The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness

by Chogyam Trungpa

  The guru at the maha ati level reduces you into a dot and eats you up. The guru swallows you, lets you come out, and brings you back. The guru dissolves your world, with you and for you, and teaches you that the world is big and small at the same time. The guru brings the realization that sky is earth, and earth is sky, and there is no conflict between the two. The guru gives you sour, hot food that turns out to be very sweet, and then the guru gives you sweet food that turns out to be very sour and hot. Any one of those things! And there does not have to be a definite response, as long as mind is open. That is it. It is it.

  WORKING WITH THE FOUR STAGES OF HEIGHTENING

  Experiencing the true nature of dharmata is opening the heavenly realms; it is opening the gate to freedom or liberation. Having done that, there is the progression through the various nyams, or the realm of nirmanakaya. Having experienced the nyams, the next stage is that insight begins to become workable, which is the sambhogakaya. After that, the dharmata begins to become useless or worn-out, which is the dharmakaya level. Through this, the threefold-space experience also begins to materialize in practical detail.

  Altogether, dharmas are primordially empty, whether you experience them or not. They are free from changing, from flipping into one another. They are regarded as primordial, as roaming in outer space. Because they do not bring about notions as to what to reject and what to accept, they are also free from hope and fear, and they are not subject to cultivating and exerting. At this stage, you can actually attain some kind of realization.

  You might wonder how you are going to attain such a high state. But in presenting these teachings here, the idea is that you could at least have a clear understanding of the possibility of all these stages. Therefore, you will not give up. By understanding these stages, you can be there precisely. You can practice on the spot. And when you wonder what you actually know, you should smile at that! Dharmata is not supposed to have any meaning as such, but it is supposed to have eternal truth, which has never been neglected or cultivated by anyone. That is why from the maha ati point of view, dharmata is called the essence of the dharma. It is like the essence or nature of the sun. As the great maha ati teacher Longchen Rabjam said, “How ironic that samsara works. How ironic that nirvana works.” We are talking in those terms.

  In maha ati, you are involved with a journey because dharmata is real, experience is expansive, your insight has matured, and you have arrived at the level of exhausting dharmata. It is possible for you to do all that on one meditation cushion. You might ask: Why do anything? Why? Because you have a journey! On this journey, you have neither gone, nor have you come—the journey is here. That is journey, from the point of view of the maha ati tradition. You are not advancing toward anything at all, but you are advancing here, on the spot. There is nothing to be lost and nothing to be gained. You are here! Right in this very moment!

  There is more to go, but at the same time, there is nothing more to go. In maha ati language, this is called kadak, or alpha pure. In maha ati, we are getting into the attic, and when we get upstairs, there is no problem. Although the owls and mice and all the rest hover or squeak, still there is no domestic problem. If we learn how to abide with the alpha, the a, if we learn how to abide with the owls, the mice, and maybe a little cat, there is no problem. We are in the attic by now, which is fantastic. It is not necessarily entertaining, but it is brilliant. Therefore, it is dak. We might bump into somebody’s linen chest or somebody’s old wardrobe, but we are still in the attic. That is why it is called maha ati: it is the top of the yanas altogether.

  BACK TO SQUARE ONE

  At this point we have come back to square one, to our starting point, to where we began altogether. We began with a kind of used-up dharmata, but at that point our experience was on the level of ordinary bewilderment and ignorance. Now we have come back to that used-up dharmata, and we are free from bewilderment and ignorance. We now have precision. Therefore, there is no reference point. Instead there is a sort of transcendental, universal bewilderment.

  At this level, what is known as “crazy wisdom” increases. We begin to appreciate and understand deeply the teaching of individual salvation. We appreciate the necessity of shamatha discipline and its results, vipashyana discipline and its results, and the importance of being processed, or shinjanged. All of those situations provide us with a further revelation: we realize that they were meant to be expressions of the kind of freedom that transcends freedom altogether.

  At this point, we become the best hinayanists, the best meditators. We also have no problem in exchanging ourselves for others. Tonglen practice becomes natural, and practicing the paramitas also becomes absolutely natural. We begin to find ourselves dissolving into the big ocean of the wakeful mind of Buddha. We begin to realize why the small rivers rush south to join the ocean, and we have no problem understanding why we practice the dharma.

  Maha ati vision is the greatest opening of our mind. Dharma finally makes sense out of no sense. The reality of reality becomes unreal, but at the same time it is indestructible vajra nature. We finally reach the level where we are capable of realization. We begin to realize that all dharma agrees at one point. We even begin to realize the truth of driving all blames into one, because we have arrived back at square one.

  1. Nyam are temporary meditative experiences of bliss, clarity, and nonthought. For a discussion of nyam in the hinayana context, see volume 1 of the Profound Treasury, chapter 42, “Mindfulness of Mind.”

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  Atiyoga: Everything and Nothing

  Maha ati is straightforward. It is talking business. In maha ati you have everything, and at the same time you have nothing. The only technique maha ati provides is the leap, but that is absurd, because maha ati does not provide any place to leap from. That is the big joke.

  MAHA ATI VIEW, PRACTICE, AND ACTION

  Maha ati can be described as falling into three parts: view, practice, and action. The following descriptions of these three parts come from Longchen Rabjam, someone who is very nice to read and extremely inspiring, to say the least. These descriptions are not quite slogans, but more like analogies, and although they might be slightly long-winded, I think they are very powerful.

  View

  The first three points fall under view. In this case, when we talk about view, we are not talking about a metaphysical or philosophical view, but about an understanding of the nature of reality as it is.

  SPOTTING A THIEF. The first point in relation to view is that when you step into the view, you begin to realize the nature of samsaric neurosis, which is like spotting a thief. Suddenly you say, “He was the guy who broke into my room and stole my camera!” It is very precise. The neurosis level is usually vague and uncertain, but suddenly you see that there is one particular spot of neurosis that is actually the troublemaker.

  I would like to point out that the maha ati tradition is not all that wishy-washy. It is not that everything is gigantic and beautiful and great, and there are no cares and everything is fine. Maha ati recognizes neurosis in a very specific way, on a very ordinary and very personal level. You can actually point your finger and say, “This is it. This is what has been happening with me. I am too jealous, or I am too freaked-out, or I am too lazy, or I am too this and that.” There is a long list of neuroses. According to the abhidharma, there are a great many of them.

  ADDING MORE FIREWOOD TO THE FIRE. The second point about view is that when you attain the view, you begin to reach the understanding that phenomena are not particularly a big deal. You realize that samsara and nirvana are one, and there is a feeling of immense expansiveness. As a result, it is said that your body and your speech begin to develop warmth or compassion in the sense of actual certainty.

  The Tibetan expression trö, or warmth, is not so much warmth in terms of emotional warmth. When you say, “Did you get any warmth from that person?” it means, “Did you make any connection with that person? Did you get heat out of that person?” It could even mean, �
��Are they going to buy your stuff? Can you sell to this person?” This use of the term warmth is somewhat slang, a local idiom, and it is used here quite colorfully and beautifully.

  So warmth of body and speech develops. Something is actually happening in terms of your view or your perception, which is like adding more firewood to the fire.

  WINNING VICTORY ON THE BATTLEFIELD. The third point in regard to the view is that when the view is fully established, you begin to see the tricky qualities of samsara and nirvana; you see that it is all games. That is to say, you-and-me games are constantly taking place, and you begin to spot them and expose them. You begin to gain some kind of liberation from those games; you see them as obnoxious and trivial, and so cheap. Your experience is as though you had won a victory on the battlefield.

  Practice

  The next set of three points deals with practice.

  ENTERING A RICH MAN’S TREASURY. When you first step into the practice of meditation, it is as if you are entering a rich man’s treasury. You begin to relate with your physical experience and your emotions very simply and directly. You experience the activity of your physical body and nervous system, and you experience your emotions, which are on the conceptual level, crank up or crank down, and you realize that there is richness in those experiences. This does not mean that you are going to solve the whole problem of emotions. It is simply that you realize that there is a great deal of richness taking place.

  BUILDING A CONCRETE WALL. The second point is that when the practice is actually attained, you realize that your mind is in a particular spot, and you know what your practice is all about. The analogy for that is building a concrete wall. You know everything you have to do. You have built a frame already, so you can put in the concrete and build your wall. You know exactly what to do, so everything is already taken care of.

  BEING CROWNED AS A PRINCE. The third point on the practice level is that, when your meditation is fully established, you begin to realize that your mind consists of a great deal of sanity, a great deal of openness, a great number of possibilities, and a great deal of workability—and you are not afraid of that. The analogy for this is being crowned as a prince, and finally being acknowledged as worthy to be a king.

  Action

  The third section, or action, is also a set of three points.

  AN UPTIGHT PERSON LOSING THEIR TEMPER. The first point has to do with when you first step into your action or first connect with the phenomenal world. It has to do with how you relate with your husband or your wife, your children, your car, your supermarket, your Saks Fifth Avenue, or whatever you have. When you first step into action on this level, there is a gap in which you begin to lose the reference point of any particular desire or emotion.

  The analogy for this is an uptight person losing their temper. When such a person loses their temper, suddenly and without any reason—boom!—they explode. It is very direct. They lose their temper, go completely insane, and don’t know what they are doing. The point of this analogy is that when you begin to concentrate on your world, you have no reference point. That kind of open gap must take place in order to conduct business, in order to actually relate with the world as it is. It is a bit like the experience we have before we sneeze: first there is ahhhhh, then choo!

  A GARUDA FLYING OVER THE EDGE OF A CLIFF. The second point related with action is that at the point of the attainment of action, all the little neurotic desires have been completely subjugated and fearlessly controlled. The analogy for this is a garuda flying over the edge of a cliff. The garuda is the king of birds, who flies very high and does not have any worry about falling down. The garuda has no fear of falling.

  A BRAHMAN HOUSEWIFE WHO HAS FINISHED HER WORK. The third point related with action is that when action is fully established, you begin to realize that you can settle down to your own situation. You do not constantly have to make reference to your teachers, your gurus, your books, and so on, but you can actually conduct your own business properly, thoroughly, and fully. Everything becomes bread-and-butter language, very simple.

  The analogy for this is a Brahman housewife who has finished her job. Apparently, a high-caste Indian housewife has very precise tasks to do: she is supposed to cook in accordance with a particular diet, and she is supposed to be hospitable to her guests. A Brahman housewife is very concerned with trying to maintain her rules and regulations, but when she is finished with all of those things, she takes a nap and relaxes.

  CONFIDENCE AND COMPASSION

  It is said that maha ati is complete expansiveness, that it is nonmeditation. Because it is nonmeditation, it is said to be like a flowing river. Everything is a natural experience rather than a struggle.

  Maha ati is not based on personal practice or trying to meet a demand of practice: it is self-liberated. Maha ati is liberated on the spot, so the notion of liberation is questionable. Liberation could be regarded as purely a boundary situation, like the waves and the ocean. So maha ati is like the ocean, which flows in and out constantly. It does not need any help.

  Maha ati is self-existing clarity. Experiencing such clarity is like relating with a cloud in the sky, which dissolves back into the space of the sky itself.

  Maha ati is like the depths of the ocean. In maha ati, you have already developed your own innate nature: you have completely developed flowingness, spaciousness, and openness. So maha ati is like the depths of the ocean, which does not need to be fed by a river or stream in order to have water, but is self-contained.

  Maha ati is self-existence; it is self-experienced. Therefore, it is like a torch that does not need the addition of any fuel to keep shedding light. It is a self-existing torch, a burning fire that exists by itself.

  All of these analogies are connected with compassion, sympathy, and softness, as well as with self-contained immense confidence. So the experience you get out of the maha ati tradition is larger-scale thinking. You do not have to deal with the petty little stuff of this and that, particularly, but things can be completely expanded and completely exposed.

  THE MAHA ATI EXPERIENCE

  The maha ati experience is said to have four main points: nonexistence, all-pervasiveness, self-existence, and aloneness.

  Nonexistence

  Nonexistence means, in this case, that if you try to trace back the maha ati experience to where the whole thing came from in your mind or in your perceptions, there is nothing that you can actually pinpoint. The nature of things is that this experience is there, but it is simply not there at the same time.

  All-Pervasiveness

  All-pervasiveness means that because you cannot trace this experience back to the pinpoint, it must therefore be everywhere. It has got to be everywhere, because it is not there and it is not here. It is all-pervasive in the sense that wherever you look when you are trying to find the isness of things as they are, and whatever you look at—the vaseness or the tableness or the curtainness or the windowness or the sunness or the moonness or any other “ness”—you do not find its isness quality at all anywhere. So the maha ati experience is all-pervasive; it is all over the place.

  Self-Existence

  Self-existence means that nobody actually manufactured such an idea or concept as the nature of the maha ati experience. It was never learned from books. Nobody taught it. It is self-experienced. From that point of view, it is self-existent, but this has nothing to do with the self as a central reference point.

  Aloneness

  Aloneness means that there is no particular experience that you can experience; therefore, it is very lonesome. This loneliness is not based on a lack of companionship or a lack of support, but on the absence of any reference point whatsoever. It is very desolate, absolutely desolate.

  THE BIG JOKE

  Maha ati does not mean anything: it is just an enormous vacuum. Maha ati is transparent: it does not have any shape or form. The previous yanas may be enlightened, according to the earlier yanas of hinayana and mahayana, but from this yana’s perspective,
that does not mean anything. In maha ati, one does nothing, completely nothing; and at the same time, one does everything. It is very ordinary, extraordinarily ordinary. You might sleep late—that’s the only constructive thing I can think of—and you might make lots of jokes.

  I think that it is necessary to take people through the hinayana and mahayana and the other tantric yanas in order to relate to this elaborate joke. You do not get the sudden shock of the punch line unless the joke is built up properly, which is what good comedians do. It is like the story of the little boy looking for his father. He asks his mother, “Where is daddy? I would like so much to find daddy.” But after a journey of many years, after his mother has taken him round and round and round, it turns out that his mother has just taken him to their own house. It seemed to the little boy like a very big journey, but in the end his mother just opened the door to the house, and there was daddy. The boy’s father had been right there all along, the whole time.

  So maha ati is a big joke, in a sense. But there are many kinds of jokes. A cruel joke and a humorous joke both end up being funny, but one is painful and one is pleasurable. Another kind of joke is just a way of shaking off seriousness; it is just a facade joke. An example of a joke played at the maha ati level is that what I am saying is being taped and taken very seriously by a machine that cannot laugh. The machine does its job perfectly as long as it is plugged in; however, it is missing the point all the time. In maha ati, you continue to miss the point until the very last moment. Then there is a moment when you realize that you are missing the point, which is preliminary enlightenment. And finally, you actually catch the punch line.