The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa Collected Works: Volume Two (65 page)

Inviting all sentient beings as our guests is the starting point of the application of compassion. In viewing sentient beings as guests, the bodhisattva has a constant sense of the impermanence of the relationship—not that the guest is going to turn into an enemy, but that the guest is going to leave. So we view this as an opportune time, and there is constant appreciation. We don’t want to seduce our guests into our territory and hold them with us for our benefit, nor do we want to go along with our guests when they leave our home in order to ease our loneliness. We don’t take a journey with our guests; we stay at home.

Our guests come. We entertain them and relate with them. Afterward the guests thank us, we say good-bye, and we go back to running our home. There is a sense of the preciousness and the impermanence of the relationship, a sense of that relationship being extremely special. Our guest may be our husband, our wife, or our child—everybody is the guest of everybody. Although nobody completely lives up to his credentials, on a day-to-day level each relationship is based on relating with one’s guests constantly.

Compassion is a combination of maitri and generosity. It is a journey outward, communication. On one level, compassion is feeling friendly toward ourselves. On another level, it is experiencing a sense of richness, that we can expand that warmth toward ourselves to other sentient beings. Compassion, from this point of view, is quite different from sympathy. Sympathy involves looking down on someone with the attitude, “I am in a secure situation, but you couldn’t live at my level, so you need to be helped. You should be raised up to my level, helpless little person.” Unlike sympathy, compassion is the radiation of mutual warmth to ourselves and to others.

We could look into the details of the nature of compassion, that sense of communication, how we
feel
compassionate. It is said in the scriptures that as fish cannot live without water, likewise compassion cannot develop without egolessness, without the experience of emptiness, or shunyata. That may bring up the idea that compassion is quite abstract, a logical conclusion of logical mind, rather than literal. It may seem that compassion is somewhat abstract because you just feel a sense of awareness. In fact, compassion is the heart of the practice of meditation in action.

We feel the presence of compassion as a sudden glimpse, a sense of clarity and warmth simultaneously. That is the notion of
recollection
, the awareness we might experience after intense sitting meditation practice. During the sitting practice of meditation, we find ourselves completely chaotic. All kinds of things are going on, and we try to swim through those overcrowded situations of this and that, subconscious mind, discursive thoughts, and so on. Physically, sitting meditation is supposedly quiet and simple—psychologically, it is quite a nightmare. At the least it is annoying and rather inconvenient. There’s a sense of rediscovering hidden corners, uncovering all sorts of areas that we haven’t discovered before. And when we try to solve all the problems that arise, that only creates further problems.

That is what we might find in sitting practice—and all of that is a result of holding on to definite ideas, a result of not having enough maitri and compassion, enough security and warmth. When we sit, we feel that we are attacking and dealing with problems. We are trying to get something out of it. However, when the sitting meditation is completed, when the gong rings and we decide to stop, we find that we are experiencing
better
meditation. At that point all those struggles have gone and all the chaos is dissolved. There is a sense of relief. It is as if we were entering into nirvana—and our
meditation
was a samsaric act.

At that moment there is an absence of struggle, a sense of warmth and freedom. If we deliberately try to create that, it is impossible. Instead we come upon it by accident. The crescendo created by sitting meditation practice brings that kind of release and freedom. The nature of awareness—the real meaning of
satipatthana
, or the practice of recollection—is that feeling of presence, that feeling of relief. At that point you could say that compassion and the shunyata experience are happening simultaneously.

In daily life we don’t have to
create
the concept of letting go, of being free, or anything like that at all. We can just acknowledge the freedom that was already there—and just by the memory of it, just by the idea of it, there is a quick glimpse. A sudden glimpse. That sudden glimpse of awareness that occurs in everyday life becomes the act of compassion. We don’t have to keep up with that or hold it for a long time. It is just a quick glimpse, which goes on always. It’s almost a sense of experience without time to label anything, without time to feel good or bad or compassionate or empty or whatever. Just
that
happens—constantly. We could create that situation right now, at this very moment—a quick glimpse—just to see that there is awareness that is not watched or confirmed. Just awareness. A quick glimpse.

The scriptures talk about bodhisattvas who develop compassion and awareness instantly, at the same time. Even if such bodhisattvas are about to lose their awareness and go into the chaos of a samsaric situation, they can correct themselves in the process of doing so. It’s like a healthy person with good balance who slips or skids: in the process of slipping, he can correct himself without falling. The force of the slipping is used as a way of rebalancing. That doesn’t require any mystical experience—it is just one look, then let go.

According to the scriptures, that glimpse, if you analyze it, takes one-sixtieth of a second. It is so fast and so sharp. The sharpness is the
intelligence
of the compassion. Compassion also means being open and communicable. It contains
warmth
, because you have the desire to do such a thing. We could split that one-sixtieth of a second into sixty parts, as in the analogy of sixty flower petals being suddenly punctured with a needle. If you look at that in slow motion, you first see the needle touching a petal; then penetrating through that petal; then, having completely penetrated, getting into the next petal; again you see it touching the petal, piercing through, and going on to the next. Likewise with compassion: first there is the sense of warmth, or maitri, in oneself; then there is a sense of cutting neurosis; and finally, there is a sense of openness. So the whole thing falls into three parts. It’s very quick!

The whole thing is very abrupt. That’s why what is known as the postmeditation experience, or meditation in action, is regarded as a highly powerful thing. There is no time to analyze; no time to work with it or hold on. At the same time there is a gap. In other words, there is no time to refer back to oneself as “I am doing this.” There is no time to relate with
me
or ego awareness at all. It is just
awareness
, simple awareness. That awareness is regarded as the heart of meditation in action. It is compassion.

A person might develop the patience to repeat that many times in a day. By doing so, that glimpse of compassion and shunyata cuts the chain reaction of karmic causal characteristics. At the same time, you are communicating fully and completely. When the penetrating is going on, when the puncturing is going through, when you are cutting the chain—you are catching a quick glimpse of buddha nature at the same time. If that act is divided into three sections, first there is maitri, trusting in the heart; second, there is a gap in which you experience the openness of tathagatagarbha, or buddha nature; third, there is a sense of communication in that, having already woken up at that level, there is a sense of freedom to expand and to relate with your actions, whatever you are doing. That seems to be how to develop compassion. The problem is that if we begin to hold on to that, or begin to analyze it, then the analytical mind begins to pollute the freshness of that sudden glimpse.

In a sense, we don’t have to develop compassion. We simply acknowledge a situation that is already there: we are just seeing it, looking at it. One of the analogies used in the text
Entering a Path of Enlightenment
, or the
Bodhicharyavatara
, is that of seeing a picture of the Buddha. If a person in a state of rage sees a picture of the Buddha painted on the wall, the merit of seeing a picture of the Buddha is not wasted. In reference to the idea of compassion, when we see a picture of the Buddha, it has all kinds of associations, such as the idea of friendliness. Seeing that compassionate Buddha creates a sudden glimpse in our mind, which cuts through the rage and aggression. It might not cut through completely or ideally. We may not just flop like a punctured balloon—that would be expecting magic. But at least it de-intensifies the pressure of neurotic speed.

Compassion also brings a sense of communication with other people. You are constantly relating with other people in everyday-life situations, not only when you have developed a state of extreme emotional upheaval. That awareness constantly flashing again and again produces friendliness. In other words, subconsciously you begin to realize that you are no longer as vulnerable as you thought you were. There is something going on behind the facade of emotions and protections, something going on behind that whole thing. Subconsciously or consciously you begin to develop a sense of confidence, that you can afford to be openhearted. You can afford to invite all those guests into your territory and work with them, entertain them.

Compassion is not only the logical conclusion that you are going to be okay. It is almost a subconscious trick, you might call it, to deliberately create that sudden glimpse constantly. Looking back or looking forward, there is openness. Seemingly, such looking destroys the ground of ego—but surprisingly, that doesn’t become a state of loss or a state of shock from the point of view of ego. Instead, it becomes something fundamentally sane, fundamentally workable and smooth.

This type of compassion is what bodhisattvas practice, and it seems that we can get into it ourselves. We can do so very simply—as long as we don’t try to re-create past experiences or future expectations of the glimpse, but just look. Look! Look! The idea of compassion is direct. We might realize that the idea of becoming enlightened beings one day is not very far ahead, if we are not enlightened already. It becomes very real and very direct—it ceases to be a dream.

As that basic ground of compassion is set on the path, then magically, I suppose we could say, there is a sense of openness, almost ambition. It is ambition in the positive sense, that you would like to extend an invitation to your guests all the time. Gentleness becomes powerful. You are not afraid to cut down, and you are not subject to idiot compassion anymore at all.

Fundamentally, the pressure of ego’s speed is what causes aggression and stupidity, because you don’t have a chance to examine anything when you are carried away by such great speed. As you drive yourself along through this speed, you collect all kinds of garbage, which is passion. This sudden flash of compassion cuts that speed, or at least slows it down. Somebody had to decide to puncture your car tire—which is
you!
As a result, you collect less dust, less garbage, on your woolly tail. The whole situation becomes more spacious and workable.

This applies not only to us as individuals personally, but it expands to working with other people as well. For instance, you might develop a sense that you want to help somebody. You feel very bad about someone and you want to help. You feel so excited about helping that person that you become very ambitious about that particular project. You want to make a clean sweep, create a new person; but your style is so ambitious, so speedy, that you fail to realize the details of what kind of help that person actually needs.

From the point of view of that person, you become a clown pretending to help him; there is no respect—and from your point of view, there is no time. You want to make a clean sweep, but instead you only create a thicker skin for that person, who begins to see through you and your speed. Seemingly you are acting in the name of compassion, but there is no room to be compassionate. So, in fact, it is an uncompassionate act. There is no time taken, and no patience. That kind of situation can be saved by a sudden glimpse, through looking. Such looking, such a compassionate glimpse, becomes extremely powerful, naturally workable.

D
ISCUSSION

Idiot Compassion

Student:
Could you briefly describe idiot compassion?

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche:
Idiot compassion is the highly conceptualized idea that you want to do good to somebody. At this point, good is purely related with pleasure. For instance, somebody might say that a person needs an operation, and you defend him from the operation, saying, “He’s sick already so why do we have to cut his body? We don’t want to hurt him.” But that is very primitive: we are trying to cure him, not destroy him. Idiot compassion also stems from not having enough courage to say no. Saying no means saying yes in the long run, but you are afraid to say that. It’s like what often happens in Mexico and India. When you ask people the way, they don’t want to say no to you; instead they say, “Yes, yes. It’s very close. You turn right and turn right again and you’ll be there.” They don’t say, “I don’t know.” That’s a primitive form of idiot compassion.

Abrupt Awareness

S:
I’m getting the sense that one should try to open oneself and be fully compassionate at least three times a day.

CTR:
The idea of opening yourself is quite different from the primitive approach of repeating God’s name or thinking higher thoughts a few times a day. It is abrupt awareness, awareness which looks at yourself. It doesn’t have to be strategized, but it is abrupt, a glimpse. Krishnamurti referred to this experience as “choiceless awareness.” You don’t have to choose it—it comes to you. However, it seems that it is not as simple as that. You have to make some effort to decide to look, but not hold on to it.