The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness

by Chogyam Trungpa

  There is a Tibetan expression or slogan concerning this style of gift, which is len tang nammin la rewa mepa. Len means “answer” or “response,” and refers to the reaction to your generosity, the fact that people will say, “Thank you so much for your gift. We appreciate it very much.” Len is the response to your gift, tang means “and,” nammin means “result” or “karmic consequence,” and la means “for.” La applies to both the response as well as the karmic consequence. Rewa means “hope,” and mepa means “without.” So altogether, len tang nammin la rewa mepa means “without hoping for responses or results.” In other words, we are saying that generosity should be without hope of karmic consequences or good responses.

  Having given something, you automatically hope to have a good karmic result. This result would happen organically in any case, but hoping for it is something else. Ideal generosity, the ideal gift, should be free from any such expectations. That is the idea of giving even on the hinayana or mahayana levels; and in the case of the mandala offering on the vajrayana level, it is much more so, because we are beginning to offer our ego as well.

  At this point, we begin to find ourselves in no-man’s-land. Once we have given the giver, we find ourselves floating in nowhere. We are hardly even able to witness whom we are giving to, because we have given ourselves away as well. As we previously discussed in the section on the five vajrayana sayings in chapter 16, we begin to discover insight free from mind, buddha without breath, meditation without thought but luminous, action without fixation or desire, and view without desire.

  We begin to find ourselves in a situation where everything is translucent, and no claims can be made. We cannot say, “This is my deed; therefore I have a right to own it.” This situation is much more extreme than the mahayana vows of egolessness, or even the idea of exchanging oneself for others. In this case, we are uprooting the whole thing, the giver as well as the gift. In exchanging ourselves for others, we might expect some kind of a good result to come out of it. But here we are uprooting that expectation as well. That is the idea of “giving” in the vajrayana sense.

  Mandala offering is definitely a shamatha discipline. You are training your mind not to expect anything in return, but instead you are constantly giving, giving, giving. Therefore, this practice is very much related with the out-breath, much more so than any of the other ngöndro disciplines. This emphasis on the out-breath means a lot. In order to breathe out, we naturally have to breathe in, but we do not put any emphasis on the in-breath. Instead, we constantly go out again and again. By doing so, we discover natural dignity and richness. We see that we are intrinsically rich. We have basic richness because we are capable of giving lots of gifts, and we have a lot to give because we have nothing to lose. If we had anything to lose, we would have lost it already in the previous yanas and in the earlier parts of the discipline. So at this point, we have nothing left to lose. And because we have nothing to lose, we have lots to gain.

  The four preliminary practices are very important, but you cannot practice them without first receiving an initial vajrayana transmission. They cannot be done before you have a complete theoretical understanding of the tantric path. You have to be aware of the consequences, because all four of these practices are actual tantric practices. Prostrations and the repetition of the refuge formula are tantric practice, the repetition of the Vajrasattva mantra is tantric practice, and the mandala offering is tan tric practice.

  1. In describing the ngöndro, Trungpa Rinpoche here lists the four practices as prostrations, refuge formula recitation, Vajrasattva-mantra recitation, and mandala offering. He refers to guru yoga as an additional preliminary practice, as well as a continuing practice. At other times, he lists the four practices as prostrations (with refuge formula recitation), Vajrasattva-mantra recitation, mandala offering, and guru yoga.

  2. The Vajrasattva mantra is:

  OM VAJRASATTVA SAMAYAM ANUPALAYA / VAJRASATTVATVENOPATISHTHA / DRIDHO ME BHAVA / SUTOSHYO ME BHAVA / SUPOSHYO ME BHAVA / ANURAKTO ME BHAVA / SARVA-SIDDHIM ME PRAYACCHA / SARVA-KARMASU CHA ME CHITTAM SHREYAH KURU HUM HA HA HA HOH BHAGAVAN / SARVA-TATHAGATA-VAJRA MA ME MUNCHA / VAJRI BHAVA MAHASAMAYASATTVA AH.

  3. A discussion of guru yoga in the context of vajrayana preliminaries is found in the following chapter.

  4. In a simple mandala offering, Mount Meru is represented by a central pile of rice, and the four continents are represented by piles of rice in the four cardinal directions.

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  Guru Yoga

  Prostrations allow you to disembody or disarm your arrogance or your ego. Mantra practice allows you to experience your neuroses and to connect with a quality of purity. Having purified yourself, in the mandala offering you learn how to give further, to give everything. Finally you can actually mix your mind with the teacher’s mind.

  HAVING COMPLETED the four preliminary practices, the next practice is guru yoga, or la-me naljor. Lama means “guru,” la-me makes it “of guru,” and naljor means “yoga”; so la-me naljor means “guru yoga.”

  Guru yoga is not exactly part of the ngöndro, as such. However, it is sometimes referred to as the fourth ngöndro discipline. Since reciting the refuge formula goes along with the prostration practice, it could be said that prostrations and the refuge formula recitation, the Vajrasattva mantra recitation, and the mandala offering are the first three preliminaries, and guru yoga is the fourth. Guru yoga discipline is more of an intermediary step to the actual practice of vajrayana discipline, but since it is referred to as a preliminary practice, it can be put in the category of ngöndro, which means “prelude.”

  Guru yoga definitely goes along with lhakthong, or vipashyana, discipline. It comes after mandala practice, because when we begin to offer everything fully and completely without expecting anything in return, not even thanks, we begin to experience faith, trust, and longing. We experience the validity of the teacher and the teachings, and we automatically begin to appreciate them.

  Guru yoga practice itself is very simple. In the Kagyü tradition, once again we visualize the lineage, this time arrayed in a stack on top of our head, and we repeat a short mantra calling upon the lineage and the holder of the lineage; in the Kagyü lineage, this is the Gyalwa Karmapa. This short mantra is repeated 1,000,000 times.1

  THREEFOLD LOGIC OF DEVOTION

  The practice of devotion is based on three elements: blessing (chinlap), changing your perception (nangwa-gyur), and nonthought (tokpa gak).

  Chinlap: Blessing

  By practicing the guru yoga discipline, we realize that we are capable of receiving blessings, or chinlap. Earlier we defined the Tibetan term chin as “atmosphere,” though it could also be defined as “intensity.” It is the intensity of your devotion to the teacher, along with the atmosphere created by that devotion. The warmth of chin is like being in a very hot climate, such as India or Africa. In such a climate, not only do you find heat in the atmosphere, but even the furniture and the telephone and any other objects that you touch radiate heat. Everything is permeated with heat, so central heating is not needed. There is that kind of radiation or atmosphere.

  With chinlap, you are engulfed in an atmosphere of intense devotion. With such devotion, you are like a little chick sitting under the large wings of an eagle. The eagle has large wings to stretch, so even if you are the ninth chick, the eagle’s large wings still stretch over you and cover you. The nest may be big and you may be the farthest away of all the chicks, but still you are never left out.

  I am not quite sure exactly what adhishthana literally means in Sanskrit, word by word, but I find that the Tibetan translation, chinlap, is quite close to the true meaning. The early Tibetan translators had quite a vivid understanding, because they practiced a lot in those days. So when they translated adhishthana from Sanskrit to Tibetan, they translated as practitioners.2

  Nangwa-Gyur: Changing Your Perception

  Chinlap is that which influences you, that which causes you to change your outlook. The Tibetan w
ord for changing your outlook that applies here is quite a good one: nangwa-gyur. Nangwa means “perception” (nang means “what you see,” and wa makes it a noun), and gyur means “changing”; so nangwa-gyur means “changing what you see” or “changing your perception.”

  Chinlap, or blessing, is what causes you to change your perception, and nangwa-gyur is the path of doing so.

  Tokpa Gak: Nonthought

  The fruition of chinlap and nangwa-gyur is tokpa gak. Tokpa means “thoughts,” and gak means “stop” or “cease to exist”; so tokpa gak means “thoughts cease.”

  So there are three things happening here: because of adhishthana, or chinlap, you change your perceptions, which is nangwa-gyur; and finally, nangwa-gyur causes you to stop your thoughts, which is tokpa gak. Nangwa-gyur stops samsaric motion altogether, which seems to be the essence of guru yoga discipline. When you begin to practice this discipline, there is tremendous longing for the guru’s mind, devotion to the guru, and love for the guru. Your good connection to the guru brings about chinlap, which causes you to change your perceptions, so your thought patterns cease to exist in the ordinary sense. That is the basic notion of guru yoga.

  Usually you feel quite confident that you can keep on going, but when you are practicing guru yoga and you begin to meditate on these teachings, you begin to find yourself running in a different direction. You find you are running backward, and then dissolving altogether. There is a gap. I do not know whether you would say that the gap is in your thoughts or in your consciousness, and it does not mean that you just black out, but your rational mind ceases to exist. It is not that you are stopping thoughts, but thoughts simply cease to function. There is a gap in your mind. We cannot even say that we are seeing through thoughts, which would mean that there is still a see-er. And it is not that somebody else is seeing through. It is just seeing through by itself. Therefore, the seeing sort of short-circuits itself. Many of the vajrayana songs of Marpa talk about space copulating with itself, or about flowers that blossom in the middle of nowhere, in space, or the dreams of a mute who cannot express anything. Images like that express this idea of the ceasing of thoughts.

  Thoughts cease to exist; thoughts cease to happen. This is so, not because you are incapable of thinking or because you are forgetful, but simply because your practice is so direct. That directness allows your mind to flourish somewhat. But at the same time, because your mind flourishes, because it is given such freedom to move around, it does not know where to go. Therefore, it ceases to happen. So the ceasing of thoughts is a result of liberation. You feel that you are no longer constricted. You feel you can do anything you want, but at the same time you let yourself go. You do not know where to go; therefore, you cease to exist. You do not have anywhere to go, but that seems to be the only way that you can have a good time.

  UNITING WITH THE GURU

  Guru yoga means “uniting with the guru” or “being one with the teacher.” So how do you mix your mind together with the guru’s mind? Having received transmission and identified yourself with the tantric path, you automatically develop an appreciation of the guru. Particularly the root guru or your personal guru is appreciated enormously. Your personal guru becomes the embodiment of all the buddhas in the world and beyond the world. You identify with the guru principle, and you receive any transmissions or abhishekas with that sense of identification. That is the actual mental process of receiving transmission. You identify with the guru as the spokesperson of your lineage. You visualize the guru sitting on your head, you eat food as an expression of the guru eating food, you speak as the expression of your guru speaking, you walk as the expression of the guru, and you work as the expression of your guru. So there is pervasive guru-awareness.

  THE GURU AND THE YIDAM

  Having related with your guru as your object of devotion, you go through another stage of devotional practice when you receive abhisheka. You expand your devotion to the yidam, so that your yidam is also an object of devotion. If you have difficulty identifying with your yidam, you find that your guru is the closest thing to a yidam that you can relate with. In fact, since the guru gave you your yidam, the guru is the yidam, and the yidam is your guru. The yidam might be regarded as something transcendental and extraordinary, in the realm of the gods, but your guru’s activities can be seen in the ordinary world. The guru is an actual physical, corporeal being who you can relate with as an expression of your yidam. So relating with the guru is the closest way to bring an awareness of your yidam.

  Guru yoga is very important in vajrayana. It is not only the practice itself that is important, but there is enormous importance placed on samaya, or commitment. In samaya, the idea is that you are joined together with your guru and your yidam as one. You feel that the guru is no other than the yidam, and that the guru can grant you siddhis of all kinds. Guru yoga involves enormous devotion. You feel that the guru is the embodiment of all yidams and is the central figure of the mandala. It is that kind of awareness.

  You might think that you are able to mix your mind with the guru’s mind right at the beginning of the path, even at the first moment you meet the teacher. In some sense, you may have done that on an early level, maybe just on a metaphorical level or on the level of an example. Even seeing a photograph of the teacher might cause you to experience certain things of that nature. But the real thing, actually changing your perception, cannot happen until you have gone through all four ngöndro practices. Prostrations allow you to disembody or disarm your arrogance or your ego. Reciting the refuge formula and the Vajrasattva mantra practice allow you to experience your neuroses and to connect with a quality of purity. Having purified yourself, in the mandala offering you learn how to give further, to give everything. Finally you can actually mix your mind with the teacher’s mind. Until you have gone through the whole ngöndro process, you cannot do the real thing absolutely ideally.

  You might read books that make mixing your mind with the teacher’s seem very easy. Even when you read this chapter on guru yoga, at first you might think such a thing would be simple to do. You might think that you could make the connection right away, but it is very difficult to do so personally, properly, and fully.

  Mixing your mind with the teacher’s is one of the merits and virtues of the ngöndro. These vajrayana preliminary disciplines all come from training your mind, naturally, and also from being willing to let go of habitual tendencies. To practice the ngöndro, you need to let go of lo, to let go of any fixation or holding back, as well as any holding forward or expectations.

  1. In the Kaygü tradition, the short guru yoga mantra is KARMAPA KHYENNO (“Karmapa, hail!”).

  2. The literal meaning of the Sanskrit term adhishthana is “standing over” or “resting upon.”

  Part Eight

  EMPOWERMENT

  33

  Transmission

  When the teacher gives the student an empowerment, the student begins to realize and understand a total and utter feeling of authentic sacredness. The mind of the teacher and student meet together to appreciate authentic presence. Authentic means not being influenced by kleshas or second thoughts, and presence means that nothing is by innuendo, but everything is direct. So in an empowerment, there is direct communication between the student and the vajra master.

  IN ORDER to get into vajrayana discipline, it is necessary to develop one-pointed devotion toward the vajra master. Along with that, it is necessary to receive a vajrayana empowerment from the vajra master, who is the embodiment of everything at that point. So there needs to be communication between the student and the teacher. In such an empowerment, the best of the student’s ability and the best of the teacher’s ability begin to communicate together. This communication is the source or the path of ultimate realization.

  PLAYFULNESS AND GENEROSITY

  In order to relate with the vajrayana and with the vajrayana teacher, we could say that two things are necessary: a sense of humor, or playfulness, and being generous in offering one�
��s body, speech, and mind. Giving can mean exchanging something in order to get something back, but offering is sacred in that when you offer, you do not expect to get anything back.

  Offering is a psychological attitude as well: you do not expect to be complimented. For example, when you hear the dharma, you may ask a question and receive an answer. The microphones, used by you and the speaker, belong to nobody, but there is communication, nonetheless. The teachings are always there. You receive a teaching from the teacher, appropriate to your being, but there is no confirmation.

  TRANSMISSION IN THE THREE YANAS

  The ideas of surrendering and of a mutual journey are connected with one of the fundamental teachings of the vajrayana, and of Buddhism altogether, which is known as transmission. Transmission means providing real understanding from one person to another. It is often referred to as a love affair: there is a mutual love, acceptance, and softness. The process of transmission has three levels: hinayana, mahayana, and vajrayana.

  Hinayana Transmission

  The first level of transmission is hinayana transmission, which takes place by means of shamatha practice. If you had not experienced shamatha, you would have no idea that a transmission from teacher to student was possible. In the hinayana, you become humble. You are learning from a teacher, or elder, someone who is learned, thoroughly trained and disciplined. So in the beginning, you humble yourself, and then you begin to become appreciative, but somewhat fearful.