The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa Collected Works: Volume Two (101 page)

Since patients develop complex, elaborate strategies to cope with a claustrophobic world, the life at Maitri is simplified to cut through the complexity. Manual work and simple social interaction centering around obviously necessary tasks reduces the potential for complicated thought games. Let’s do this now! There is a general suspiciousness of too much analyzing and strategizing since analyzing problems or emoting about them usually feeds the fantasy worlds out of which the problems arise. The patients just do the postures and live in the community. The philosophy behind it is rarely discussed. Similarly, among staff there is a danger of using the buddha families as simply an intellectual typology. This one-sided approach is strongly discouraged. The meditation practice of the staff and the space therapy participated in by staff and patients tunes one in to
feeling
and
seeing
one’s own and other’s world-creating patterns. The ideal is an integration of intellect and intuition, a balancing between spontaneity and deliberate action, abstract ideas and gut feelings.

The staff further work through the patient’s fantasy world by not feeding it. In this case the staff give a patient space to explore his hopes, fears, and reactions without immediate censure. Neuroses are not repressed or indulged—they are openly recognized but not necessarily acted out. The proper attitude toward them is to see and feel the emotion or fantasy arising and cut through its neurotic aspect. To just act it out and expect cathartic release is not enough, one must see the root of the neuroses, the heavy hand of ego. Whether the therapist exaggerates, mirrors, confronts, allows, or smooths over neurosis depends upon what he feels is appropriate in a situation. Such actions are spontaneous responses to the ongoing life situation rather than prearranged therapeutic strategies. Aside from the rooms and postures, no techniques are used. The danger of using too many gimmicks is that they become a substitute for living, an entertaining and often dramatic highlight in one’s day. Following this emphasis on ordinary life, patients are encouraged to visit family and friends, to leave Maitri and live ordinary lives, and then return at a later time. Staff are rotated frequently to keep them from developing an ingrown, therapeutic mentality.

Whether the therapist exposes the patient’s games directly, or mirrors them by nonparticipation, or encourages in a sane direction, the key to his effectiveness is his willingness to work with his own vulnerability. Since according to the Buddhist view, neurosis is multidimensional, that is, there are more and more subtle layers of neurosis, or conversely various degrees of relative sanity, any attempt to solidify or secure ego at some level of relative sanity is considered neurotic. So the therapist can never rest on his achievement of sanity. He assumes that he will be acting somewhat neurotically to his patients but goes ahead anyway. He works along with his patient, each on his own neurosis.

GLOSSARY

T
HE DEFINITIONS
given in this glossary are particular to their usage in this book and should not be construed as the single or even most common meaning of a specific term.

abhidharma
(Skt.): The systematic and detailed analysis of mind, including both mental process and contents. Also, the third part of the Tripitaka, the “three baskets” of early Buddhist scripture.
See also
Tripitaka

alaya
(Skt.): The fundamental unbiased ground of mind.

alayavijnana
(Skt.): Arising from the ground of alaya, alayavijnana, the eighth consciousness, is the point at which subtle seeds of bias or duality begin to appear. As such it is the root of samsara.

arhat
(Skt.): A practitioner at the highest stage of attainment in the hinayana.

ati
(Skt., also
maha ati;
Tib.
dzogchen
): “Great perfection.” The ultimate teaching of the Nyingma school of Buddhism in Tibet. Ati is considered the final fruition of the vajrayana path. It is known as the great perfection because in its view the original purity of mind is always already present and needs only to be recognized.

Atisha Dipankara
(980/90–1055
CE
): An Indian Buddhist scholar at the great monastic university Vikramashila, who was invited to Tibet and spent the last twelve years of his life there. Atisha’s main disciple, Dromtönpa, founded the Kadam school.
The Root Text of the Seven Points of Training the Mind
, the main text on mind training and lojong that makes up the book
Training the Mind
by Chögyam Trungpa, is based on Atisha’s teachings.

Avalokiteshvara
: The bodhisattva of compassion.

bardo
(Tib., “in-between state”; “no-man’s-land”): A state between a previous state of experience and a subsequent one in which experience is not bound by either. There are six bardos, but the term is most commonly used to designate the state between death and rebirth.

basic goodness
: Unconditional goodness of mind at its most basic level. The natural goodness of alaya.

bhumi
(Skt.): “Land.” Each of the ten stages that the bodhisattva must go through to attain buddhahood: (1) very joyful, (2) stainless, (3) luminous, (4) radiant, (5) difficult to conquer, (6) face-to-face, (7) far going, (8) immovable, (9) having good intellect, and (10) cloud of dharma.

bodhi
(Skt.): “Awake.” The path of bodhi is a means of awakening from confusion.

Bodhicharyavatara
(Skt.):
Entering the Path of Enlightenment
, by Shantideva. A major text of mahayana Buddhism on how to realize the nature of existence, and the compassion that arises from such realization.

bodhichitta
(Skt.): “Mind/heart of awakening.” Sometimes called buddha nature, it is the awakened heart and mind inherent in all human beings. Bodhichitta is discussed in terms of absolute and relative, although these two aspects are inseparable. Ultimate, or absolute, bodhichitta is the union of emptiness and compassion, the essential nature of awakened mind. Relative bodhichitta is the tenderness arising from a glimpse of ultimate bodhichitta that inspires one to train oneself to work for the benefit of others.

bodhisattva
(Skt.): “Awake being” or “warrior of awakening.” A person who has completely overcome confusion and who is committed to the mahayana path of cultivating bodhichitta, wisdom, and compassion through the practice of the six paramitas or transcendental virtues: generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and knowledge. The bodhisattva takes a vow to postpone his or her own personal attainment of enlightenment in order to work for the benefit of all sentient beings.

bodhisattva path:
Another name for the mahayana.

bodhisattva vow:
The formal vow taken to mark one’s aspiration to become a bodhisattva and one’s actual entering the bodhisattva path of dedicating one’s life to all sentient beings.

buddha
(Skt.): This term may refer to the principle of enlightenment or to any enlightened being, in particular to Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha.

buddhadharma
:
See
dharma.

buddha nature
:
See
bodhichitta, sugatagarbha,
and
tathagatagarbha.

crazy wisdom
(Tib.
yeshe chölwa
): Absolute perceptiveness, characterized by fearlessness and bluntness, which radiates out spontaneously to whatever situation is present, fulfilling the four enlightened actions of pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, and destroying. “Crazy wisdom does not occur unless there is a basic understanding of things, a knowledge of how things function as they are. There has to be trust in the normal functioning of karmic cause and effect. . . . According to that logic, wisdom does not exactly go crazy; but on top of the basic logic or basic norm, craziness as higher sanity, higher power, or higher magic, can exist” (Chögyam Trungpa,
Journey without Goal
, p. 138).

dark ages:
The five dark ages are (1) when life becomes shorter; (2) when the view is based on corruption of the teachings; (3) when kleshas become more solid; (4) when sentient beings become untameable and difficult to convert to the dharma; and (5) when it becomes a time of sickness, famine, and war.

dharma
(Skt.): 1. Teachings or truth, specifically the teachings of the Buddha, also called the buddhadharma. 2. Phenomena in general. Lower dharma is how things work on the mundane level—e.g., how water boils. Higher dharma is the subtle understanding of the world—how mind works, how samsara perpetuates itself, and how it is transcended, and so on.

dharmakaya
(Skt.): “Dharma-body.” Basic unbounded openness of mind, wisdom beyond reference point.
See also
kaya.

dharmapala
(Skt.): “Dharma protector.” A sudden reminder that shocks the confused practitioner awake. The dharmapalas represent basic awareness, which brings the confused practitioner back to his or her discipline.

dhyana states
: Meditative states of absorption—the experiences of the realm of the gods—which need to be transcended in order to develop wisdom. Although strictly speaking these states can be “achieved” by advanced practitioners, Trungpa Rinpoche sometimes speaks of them pejoratively and warns that they should be cut through. Dhyana, in general, can refer more broadly to meditation and is one of the six paramitas.

dön
(Tib.): A sudden attack of neurosis that seems to come from outside oneself.

dorje
(Tib.; Skt.
vajra
): A ritual scepter, symbolizing skillful means (upaya), the masculine principle, which is used in tantric practice along with the bell, symbolizing knowledge (prajna), or the feminine principle. Together, bell and dorje symbolize the inseparability of masculine and feminine, skillful means and knowledge.
See also
vajra.

duhkha
(Skt.): Suffering.

five buddha families:
Five basic qualities of energy in the tantric tradition. The five families refer to the mandala of the five sambhogakaya buddhas and the five fundamental principles of enlightenment they represent. In the mandala of enlightenment, these are five wisdom energies, but in the confused world of samsara, these energies arise as five confused emotions. The following list gives the name of each family, its buddha, its wisdom, its confused emotion, and its direction and color in the mandala: (1) buddha, Vairochana, all-pervading wisdom, ignorance, center, white; (2) vajra, Akshobhya, mirrorlike wisdom, aggression, east, blue; (3) ratna (jewel), Ratnasambhava, wisdom of equanimity, pride, south, yellow; (4) padma (lotus), Amitabha, discriminating-awareness wisdom, passion, west, red; (5) karma (action), Amoghasiddha, all-accomplishing wisdom, jealousy, north, green. Some qualities differ slightly in different tantras.

Gampopa
(1079–1153
CE
): The fifth major Kagyü enlightened lineage holder and foremost disciple of the yogin Milarepa. Gampopa combined the Kadam teachings of Atisha with the mahamudra tradition stemming from the Indian masters Tilopa and Naropa.

garbha
(Skt.): “Essence” or “nature.”
See also
tathagatagarbha.

Geluk
(Tib.): One of the four great lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, known as the reform tradition and emphasizing intellectual study and analysis.

Guhyasamajatantra
(Skt.): A root tantra of the anuttarayoga tradition.

guru
(Skt.): “Master,” “teacher.”

heruka
(Skt.): a wrathful male yidam, or deity, in vajrayana Buddhism.

hinayana
(Skt.): “Narrow way”—narrow because it emphasizes self-discipline as the essential starting point on the path. Also sometimes translated as the “lesser vehicle.” The hinayana is the first of the three yanas of Tibetan Buddhism. It is subdivided into the shravakayana and the pratyekabuddhayana. The focus of the hinayana is on individual realization through taming one’s mind and on causing no harm to others. The hinayana practitioner concentrates on basic meditation practice and an understanding of basic Buddhist doctrines such as the four noble truths.

Jamgön Kongtrül of Sechen
(1901?–1960
CE
): Chögyam Trungpa’s root teacher, one of the five incarnations of Jamgön Kongtrül the Great. Chögyam Trungpa described him as “a big jolly man, friendly to all without distinction of rank, very generous and with a great sense of humor combined with deep understanding; he was always sympathetic to the troubles of others.”

Jamgön Kongtrül the Great
(1813–1899
CE
): One of the principal teachers of nineteenth-century Tibet, the author of the commentary on slogan practice entitled
The Basic Path toward Enlightenment
. Jamgön Kongtrül was a leader in the religious reform movement called Ri-me that sought to discourage sectarianism and encourage meditation practice and the application of Buddhist principles in everyday life.

jinpa
(Tib.; Skt.
dana
): Generosity. One of the six paramitas.

jnana
(Skt.): “Primordial knowledge/wisdom.” The wisdom activity of enlightenment, transcending all dualistic conceptualization. One’s being is spontaneously wise, without needing to seek it. Jnana is the wisdom which manifests when the mind is no longer obscured.

Kadam
(Tib.): The Kadam lineage was founded by Dromtönpa, the main disciple of Atisha, who came to Tibet in the eleventh century. Their teachings place emphasis on monastic discipline and on training one’s mind in bodhichitta and compassion.

Kagyü
(Tib.): One of the four principal schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyü lineage is known as the practice (or practicing) lineage because of its emphasis on meditative discipline.