The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa Collected Works: Volume Two (69 page)

S:
Many times the action you do arises spontaneously out of the impulse.

CTR:
Such actions could be regarded as needless.

S:
When you feel an impulse, such as the impulse to have a cigarette, is it really important whether you act on it or not, if you are aware of both the impulse and the action? Maybe that is being too hard or strict on yourself.

CTR:
I think there are degrees of actions, of how much rebounds from your actions, and how much your actions are free. If you have to go to the toilet, you don’t say that is purely in the mind, or a frivolous thing, unless it is obviously psychosomatic. Some actions are not regarded as frivolous, but organic. Saying that going out and murdering someone is frivolous is another matter altogether. You don’t have to go out and kill somebody in order to survive, like you need to go to the toilet. It’s a different matter altogether. So there is a sense of fantasy and there is a sense of reality. The question is what your body needs in order to survive and what your emotion needs in order to survive.

S:
What do you mean by rebound?

CTR:
When things become heavy-handed, you get consequences. If an action is just simple and direct, then there are no consequences.

S:
Rinpoche, can you give an example?

CTR:
Smoking a cigarette and killing somebody are entirely different. Killing someone needs more emotional buildup; smoking a cigarette needs less. However, if you had planted a bomb in the cigarette or you had been told that smoking a cigarette is a terrible, sinful, destructive thing to do, it could become the same as murdering somebody because of your attitude.

S:
In that situation, should one try to lose that attitude and make it a simple act, or realize that it is complicated?

CTR:
It depends on how you approach it. It is possible that Hitler’s attitude toward murdering Jews was to him like smoking another cigarette. It all depends on your attitude, how crazy you are.

S:
Would it be true to say that if you act simply and directly, there are no consequences, but if you did the same thing calculating with your intellect or with your emotions, then you would create more karma for yourself? It isn’t necessarily the type of act you do that matters?

CTR:
It is your attitude
as well as
what type of act you do. Any action you do has all kinds of attitudes in it already. Whatever you do had different degrees of heaviness, so you can’t just say everything is just attitude; action has something to do with it as well. I mean, breaking bottles is different from murdering somebody. Different attitudes go with different actions. So they are reciprocal.

S:
In the case of the samurai warrior, their killing somebody may be a very simple and direct thing.

CTR:
I wouldn’t say the samurai warrior is acting within the attitude of the enlightenment approach. But their style, their philosophy, is fearlessness, which is good. The case of Buddha killing the bandit to save five hundred people’s lives is another question. Five hundred people are more important than one person. So it is a matter of degree, a matter of how much consequences are involved with that act.

S:
How can the Buddha be sure that one person would kill the five hundred people? He hadn’t killed the five hundred people yet.

CTR:
Maybe he had a record; we do not know.

S:
If I know I don’t need the cigarette, if I know it is frivolous, a fantasy, is it my duty as a bodhisattva not to have one?

CTR:
It seems to be purely up to you whether you regard smoking cigarettes as frivolous or as just something that you do, a simple act.

S:
Actions and impulses are very subtle. It is often difficult to determine whether acting is acting on impulse or acting spontaneously. How does one go about detecting the difference?

CTR:
It depends. Certain actions mean a lot to you and certain actions are pure occupation; certain actions are harmful and certain actions are communication. When you are trying to destroy somebody or to create destruction, that action is not an expression of compassion; it is unaware and insensitive. Communication is connected with love and compassion. It says in the bodhisattva texts that passion is preferable to aggression because passion accepts the situation and aggression rejects the situation. That is one of the ideas of the bodhisattva path.

S:
Is judging other people’s actions a dangerous, self-defeating process?

CTR:
It seems that way, unless there is some warmth in the judgment, in that you want to relate with those people and help them. Otherwise, it becomes very cold. You are just sharpening your sword.

S:
Not expressing your emotions might be viewed as cutting off communication. That could be a problem.

CTR:
The whole point is to start by communicating with yourself. Seventy-five percent of the world is you; after that, there is another world outside, the other twenty-five percent. If you don’t cut communication with yourself, if you are completely in communication with yourself, then there is no problem. Expression comes out naturally.

APPENDIX

The Bodhisattva Vow

Like the earth and the pervading elements,

Enduring as the sky itself endures,

For boundless multitudes of living beings,

May I be their ground and sustenance.

Thus for every thing that lives,

As far as are the limits of the sky,

May I provide their livelihood and nourishment

Until they pass beyond the bonds of suffering.

Just as the buddhas of the past

Embraced the awakened attitude of mind,

And in the precepts of the bodhisattvas

Step by step abode and trained,

Just so, and for the benefit of beings,

I will also have this attitude of mind,

And in those precepts, step by step,

I will abide and train myself.

That this most pure and spotless state of mind

Might be embraced and constantly increase,

The prudent who have cultivated it

Should praise it highly in such words as these:

Today my life has given fruit.

This human state has now been well assumed.

Today I take my birth in Buddha’s line,

And have become the Buddha’s child and heir.

In every way, then, I will undertake

Activities befitting such a rank.

And I will do no act to mar

Or compromise this high and faultless lineage.

For I am like a blind man who has found

A precious gem within a mound of filth.

Exactly so, as if by some strange chance,

The enlightened mind has come to birth in me.

This is the draft of immortality,

That slays the Lord of Death, the slaughterer of beings,

The rich unfailing treasure-mine

To heal the poverty of wanderers.

It is the sovereign remedy,

That perfectly allays all maladies.

It is the wishing tree bestowing rest

On those who wander wearily the pathways of existence.

It is the universal vehicle that saves

All wandering beings from the states of loss—

The rising moon of the enlightened mind

That soothes the sorrows born of the afflictions.

It is a mighty sun that utterly dispels

The gloom and ignorance of wandering beings,

The creamy butter, rich and full,

All churned from milk of holy Teaching.

Living beings! Wayfarers upon life’s paths,

Who wish to taste the riches of contentment,

Here before you is the supreme bliss—

Here, O ceaseless wanderers, is your fulfillment!

And so, within the sight of all protectors,

I summon every being, calling them to buddhahood—

And till that state is reached, to every earthly joy!

May gods and demigods, and all the rest, rejoice!

From
The Way of the Bodhisattva
by Shantideva, chap. 3, “Commitment,” pp. 51-53, translated by The Padmakara Translation Group. © 1997 by The Padmakara Translation Group. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston,
www.shambhala.com
.

Acknowledgments

T
HIS BOOK IS THE RESULT
of the efforts of many people. The contents reflect the extraordinary wisdom of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and of his lineage forefathers. The original sourcebook,
The Complete Teachings of Mahayana
, was a light editing of verbatim transcripts, which in turn were derived from the extensive Vajradhatu tape archives. There is no list or record of the people who worked on the original sourcebook. If you were a contributor—thank you.

In producing this book, we went back to the tapes to double-check the accuracy of the transcription and reedited the corrected transcripts. Gordon Kidd, of Kalapa Recordings, provided the tapes. Ellen Kearney proofed the text and raised valuable points of clarification. Cheryl Campbell—as always—kept a watchful eye on the project. Finally, we would like to offer a special thanks to Diana J. Mukpo for her permission to publish this material and for her ongoing support of our work.

S
ELECTED
W
RITINGS

An Approach to Meditation

A TALK TO PSYCHOLOGISTS

M
EDITATION SEEMS
to be the basic theme of spiritual practice. It is a vast subject and one that is very loosely defined, so there is a tremendous possibility of distorting it, adding our own version to it. Therefore, it seems quite important to take a look at meditation scientifically in the way it applies to our spiritual practice.

There are all sorts of concepts about meditation. One involves trying to establish communication with a divine power and using exotic techniques to tune in to this power. This particular style of meditation could be defined as a religious practice. Another way of approaching meditation is as a spiritual practice rather than a religious one, working with the perceiver rather than focusing on external divine forces of any kind.

Do such things as divine forces exist or not? Does a God exist or not? The answer is that it is not certain until we work with the perceiver of that particular energy. In the Buddhist form of meditation we try to look at the perceiver of the universe, the perceiver which is self, ego, me, mine. In order to receive guests, we have to have a place to receive them. It is possible, however, that we may not find it necessary to invite any guests at all. Once we have created the place where guests are welcome, we may find they are there already.

The practice of meditation is based, not on how we would like things to be, but on what is. We often do not have a proper understanding of what we are, of what we are actually doing. Instead our attention is focused on the possible end product of the processes we are involved in. Spirituality should be taken very seriously, very honestly. This means it should not partake of that exotic quality which is filled with promises. From the beginning, it should be concerned with the actuality of who is involved in the practice.

In the tradition of Buddhism, each person in the lineage of teachers develops a self-understanding which adds to the tradition. The process is like handing down a recipe for bread. In each generation the bread is exactly like the original bread, but possibly more flavorful because of the added experience of the bakers involved in the handing down. In each generation the bread is fresh, delicious, and healthy.

One might say, “How can I know that these experiences are valid for me?” I can’t say that they are particularly valid for particular individuals unless I have a personal relationship and understanding with them. But certainly the process of working on one’s psychological states from a fresh point of view is valid. What I have to say about these psychological states is that they are purely one’s own experience. Studying and learning about them is more of a confirmation than new information.

There is a great need to be realistic and critical about what we are. We must not be spiritually gullible. Often we find that what we are is not attractive; we find looking at ourselves discouraging. But looking at ourselves is not finally discouraging; rather it develops the ability to be more realistic. We always ask a question when there is uncertainty. Questions would not arise at all if we did not have the creative ground of uncertainty within us. The questions we ask already contain the answers in embryonic form. In other words, they are expressions of the answers. The answer may turn out to be negative and disappointing, causing us to hate ourselves, but nevertheless, we will have discovered something real.

This self-disillusionment seems to be the starting point of meditation practice. The starting point is dissatisfaction, the absence of a dream, or wishful thinking. It is something realistic, down-to-earth, and direct.

Ego starts from bewilderment; bewilderment or dissatisfaction or not knowing how to step to the next solution. Finding a solution, we haven’t actually found it, because we’re not exactly certain to whom the solution applies. There is, therefore, a basic suspicion of the nonexistence of ourselves, a basic confusion. Somehow that basic bewilderment or confusion is the working base. From that confusion, basic bewilderment, or basic paranoia, whatever we call it, arises the attempt to communicate further in order to establish our ego.

Each time we try to establish our so-called reality, the basic paranoia becomes larger and larger; for establishing relationships with the apparent phenomenal world makes demands, requires energy, and the facing of overwhelming situations. When the phenomenal world becomes greater and more powerful than us, there is automatically a feeling of bewilderment. As we continually feel bewildered, we do our best to establish our pattern. In a materialistic sense, we try and become a rich, respectable, or powerful person. In a spiritual sense, we try and adapt to a basic discipline. Finding a basic discipline could be a process which enriches the ego or the self. Even if we follow a spiritual rather than a worldly life, if we don’t have the basic understanding of why we are trying to accumulate, we are still materialistic in outlook. This is what is known as psychological or spiritual materialism.