The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness

by Chogyam Trungpa

  REQUESTING ABHISHEKA

  After you do ngöndro, you can request abhisheka. But none of the abhishekas come automatically; it depends on the ripeness of the student. The abhisheka ceremony is usually given in one piece, and you request it when you are ready for all four parts of it.1 Your worthiness to receive abhisheka is not a question of whether you should get the first part first, or the second part second. The question from the start is whether you are worthy to receive the fourth abhisheka. If you are worthy to receive the fourth abhisheka, then you might be invited to take all of them.

  What makes you worthy is your understanding that you cannot solidify, or will not solidify, your experience into ordinary samsaric mind. It is your understanding that you will never use the experience of adhishthana that you receive from the guru as a way to solidify your ego. Guru yoga is very much a matter of surrendering, and it is also very much a matter of giving up your comfort. That is how your guru yoga experience is judged.

  GRADUAL PATH / SUDDEN ENLIGHTENMENT

  In the abhisheka process, there is an element of sudden enlightenment, which goes pretty fast. But in order to express sudden enlightenment, you have to go slowly, which is very difficult. A teacher cannot just grab somebody off the street, pull them in the door, and say, “I’m going to give you abhisheka right away. Wake up!” It might work, but it might not. The person might think they have been mugged. So in an abhisheka, there is always the element of effort. The blessings are always there, always available, but you have to learn how to respond to them. That is the difficult part.

  In an abhisheka, there is a need for devotion, but there is also the need for an appreciation of your own existence. If you have devotion, but feel that you are a bad person, this sort of self-torture might take a long time to clear up. Before receiving abhisheka, situations like that have to ripen properly. Eventually you begin to feel good about yourself, and you also feel good about the lineage, and the whole situation is somewhat hunkydory. You begin to feel that everything is all right. At that point, you can sit down and relax, receive abhisheka, and have your fourth moment.

  JOINING THE VAJRA WORLD

  In an abhisheka, students who are ready for vajrayana discipline or practice are empowered to enter into the world of the guru, or the guru mandala, and the mind of the student and the teacher begin to meet. At this point, the difference between the mind of the student and the mind of the teacher is that the mind of the student is still uncertain about whether they have actually heard the message, or whether they have really understood the abhisheka principle.

  Once you have achieved a royal position, confirmed by abhisheka, then you obviously have to practice according to what you have been told. That is to say, you have to join the vajra mandala or vajra society. In this case, mandala means “society,” and vajra means “indestructible”; so vajra mandala means “indestructible society” or “vajra world.” The vajra world is a world in which the teacher and the students share one mind together. The Tibetan term for this is tönkhor gongpa yerme. Tön means “leader” or “teacher,” khor means “disciples” or “retinue,” gongpa means “mind,” yer means “separation,” and me means “without”; so tönkhor gongpa yerme means that the minds of the teacher and students, or master and servants, are unified completely and inseparably.

  I should warn you: this does not mean that the student is going to become the teacher, or that the teacher is going to become the student. We are simply saying that the participants of the mandala are of one flavor: the teacher’s mind and the students’ minds are completely one-flavored. In other words, the attitude taken by the teacher is reflected in the students as well. Everything has equal qualities: the central deity, the teacher, and the student. That particular student could be a garbage collector or a minister in the highest ministry, but they still share that oneness in the wisdom of mahasukha, or great joy.

  The idea of the mandala principle is that there is equality, but individuals have their own particular functions. For instance, in tantric sadhanas, we have doorkeepers on the fringes; we have deities of all kinds sitting in the East, South, West, and North; and finally we have the main deity in the middle—but nobody fights with one other. The whole setup is not based on assigned posts, but everything is psychologically fitting. The gauris are as sane as the central deity who presides in the middle of the mandala.

  The mandala principle is very organic. In terms of the mandala of your body, your arms and your fingers would never fight to become your brain because they want more control over your body, your heart would never fight to be your brain, and your blood would never fight to become your liver. So your whole system operates very harmoniously. Likewise, people can feel attuned to their own place in the vajra mandala when they know their own nature. This does not necessarily mean that you have to stick to one place for the rest of your life, but you begin to feel the goodness of your own little mandala. Nothing is regarded as important or unimportant, but everything is based on what you can do on the spot.

  That is the idea of enlightened society in a nutshell. In such a mandala, students or servants do not resent their situation, they do not get excited about their situation, and they do not get bored with their situation, because there is that sense of oneness. Therefore, people function in their appropriate places. If a person becomes a door, they are a door; if they become a column, they are a column; if they become a ceiling, they are a ceiling; if they become a floor, they are a floor. The floor does not resent the ceiling, the ceiling does not resent the columns, and the columns do not resent the doors. Everything has become harmonious in oneness or togetherness. Everyone functions in their own particular style, their own particular way. Everything has its own particular power. For instance, the mandala of garbage collectors is unique, and this mandala has its own power.

  SERVING SENTIENT BEINGS

  The one and only binding factor that allows you to be so fortunate as to receive abhishekas at all is that you begin to realize you are in the service of sentient beings. All the abhishekas develop because of this basic principle. In the liturgies of the various abhishekas, you are encouraged to work with the rest of the world. Sometimes you might even receive the vajracharya abhisheka, which presents how to be a leader of the world. So in receiving abhisheka, you no longer hold territory purely for yourself; your territory is completely gone. Your attachment to little personal pleasures has also disappeared. That is why what is known as enlightenment is possible—at last! Whew!

  The final enlightenment requires a lot of giving away of this and that. You have to give away that as opposed to this; give away this as opposed to that; give away that as opposed to that; and give away this as opposed to this. You might wonder, “If this is a certain way, how does that work in connection with this? If all of this is a certain way, how do we understand this and that put together? And if we were able to put this and that together, then how and why, for heaven’s sake, would we be able to figure out who is who and what is what?” My explanation may seem to be a somewhat free interpretation; however, it is actually taken directly from the vajrayana texts.

  As another example, consider this doha that I composed:2

  WHAT THE BUDDHA TAUGHT

  When this is beyond words,

  How does that work?

  How do we know that works,

  If we don’t understand what this is all about?

  When we transcend this and that altogether,

  How do we perform bodhisattva actions,

  Which would seem to suggest having a full understanding of this and that combined?

  If this and that are simply mirage-like,

  Pure conception alone,

  How do we understand that this and that are in the state of one taste?

  How do we realize that they are coemergent?

  Nonetheless, realizing this and that are one in every sense,

  We begin to find vast space that has neither beginning nor end.

  Hey ho!

&n
bsp; Why don’t we come together in that particular state,

  Which is free from that and this?

  Let us experience the ultimate joy, which transcends any petty joy.

  Let us think bigger.

  Let us develop greater vision,

  Which consists of a mixture of intense blue and vermilion red.

  Let us sing and dance.

  See if you can make heads or tails out of that!

  1. The four main abhishekas are the outer abhisheka, the secret abhisheka, the prajna-jnana abhisheka, and the formless abhisheka or abhisheka of That. For a description, see chapter 37, “The Four Main Abhishekas.”

  2. A doha is a traditional Tibetan poem that expresses awakened mind.

  36

  Stability, Luminosity, and Joy

  When you receive abhisheka, it is not so much that you are relaxing, but that your mind is relaxing with the mind of the vajra master and the mind of the lineage altogether. . . . There is a sense that the ordinary hang-ups of the phenomenal world, which are heavy and painful, begin to dissolve. They are no longer dragging you down, and because there is no fixation or feeling of being imprisoned, you are uplifted. You are not completely blissed-out, but you feel somewhat lighter. Your dirt and your obscurations have been removed.

  JOINING SHAMATHA AND VIPASHYANA

  Throughout the path, shamatha discipline produces one kind of experience, and the vipashyana experience furthers that particular situation. For instance, the shamatha aspect of mandala offering brings about the vipashyana aspect of guru yoga. So all along the way, you alternate shamatha and vipashyana, the development of steadiness and awareness.

  Steadiness is the way to be on the spot thoroughly and fully, as much as possible. It is developed by means of vajrayana techniques, such as mandala-offering practice. So shamatha is the skillful means, the discipline; and that type of discipline tends to bring about the vipashyana aspect of vajrayana practice. It brings greater awareness, devotion, and longing for the teacher. Through vipashyana, you unify your emotions with your appreciation of the teacher.

  That union, or bringing together of the teacher and yourself, makes it possible for you to work together. It is the experience of tokpa gak, the cessation or stopping of thoughts. By stopping thoughts, we are not talking about becoming zombies. You have to be quite careful about that. We cut conceptualization, but the natural, functioning mind and general awareness still goes on continuously. In fact, it is cultivated further by the vipashyana experience. Later on, it becomes the upaya of the vajrayana disciplines as well. So that particular aspect of mind could be sharpened. There is never a need for conceptual thinking. Nobody needs it. It is absolutely unnecessary because it produces pain and the unnecessary fortification of ego. That is what conceptual mind is for: to build your ego fortification. It is for “me,” for “I.” It is about how to be “I,” how to build “myself” up—and that is not necessary. There could be a world without “I.”

  STABILITY AND LUMINOSITY

  The abhisheka experience is a combination of shamatha and vipashyana put together completely. At the point when you receive abhisheka, you do not have any separation of those two at all. When you begin to share your reality with the vajra master, when you begin to enter into the vajra master’s world, your experience becomes very dynamic, direct, and basic. You have the solidness and stability of shamatha, and at the same time you are not completely solidified in hanging on to your ego. Therefore, an expansion of vision takes place on the level of prabhasvara, or luminosity. That luminous quality goes along with your vipashyana practice. So things become bright and luminous, and at the same time they are very steady, direct, and simple.

  These abhisheka principles are very much connected with transforming your ordinary mind and your ordinary concepts into another form of ordinary concept. When you see, hear, or think about things, your first glimpse might be extraordinary; you might hear something extraordinary or you might think something extraordinary. But when you go beyond that, when you do a double take, you begin to realize that things are not so extraordinary after all. That comes as a kind of relief. It is not a relief because there have been any misunderstandings or problems, but rather because a fundamental relaxation or fundamental freedom takes place. Finally, you can relax.

  However, when you receive abhisheka, it is not so much that you are relaxing, but that your mind is relaxing with the mind of the vajra master and the mind of the lineage altogether. Your mind is relaxed with the minds of Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa, and all the rest of the lineage teachers, including the Buddha and Vajradhara as well. There is a sense that the ordinary hang-ups of the phenomenal world, which are heavy and painful, begin to dissolve. They are no longer dragging you down, and because there is no fixation or feeling of being imprisoned, you are uplifted. You are not completely blissed-out, but you feel somewhat lighter. Your dirt and your obscurations have been removed.

  At this point, you begin to realize that the inanimate and animate worlds could be seen as the living mandala principle on the spot. In other words, that situation is no longer mythical; it has become very real and very direct. Abhisheka is the first entrance into the world of the yidams and the world of the guru’s mind altogether. It is the point at which we have finally joined the shamatha and vipashyana principles together. That is the way we are able to receive abhisheka fully and thoroughly.

  Luminosity is vipashyana, and steadiness is shamatha. This combination of shamatha and vipashyana shows up in Tibetan terms such as nangtong, or “appearance-emptiness,” in which the tong, or emptiness part, is shamatha, and the nang, or appearance part, is vipashyana. It shows up in the term traktong, or “sound-emptiness,” in which the trak, or sound part, is vipashyana, and the tong part is shamatha. Shamatha is an expression of emptiness, and vipashyana is an expression of luminosity. Shamatha is overcoming complications, which is a kind of cessation or negation, while vipashyana is something positive and vast. Vipashyana is the absence of fixation; it is that which sees egolessness. It is postmeditative awareness.

  In the vajrayana, it is said that skillful means come out of luminosity, which is considered to be synonymous with compassion. So prajna and shunyata develop into compassion and skillful means; that is the combination of shamatha and vipashyana on the highest level. Shamatha and vipashyana produce each other automatically. If you have a feeling of tremendous space, that automatically bring a sense of detail, and the unity of the two is the abhisheka itself. You cannot have Vajradhara without shamatha and vipashyana.

  WORKING WITH THE TRIKAYA PRINCIPLE

  The combination of shamatha and vipashyana is also connected with the trikaya principle. The practice of shamatha brings the dharmakaya, and the practice of vipashyana brings sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. Broken down that way, the three kayas are sometimes known as the two kayas: the formless kaya and the form kayas.

  It is interesting that at the beginning of the path, we think we are working on a very crude level when we do shamatha practice: we just learn how to breathe, how to stop our thoughts, and things like that. It seems to be quite a primitive level, but in fact we are actually working with the dharmakaya, or with potential dharmakaya, which is very advanced. The dharmakaya is a very high level, particularly from the vajrayana point of view. It is jnana-dharmakaya, the wisdom aspect altogether.

  So first we have to manifest dharmakaya, and after that there are the postmeditation experiences or awareness practices, the sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya principles. We have to rescue the pure strictness of shamatha by relating with our day-to-day living situation through vipashyana experiences, which are luminous and bright.

  RELATIVE TRUTH AS THE DANCING GROUND OF GREAT JOY

  Receiving abhisheka depends largely on the students and their motivation, as well as on the vajra master’s willingness and friendship with the students. Between the two, they provide the abhisheka situation by inviting the wisdom deity, or jnanasattva, to confirm the deity as visualized by the stu
dent, or samayasattva. The jnanasattva and vajra master are somewhat linked; they are in league together. For the student, on the other hand, there is the potential for the jnanasattva, as well as the actual experience of samayasattva, as far as the tantric logic of kündzop is concerned.1

  In the vajrayana, kündzop brings a further experience of great bliss. The ordinary kündzop of the hinayana level or the mahayana level simply refers to the factual phenomenal world. That is yang-dak-pe kündzop, or pure kündzop. But in the vajrayana, kündzop is seen as the potential dancing ground of great joy, or mahasukha. The Tibetan word for great joy is dewa chenpo yi yeshe. Dewa means “joy,” chenpo means “great,” “grand,” or “big,” the yi makes it possessive, and yeshe means “wisdom”; so dewa chenpo yi yeshe is the “wisdom of great bliss.” That is the object as well as the subject of abhisheka.

  That experience of yeshe would be realized, or experienced, in a body that is a result of karmic cause and effect—a leftover. But you do not have to hang on to that solid concept of body. That concept might have been resolved a long time ago. That is why in the vajrayana we can have sacred objects, and why we can be blessed. That is why we can have abhishekas like the vase abhisheka. The abhisheka vase is made out of actual metal, and we can drink the actual water. Objects like that vase are made by silversmiths. They are not the result of hardship; they are the result of freedom.