develop that sense of basic instinct, which is pure and absolutely immaculate. Th ere w ill be obstacles-questions, criticisms, moral and ethical choicesbut you can overcome the ob29

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stacles by acting as a true human be ing, which is bound to be good. You a re a dignined and capable pe rson a lready. So why don't you do it? That's the idea. The sta.ting poin t, that first delight, the clot, could be anything in your experie nce. Suppose you are vety thirsty, and you are presen ted with a glass of ice wate r. Th e first thought, or the dot, occms when you hold the glass of ice water and you are abou t to drink, knowing that it is the real thing and that it will quench your thirst. Then, holding the glass in yom hand, you bring yom arm close to yom mouth, you bend yom neck, you ra ise the glass, and you begin to drink. Having had the idea, the connection, the first de light, th e stroke is that you proceed with th e appreciation of that basic goodn ess . Strangely enough, when you arc very thirsty, wh il e you are drinkin g a glass of water, yo m mind is alm ost comp letely without anxiety at all. You can try th is yom sclf. While you' re drinking a glass of water, you have no thoughts. You are purely synchronizing your mind and body together in drinking that nice, cool glass of water. That is the concept of th e stroke. The stroke is the smoothness that comes along with the appreciation of basic goodness. With anyth ing in li fe, it works that way. Th e closest analogy I can think of at this point is the gene ral basic goodness of drinking a glass of ice water. It migh t be the wrong season to discuss this, but you can imagine it, I'm sure. You have an idea, and then you proceed with it. When you go a long with that process, th ere is non thought-almost. The joy of goodness. That goodness means that you are not creating pain for others and you are not indulging you rself either. Then we have th e second part of renunciation, which migh t be slightly painful. It is a sense of being put off, joine d together with a sense of sadness, toward what is known as the setting-sun world. In tha t world, there is no perpetual vision, no forward vision, and your vision is pure ly connected with death and with things ending. Everything is getting dark. Dark p itch-blackness is 30

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about to come alon g, and we can't even see each oth er in th is pitch -darkness w ithout sunshine . The se tting sun is the notion of cte m al depression. \Vhcn you feel depressed , when you feel bad , it is sometimes for n o reason at all. You wake up in the mo m ing and fee l hope less, te rrible . We may use our experien ce s to j ustify that feeling: 1 feel bad-because 1 don' t have any money. 1 feel bad- because I don' t h ave any friend s. I feel bad- because some thing has gone w rong in my life . I fe el bad- because I'm not up to the challe nge of firin g someone at work this a fte m oon. I feel bad- becau se my husband le A: me . In fact, om early morning d ep ression is not all that logical. 1t is th e curse of the se tting sun. O ut of nowhere, you ju st d on' t feel so good. Then yo11 come 11p w ith all kinds o f logical explanations fo r why you are depre ssed. The re is a feeling of death. F or some p eople, that feel ing is comple tely extended, fmthcr and fmthcr, leading to a s11ic idal mentality. The othe r app roach is to replace or repress your d epression by d oing some th ing vety crazy or re ckless . Eve rybody knows this fi111damental d ep ression. We d o all sorts of th ings to avoid d epre ssion: waiting for the arrival of the newsp aper at om house in the moming; eve n watch ing Sesame St1·eet w ith our children-or witho11t our children. The re are lots of a ids to forget d epression, and b illion s and billions of d ollars are sp en t on those attempts to ch eer up. In England, man y p eople lik e to b ring their tea to th e ir bath , and they dri nk the ir tea and take a long bath. Many of u s use magazines and food to cheer ourselves up . Vve ca ll up a frie nd to make a lunch appointmen t so that our early m orning depre ssion can be re lieved by having a chat with so mebod y and making a lunch da te . Bu t what about the evening? That hasn't been worked out yet! You may wan t to plan ah ead, knowing that you m ight have th is d ep ression cvety m orning, evcty clay. So you p lan a holiday to go skiing, surfing, or swim m ing. You n eed to take some time ofTfrom what, on e neve r knows, but you p lan to take time off, telling 31

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yourself that yo u'll have a good time he re and the re. You tty to keep things organized even a few days ah ead so that you can avoid your early moming depression . In three weeks, you' re going to go he re and here an d here, and you're going to do this and this and this. You tell yourself that you shou ldn' t be depresse d, because you can look forward to what you've planned. You can keep on doing that almost indefinitely. That is the basic idea of the setting sun. Hotels arc bu ilt to promote that and airlines to accommodate it. Everyth ing works to·ward he lping us forget our early moming depression . From the point of view of basic goodness, we are capable of generating our own dignity and goodn ess. So yie lding to that setting-sun me ntality seems pathe tic and quite sad, very sad. It is on ly going to get sadder as time goes on, unless we do something ab0 11t it. No doubt th e modem world will come up with finth c r and more sophisticated aids to forget any reality of depression at all and to provide a million p ercent setting-sun world. The altemative is that, having experienced th e joy of bas ic goodness and th e sadness of the setting-sun world, we develop real renunciation, which is knowing what to accept and what to reject. At this point, we need to understand another refe rence point, which is our habitual tende ncies. 1 wou ld like to make it quite clear that I am not saying that you're stuck with your habitual tendencies. When you are nice to a dog, it will always waggle its tail. In the same way, if you say he llo to a person, he or she will automatically smile. But those arc just re fl exes rather than habitual te nde ncies. The habitual tendencies that I'm talking about he re are the me dium-l evel tendencies, which defin itely can be overcome. Whether it is according to the wisdom of the Buddha or whether it is according to the wisdom of Shambhala, we are basically good. We possess what is knovvn as basic goodness. Then we develop an overlay of 1mnecessa1y tricks and occupations. We develop little tricks to shield ourselves from be ing embarrassed or 32

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from feeling too painful or naked . Those are habitual tendencies, hut th ey are not fitndamental. T hey are simply temporary habitual tendencies . It's as though you had a building with nice, white, smooth plaster wall s. If you can't stand the plain white walls, yo u might decide to p ut colorfu l wallpape r on top of the m to cheer yourself up. The habitual te ndencies we're talkin g about here are like th e wallpaper that you pnt on but that can be taken off. The paper doe sn' t go a ll the way through the wall ; it's not that deeply ingra ined. It's a veneer of some kin d, called habitual te nde ncieswhich have to be renounced, de finitely. Seeing the basic goodness in oneself and seeing the sadness of the setting-sun possibilities, on e is willing to make some kind of sacrifi ce. VVc can take ofT th e wallpape r, take ofT th e ve neer. The negative aspect of re nunciation, so to sp eak, is w hat you reject or avoid . In thi s case, you a rc rejecting sc lf-inclulgcncc, purely pleasing yourself. I f you reject that, yo11 have a clean w hite p laste r wall. What you accept, on the positive side, is the development of genuine warriorship . In the Sharn bhala tradition , we talk about how fe arlessne ss comes out of the realization of fear. Similarly, when yo11 experie nce moming depress ion, it is poss ible to cheer up. That situation is genu ine and q uite workable. From moming depression and its terror, we can step light into basic goodness. We learn to reje ct the terror of morning depression and to step into morn ing basic goodness, light on th e spot. T he re sult is that yo11 have a bette r relationship with your mate, your kitchen is cleaner, your daily sche dule is accomplishe d on time--all because yo u don' t have a treme ndous struggle, even on the smallest, most mu ndan e level. You might think this is purely a Dear Abby concept of happiness, but in fact we're talking about developing enlightened socie ty. E nlig htened socie ty comes from the kitchen sink level, from the be droom leve l. OthCJwisc, the re's no enlig htened society, and everyth ing is purely a hoax. So genuine renun ciation is knowing what to accept and what to 33

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reject and how to step out and appre ciate depression as a staircase . Whe n you put yom foot on the first step of th is very feeble staircase, you wonde r whe the r it is going to hold you. You might fall. But as you take the third, fomth , and fifth steps, you realize that, although it's wobbly, it is goin g to can y you upstairs. And th e joumey is worthwhile. In this way, you can begin to work with yom early morning depression. First you wonde r whethe r you can work \Vith it or not, bu t once you take at least Hve steps, or have fi ve thoughtswhich is vc1y f.:'1 st; naturally, we think very fast for our own security-then you find that your early morning depression is fin e. You can work with it, you can walk on it, and it will lead you into basic goodness. Walking on th e sta ircase of yom early morn ing depression is the concept of the stroke. Th e dot is taking the first step on th e staircase, which is wobbly. One wonders ... Then you keep going, and it is fin e. You should have a sense of self-respect and self-comfort throughout your life. Wh en you walk down the street, don't m sh. Ju st take a nice walk. Be yourself: appreciate yourself. Even appreciate your subconscious thoughts. Appreciate that you a rc a human be ing in one piece. Yom anns and yom legs and yom head are not Hying off eve1ywhere because of yom wild thoughts, but you remain as one good human being with yonr shoes and yom hairdo, pe rhaps wearing glasses, a tie and jacke t, walking on the good earth , on the good street. Just do that, just walk nicely. Just do it. Then you will begin to fee l that you are doing yom real job. It's not even a job, but you are actually being what you should be. Afte r that, you can learn to eat p roperly, drink p roperly, even pee properly. Everything comes from tha t basic sense of being and wholesome ness . You are one pie ce rath er than d.isjointed. Th is is a very ordina1y m:p c ricncc, whic h happens to people all the time, but they don't regard it as a good message. Th ey just think, "Oh, forget it." Acco rding to the Buddhist teachings, p eople always 34

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have that flash of buddha-nature in the m-always-bu t th ey don't acknowledge it. This is the same thing. Th e wisdom of Shambhala is not the produ ct of some accident. It's not that some body jnst happene d to do the right thing and now we are relayin g the ir message to you. Hather, this wisdom has tremendous he ritage and background . It comes from several thousand years of basic tradition, from a society of enlightened people, great warriors of the past. This tradition comes from Shambhala-oricntccl people who achieved this; in tum, they arc so kind as to le t us use their wisdom and to le t us practice in this way. Vole can find this wisdom even in the midst of the worst of the worst situations. The politics and policies in South Africa we re te rribly proble matic for many years. II owcvcr, Sou th Africa still produced the Kmgc1Tand, such a good gold coin . In any sih1ation, the re is always some dignity, some goldlike e lement. Tibet is a lost counhy, at this point. The Chinese occupied my counhy, and they are tortu!'ing my people. 1t is quite honi nc, eve1y bit as bad as Sou th Africa. We Tibetan s we re unable to avoid that situation . .1\one theless, the Tibetan wisdom has escaped . It has been brought out of Tibet. It has some thing to say, some thing to offe r. It gives us dignity as Tibetans . On th e othe r hand, howeve r, although the West possesses tremendous technology, it comes a long with enormous arrogance. Even though you are able to land on the moon, technology in itself is not a saving grace. We should appreciate the basic traditions of wisdom that have been prcscJv cd. It is absolutely wonde rful to have respect for wisdom. You arc not receiving the wisdom of Shambhala because you won the lottery. You come to this tradition with genuin e inte rest and genuin e respect. It's not random at all. It's not that you happe ned, by chance, to have th e right number and the refore you are he re. You aren' t a subhuman being wan35

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de ring around in a lost paradise, trying to find answers to your questions, hop ing to bump into th e •ight way to do things. The training of Shambhala is geared to educate you to be an honest person, a genuine person, not fake. T he sitting practice of meditation is the main vehicle to accomplish that, so I would like to reite rate the importance of practice. When yo u practice, hold your seat and have a sense of your breath, without questioning or slu mping halfway through . Just le t th e breath Aow. Yon arc sitting on the earth. T his earth deserves you; yo11 dese1v e this ea1ih. Tha t is a ve ry important point. The basic concept of joining heaven and earth is that you are there fully, pe rsonally, genuin ely. By practicing in that way, we come to experience the Shambhala teachings vc1y directly. Om app reciation of the teachin gs brings a natu ral appreciation of the teacher. Beca use of om respect for wisdom, we can appreciate th e sp okesperson for the wisdom, th e e lder. Elder in this case does not mean someone who is chronologically old. Rather, it is someone who has worked and p racticed and tested th e Shambhala wisdom. It is someone who is able to survive in the world of th e se tting sun . In fact, snch people are able to glow and p roject a good message that will influence others. It is quite remarkabl e that they are will ing to share th eir compassion and their limitless kin dn ess with others. Th ere are snch people, an d th at lineage an d wanior tradition are worthy of respect. Ofte n we thin k that we can buy wisdom . Peopl e have spent lots of money tJy ing to do that, b11t they are 11nable to accomplish very much. It is vmy important to realize that wisdom cannot be bought or sold, but wisdom has to be practiced personally. The n we begin to realize the va.lu e of wisdom. It is p1iceless.

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Overcoming Physical Materialism

ln working with students in the Weslet·n world, 1 have been presenting a. twofold message: first, how to ove·rcome psychological and spidlual maledalism; second, how lo overcome physical materialism. Th e first message is designed to help people become genuine practitioners in the Buddhist world. Th e second message is to help people overcome actual physical maledalism. by practicing the disciplines of body, speech, and mind so that they can become wcwriors in the enlightened world of Shamblwla.

I C 0 N 1 E C T I 0 WITH R E U C IA T I 0 N, we discussed the joy of basic goodness, the sadness of th e setting sun, and the discipline of '"'hat to accept and what to reject. Out of that, we come to respect wisdom; th erefo re, love for the teache r or the elder may develop. Renunciation is also connected with overcoming habitual pattc ms such as early morning depression . With that understanding, I'd like to go a little bit fmther, although my approach, generally speaking, is not to jump the gun. I don't want

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to present tricks or ways to ove rcome proble ms when you have n' t unde rgone thorough personal training. The next theme is le tting go. From the discipline of re nun ciation, knowing what to accept and what to reject, and from realizing yom basic goodness altogether, yo11 begin to realize that you can le t go. In o rde r to introd uce this theme, I'd like to te ll you a st01y. In 1974, Jlis H oliness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Katmapa, the head of the Kanna Kagyi'l lin eage of Buddhism to which I belong, was to arrive for his first visit to orth America. A group of us had a meeting, and we talked about protocol and other arrangements. Quite a number of p eople said, "Couldn' t we just take His Holiness to a disco and feed him a steak? Do we really have to vacuum th e Aoor ? Maybe he should sl eep on a waterbed. Couldn' t he just come along and sec w hat America is like?" In the end, that wasn't th e approach ·we decided to take! That ·woulcl have been the opposite of letting go, which is not taking pride in one's cmdcncss . That approach is bl oated with arrogance. Letting go is free from the vision and style of th e setting sun. Instead, it is connected with the idea that you arc wor·th.y to let go . If yo11 arc a good driver and you know the mechan ics of yo11r car, then you can drive at 110 miles an hour on the highway. You know how to control the car, how to work the mirrors and the stce ting; yo u know the powe r of the engine, the weight of the car, th e condition of the tires and the road, th e weath er, and how much traffic there is on that highway. You may drive fast, but it does not become suicidal at all. It becomes a dance. Maybe it is qu itc dangerous for me to say that. I would not recommend that you p lay with letting go. But when yo n have the real sense of le tting go, you should let go. The Buddhist idea of wisdom is similar to letting go. Samyaksambuddh.a, 1 th e 11 ltimate atta inment of enlighte nme nt, is corre1. A Sanskrit epithet for the Buddha that means "the completely perfect awakened one."

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la ted with somebody who can le t go thoroughly. Such people have attained th e wisdom and the skillful means to know how far they can push or develop themselves. The refore, th e daringness of letting go is connected with skill and training. If any of you are athletes, you know that. In a sport such as skiing, for example, if you start to le t go at an earl y level of your training, you end up breaking your legs . If you mimic or ape letting go, you mn into troubl e. On the other hand, if you let go prope rly, once yo u have good training in how to le t go and how to stop ambition and frivolity altogether, the n you discover that you have a great sense of balance. Balance doesn' t come fi-01n holding on to the situation. Balance comes from making fii ends with heaven and earth: earth as grav ity or a reference point for us and heave n as breathing space where we can actually build up om posture and hold our head and shoulders properly. I've been riding my horse Drala evCiy day, and I keep leaming, again and again, that balance is not freezing your legs to hold on to the saddle. The balance comes in stead from how mu ch you fl oat with the movement of the horse as you ride. So each step is your own dance, the ride r's dance as wel l as the dance of the horse. You have to be qualified to be daring, to begin with, but then, once you are q ualified as a daring person, you really have to push. The obstacle might be thinking, "I may not be ready to be daring; I'm still not qualified." Such doubts happen a ll the time, but once you have made a basic con nection to the notion of wisdom, you have to le t go of those doubts. The Sanskrit te nn for wisdom is jll(11W, and the Tibe tan tenn is yeshe. Ye means "primordial" or "intrinsic." She means "knowing." If you have that sense of p limordially knowing what to do with your body, speech, and mind, the n you should let go. Quite poss ibly you cou.ld supersede th e levitation they practice in transcendental meditation, or TM. Of course, the Shambhala training is not about jumping up from our seats and glorify ing that; we are concemed with floating properly. 39

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Wh en you tru st yourself, gravity is no longer a problem. Gravity is already tru sted, and because of that, you can uplift yourself. Yeshe: "wisdom" is the best English translation we've come up with . Yeshe is the achievement of wiseness or the craft and art of being wise. Letting go is not that previously yo11 were afraid and now you can relax or let go of yo ur fear. It is something more than that. Letting go is being in tune ·with the a tmosphere, the challenging world altogeth er. Our motto in Shambhala Training2 is "Living in th e Chall enge." That is le tting go: living in the chall enge. Th is does not mean constantly being pushed an d pull ed, that your banker call s and says yo u have to pu t more money in the bank and your landlord says that you are about to be evicted. You cou ld be living in th e chall enge tha t way, but we're talking about something bette r than that! The greater level of living in the chall enge is that evety moment is a challe nge, but chall enge is delightful. Letting go also means darin g to go. It's as if your life feels like a firecracker, and you are waiting for the boom . That is daring. First, you have a dot of goodness. You might hear a highpitched sound in your ear, and that might be the sound of the clot, that vety high pitch. Any first thought is th e dot. Th en, afte r that, you leam to proceed. The practice oflife, a sense of joy, sadnesseverything comes out of that fi rst dot. The n, finally, you discover le tting go . However, you don't just run wild. You learn the practical de tails of le tting go : letting go in body, sp eech, and mind ; letting go in your household and family conduct. Letting go is manife sting. It is giving up all your reservations. You may say, "Suppose I rent this apartme nt or this hou se. Will I be abl e to handl e it?" Or, "If I move in with th is man or woman, will the relationship be OK?" Any of those things is a challenge. Shambhala Training: living in the challenge! 2. The weekend meditation programs in wh ich these talks we re given.

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I hope that people can appreciate their stmoundings. Appreciate the autumn-which docs not mean you have to go to New Englan d to see the leaves. Appre ciate winte r, appreciate summer, appreciate spring . There are lots of things happening in your life . People's lives are full of things, including the ir loneliness. People a rc lead ing very fit ll lives keeping up their apartment, cl eaning the house, re lating with th eir friends. The re is always something happening. Anybody who possesses the Rve sense p erceptions always has feedback. If you've overslept, you might be awakened by a blackbird chiqJing outside your bedroom window. Th e world is not all that e mpty. The re has to be a drama; the re has to be gossip; there has to be a visit from somebody or other. We are always creating tea parties or cocktail parties, inviting people over. That's a natural sihtation, which is vcty sacred and wonderful. Lately, we've been spoiled by te levision, whose c reation is one of the worst crimes eve r committed, I would have to say. Wh en you watch TV all the time, you have your appre ciation of self-exploration taken away. But apart from that, th ere are lots of situations of natmal feedback. We hear sounds, if we arc not deaf; we see visions, if we are not blind ; we can talk, if we are not mute; and we can smell , and we can feel. All of th ose world s around us are wonde rful. You can pl ease yourse lf with the simpl est de tail, such as a fly landing on the tip of your chopsticks as you are about to eat. That is the best pun that one could eve r th ink of. Life could be vety simpl e a nd good in that way. When we appre ciate such deta il s, we are not becoming stupid or crazy or simpleminde d, but we arc becom ing more visionary. O ne can imagine how E in ste in would (eel if he were eating with chopsticks and a fly land ed on th e tip of his chop sticks. H e would probably have a laugh. So we don't have to sole mnize om world, and we don' t need a Meny -GoCircus to cheer us up all the time . 41

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B ooY

The wisdom and daring of letting go come in three sections, which are very s imple categories : body, speech, and mind. First is the body aspect of letting go. Usually, wisdom refers to be ing leam e d, roughly speaking. H e re we are not talking about those logician s who have a logical answer to everything or a bout mode m lawyers who can twist the tmth to win the ir case. Rath er, we are talking in te nns of fundam ental or body wisdom. Le tting go is a sense of comple te ly immacu late discipline, pure discipline. Why shou ld we discipline ourselves? ot because we feel bad ; the refore, we have to be disciplined like naughty children or, for that matte r, like bad dogs who defecate on the rug and have to be whipped or have the ir noses put in the deposits. Disciplin e he re is delightful. This comes back to a topic that we've already d iscussed: working with early morning depression. That subject always comes back, I think. Some times you expe d ence morning depression, and sometimes yon might have early morning excitement, early morning vision. In eithe r case, yon don' t exaggerate the delight or just .flop down and reduce yourself into a piece of charcoal and breathe out black air. The key to avoiding eith er sid e or that mentality is to take care of your physical body, whatever happens in eve1y day life. When you wake up an d get out of bed, the fi rst thing you do, perhaps, is to go into the bathroom and look at yourself in the mirror. Your hair is disheveled, you look half asleep, and you see yom baggy skin. You have a physical reaction. You say, with a big sigh, "He re we go again. I see myself once more today with a disheveled hairdo and bags unde r my eyes." You already feel pressed to get to your first appointment. But right at that point, whi le you' re looking at yourself in the mirror, the discipline is to look yourself in the eye and pick up on the basic goodness possibilities. The n you can c heer up, as well as cheering up your in mate, your mate. 42

OV E R C OM I NG Plll' SI C AL M A TER I A L I SM

You see, creating enlightened society is not based on eve Jybody riding on some big idea. Quite possibly, when terrorists have hostages, they wake up in the morn ing with a feeling of delight: "Oh, goody, we have hostages next door!" But in our case, we have basic goodness, not even next door but in us already. O ur vision is not coming out of aggression, passion, ignorance, or any or those ne uroses at all. Yon may be living in a ve1y difficult situation. Maybe your apartment is purely plastic, flimsy, and artifi cial, built by the se tting-sun people. You don' t have to live in a palace a ll the time. Whe rever yon are, it is a palace. About three months ago, I and some of my stude nts condu cted ·what is known as th e Magyel Pomra Encampment 3 at Hocky Mountain Dh anna Cente r. 4 We were living in tents, and there wasn' t any runn i11g wate r. Of course not! vVe we re camping out. At one point, the re was a possibili ty that water would not be availabl e to us at all. But we were able to e njoy ourse lves anyway. \tVe would wake up and wash in a basin ; we did our exe rcises, hoisted ou r Hags, blew our bugles, and we were there. In North Ame rica, most places have quite a good plumbing syste m, which is a big advantage. Jumping into th e showe r or ta king a good bath can be helpful in the m.oming. When I lived in E ngland, the plu mbing system was not all that effi cie nt. Still, we made a good job of it. There's an English tradition that you can take an entire bath using one cup of wate r, partic ularly in the desCJt . You can be d ignifie d, wear a nice uniform, and wash up with one cup of water, without wasting anything. Th ere is a ce r3. Tmngpa Rinpoche established a yearly outdoor program in 1978 called the lvlagyel Pomra Encampment as a vehicle ror teachings on mind training and overcoming aggression. 4. T he Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center, a rural meditat ion center in the mountains above Fort Collins, Colorado, near the Red Feather Lakes, was previously named the Rocky Mountain Dharma Cente r.

43

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tain wisdom in that. In that case, it's based on survival, obviou sly. At the same time, the re is a sense of how to utilize your e nvironment and do things properly. We are not talking about buying Buckingham Palace so tha t we can re lax. Vl/e can re lax wherever we are. If you see an apartment wh e re the previous tenan ts left a mess, if th e rent is decent an d you want to move in, you can spend at least fifteen minutes to cl ean it up. By spending lots of Rftccn minutes, you can make quite a palace out of that situation. Th e idea of dignity is not based on moving into a rcd-catpctcd situation. That wi ll neve r happen. It might happen to people who can spend lots of money to make th eir homes into pala tial situations, but even that is deceptive. If th ey have to do that, then th ey a rc creating an a1tiRcial comt, an artiRc ial palace. Things have to be worked on and done w ith onr own bare hands. We have to do things on the spot, prope rly, beautifully, nicely. Even in the worst of the worst situations, still we can elegantize our lives. It's a question of discipline and vision. Th e physical w isdom of taking care of yourself and yom body is very, vety important: what kind of food you eat, what kind of beverages you drink, how you exe rcise. You don't necessarily have to jog or do push-ups evety day. But you should take the attitude that you do care about your body. The body is the extension of basic goodness, the closest impl eme nt, or tool, that you have. Even if you have physical defects of all kinds, 1 don ' t thin k th ere should be any proble m. We don't have to feel imprisoned by d iscase or sickn ess. \¥e can still extend ourselves beyond. In the name of heaven and earth, we can afford to make love to ourselves. Some times people arc very shy about that, particularly if they make too much re fe rence to w hat is known as the doctrine of cgolcssncss in Buddhism. Peopl e have heard about the renunc iation of g reat yogis like .Milarepa, and sometimes they think that, if they torture themselves, they will be following M ilarepa' s exam44

OV E R C OMI NG Plll' SI C AL M A TERI A L I SM

pie . Somehow things don't work like that. Th e asceticism of practic ing meditation in a cave is part of the yogic tradition. You can do that, but before you do that, you have to have enough strength and self-respect to starve to death i11 a cave in th e name of the practice of meditation. One cann ot use one's sloppiness as part of indulging in asce ticism an d self-denial. Living in the ditt does not work. Many world re ligions have encouraged individuals to become monks or nuns. Although monasticism is ve1y natural, in some sense, it's also a he ightened or rarefied level of existe nce . In the Shambhala teachings, our main conce rn is working with socie ty. We want to develop an e nlightene d socie ty that will be based on the idea of pme le tting go: the best society, whe re peopl e will te ll the tru th , be genuin e to th emselves, have physical discipli ne, and take proper care of the ir children, husband, wife, broth ers, siste rs, and parents. The re has never been proper instmction in how to become the best business owners, householders, parents, la und ty men-whateve r you have. So we are talking about how to become a real pe rson in the world and how to have a real enlightened socie ty. T he re 'is such a thing as th e Shambhala style of how to treat ourselves. That is leaming ho'vorld. Of course, you may be able to keep on successfully re produ c.in g yonr world, becomin g richer and ti che r. But a t the same time, you are losing your dignity. You have no self-respect; you don't value sacredness; and you sink furth e r into the ground, hour by hour, month by month . Yo u age very q uickly from th e strain and th e depre ssion of being too rich. We should rea lize and recognize th ose setting-sun tende ncies. If we re spect natural hierarc hy, we will fin d that the re is order and a kind of se lf-gove rnment that 68

DISCJPLINE l N HIE FOUH SEASONS

allows us to ne ithe r in du lge nor not indulge, but to open ourselves and j ump into situ ations and discipline onrselves thoroughly. STUDE T: I was wondering if the govemment of ShambhaJa would have a constitution? D ORJE DRAD UL OF MUKPO: Cmt ainly, there is a constitution . I f you study th e four seasons, they have a vety complicated constitution. If yo u study the human mind, it has a constitution. Buddhist psychology, or the abhidharma, 2 provides a very complicated description of how the human mind works and what remed ies can be applied at patticular levels of the human mind . But in the ShambhaJa world, the constitu tion doesn' t seem to be th e main point. The main point is the natural organicness of the situation. STUDEN T: So, the n, the situation determines the form rathe r than trying to lay a form onto a society? DORJ E DRADUL OF MUKPO: That's right. Yes, very much so. For example, we needed to have th e lights switched on he re tonight. If we didn' t switch the m on, it would be too dark to have a talk. But we don' t all go over to the light switch toge ther. We de signate somebody to switch th e I ights on. We all agree that it's nighttime, it's too dark to have a talk in this hall, and we need light. Then somebody is appointed to go over to th e switch and tum on the lights. That is constitution fo r you.

2. The abhidharma-lite rally, the ·'special teaching''-re presents the earliest compilation of Buddhist philosophy and psychology. ll is a codification and an interpretation of the concepts that appear in the discourses of the Buddha and his major d isciples.

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•6•

Mirrorlike Wisdom

Coming to the Western world, I encountered the makers of the clocks, big and small, and the makers of other machines that do wond1·ous things-such as airplanes and motor ca·rs. It tu·rn ed out that there was not so nwch wisdom. in the \¥est, but there was lots of knowledge.

0 u R BAs r c THE ME is still th e primordial dot. From that dot, th e open sky dawns, which is to say, great vision atises and expands. Trust arises out of that, and from that tru st atises th e need for re nunciation . Because of re nunciation, we can be daring, which is th e principl e of letting go. In the ordinaty sense, letting go means being carefree and giving up any discipline. It means to hang loose or to stop be ing square. It can have the connotation of going against the societal norms you were brought up with, whether it be the Protestant ethic or Otthodox Jcwish e thics. In modern-day Cath olicism, some of the monastic traditions are becoming more informal. For instance, a p riest may not use th e confessional box to hear confes-

MIRRORLIKE WISDOM

sion. I nstead of wearing a habit, monks and nuns might dress in lay clothes, maybe even jeans. In stead of say ing mass on th e sanctified altar, priests might conduct the ceremony in th e middle of the church . Instead of speaking or praying in Latin, they now use the colloquialism of th eir national tong ue. Instead of having organ music, the church might invite jazz m usicians to present th eir own songs as prayers. Th e Shambhala approach to letting go is more like having an excell ent mnning conversatio n in Latin or Sanskrit. Or it is how to speak the Eng lish language properly, with tre mendous feeling. Letting go is the eloqu ent expression of speech, the expre ssion of dignifi ed existence . With body loose and available, it is highly controlle d awareness joined w ith inquisitive and open mind. Those are the expressions of lettin g go. This is not my version of letting go at all. I do not take p ersonal credit for it, nor should I. It is pure ly my upbring ing as a Shambhala person. As a child in the monaste1y in Tibe t, 1 was brought up vety strictl y. At the age of Ove, I began to study and leam to read, write, and think. While I was leaming the alphabe t, I was taug ht to sit up prop erly. I was told that it is bad for you to hunch or lean over when you are memorizing the alphabet. I was told that my han dwriting wo uld be like my posture, so 1 shouldn' t hun ch over. I was warne d that my pronunciation would also be bad if I didn't sit up straight. 1 was told, "Sit upright, read with upright p osture, an d write with uprig ht posture." I was never allowed even the shortest break of an y kind. All preoccupations or excuses were completely undercut. I had a private tutor, so I was the only pe rso n in th e schoolroom. The re we re no other students to compare notes with or to have as a re ference point at all. In this co unhy, I suppose, if you were put in such a situation, you would think it was a totturc chamber. But starting from the age of five, I went along with my life and my smTotmdings. I was not intimidated by the stem ness of my httor, and some71

P RO F O U

10

wh ere in the back of my mind, I realized that th ere was something right abou t this stern education an d training of a you ng boy of flvc years old. My tutor was like my parent. H e attended me constantly: he he lped me dress, and he served me food. H e even escorted me to th e toil et, wh ich was somewhat claustrophobic-because you' re hoping to take some time o[. Twenty-four hours a day of discipline. My tutor slept in the same room with me . If I had a bad cough and I woke up in the middle of the night, he would also be ale rt. H e was always ready to se rve tea, wate r, or anything I needed. So he was a good se rvan t, as well as a very unreasonable teache r. He was usually vety ste m , 'vvith occasional affectionate remarks. Su ch an e ducation is vety rare these days. The closest thing in th e vVcstc m world, I suppose, would be the British public school system, but even the re, nowadays, they have relaxed th e system enormously. In any case, that approach is somewhat insensitive and Victorian in style. In this country, such a syste m of edu cating a chil d is nonexistent. The parents of th e fifties and six.ties felt that the ir strict table manne rs and disc iplin e had (ailed. Many of the ir children rejected them and became revolutionaries or hippies or did all sorts of strange things. The parents took this on the mselves and thought th ey had done a bad job of raising their childre n. Moreove r, they fe lt out of date and too old-fashioned to fit into th e mode rn world. Some of the childre n refotm ed, ifl may use that word lightly, and th ey reconnected with their parents, so the older gene ration felt somewhat be tter because th e c hildren became more reasonable or conventional than they used to be. But the pare nts still fe lt they had done a bad job. So some of the m, in tum, loose ned up in the wrong sense. They gave up th e dignity of the ir earl ier days, and th ey, too, learne d to dress sloppily. Th ey rejected the ir silve r 72

M I RRORLI K E WISDOM

chande lie rs and sold the ir cJystal glasses at garage sales, and they pmchased a plastic kitche n set, unbreakabl e. \¥ hilc I was growing up in Tibet, I ·was so attracted to the Am erican way of life and the Westem style of doing things. I thought that vVeste m e rs must have a ve1y subtle wisdom and etiquette. They knew how to build airplan es, complex machines, and f~mtastic wonders of scientific technology. With such wisdom in the gadgchy world, I thought that the make rs of th e gadgets must have a simila r personal discipline. I was given my flrst watch whe n I was fourteen years old. It was from England, and I couldn't resist opening it up to see how it worked. I took it comple tely apart. I trie d to put it back togethe r, but it no longer worked. The n I was given a cl ock that c himed. It was a gift from another Tibetan teache r, anothe r rinpochc, who in cidentally was the brothe r of one of my main teachers in Tibet: His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Eve1y thing worked perfectly inside this clock, so 1 decided to take it apart. 1 wanted to compare th e parts of th e cl ock with all the mechanical parts tha t I had previously disconnecte d in my wtistwatch . I laid the parts from both timepieces side by side and tJ·icd to flgm e out how these machin es worked, how they actually hung togeth er. When I took the clock apart, 1 could see th e mistakes 1 had made with the watch, and I was able to put the clock hack together. In fact, 1 got both of them back together, I cleane d them, and they worked be tter than be fore . I was quite proud of that. I thought that the vVestc rn world must have such discipline, minute precision, profound detail, and patience, based on all those little screws th at had to be screwed in . I thought somebody had made each little piece with his or her own hands. Naturally, I had no concept of facto1i es at that point. I was vety impressed, an d I had a great deal of respect. Then, coming to the Westem world, I encountered the makers of th e clocks, big and small, and th e makers of other machines 73

P RO F O U

10

that do wondrous things-such as airplanes and motor cars. It tum ed out that there was not so m11 ch wisdom in the West, b11t th ere was lots of knowledge. Moreover, cvc1y thing seemed to be based on the notion of a wam ing syste m. People were afraid of getting hmt, afraid to eve n go outside without wearing a coat and hat, in case they might catch a chill. E nglishmen in particular always go ou t with their umbrellas, whe the r the re is rain or not. My first cxposm c to th e vVcstc m world was in Brita in , whe re I went to university at Oxford. I'm afra id my respect for Weste rn daringness thinned out a little b it, but I reta in ed tremendous respect fo r th e accm acy 1 encountered. I me t many scholars in Oxford and elsewhere in Britain. I found that they wanted to be ve1y accurate in their unde rstanding of Sanskrit or Buddhism or the ir own traditions. I took a course in comparative religion and also a course in conte mplative p ractice in Christian ity while I was at Oxford. I fo und the prese ntations to be somewhat technically oriented rather than wisdom-oriented. The only wisdom-01iented C hristians I me t were some Jesuits, who we re very interesting. O ne of their main puq)oses is to convert non-Christians to Christianity. The pa rticular Jesuits I me t we re interested in conve rting m e to Catholicism. Many of the m had been to Sri Lanka, India, or other parts of Asia. The first Jesuit emissaty to Tibet was sent by the pop e in the eighteenth centllly . Thi s Jesu it priest was told ftrst to study the language and the n to have a de bate and win the Tibetans over. li e act11ally wrote a book about his expe riences. After th e debate, nobody was converted . The reason nothing happene d was because ofhis exposition of the resmTection of Christ from th e dead. In the Tibetan tradition, there is a term for some body who rises from the dead. It refers to a ghoul. Un fortunately, that's the te rm th e priest used. So when he was expla ining how C hrist rose from the grave, the Tibetans thought he was ta lking about worshiping a ghost, which horrifi ed people. 74

MIRRORLIKE WISDOM

Coming back to the point, onr Shambhala training has actually come from the older generation's wisdom, from an even olde r generation than the parents of the nftic s. Our current upbringing and ed ucational systems might be obstacles to daringness. Obviously, it is impossible for you to uneclucate or deeclucate yourself comple tely. You don' t have to, but yo ur sys tem of thinking has to be change d into th e Shambhalian point of view. That is to say, yon should not be afraid of ignorance or stupidity. Wh en we discusse d re nunciation, we talked abou t not being afraid of setting-sun people. This is sim ilar. The first point of daringness is to take pride in yourse lf. Even if you forget what you've learned, du e to not being mindfi1l, you don' t panic. Yo u wil l recover w hat you've forgotten if there is a sense of self-respect. Suppose you forge t th e name of your best fri end who saved your life forty years ago. You arc te lling your life stOty to someon e, and suddenly you go blank. You don' t re member the name of the person who saved yo ur e ntire life. You don' t panic because of your knee-je rk stupidity and ignorance. That pe rson's name is bound to come back to you, sooner or later, unless you don't le t go. If you keep hy ing to think of that pe rson's name, you might forget it e temally. So we shouldn' t be afi·aid of our own fo rgetfulness. Wh en you are fi·ighte ned by some thing, you have to relate with fe ar, explore why you are fi·i ghtened, and develop some sense of conviction. You can actually look at fear. Then fear ceases to be th e dominan t sihmtion that is go ing to defeat you. Fear can be conque red. You can be free from fear if you realize that fear is not the ogre. You can step on fear, and th e re fore, you can attain what is h1own as fearlessness . But that requires that, when you see fear, you smile. Th e Tibe tan word for a warrior is pa.wo, which means "a brave pe rson." If you don' t work with a situation properly, you might hurt someone, which is the mark of cowardice and impatience. Peopl e kill an enemy on the spot because they feel th ey can' t be

75

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bothered, which is a mark of laziness; because they hate someone so mu ch they want to see th em die, w hich is a mark of ignorance; or because they would like to sh·ikc the person dead, which is a mark of aggre ssion. The warrior, pawo, woul d never do th at. Challe nges are the working basis. That is why we have a world. If you slaughter eve1y body in the whole world, you have nothing left to work with- in cluding your love r. There's nobody le ft to p lay with or dance with. I don' t want to sound arrogan t, but I do feel that the training I've gone through is vc1y worthwhile. I'm so g rate ful to all of my teachers and my tutors. I'm utte rly grateful to the m-at least at this point! By creating the Shambhala train ing, I'm tty ing to provide each of you with a similar training, as much as p ossible . O bviously, you don' t each have an ass igned tutor to foll ow a fter you . It would be somewhat d iffi cult to provide that. Instead, you arc expected to be your own tutor and to be exh·emely watchful- not by looking out for dange r but by being open and disciplined. Th e fin al topic is w isdom, which is connected with an appreciation of hierarchy. Once you have discovered hierarchy or a sense of universal order, yon have to tunc yourse lf in to that. You have to make yourself available and attu ne yourself to that situation. That is ve1y important. Tu niJ1g yourself in to the hie rarchy of the Shambhala worl d means that yon are willing to fight or create obstacles or at least to reform the setting-sun political systems, using whatever capabilitie s yo11 have . VVe are not talking a bout having marches or anything like that. But in yom own life situation, you have to realize and resist the setting-sun demands to have winter throug hou t th e year, summer throughout the year, autumn throughout the year, or spring throughout the year. You have to recognize the probl em of being o ne -dime nsional or cultivating only one season in yom life, and then you have to allow some system of wisdom to enter into yom state of existence . 'vVe are talking about how to work with vmy simple situations, 76

MIRRORLIKE WISDOM

such as talking to your landlord or landlady about the rent, consulting with your bank manage r about taking out anothe r loan, depositing money in your checking account, buying anothe r house, doing your groce1y shopping at the supermarke t, or dealing with your d1y cleaner. vVhatever situations you are working with, you have to be aware that eve1y step you take is vety pre cious. Yon cannot change this wo rld into th e Great Eastern Sun world w ith a snap of yom fin gers. It can on ly change stitch by stitch . What thread you use, w hat kind of needl es you use, and how you sew the fabri cs togethe r-that is pure ly up to you. You might feel that this is such a small-minded approach that it will have almost no e ffect at all. Particularly if you are g ung ho on Shambhala vision, yon might be so impatie nt, thinking that this is taking too much time and won't have any e nect. l3ut that is not the case. VIc must go step-by-step, sta1ting from square one. Pay atte ntion to your environment, to your relations with your landlady, your landlord, your groce1y store, your bus, every place you go, eve1y thing you do habitually. Look at the m twice, thrice. H ow you deal with the cockroaches in yom aparhne nt, how you vacUIJm your 0oor, even how you flu sh the toil et: any dealings that you have with the outside world, so to speak, have to be witnessed thoroughl y and watched very carefully. You do not need a tutor like I had. You have hundreds of tutors around you. All those situations are your tutors, and they wilJ give you the message. Wisdom is not pmely th e product of inte lligence. You have to work on th ings personally. It's not exactly hard work, but it's taxing in some sense, beca use you have to be constantly ale rt, all the time. The notion of wisdom is the same as prajna, or th e discriminating awareness that we discussed earlier in the context of renun ciation. I am using th e word wisdom here bec.o"luse what you arc be ing g iven is something that can on ly be taught to you in the fonn of a hint. H aving been given the hint, you pick up the message spontan eously. That is wisdom. 77

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10

Wisdom is what joins heaven and earth. You bring yom zafu an d zabuton, your meditation cushi on and your meditation mat, togeth er fo r the sitting practice of me ditation . W hen the gong rings, you and your cush ion are joine d together. That is joining heave n and earth. I'm putting it on a very e lementmy level. Joining heave n and ea rth is not like making a decision. It is the principle of a mirror. Yoll have electricity or daylight, which is heaven . You have yo m body, your face, your un combed ha ir, your bea rdw hich are all earth. Th en you have the mirror, which jo ins togethe r that heave n and ea tth. \¥ hen you look in the minor in the daylight, you can comb your hair nicely; you can shave your beard p roperly. So wisd om is the prin ciple of a miiTor. I had an inte resting conversation w ith someone about the movie Star Wars. The re is a famous phrase in the movie, wh.ich is " May the force be with you." It's rather like saying, " May ene rgy be 'a t ll alii~L\. NO\·a Sco!Ja: Trident Publications. 1991). Used hy permission. Exceq ) l from a longer p()(;m entitled " Haiku" Composed Ap•·il 25. 1980. Reprinted frOII) \\itrrior So11g~>. b~ Cht)!!~ am Tnr ngpa lllaliliLx, Nova Scotta: TridPnt Public:ations. W91 ). Used h~· permission. 20. Beyond Depression SOURCE: U\'cl Fht·. Talk Two. \ 'ciplines. For more information. contact: T he .:\aropa l nstitul

Boulder. Colorado 80302 (303) -~4-0202 Web site: tnctc.mJrJw.cclu

250

Books by Chogyam Trungpa *The Art of Calligraphy: joining Heaven and Earth *Bom in Tibet *Cutting Through Spiritu(Jl Materialism *Dhamw Art **The Essential ChiJgyam Trungpa *The lleart of the Buddha Illusk>n 's Carne: The Life and Teaching of Naropa The Life of Marpa tiUt Trar~slator (translated by the NaJanda Translation Committee under the direction of Chi>gyam Trungpa)

The Uon's Roar **Meditation in Action **The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation Orderly Chaos: The Mandala Principle ..Tite Patllls the Goal: A Basic Handbook of Buddhist Meditation 1'/te Rain of Wisdmn: The Essence of the Ocean of 1'rue Meaning (translated by the Nalanda Translation Committee under the direction of Chogyam Tnmgpa)

**Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior *The Tibetan Book of the Dead: 1'he Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo (translated with commentary by Francesca Fremantle and Chogya.m Trungpa)

*Timtdy Rain: Selected Poetry of CMg yam Trungpa *Training the Mind at1d Cultivating Loving-Kindr1ess Trar~scending Madness: The Experience of tlae Six Bardos

* indicates that the title is a good introductory treatment of the subject matter. Other titles are more specialized. ** indicates that the title is particularly S\lited for readers newly interested in meditation, the Sha.mbhala training, and Buddhism.

Index Actualization. individual. 19 Aggression. 6- 7, 76, 120. 128. 191. 199 Aloneness. 126-27. 148-151. 1:56. 247 \ 'S. JonC'Iinc>ss. 1-HJ, 162 Anealm, 133 Anxiety, -1. 89 ovcrcomin~. 96 Arrog:m. 117, 121- 26, 129. 1-16 .Bodhisattva{:.), 12. 58. 234 Body aspect of letting go, -12--!7 as t':~.t4?ns ion of basii dan Cocoon. 6- 1:2 Common sense. 108 Communication. -l7. 63. 157. 175-77 of Creat £astern Sun. 157 Communism, 66- 67, 98 Compassion, 36, 167. 176 yellow sun disk as srmhol vt: 197 Conditionalitv, 178 Conficfi Onnn~. 70. !-J.5. 11::3 Uti- :!7. l:3o. t:36. l.).J 171) .t:- ..H'th t' pari of ftarl~: ~Ill·~:.. !·).')-9()

t·ompassum .t:.. I/(; oiS

It' ll i n~ ~0. 39, ~).5

a-; nondt'ccpt10n, 201> obstaclt>l> h). 39. 75

.ts pride

onath. lb. 30-:31 Oct's7 -t$V Existence. orig111~ oC 2 Failurc. fearlessness':. .. 1).1 Faith. 1.53-.5-1 Falling in love. 20. 111> lordship a~. J 18

z

Fa111il ~·

St:r also FParll'ssness ~. ~)(), ~):>-96.

172 alternation of lear and. VO. 163

as basis for li"mg. 8:3 dmi ng as active a.,t>t·c;t o[ H.5- 9(i as love·. HJ6 as path, 90 as ·mile of Sha.nbhall.i. 7.5. 172 that can savt• the world. WI a toast to. 16i Feelings. expression nf. ·17

Fields, Rick. on Cho}.'Yt't-

illg. 80, 135. 1!-).5 GoudJ)('S\, UIWOHd ltiu11al.

55. W:2.

See (1/so Basic ,l!oodnt·ss: Primorcl ia I dot in spahamhhala kin~dom Cn•at 'witcheroo, 100 Gu ru Hinpochr (Padmas:unbhava).

217 Hahituru patterns, 22. 37. 15&, 204 ov point of Shamhhaln vision. l J9 Set' (1/su Worki ng with others l lclping the world , 132-33. 139.JO. 166- 67

l lihold, as ldngd om, 165 1louscwork, settinSt·Sun approach to, 89 !Iuman being(s). 53- 58, 212 primordial dot as essence of, 5-l-56 worthine s of, 58

Human hirtlt, 54, 106 Human condition ..')5, 118, 124,

130-32 challenge as cxpn•ssion of, 55 uplifting tlw. 130-32 I Iuman e ndowment, 53-.5-l. 85 Human realm, 132 Humbleness. 142-43, 197 gloriousness and. 142 See also Humility l lumility, 63, 65 Shaml>hala vs. religious, 63 I lumor, sense:> of, 22-23, 63. 148, 163-EH. 2 10

s. \J:!- lo.5. ;2.1()

Km~ of the

Four ~l··t:>t>tl:-> . II) I. ~~7 Shamblmla, 1-U Kingdom. conl·dl> of. -! t'nlighlcnmc:nt in. l!J3 KinwquL·cn princtpll·. ';'~-:-~. 100101. 117- 1 ~. 131 l.tmily and. 165 joins hcan•n and l'arth. ';'J;. ~J7-~b ullinu\lt• ruler a~ mort· th.m. iH. 101 Knights of King Arthur. 1.) I Kno" lt>cl,gl'. 74. 203 \Vnt>5s ,\nd. W2 selling-sun. l!l.3 u :anting. 15-1-56. :20:3--t to he ulonc. 156 a' oh:.tudc. 203 See also Ecluc:'ltiOu u·tti ng go. 3&- 52. iO- i l. 105 6. I 00-14. 2·l6

body aspect ot: .J(). 4:2- -1';' as t·ontrolled awarf"m•ss/opt·n tnllld. i l

IN D E X

as daring. 39-40, 70. 95 human society and, 108 as .. manifesting;· 40 mind aspect of. 40, 47-52 ordinary vs. Shambhala, 70-71 speech aspect of, 40. 47, 71 a.~ sadness and joy together. 110- 14 Level Five (Shambhala training). threefold logic of. 224-25 Utasang {purification ceremony), 183n Liberation, of setting-sun world, 58 Lineage. 36 Lion (s}•mhol of perkiness}. 197 Listening, a.~ inquisitiveness, 128 Livelihood. 28, 67- 68, 89,139, 174 Shamhhala style. 28 Lives, how to lead our, 83- 84 Lohan(s), 210, 236- 37 good head and shoulders of, 130 Loneliness, 149, 162 Lords and ladies of Shambhala. 117- 18 See also Lordship Lordship. 117- 18. 186-87n essence of, ll8 as power. 186 J..ovc

falling iJl, 20, 118 fearlessness as. 196 as free fro1n hesitation. 125 images of. 25 for the world. 181 Loving-kindness. 95- 96 toward oneself. 117, 127 Lower realms, 62. 132-33 Loyalty, 87, 137 Magyel Pomra Encampment. 43. -!311. 3 Making friends with yourself, 122-23

~·f ao

Tsc-tung, Chaim1an, 101, 133

Maras, 146, 237 ~arx , Karl, 133 Masculine (moon)/feminine (sun}, 186 Materialism (physical/psychological/spiritual). 27. 52 overcoming the three lords of, 217 See also Individual erltries ~'lechan ical age. 156 \fcditation practice. 10. 19, 45, 56, 60, 62. 78. 103, 121- 23, 139 definition of. 94 as fundamental discipline, 157 importance of. 36, 210 posture in, 10 in Quaker tradition, 134 trust in, 23-24 working with breath in, 23- 24 Meekne:.s, principle of, 196- 98 s~rmbols of. 159- 60, 163, 196-97 Message{s} of basic goodnf'ss , 49 of Big No. 141 from environment, 34, 77. 90 Sh:tmbhala, 118 ~1ilarcpa (Tibetan Buddhist saint), 44-45. 127- 28, 237 ~lind

aspect of letting go. 47-52 basic goodness and, 46 ficklrnC'ss of. !56 as key to daring, 130 primordial dot and, 56 \!lind/body. synchronizing, 23-24,

28, 98- lOO, 105, 195-96 Mindfulness, 109- 10 Miph~un Hinpoche. Sakyong. Jamgoo, 211- 13 M it·ad es. 205 259

I \IJI . .\

.\ltrrorhlw " • ~du111 71•. : \ .\ hldt·~t~ . I:36. I:).J. HJ7 .\lonan:h prim:iplt·. !-)7 -~)~. 100 Sc•c• alsu "in)Yqtll'('ll 1W111dpll·: L1 nin>r~al lllonarl'h

'\cllltiH"l:.llc· lratl llh>lt,. ~

\ unthcm"ht. 30 '\c,,.a ~ t·ntt .l •Canacla,. .! }.). 2:!1 22-ti- 29 oh~ tad t'!>. ~~ -30. 1.5~ -.')J cl\'c'I'CIIIll l ll~. 29....:30 OlCttpatwn!SJ. St•t• Li\ eh huclll

.\ lvnasticislll. -l:j

.\1ounbeams of Malwuwdra 1:\am&~·al).

Opt! llllt'S ~ .

226

.\loth·atic>n. ~.16

.\·Juk)XI. Di.ma Judith. :?.26. Pybns. Diana Judith

~~·e

a/

11

.\lukpo fimti ly/clan. X\'. I72. 195- 201 .\ lukpo. l.ord. 117- lb. 172. 1~1. 1&6. Sn· a/:;o Dorjt> Dradnl ol .\ lulq)o. Trungpa Hinpochc. Chci,10•am The Jl yth of Frel'llmn \li11111-(pa). -1 • aropu Institute. 219. 22 l. :22.3 ~atuml hierurOcial law/ordt•r and, li

unconditional goud nl·~:. -t unin•rsalmonarch and. ~7 1 atun•l passion. 1:2.5. 130. :2~ 1; Natural pridl·. 26. J J.l. 121. 130 "~· arrog- 69 hit'rarch~ and. 10 1....:3 of ~o(' it>t~ . l Oi - l> Origmal !> Ill. I().3 ()sci ' J(:ndzrn. Y:lJ l~t Hl·J.!~·ut. l-10 11. 1-tO- -llu. 221- 22 O utr. tj.!aralll'l'. -17 Physical matt-mtlism . 27. 37- 5:2. 2~.')

1.\'Dt:X

in medieval world, 50 0\lt>l'COming, 37-52, 245

PlanE-t earth. 7-8. 98 problem joining heaven and earth on. 98 Political system(s). 66-67. 76. 101-3 hierarchy ;mel, 101-3 setting-sun, 76 Posture, 172, 176-77 meditation, 10 power of, 71. 186. 192 See also Head and shoulders Prajna (discriminating wisdom). 6-1. 67, i7, 154,238 Pride. See Natural pride Primodial dot in spaec, 17-25, 3-l. 53- 60,62,70, 151-63,228 as Ah-ail, 209 basic ~oodncss as, 2 1, 27 as basic human endowment, 54 as bijo ("dot word''). 57 as calligraphy stroke. 78- 79 conditional, as path, .57 a first thought, 2~-30, 48, 6-1. }52 as "the foretlllll:.. ()2. 1:30 {mt•ntalityl. 38. ».5- b 7. 162

l 'llM.'

St>ltin~ sun

a nlldo tt> to. 1-JO

{'ntertuinment a~ ~·~st·ncc of: H6- 87 a~

{'lc:tualizin~ as.

1-10

,·s. Shambhala duwu. 1-1>:> ,.s. ,·astness. ~3 Se