When you have achieved realization,
There is nothing other than the meditative state.
At the threshold of freedom from loss and gain,
Even meditation does not exist.
But for those beginners who are unable to dissolve the hairline of conceptualization,
Meditation is important.
When one practices meditation, there is experience.
This experience arises as the adornment of insight.
This path is divided into the four yogas:
One-pointedness means recognizing the nature of mind;
Divided into the lesser, medium, and greater stages:
One sees the alternation of bliss and luminosity,
One masters resting in samadhi,
And experience continuously appears as luminosity.
Simplicity means realizing the mind is without root;
Divided into the lesser, medium, and greater stages:
One realizes that the arising, ceasing, and dwelling are empty,
One is free from the ground and root of fixating on appearance or emptiness,
And one resolves the complexity of all dharmas.
One taste means dissolving appearance and mind into each other;
Divided into the lesser, medium, and greater stages:
All dharmas of samsara and nirvana are dissolved into equal taste,
Appearance and mind become like water poured into water,
And from one taste, the various wisdoms arise.
Nonmeditation means the utter exhaustion of conceptual mind;
Divided into the lesser, medium, and greater stages:
One is free from meditation and meditator,
The habitual patterns of primitive beliefs about reality are gradually cleared away,
And the mother and son luminosity dissolve together.
The wisdom of dharmadhatu extends throughout space.
In short, in meditation:
One-pointedness means that mind is still as long as one wishes,
Seeing the very nature of ordinary mind.
Simplicity means the realization of groundlessness.
One taste means liberating
All possible dualistic fixations through insight.
Nonmeditation means transcending all sophistries of meditation and nonmeditation,
The exhaustion of habitual patterns.
In this way, from the great lords of yogins,
Naropa and Maitripa,
Down to the lord guru Pema Wangchen,
The golden garland of the Kagyüs
Reached the dharmakaya kingdom of nonmeditation,
Spontaneously cleared away the darkness of the two obscurations,
Expanded the great power of the two knowledges,
Opened the treasury of benefit for the sake of others pervading space,
And remained in the refuge of mind free from doubt.
The Kagyü lineage is known to be passed from one to another.
It is known not by words alone, but by their meaning.
Please guide even such a lowborn savage as myself,
Who possesses the merest mark of your noble lineage,
Quickly to the kingdom of nonmeditation.
Kind one, please utterly exhaust my conceptual mind.
The fruition mahamudra is spoken of like this:
The ground is receiving the transmission of the innate trikaya;
The path is applying the key points of the view and meditation;
The fruition is the actualization of the stainless trikaya.
Therefore, its essence is emptiness, simplicity, dharmakaya.
Its manifestation is the luminous nature of sambhogakaya.
Its strength, manifold and unceasing, is nirmanakaya.
This is the sovereign of all reality.
The nature of mahamudra is unity,
The realm of dharmas free from accepting or rejecting.
Possessing the beauty of unconditioned bliss,
It is the great and vast wealth of wisdom.
It is the natural form of kindness transcending thought.
Through prajna, it does not dwell in samsara
Through karuna, it does not dwell in nirvana.
Through effortlessness, buddha activity is spontaneously accomplished.
The luminosity of ground and path, mother and son, dissolve together.
The ground and fruition embrace one another.
Buddha is discovered in one’s mind.
The wish-fulfilling treasure overflows within.
E MA! How wonderful and marvelous!
Since in the view of mahamudra
Analysis does not apply,
Cast mind-made knowledge far away.
Since in the meditation of mahamudra
There is no way of fixating on a thought,
Abandon deliberate meditation.
Since in the action of mahamudra
There is no reference point for any action,
Be free from the intention to act or not.
Since in the fruition of mahamudra
There is no attainment to newly acquire,
Cast hopes, fears, and desires far away.
This is the depth of the mind of all Kagyüs.
It is the only path on which the victorious ones and their sons journey.
Theirs is the upaya that reverses the vicious circle of existence
And the dharma that brings enlightenment in one life.
Here is the essence of all the teachings, sutras and tantras.
May I and all sentient beings pervading space
Together attain the simultaneity of realization and liberation,
And attain supreme mahamudra.
In order not to transgress the command seal of emptiness endowed with all the supreme aspects, the one whose knowledge is transcendent and who manifested in the form of the vajraholder, I, the subject of Padma, the Yönten Gyatso Lodrö Thaye, composed this at Künzang Dechen Ösel Ling on the left slope of the third Devikoti, Tsari-like Jewel Rock. SUBHAM.
1. The Rain of Wisdom, translated by the Nalanda Translation Committee under the direction of Chögyam Trungpa (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1980).
APPENDIX 3: THE CHARNEL GROUND
In this 1972 poem,1 Trungpa Rinpoche provides a vivid evocation of the energy of the charnel ground: the field where the dead and dying are brought, a place where yogis meditate on impermanence, and the ground from which all mandalas arise.
THE WASTELAND where thorny trees grow and fearsome animals roam, a vast charnel ground. People deposit corpses of human beings, horses, camels, and other once-living things. Recently the surrounding country suffered famine and plague. People lost honor and dignity because they brought half-dead bodies to the charnel ground. Now ravens, crows, vultures, eagles, jackals, and foxes fight over the carrion. They are continually scooping out eyes, digging out tongues. Sometimes in fleeing from each other, they let fall heads, arms, legs, internal organs. The wind carries the incense of rot. The amusing theater of life and death is performing constantly. Self-existing energy is like a wave of the ocean driven by a mighty wind. There is a new display in every corner of the scene. Sometimes one would like to look at them, but does not dare. Nevertheless one cannot prevent one’s eyes focusing. Occasionally there are flickering thoughts of escape. Sometimes one does not believe what one sees, and regards it as a dream. But if one tries to find the moment when one went to sleep, it is not there.
When the plague, accompanied by famine, arises,
The tigers and vultures have a feast.
Comparing the delicacies of tongues and eyes,
Logicians find a new study.
Perhaps one cannot imagine it, but seeing removes all doubt.
This is the world of existence: daring not to exist.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
May 26, 1972
1. From Garuda III: Dharmas without Blame (Boulder, Colo., and Berkeley, Calif.: Vajr
adhatu, in association with Shambhala Publications, 1973). This work also appears in The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa, vol. 7 (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2004).
APPENDIX 4: NOTECARDS
THE ORIGINAL notecards Trungpa Rinpoche used in preparing his Vajradhatu seminary talks are preserved in the Shambhala Archives collection. His notes, usually written in Tibetan on 3˝ by 5˝ cards, are in the process of being translated by the Nalanda Translation Committee. In later seminaries, Trungpa Rinpoche entered the meditation hall to begin his talk in a formal procession that included a person holding his notecards aloft in a Japanese brocade wallet.
The following examples include copies of the original notecard front and back (if applicable), the typed Tibetan version, and the English translation.1
1974 Vajradhatu Seminary
Talk 22: Space
November 11, 1974
Source for Profound Treasury, chapter 17, “The Play of Space and Form”
1983 Vajradhatu Seminary
Talk 16: The Four Stages of Ati
March 14, 1983
Source for Profound Treasury, chapter 72, “Atiyoga: Heightened Experience”
1. The copies of the original notecards may not conform to their original size.
* For the purposes of this translation, we matched the wording used in the talk; the more standard translation of this term is the exhaustion of dharmatā.
APPENDIX 5: OUTLINE OF TEACHINGS
The numbered lists of teachings in this book have been organized into outline-style here as a study aid. The lists are in order of appearance in the text.
PART ONE. APPROACHING THE VAJRAYANA
Introduction
Three Yanas
1. Hinayana
2. Mahayana
3. Vajrayana
Twofold Bodhichitta
1. Relative bodhichitta
2. Absolute bodhichitta
Three Yanas as a House
1. Hinayana / foundation
2. Mahayana / walls
3. Vajrayana / roof
Three Components of the Teachings
1. Shila / discipline
2. Samadhi / meditation
3. Prajna / knowledge
Chapter 1. The Dawning of the Great Eastern Sun
Three Qualities of the Great East
1. Primordial / döma
2. Eternal / takpa
3. Self-existence / lhündrup
Three Marks of Samsaric Existence Transformed into the Three Qualities of the Great East
1. Suffering / döma
2. Change / takpa
3. Egolessness / lhündrup
Two Levels of Loyalty
1. Setting-sun loyalty
2. Great Eastern Sun loyalty
Chapter 2. The Transition to Vajrayana
Two Styles of Tantric Tradition
1. Spring continuation / taking the ground as the path
2. Autumn continuation / taking the fruition as the path
Chapter 3. Entering the Diamond Path on a Solid Foundation
Three Levels of Neurosis
1. Body neurosis
2. Speech neurosis
3. Mind neurosis
Three Yanas as Three Ways of Seeing Reality
1. Hinayana / seeing reality in a factual, ordinary, wise way
2. Mahayana / seeing reality in terms of the logic of the path
3. Vajrayana / paying more attention to the relative truth
Two Kinds of Truth
1. Relative truth / kündzop
2. Absolute truth / töndam
Chapter 4. Uncovering Indestructible Goodness and Wakefulness
Two Aspects of Buddha Nature
1. Tenderness
2. Wisdom
Five Types of Samantabhadra
1. All-good path
2. All-good ornamentation
3. All-good teacher
4. All-good insight
5. All-good realization
Chapter 5. The Multifaceted Diamond Path
Threefold Vajra Principle
1. Vajra body / indestructibility
2. Vajra speech / lucidness
3. Vajra mind / penetrating
Nine Traditional Definitions for Vajrayana
1. Tantra or Tantrayana
2. Mantrayana
3. Vidya dharayana
4. Fruition yana
5. Upayayana
6. Guhyayana
7. Dharanayana
8. Yana of luminosity
9. Imperial yana
Chapter 6. Seven Aspects of Vajrayana: The Space before First Thought
Seven Aspects of Vajrayana
1. Marked with Samantabhadra
2. Possessing adhishthana
3. Acquiring siddhis
4. Confirmation
5. No obstacles
6. Never violating samaya
Four Extreme Beliefs
a. Existence
b. Nonexistence
c. Both
d. Neither
7. Always restoring samaya, even when it is violated
PART TWO. THE TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIP
Chapter 7. The Role of the Guru or Vajra Master
The Guru Principle in the Three Yanas
1. Hinayana / preceptor / upadhyaya / khenpo
2. Mahayana / spiritual friend or kalyanamitra / guru / lama
3. Vajrayana / vajra master / vajracharya / dorje loppön
Two Expressions of the Vajra Master
1. Relative (kündzop) guru
2. Ultimate (töndam) guru
Five Aspects of the Guru
1. Body as vajra sangha
2. Speech as the teachings
3. Mind as the Buddha
4. Quality as the yidams
5. Action as the dharmapalas
Two Descriptions of the Guru Principle
1. Possessor of all knowledge
2. Maker of situations and inspiration
Chapter 8. The Root Guru as the Epitome of Freedom
Three Aspects of the Vajra World
1. The teacher
2. The yidams
3. The practitioner
Three Aspects of Sacred Outlook in Terms of Lojong
1. Vajra body / “When the world is filled with evil, transform all mishaps into the path of bodhi”
2. Vajra speech / “Whatever you meet unexpectedly, join with meditation”
3. Vajra mind / “Seeing confusion as the four kayas is unsurpassable shunyata protection”
Five Factors for Developing Appreciation for the Teacher and the Teachings
The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness Page 85
