The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness

by Chogyam Trungpa

  YANA OF LUMINOSITY

  The vajrayana is also referred to as the yana of luminosity, or the self-perpetuating yana, because it does not require headlights or taillights. In itself, the vajrayana is glorious and indestructibly self-sufficient. In Tibetan, the yana of luminosity is called ösel dorje thekpa. Ö means “luminous,” sel means “clear,” and dorje thekpa, again, is “vajrayana”; so ösel dorje thekpa is the “clear, luminous, indestructible vehicle.”

  Altogether ösel means a clear sense of existence, perpetually existing without beginning or end. So ösel is very much connected with self-existence, self with a small s. But this does not mean to say that you must have a self so that you can exist. Self-existence is a natural form of perpetualness, which you can experience through the practice of shamatha, or vipashyana, or tonglen, or for that matter whatever practice you are doing. It is natural and very basic self-existence.

  IMPERIAL YANA

  Finally, the vajrayana is referred to as the imperial yana. It is a coming down rather than a going up, like relating with snowfall or rain, as opposed to relating with grass, flowers, and trees. Coming down is much more immediate and personal. The imperial yana is associated with the view that postmeditation practice is important. So the vajrayana actually works much more with postmeditation experiences of all kinds.

  Altogether the vajrayana brings concentrated possibilities of wisdom. Such wisdom is not dependent on any other factors; it is naked wisdom itself. This wisdom is very general, and at the same time, very precise.

  1. According to the Kagyü tradition, Vajradhara (“vajra holder”) is the primordial, or dharmakaya, buddha. He is blue in color with his arms crossed in front of his chest, holding a vajra and ghanta, symbolizing the inseparability of skillful means and wisdom.

  2. A reference to the nine yanas of the Tibetan Buddhist path: shravakayana, pratyekabuddhayana, mahayana, kriyayogayana, upayogayana, yogayana, mahayogayana, anuyogayana, and atiyogayana.

  6

  Seven Aspects of Vajrayana: The Space before First Thought

  You already developed benevolence in the mahayana, but in this case you develop vajra bodhichitta, adamantine bodhichitta. It is adamantine because there are no cracks in your awareness or in your understanding of the vajrayana. Your conviction and pride in the vajrayana are of one piece. It is a diamond-like situation. There are no cracks where dirt could get in, so there is total awareness happening all the time. It is one piece, which is very precise and good, healthy and wholesome. Therefore, you are no longer subject to obstacles or hazards of any kind.

  ACCORDING TO Nagarjuna,1 the vajrayana can be understood in terms of seven aspects. All seven are based on the idea of the space before first thought, on perception that does not allow the secondary cognitive mind to take place. That is, they are based on the first cognitive mind, which is actually no mind; they are based on mind that has not formed, and therefore has the quality of first shock.

  The seven aspects of vajrayana are also based on the idea that the vajrayana is superior to hinayana and mahayana, and they are based on the nontheistic approach of paying further attention to relative truth, or kündzop. Basically speaking, the vajrayana approach to the emptiness of the phenomenal world is the same as that of the mahayana wisdom teachings, or prajnaparamita, but its view of the emptiness of self or individuality is different. In the vajrayana, the emptiness of individuality is seen not as emptiness alone, but in terms of mahasukha, or great joy. When the perceiver of shunyata has experienced great joy, it automatically makes the phenomenal world somewhat more cheerful than in the pure shunyata approach. Some kind of dance exists.

  MARKED WITH SAMANTABHADRA

  The first aspect of vajrayana is that our vajrayana perspective is marked with Samantabhadra, which means that there is a quality of totality and basic goodness. Our perspective is that all dharmas, and the existence of oneself and others, are included in the dharmakaya;2 therefore, we find that the whole of phenomena is no longer subject to discussion about whether it is for us or against us.

  With this aspect, we develop an understanding of the phenomenal world based on the union of emptiness and bliss. So when we look at a traffic light, for instance, we perceive its practical purpose; but at the same time, we perceive it with a sense of play, humor, and inner joy. When the two meet, there is genuine and good communication taking place. We begin to have reports coming back to us from the phenomenal world. For instance, when we see a red light, we put on our car brakes, and when we see a green or amber light, we go. In everything we do, including wiping our bottoms with toilet tissue, genuine communication is taking place. On one hand, that communication is based on the idea of total emptiness. On the other hand, there is also brilliance and joy and embryonic celebration taking place all the time in whatever we do in our life. Everything is included.

  POSSESSING ADHISHTHANA

  The second aspect of vajrayana is that it possesses great blessings, or adhishthana in Sanskrit. The Tibetan word for adhishthana is chinlap. Chin means “atmosphere,” a type of atmosphere that is overwhelming, and lap means “coming to you”; so chinlap means “being confronted by an overwhelming atmosphere.” That is to say, you are receptive to that heavy atmosphere, and therefore you are “engolloped” by it. You are overwhelmed or swallowed up by it.

  Chinlap has the connotation of producing heat. It is like entering a very clean room that is decorated with lots of gold and brocade, and in which a very powerful person is presiding. When you go into that particular room, you feel overwhelmed by the gold and brocade and everything. You feel hot. There is an overwhelming quality, and there is the potential that you might actually get melted on the spot. So chinlap, or adhishthana, is that kind of heavy atmosphere.

  When we talk about blessings, we are not talking in terms of tokenism. It is not like saying that when you are touched with holy water, you are made kosher for no reason. In this case, the idea of blessings is that you are overwhelmed and engulfed, which has the connotation of mugginess. If it is very muggy and there is a lot of moisture in the atmosphere, when you walk outside you feel gobbled up by it; you feel heavy and heated. If you take a positive attitude toward that, you might feel that you are being made wholesome. But if you do not take a positive attitude, you just feel very sweaty. This kind of blessing is actually a quite different idea of blessing than that of the theists.

  When you walk into an atmosphere of chinlap, you are exasperated throughout your entire being. You find yourself involved in that particular world because there is no other way. That is the vajrayana attitude toward blessings: you have no choice. You are swallowed up by the heavy atmosphere, and it is very full, very proper, and very good. Obviously, this quality of vajrayana arises from a vajrayana practitioner’s previous training of hinayana and mahayana, as well as from the tremendous dignity that the practitioner possesses. Vajrayana practitioners, or tantrikas, manifest dignity and basic goodness, and that leads to the experience of adhishthana.

  Adhishthana is somewhat present in hinayana, and much more so in mahayana. In the hinayana, there is reverence for the saneness of the elder, and a quality of awkwardness and tidyness in your conduct; in the mahayana, there is a quality of bigheartedness, goodness, compassion, and heroism. But nobody in those two yanas conjures up living magic. In the vajrayana, when you walk into a situation, you actually have magical energy happening, whereas in the earlier yanas, that was provided purely by innuendo.

  The vajrayana is very special. It is respected even by the theists, because they see that there is something going on that is more than religiosity, more than purely wisdom of a common type. In the vajrayana, we regard the world as even more sacred than the theists regard it. Mystical theism talks about the world being blessed by its creator, but in our case we go further. From our point of view, the world is intrinsically good and sacred and celebratory and cheerful. This is true whether the cockroaches were designed by Jehovah or not—or, I should say, designed and manufactured. In t
he vajrayana, there is a quality of splendidness or terrificness. Our world is more than we can see, more than we can perceive, and there is tremendous splendor involved. According to traditional texts, it is said that gods such as Brahma and others respect the dharma because of that. In the Western style, we could say that Brahma, Allah, and Jehovah respect the dharma because of that.

  ACQUIRING SIDDHIS

  The third aspect of vajrayana is that of acquiring siddhis. Having already experienced adhishthana, you begin to appreciate that kind of blessing as the blessing of the buddhas of the past, present, and future. In turn, you begin to experience siddhis. The Tibetan term for siddhi is ngödrup. Ngö means “real” or “proper,” or sometimes it could mean “personally,” and drup means “accomplishing”; so ngödrup means “actually accomplishing,” which is the Buddhist notion of miracles.

  In this context, the idea of miracles and magic is that from those overwhelming blessings, we begin to feel that we have accomplished something. We develop great dignity and fearlessness out of that. We begin to feel as if we could actually command the four elements to be at our service. And that actually does happen as we go on, which comes later, I suppose.

  Chinlap is like rain, and ngödrup is like the rain after it has dropped onto the ground and you begin to grow your plants. Chinlap comes from the vajra master, yourself, and your trust in the teaching, which binds you together. When you are initiated into the vajrayana, you walk into a room that is filled with the vajra master’s presence, as well as with the teaching atmosphere of the vajrayana, which we could say is the deities. So the deities, the vajrayana teaching, and the vajra master together are holding that particular glow.

  In a vajrayana initiation, the vajra master creates a complete vajra world with the deity, and waits for you to come in. Then you come in from the outside and drink purified water as you enter. The idea is that you are supposed to be walking into a sort of vajra den, which is so powerfully heavy—or “heavy-ed”—that you get chinlap on the spot. This happens because you and the other students are open-minded; because the vajra master is open and loving and has tremendous affection for the students; and because the deities and the tantric teaching atmosphere are flickering and ready for you to zap into. So you just walk in and get mildly, quite pleasantly zapped. That is where the chinlap happens, when you are involved with that kind of humid atmosphere. So chinlap happens when you walk into the room, and then you get further blessings during the initiation as well. In the vajrayana, you are supposed to have an atmosphere of adhishthana happening all the time.

  At the point when you are formally initiated into the vajrayana, there is no practice involved. But in order to get to that level, you need a lot of practice; and to go on from there, you also need a lot of practice. It is very natural, like the sun rising in the East every morning. The sun rises naturally, but you still have to lead your life in accordance with it. During the daytime, you should do your job, eat your lunch and your dinner, be awake and doing something. You cannot just lie around in the dark, because the sun has risen. It is that kind of logic. You do not just sit around and collect blessings all the time.

  CONFIRMATION

  The fourth aspect of vajrayana is confirmation. Because vajrayana practice is so powerful and real, because it is so full of adhishthana and siddhis, or blessings and miracles, you begin to share that mentality or approach with the tathagatas, or sugatas: the buddhas of the past, present, and future. You begin to find that you are so uplifted that you have transformed yourself from an ordinary lower-level person. In particular, you have freed yourself from the lower existences: from the hell realm, the hungry ghost realm, and the animal realm. You are so uplifted, you are about to become superhuman or you have actually become superhuman; therefore, there is no fear of primitivism. You don’t feel like a worm or cockroach, and you don’t feel as if you are crawling on the floor in the dirt. Because you have experienced such strong blessings, you feel fully charged. You feel you are somebody. At least you are different from one of those beings that crawls on its stomach or walks on four legs, or one with a tail, or one with or without antennae. This means that you have been confirmed.

  The Tibetan term for confirmation is very interesting and good: it is ug jinpa. Ug means “breath,” and jinpa means “breathing”; so ug jinpa means “breathing the breath.”

  Ug jinpa means something like this: If you do not know who you are, you are just holding your breath, trying to find out. Then somebody tells you that you are Joe Schmidt, and you say, “Whew! At last I have found out who I am.” Ug jinpa is that kind of relief. Finally you are confirmed in who and what you are. As much as the sugatas of the past, present, and future are confirmed, so you are confirmed as well. Therefore, vajrayanists, or tantrikas, can actually straighten their heads and shoulders much more than even the hinayanists or mahayanists. You can have good head and shoulders, good posture; you can walk upright and straight with delight and joy. Don’t you think that’s great?

  NO OBSTACLES

  The fifth aspect of vajrayana is the aspect of no obstacles. Having received confirmation, you then go beyond that. You begin to realize that confirmation means that your whole being is “vajra-fied,” so to speak. Your body is no longer feeble and sickly, your speech is no longer stuttering, halfhearted and low-key, and your mind is no longer depressed or confused, but it is strong and cheerful. At this point, your whole being—your body, speech, and mind—is vajra-fied at the level of bodhichitta.

  You already developed benevolence in the mahayana, but in this case you develop vajra bodhichitta, adamantine bodhichitta. It is adamantine because there are no cracks in your awareness or in your understanding of the vajrayana. Your conviction and pride in the vajrayana are of one piece. It is a diamond-like situation. There are no cracks where dirt could get in, so there is total awareness happening all the time. It is one piece, which is very precise and good, healthy and wholesome. Therefore, you are no longer subject to obstacles or hazards of any kind.

  NEVER VIOLATING SAMAYA

  The sixth aspect of vajrayana is that of never violating samaya.3 Because you begin to realize inward purity and spotlessness as well as outward purity and spotlessness, and because your world is seen as wholesome and you yourself experience wholesomeness, there is no reason why you should regard things as bad. The whole thing is built up, so at this point you feel you have nothing to fear and you have nothing to feel dirty about. You might not have taken a bath or shower for weeks and weeks, but still you feel clean and good. A sense of general goodness is taking place, so you can never break your samaya vow.

  The reason you break your samaya vow is usually because you have doubts about yourself or your world. Either you feel that you are not good enough, or that your world is not good enough, or that the bad situation is made out of both you and the world, or that the bad situation is made out of neither you or the world. That makes four conclusions: you, your world, between you-yes, and between you-no. According to Buddhist logic, those four conclusions are called the four extreme beliefs.4 You have you, you have the other, and you have you and the other put together, which sometimes proves to be good and sometimes proves to be bad.

  Those are the four conclusions that you always work with in your relationship with your world. They are the four extreme beliefs in madhyamaka (middle way) logic—and at this point, you are free from all of them. You begin to develop the attitude that, although you might begin to impose those four extremes on the vajra world as well, in fact everything is fine, so there is nothing to worry about. Because you realize that the vajra master, the vajra world, and you are indivisibly fastened together, you begin to feel that you actually cannot violate samaya principles at all.

  ALWAYS RESTORING SAMAYA, EVEN WHEN IT IS VIOLATED

  The seventh aspect of vajrayana is that of always restoring samaya. Even though you might break the rules of your samaya vow with occasional doubts and occasional flickerings of thought, you can always restore it. Because
you have experienced the previous six qualities of vajrayana, you have no problem in relating with your world or your life, so even if you have violated samaya, it can always be restored.

  On the whole, the conclusion of these seven aspects of vajrayana is a quality of dignity and trust. That trust is inspired by maitri, or friendliness to oneself, and by karuna, or friendliness to others. So maitri and karuna are fundamental, and on top of that, there is also a quality of heroism, delight, and fearlessness. All seven aspects put together make the vajrayana workable. They do not apply only to advanced students, but to new students or amateurs as well. Therefore, vajrayana is very up-to-date. It is delightful to be in the vajrayana world and to experience the vajra world and vajra being. There is tremendous strength and joy taking place.

  1. Nagarjuna (150–250 CE) was a renowned Buddhist logician and philosopher. According to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, although ordinarily we know of Nagarjuna as a mahayana theologian, in the vajrayana tradition, Nagarjuna is known as a siddha and a great tantric practitioner.