The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness

by Chogyam Trungpa

  THE HAUNTING QUALITY OF COMMITMENT

  The moment you open your eyes and say to yourself, “I am going to become involved in this discipline of individual salvation. I am going to work with myself; I am going to practice shamatha discipline; I am going to sit,” you are already haunted. Beyond that, when you say, “Now I am going to transfer my personal care for myself to others, and I couldn’t care less about me. Therefore I am going to do my tonglen practice,” you are further haunted, almost ridiculously haunted. Beyond that, when you begin to practice the vajrayana and say, “I am going to let loose. I am going to let go of all my preconceptions of any kind and enter into this particular journey, which nobody knows,” you are even more haunted. And that seems to be all right.

  Your basic commitment is to yourself. Beyond that, your commitment to others and to your teacher will arise naturally. For instance, if you are serious enough about wanting to have a good education, then your commitment will naturally go beyond that: you will extend the education you receive toward others; and beyond that, your education will actually take effect. You can build an airplane that flies in space, or you can invent a medicine that cures headaches. Your purpose is already fulfilled.

  The development of commitment is a natural process; it is a path. Commitment is not based on creating any new magic or any new tricks. Basically, your commitment is intact as long as you are committed to yourself in practicing your daily routine.

  SECRECY

  It is quite rare to hear the vajrayana, and it is also difficult to understand the vajrayana because of its secretness. It is not kept hush-hush in the way ordinary people talk about secretness, but it is self-secret. You have to understand the meaning behind the whole thing before you can actually conceive an understanding of vajrayana secretness. At the same time, the secret teachings of the mandala and working with that secretness become sacred; secretness and sacredness are one thing.

  The word for “secret” in Latin is close to the English; it is secretus, which means “hidden.” The ancient Greek root is cryptos, from which we get the words cryptography, cryptic, and crypt. The word mystery comes from a Greek root also. In the fifth or sixth century BCE, the hidden spiritual teachings were called mysteries, and the word mystery simply meant “something hidden.” Nowadays a mystery is something that a detective has to figure out, but in the middle ages, mysteries were secret spiritual teachings that were not public.

  In Sanskrit, guhya and gupta mean “secret,” “hidden,” or “cryptic.” Cryptic and mysterious seem to imply something very immediate and are connected with speech, and hidden is much more connected with body and mind. Guhya means “hidden,” in the sense that your private parts are hidden. In the vajrayana, secrecy does not mean that something is hidden because it is criminal, but it means something that is inconceivable to others. They would not understand it; therefore, it is hidden until they see it.

  DEMOLISHING THE HIDDEN CORNERS OF SAMSARA

  It is important to understand why a person would tread on the path of vajrayana at all. The reason to tread on such a path is not just because you are going to get a good deal. It is not because you hope to receive secret magic and mantras so that you could very cynically play games with people. You might want to use magic and miracles on people you like in order to invite or subjugate them, or on people you dislike in order to terrorize them, but that is not what we are talking about. We are talking about using the possibilities of the vajrayana path in order to liberate all sentient beings from their samsaric trips and their samsaric hidden corners. We are treading on this path in order to bring people out of their tendency to rest in their neuroses.

  If you are treading on this path, it is very important for you as a student that you and your vajra master to come to a mutual conclusion. You have to reach a mutual understanding with each other that you actually have to demolish the hidden corners of samsara. You have to demolish the devastating tricks that exist and that you have been able to maintain for such a long time.

  Maintaining samsara has become the natural situation for most of the world. So as students and teachers of vajrayana and the other teachings of the Buddha, the Compassionate One, you are the only ones who would actually like to expose the world’s samsaric tricks. You want to expose those samsaric tricks and go beyond them in order to help people learn how to expose their own and others’ neuroses altogether. That is why the vajrayana is a very powerful mechanism: it does not depend on people’s tricks or deceptions. That is why it is necessary to have a vajra master who is your personal link and who never keeps anything secret from you. Once you understand the secret yourself, once your own secret has been revealed, the vajra master never keeps anything secret from you. That is the mutual appreciation and mutual bond that is set up by practicing the vajrayana.

  But before you embark on your study of the vajrayana, it is necessary to understand why vajrayana is important. Why don’t we just stop at the hinayana or mahayana, where we already have the best of enlightened attitudes happening? It might be good enough for you just to hang on to that, but for some reason you realize that is not quite enough. The reason it is not quite enough is that until you get into the vajrayana, you have not actually understood basic phenomena properly.

  When we talk about phenomena, at this point we are talking in terms of actually integrating enlightened mind as essence with enlightenment as reality. As far as the vajrayana is concerned, enlightenment is actual existence, actual reality. It is our actual situation. You might ask, “If that is so, then why do we have to study?” And the answer is that the reason you have to study is that you have not actually faced that particular truth. Therefore, in order to understand that this is the case, you have to use a language that allows you to understand what is happening.

  INDESTRUCTIBILITY AND THE SYMBOLISM OF THE VAJRA

  According to tradition, the vajra is the scepter of Indra, the king of the gods or devas and the lord of the celestial kingdom. Once Indra found a rishi, or saint, meditating. This rishi meditated so much that when he died and his body decayed, his bones turned to diamond because of his powerful meditation. So Indra ordered his craftspeople to carve a weapon from one of the saint’s bones, and it came out shaped like a vajra.

  The properties of the vajra are such that, if the right person uses it, it always strikes with deadly accuracy; once it strikes, it always destroys; and having destroyed, it returns to your hand like a boomerang. The vajra represents the idea of the indivisibility of power and wisdom. It evokes the sense of a very powerful force that cannot be cracked or seduced or conned. The prongs of the vajra, which are usually fivefold but can be as many as one hundred, open up when you are about to strike, and when the vajra has fulfilled its function, it returns back to the user’s hand with its prongs closed. So a vajra is a celestial, diamond weapon; it is one that no other weapon can overcome.

  The word dorje, which is the Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskrit vajra, has a slightly different meaning. Do means “rock” or “stone,” and rje means “noble” or the “highest”; so dorje means “noble rock” or “noble stone,” which is another word for diamond.

  When you combine vajra and yana, you get vajrayana. The vajrayana is diamond-like, for once you enter into this particular vehicle, it is indestructible; it cannot be destroyed by saboteurs who would like to maintain their own personal secrecy.

  When vajra and sangha are put together, you get vajra sangha. The vajra sangha is indestructible because it develops a bond with the vajra master. In this bond, what you are binding together are you and your vajra master, along with your practice and discipline. You yourself, your behavior pattern, and your existence are bound together with the vajra master in the form of a very strict vow.

  When vajra and master are combined, you get vajra master: the vajracharya or dorje loppön. In the vajrayana, the teacher is called a vajra master, because they also have that indestructible quality. You can never intimidate, buy, or corrupt such a person by offering the
m money, or by means of sense pleasures. You cannot bribe the vajra master into buying your ego trip. The vajra master does not like trips of any kind.

  Photo 10. The vajra and ghanta (scepter and bell), ritual implements symbolizing skillful means and wisdom. This set is from Trungpa Rinpoche’s personal shrine.

  The teacher plays an extremely important part in vajrayana. In fact, the vajra master is not just a teacher at this point, but more of a vajra warrior. Their role is similar to that of a master warrior in the samurai tradition: they are going to be tough with you. We could say that the vajrayana level of training students is like training the vajra master’s henchmen or henchwomen. And for students, the point is to develop fearless devotion. If your devotion becomes fearful, then there is still something that needs to be cut through.

  THE SAMAYA VOW

  Once you have understood the vajra master, or the dorje loppön principle, you can begin to understand the samaya principle. We do not have a good translation for samaya, so we would like to work the word samaya into the English language. I am sure it will be in Webster’s Dictionary in a few years. In Tibetan, samaya is tamtsik. Tam means “holy” or sometimes “tightness,” and tsik means “word” or “commitment”; so tamtsik means “sacred word.” Although tamtsik is often translated as “sacred word” or “sacred oath,” it boils down to meaning the same thing as samaya: something by which you are bound together.

  In Tibetan we use honorific terms instead of ordinary ones when talking about samaya, because samaya is very special and extraordinary; it is sacred. In Tibetan, when we refer to something in honorific terms instead of using ordinary terms, the person we are talking to automatically knows what we are talking about. There is an entire vocabulary of honorific terms. If you are talking about the guru’s ear or the king’s ear, you use different terms than you would if you were speaking of your own ear. So the honorific form is not just a dead language, and it is not simply an imperial or autocratic form; it is a form particularly applicable to dharma terms, since dharma terms are sacred.

  To begin with, samaya involves making a commitment or taking a vow. The samaya principle is a kind of verbal agreement or oath. It is like signing your name on the dotted line. Once you understand the samaya principle, you can learn how to hold your pen in your hand and write your name on a piece of paper. Before that, you could not even sign your name because your hand was too shaky. The foundation of samaya is the practice of shamatha-vipashyana, which quells your discursive thoughts. Without that foundation, you would not have a chance of paying attention to anything. You would be blown here and there by discursive thoughts; you would be completely disturbed or interrupted.

  With the samaya vow, the teaching, the teacher, and the students are bound together in one particular project. Nobody can make a commitment of this kind without relating with a vajra master who is a holder of the lineage, and who is the individual’s actual vajra teacher. Nobody can get a ticket without going to the booth. Samaya may seem to be purely a command out of nowhere, like the Ten Commandments. However, they are not really the same, for although you could say that the Ten Commandments came from God and Moses, there was no dorje loppön principle, no binding vow, and no personal relationship with a vajra master.

  COMMITMENT IN THE THREE YANAS

  In Tibetan the refuge vow, the bodhisattva vow, and the samaya vow are all referred to as dompa. They are regarded as things that bind, like a belt that binds your clothes to your body. But samaya is unique to the vajrayana, and the level of commitment in the vajrayana is different from that of the other yanas.

  Hinayana Commitment

  In the hinayana, in taking the refuge vow, you are bound to the dharma for your lifetime. You are taking refuge in the Buddha as the example, in the dharma as the path, and in the sangha as companionship. In the hinayana, the idea is to prevent yourself from physically being a nuisance to yourself and others. It is to prevent yourself from indulging in pleasures or frivolousness that might produce further nuisance. You are trying to keep your life simple.

  Mahayana Commitment

  In the mahayana, in taking the bodhisattva vow, you are bound together with mahayana teachings, commitments, and the kalyanamitra until the attainment of enlightenment. You are saying that henceforth you abandon your own personal enlightenment, and you commit yourself to sentient beings. The mahayana vow is based on an understanding of the six paramitas: generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and prajna (wisdom).1 There is a quality of positive heroism in relating with yourself and others. Constant communication provides a working basis; and as you work with people and with yourself, the feedback you receive becomes a way of expanding and perpetuating your bodhisattva activity.

  Vajrayana Commitment

  Vajrayana is entirely different. With the samaya vow, the bondage lasts until ultimate sanity is completely achieved. Your training has already happened, and your ideas and attitude have developed through hinayana and mahayana discipline. But you have not looked at discipline as total experience, rather than purely as discipline; when you see discipline as total experience, discipline becomes complete practice, and your entire experience becomes discipline. The samaya vow is that which binds together your life and your mind.

  In samaya, you are signing over your life to the vajra master and to the tantric deities: you are signing over your neck, your brain, and your heart. Also, needless to say, you are signing over or giving up your possessions and relatives. But having given up so much, you get something in return, so you cannot just give up and relax. It is like filing your taxes and getting a refund—but with samaya, what you get in return are responsibilities.

  When you first begin to practice the vajrayana, you are just committing yourself loosely to the vajrayana. But when you take part in a vajrayana abhisheka, or empowerment ceremony, you drink what is called the samaya oath water.2 At that point, you are actually taking the formal samaya vow. When you take the samaya vow, you surrender your sanity completely to the teacher and the lineage with ultimate devotion and faith.

  At that point, if you try to take your vow back due to resentment, confusion, and ignorance, what you get back is vajra neurosis. Because you have violated samaya, you go utterly crazy. If you go against your samaya oath—that is to say, if you go completely against it—you are destroyed and made into dust. You go really crazy. The vajra master is always helpful in such difficult situations, but if you do not let the vajra master be helpful, in either the wrathful or peaceful fashion, you have a problem.

  USING POISON AS MEDICINE

  The mahayana approach to discipline is based on working less with aggression and more with compassion and generosity, whereas vajrayana discipline is based on working directly with kleshas such as aggression and passion, which are considered to be poisons. In vajrayana, you do not have to con phenomenal experiences and you do not have to destroy them; the phenomenal world is entirely workable and open. It is quite different from the bodhisattva concern that you should be kind to the world, or generous to it, or patient with it. In the vajrayana, the phenomenal world provides its own resources for you, so the whole of phenomena is very much there actually. Very much so.

  The vajrayana approach is based on enormous conviction and enormous trust. That trust could be provoked by the example of your guru and your yidam, and by your basic being. In the vajrayana we say: “I am going to use this poison as medicine. I am going to transmute it into medicine.” That particular oath is very powerful. In fact, it is absurd. To say that poison is medicine is absurd, but poison is medicine from the vajrayana point of view. There is no medicine other than poison.

  If you do not fight against the medicine-poison duality, then poison is medicine and medicine is poison. They are one flavor. In the case of mahayana, medicine might be poison if you become a bad bodhisattva, if you regress. But in the vajrayana, poison is medicine because there is no poison as such. This idea goes against the survival approach, in which working directly with agg
ression and passion is considered to be very poisonous. But by seeing poison as a medicine, based on the inspiration of your guru and your yidam, your samaya becomes extraordinarily alive and lively. The inspiration for this comes from dedicating yourself to a guru of a particular lineage, and regarding the guru’s inspiration as a resource for creating real miracles.

  NOT TRUSTING NORMAL LOGIC

  In the vajrayana, you have a chance to create miracles because you do not particularly trust in normal logic. This seems to be quite different from the logic of the Zen koan tradition. The question, “What is the sound of one-handed clapping?” is still feeble logic. The assumption is that there should be the sound of a one-handed clap, so in presenting the impossibility of this, there is still logic involved. But in the vajrayana, there is no logic at all.

  Our sense of basic “yes” or “no,” which seems to be the essence of samaya, is not concerned with logic. Usually, we keep trying to figure out the right logic: “Supposing I said ‘yes,’ then would I be cornered by all kinds of challenges if I said ‘no’? And supposing I said ‘no,’ then would I be cornered by saying ‘yes’? Could I be pushed into demanding situations?” That is the general ethical dilemma. And the ethical approach would usually be that even if you are cornered, you should still say “yes” or “no” based on whatever you committed yourself to right at the beginning. You should stick to your original idea, to what you are supposed to say.

  If you believe in the validity of a certain king and his citizens, even if your enemy has cornered you and threatened you with death, you still say, “I do believe in my king”; you say this even if you could be saved by saying, “I do not believe.” You are willing to go as far as that. But in the vajrayana, that whole logic does not work. In the vajrayana, if you are cornered and will be killed if you say that you believe in the king, and therefore you say that you do not believe in the king, you are still not going to be saved. Your lie begins to bounce back on you in either case.