The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion

by Chogyam Trungpa

  Any confusion you experience has within it the essence of wisdom automatically. So as soon as you detect confusion, it is the beginning of some kind of message. At least you are able to see your confusion, which is very hard. Ordinarily people do not see their confusion at all, so by recognizing your confusion, you are already at quite an advanced level. So you shouldn’t feel bad about that, you should feel good about it. You should not be terrified of your confusion, but you should look into it further. You should push into it instead of closing yourself off. In that way, you just keep opening and unfolding, like flowers in the summertime. Even though they are exposed to the weather, to the wind and rain, flowers still keep unfolding themselves, until finally they bloom at their best. You could be like the flowers: you could let the bees sit on you and take your honey away, and that would be fine.

  You should not take time off from your confusion, or from the inconvenience or embarrassment of seeing that confusion. It is better not to stop, for you are about to see something. If you stop, you stop seeing, so you have to keep going. Obviously, what you see may not be the greatest thing, but it is not necessarily the most terrible, either. Whatever you see has its own openings and unfoldings. In any case, it will be a great contribution to your path. And gradually, stitch by stitch, step-by-step, you will finally become a good bodhisattva.

  1. Trungpa Rinpoche usually uses the term three yanas to refer to the three stages of the practitioner’s journey—the hinayana, mahayana, and vajrayana—rather than to the differing schools of Buddhism.

  2. Spaciousness, sympathy, and intelligence are an alternate and evocative way of referring to these three principles, more commonly referred to by Trungpa Rinpoche as emptiness, compassion, and knowledge.

  3. Devadatta was the Buddha’s jealous cousin, who is said to have caused a schism in the sangha, or spiritual community, through his arrogance.

  2

  Love, Vision, and Warriorship

  You are not poverty-stricken. In the mahayana, you have to expand yourself, to feel more expansive than you are. Bodhisattvas are known as warriors because they are visionary. They are not confused, and they do not shy away from others.

  WHEN WE enter the mahayana, we should not disregard the general truth of hinayana as a reference point. We should have a foundation on which we can begin to build the building itself. We cannot look down on the hinayana as something optional, or something that you can either take or leave. The hinayana is like having a body, and the mahayana is like the outfit that goes with it. The hinayana requires a quality of mindfulness, which involves paying respect to your basic existence, and out of that arises awareness. So in entering the mahayana, the previous vehicle cannot be ignored or discarded, but at the same time there is an expansion of vision. The bigger vision of mahayana is a natural expansion of our path.

  SKILLFUL MEANS AND KNOWLEDGE

  The ultimate meaning of mahayana is that it is the great vehicle that brings out one’s bodhi mind, or bodhichitta. In the application of bodhi mind, skillful means and prajna are combined. Skillful means are naturally accomplished by allowing yourself to relate with life in general without strategy or speed, and prajna is based on developing tremendous intelligence and an intuitive, awakened state of mind.

  Bodhi mind is wakefulness. It is not just like waking up from sleep, but it is total openness. You are so awake that you cannot find out who is waking up. When you put wakefulness together with mind, it means that the consciousness is thoroughly and properly trained. That is the definition of enlightenment, in a sense. You are thoroughly accomplishing the awakened mind and the two components of skillful means and prajna.

  PASSIONLESSNESS

  Out of bodhi mind and the development of skillful means and prajna arises passionlessness, not in the sense of frigidity, but in the sense of not trying to possess anything. In Tibetan, passionlessness is chakpa mepa. Chakpa means “desire,” “wanting,” or “lust,” and mepa means “without,” or “not”; so chakpa mepa is “without passion,” or “passionlessness.”

  Passionlessness is necessary in order to develop loving-kindness and compassion. If you have passion, you cannot develop loving-kindness toward yourself and compassion toward others; you have to be completely passionless to work with others.

  The passionate state of being is an obstacle because you always want to grasp onto either yourself or others. When you are in a passionate state of mind, you cannot afford to allow space to develop between yourself and others. But when passionlessness takes place, you begin to create a lot of space. You can afford to have loving-kindness for yourself, and you can also afford to be compassionate to others, because there is lots of room.

  The idea is that passion should be transmuted into compassion for yourself and others. This is possible because passion without reference point, goal orientation, or aggression is compassion. When passion is transmuted into compassion, you do not abandon your existence, but you are able to be gentle and nice. Since you are not substituting such behavior for your actual self, you do not feel particularly lost or deprived of your capabilities. Beyond that, you can expand to others as well. So you are full, but at the same time, you are empty.

  Passionlessness is what enables you to practice the dharma and to quiet your body, speech, and mind. It is related to the development of fearlessness and egolessness. The reason egolessness is necessary is that the idea of self-existence, or ego, creates tremendous self-hatred, which automatically projects out to others. In contrast, when there is kindness to oneself and others, this automatically creates a quality of workability. It creates immense space or emptiness.

  THE INTERPLAY OF EGOLESSNESS AND COMPASSION

  The mahayana is based on friendliness and compassion. Such compassion is not goal oriented and it is not based on striving. You are not looking for feedback or confirmation. Compassion is without reference point.

  In order for friendliness and compassion to take place, we work with the notion that others are more important than ourselves. We begin to realize the notion of egolessness. Accordingly, we begin to manifest generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and prajna (knowledge).1 With egolessness, there is both space and a great sense of celebration. Because of that, we can be kind to others. Our original problem is that “I” exists; therefore, “am” exists; and therefore, there is no room to help anybody else. But if we have no “I” and no “am,” there is room to help others constantly. So egolessness is the basis of compassion.

  Compassion occurs because there is room to help others, not because you have been made to feel guilty. Compassion is not based on guilt, but on having mahayana vision. Because you have mahayana vision, you can afford to be compassionate. Even if you become completely steeped in vajrayana practices, you should always reflect on mahayana vision. Otherwise, you will find yourself becoming completely ego-centered, without compassionate action of any kind. The point of dharma is not to produce egomaniacs, but good people.

  The connection between compassion and egolessness goes both ways. When we let go of the self, we are more inspired to work with others; and when we are generous to others, we realize that the self is lost. We begin to lose our ego fixation. So when we are generous to that, we begin to lose this; and when we have lost this, we become more capable of dealing with that. At that point, the shedding of ego is a mutual situation.

  TWO ASPECTS OF LOVE

  The soft heart of mahayana can only develop by paying attention to your existence and your state of being by means of shamatha and vipashyana. Mahayana experience evolves from being in a state of tranquillity as well as by gentleness to yourself and others, and the only way to develop that is by being fully aware and mindful. So the state of compassion and love grows out of awareness. In the Buddhist tradition, we do not usually use the term love. Instead, we use the two terms maitri and karuna.

  Maitri / Loving-Kindness

  The primary glimpse of experience that is closest to love is maitri, or loving-kindness. I
n Tibetan it is champa. Cham means “tender,” or “gentle” and pa makes it a noun; so champa is “tenderness” or “loving-kindness”; it is being kind and gentle to oneself. Maitri arises as the result of shamatha discipline. When we begin to be very precise with ourselves, we experience wakefulness and gentleness.

  At the hinayana level, your attitude toward discipline is very acute and precise, but at the bodhisattva level, you begin to relax. That relaxation is a form of maitri, or loving-kindness. When you are free from ego fixation altogether, you gain some kind of relief. You realize that you don’t have to be all that intense and tight. When you let go of ego fixation, you develop freedom and relaxation, and as an automatic response to that freedom and relaxation, you develop gentleness and compassion.

  With maitri you are actually trying to confront the ego directly, to insult the ego. That may seem aggressive, but it is always good for you to insult your ego. Maitri is known as the source of all dharmas, because maitri is the basis of losing the ego. By losing the ego, you automatically give birth to kindness toward yourself and gentleness toward others. It is important to understand that by losing the ego you are becoming benevolent. You realize that caring for others is intrinsic. Once you have removed the fixation on “me” and “my-ness,” behind that fixation you discover a general and natural kindness toward others. It is like removing the skin and flesh from the body and discovering the bones and the marrow. With maitri, it is possible for even ordinary people to appreciate enlightenment.

  Because of maitri, you can begin to awaken your buddha nature. You can awaken your ability to be in love. Everybody is capable of falling in love; everybody is capable of being kind to others. Everybody who has an ego can reverse their ego fixation and rediscover their buddha nature. You may not achieve complete liberation right away, but you can begin the occasional back-and-forth journey from confusion to freedom. Anybody can make that journey; anybody can have a taste of freedom. That is always possible. If you want it, it can be done. It doesn’t mean that you are going to become a living buddha on the spot, but you could still experience a taste of enlightenment. That taste of enlightenment makes you nostalgic; it makes you want to go further and to practice more. The Black Crown Ceremony is an example of such a taste of enlightenment.2 It gives you a taste of how to be open and to experience oneness. In this ceremony, you are in a gigantic hall with the Karmapa, the head of the Kagyü lineage, and you just dissolve. When you identify with that experience, enlightenment ceases to be a fairy tale, and begins to become real.

  Maitri is based on being gentle with yourself, and at the same time respecting yourself. Often people suffer from depression and other psychosomatic problems because they are unable to respect themselves. They kill themselves because they hate themselves. The idea of maitri is to have sympathy and a gentle attitude toward yourself, to feel that your own existence is worthwhile. You are a would-be buddha, and you have the inheritance of buddha nature already, so you don’t need to feel poverty-stricken.

  With maitri you begin to experience a quality of delight. You feel that you are worthwhile and delightful in spite of your little thingies. You begin to feel that you can stick your neck out. Your attitude toward yourself begins to lift like a cloud, and you feel as if you have been freed from twofold ego completely.3 You begin to have fewer hang-ups and less aggression. This experience is not earthshaking, it is just a little shift whereby you begin to feel that you are capable and that you have no reason to hide in your depression. At that point, you are ripe and ready to take the bodhisattva vow and formally enter the mahayana path.

  Karuna / Compassion

  The second aspect of love is karuna, or compassion. In Tibetan it is nying-je. Nying means “heart,” and je means “noble”; so nying-je means “noble heart.” Nying-je is connected with dealing with others. Because we feel gentleness to ourselves, we are able to feel compassionate to others. We begin to experience vipashyana, to be aware of our environment. We see that our friends, relatives, and the people around us are suffering, and they need help. We see that our building is beginning to have cracks in its walls and leaks in its plumbing, and we have to fix it. So we first learn how to love ourselves with the help of shamatha discipline, and from that we begin to develop vipashyana, so that our attention is not stolen by distractions or surprises. Therefore, we begin to develop good compassion.

  Traditionally, maitri is connected with the desire to join the path of the bodhisattva, and karuna is connected with actually going along the path. Maitri is the way to overcome aggression; it is the mentality of egolessness. Karuna liberates us from ignorance so that we know how to conduct our affairs, and know how to relate with the world at large. So first we tame ourselves, and after that we develop bodhichitta. But we have a long way to go. Until we have maitri and karuna, loving-kindness and compassion, it is not possible to experience bodhichitta. Therefore, we need to work with shamatha and vipashyana. So hinayana discipline is the preparation for realizing mahayana vision. Without that preparation, we cannot experience what mahayana is all about.

  THE UTTERLY VISIONARY QUALITY OF LOVE

  According to the mahayana, love is entirely without aggression. Love includes accepting others and being noble, reasonable, openhearted, resourceful, and free of possessiveness. With love, you are totally gentle, utterly kind, thorough, wise, fearless, and willing to commit yourself to any situation. You are warriorlike, industrious, tireless, and never take time off for yourself. When you need to give your help to others, you are always willing to do so. I think that covers the Buddhist version of the word love. Love is very noble, elegant, beautiful, resourceful, and utterly visionary. It is the starting point or foundation of the mahayana.

  Calligraphy by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Ocean turbulent with innumerable waves of emptiness. “The source of energy which need not be sought is there; it is that you are rich rather than being enriched by something else. Because there is basic warmth as well as basic space, the Buddha activity of compassion is alive and so all communication is creative.”

  Being utterly visionary has a touch of humor and a lot of fearlessness. You are willing to jump in, and you are entirely free from panic. You are resourceful and willing to get into any projects that might arise. You have long-lasting vision and effort. Moreover, you are selfless, so you are willing to do whatever is needed in a situation. You enjoy what you are doing, but not just because things are entertaining for you or because you are on a big ego trip.

  Mahayana vision is straightforward and honest. It contains and needs a lot of fortitude. The idea of mahayana vision is that you are not trapped in any small, localized, or selfish situations. You are not poverty-stricken. In the mahayana, you have to expand yourself, to feel more expansive than you are. Bodhisattvas are known as warriors because they are visionary. They are not confused, and they do not shy away from others.

  1. A reference to the six paramitas, or transcendent virtues of the bodhisattva path. The paramitas are discussed in detail in part 6, “Bodhisattva Activity.”

  2. In the Black Crown Ceremony, the Karmapa, as the official head of the Kagyü lineage, holds a black crown on his head. This ceremonial crown is a replica of the one given by the Chinese emperor Yung-lo (1360–1424) to the fifth Karmapa (1384–1415). The original crown was said to have been made from the hairs of dakinis (female deities who protect the teachings) after Yung-lo had a vision of the crown on the fifth Karmapa’s head. As the Karmapa holds the crown on his head, he slowly recites the mantra of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. It is said that during those few minutes, he brings to earth the transcendent form of Avalokiteshvara and radiates the bodhisattva’s pure egoless compassion.

  3. Twofold ego includes both the fixation on self and the fixation on phenomena as solid, independent, and real.

  3

  Doubt and Delight

  The birth of mahayana spirit begins with a combination of distrust and the possibility of good news. It is a very powerful e
motional experience, a sweet-sour feeling. That quality of joy and delight is wisdom, or jnana, and the doubt or distrust is compassion. Doubt and compassion are both very direct. . . . There is a sense of something touching your heart, and it is painful.

  POSITIVE GROUND

  In the hinayana we are working with ourselves to achieve goodness, based on the practices of mindfulness and awareness. We are aware of the suffering that exists within us, and we are trying to overcome that suffering by means of individual salvation and a real understanding of truth and of peace. The hinayana notion of peace is based on the cessation of grasping or holding on to the phenomenal world through our sense consciousnesses. It is based on renunciation. We are actually paying attention to every detail in our lives: how we hold our pen, how we pour our cup of tea. Everything is scrutinized down to the very basis of our lives, and we find that every situation brings pain. So we try to overcome that pain, which started from ignorance, uncertainty, and bewilderment.

  We cannot develop bigger vision, mahayana vision, with the sloppiness of our basic confusion. It is necessary for our sloppiness to be cut through by hinayana discipline. We need to take a clean-cut approach at the beginning in order to sweep out any unnecessary garbage or attachment and bring out our potential. When we begin to get into meditation practice, we uncover both garbage and inspiration, but the level of garbage is greater than the inspiration. We see that we carry gigantic loads of garbage on our backs constantly. But step-by-step, we learn how to wash ourselves and clean up.