The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume 6 (34 page)

Losing faith brings a tremendously sharp sense of relativity, a sense of comparison: “If that is so, why is this not so?” It is a kind of schizophrenic experience. Often schizophrenics are very intelligent. If you are trying to help them, work with them, then automatically they interpret your intention as laying heavy trips on them, so they do not want to be helped. But if you decide not to help, then automatically they feel you are seeking comfort, that you don’t want to work with them either. And if you are trying to present alternatives, then automatically their reaction is that you are trying to play games with them, which is true. It is a very intelligent state of mind, but at the same time it is such a split mind. It is so powerful that it sees all the corners, every corner. You think you are communicating to them face-to-face, but in actual fact they are looking at you from behind your back. That is the asura mentality of extreme paranoia, which includes extreme efficiency and accuracy at the same time. The Tibetan word for jealousy is
tragdok. Trag
is “shoulder,”
dok
means “crowded,” so
tragdok
means overcrowdedly selfish, in other words, too much shoulder to get through traffic, so to speak. It is kind of a defensive form of pride.

The asura realm, or realm of the jealous gods, is also associated with heavy wind. It has the karma family quality of speeding and trying to achieve everything on the spot, trying to make sure that your experiences are valid and that nobody is going to attack you—that kind of situation. We get to the bardo experience of that realm by too much comparison, too much comparative work. In other words, it is the extreme paranoia of trying to save yourself, trying to attain something higher and greater constantly. In order to try to attain something higher and greater, the conclusion from the jealous-gods point of view is that if you watch for every possible pitfall, then you will be saved. That is the only way to save yourself.

Jealous gods come to that conclusion and then put it into action. You don’t even have a chance to get ready and prepare to put it into action, into practice. You just do it without preparation. The jealous god is trying also to develop a kind of spontaneity of its own kind and feels quite free to do that. It is all too comparative. In other words, the asura realm contains lots of elements of game playing, of the gamelike quality of living situations. The whole thing is regarded as purely a game, in the sense of opponents and yourself. You are constantly dealing with me and them, me and the rest of the world, me and my friends, and often me and myself. There is a buildup of too much comparative mentality.

To begin with, you have to train yourself to be such an ambitious person; but then at a certain stage, that kind of training becomes part of your character. So you do not have to train yourself to do it but it just naturally happens. You are sort of a born jealous person, as though jealousy were part of your instinct, your state of being. There is that quality of wind or air in everybody’s being; that quality of speed in everyone. The asura quality magnifies that particular characteristic, so that all corners are regarded as suspicious or threatening; and therefore one must look into it and be careful about it. At the same time, the asura realm is not quite related with hiding oneself or camouflage at all. It is very direct. You are very willing to come out in the open and to fight if there is a problem or if there is seemingly a plot against you. You just come out and fight face on and try to expose that plot. There is a kind of schizophrenic quality of coming into the open and facing the situation, and at the same time being suspicious of yourself as well.

You also begin to develop another asura characteristic: the deaf and dumb quality of refusing to accept, refusing to learn anything. If something is presented by outsiders, because everyone is regarded as an enemy from an asura point of view, they must be trying to do something. Even the most kind person trying to help you is regarded with suspicion, as though that person had some plot in mind. So the possibility of communication is completely shut off—as a result of the extraordinarily high-strung communication that has built up within yourself due to your paranoia, which blocks out whole areas of communication and spaciousness. You do not want to be helped. At the same time, you regard any help you receive, any benefits from being helped, as very precious. It is so precious that therefore you cannot accept such a situation as possible. It is
too
precious. Therefore you do not really want to admit that somebody actually could do that precious and worthwhile performance on you at all. You tend to develop such a blockage in communication because your jealousy or envy is very accurate and at the same time very paranoid. It is a sort of antenna or radar which registers everything. But you read that registration wrongly—purely in terms of enemy rather than any kind of warmth.

Therefore, jealousy or envy could be said to be dependent on coldness, the complete opposite of compassion or love, the windy, stormy quality of cold, biting cold. And the element of speed is the only refuge. That is the realm of the asuras: very cold and bleak. That kind of feeling is dominant in the asura realm. And at a certain point, when you actually arrive at that particular realm as a one hundred percent situation, it tends to develop in the same way as the realm of the gods. You begin to lose the point: who is defending whom; who is trying to protect whom? You are completely bewildered, and you begin to lose the point altogether, any kind of reference point. But at the same time, you try to maintain that harshness constantly, all the time. That is quite an interesting highly strung characteristic that one could develop, if one is inclined toward such extremes.

All of these six different realms are connected with our innate nature, or psychological being, which has the qualities of fire, water, air, earth, and space. All of these qualities are within us, and each element or quality is connected with one of these realms. So it is possible to magnify particular qualities, which is what is meant by being in the realm of the gods or the realm of asuras, or whatever realm it may be. There is no fixed concept, such as “Now you are in the realm of the gods; now you are in the realm of the asuras”—but it is the intensely extreme case of whatever comes up. In other words, we all have schizophrenic qualities, claustrophobic qualities, paranoid qualities. All the neurotic tendencies that you can possibly think of in terms of human insanity are also in us, because they are connected with the elements, as the other side of the coin.

It seems that parts of that other side of the coin could become prominent when the external situation happens to thrust us into an extreme case as a result of being unable to relate with things as they are. That is a result of not seeing things as they are, but at the same time trying to manage ourselves and grab hold of the nearest situation and make something out of it in order just to survive, in order just to maintain one’s ego. And because of that, therefore, the birth of the six realms is automatically given. As the panic becomes prominent, we occupy ourselves with
something;
not knowing what to do, we grasp the nearest situation of confusion. Therefore, basic ignorance is referred to as one of the most important conditions for giving birth to the six realms of the world. You cannot give birth to the six realms unless there is bewilderment and uncertainty. Because of this bewilderment and uncertainty, something happens. Something is floating nearby, and you try to get hold of it and it happens to be the wrong thing to hold on to—all the time.

Student:
Rinpoche, which one of the bardos is this realm connected with?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
The asura realm also has all of the six bardo types in it already. It has the quality of being dreamlike; it has the impermanent quality of experience, which happens and then dissipates, which is death; it is also trying to create new situations, which is birth; also there is the quality of absorption, which is the meditative state; and there is an occasional spacious, or clear light quality, as well. So this realm contains all six types of bardo.

S:
That’s not true of all the realms, though, is it?

TR:
All of them.

Student:
You once were talking about hell, and you said that it does not have pulsations, but that it is this constant thing with no gaps.

Trungpa Rinpoche:
Well, it has to have a background of some kind in order to operate. It does not have a gap in the sense of changing frequencies, but you have to exist somewhere. That maintenance, or existence in itself, is within some kind of space. Otherwise we could not experience suffering at all, if there were no suffering and sufferer.

S:
So even in hell there is the possibility of release?

TR:
In that view of gap, there is a misunderstanding, in that gap is regarded as a release or as relief of some kind, that you will be excused from extreme situations. In that sense there is no gap. That kind of release or relief does not exist in the hell realm at all. But in order for your suffering to function, you have to have lubrication of some kind.

Student:
I don’t know whether this is the same question or not, but I am wondering what the opening is. The asura realm has very particular mechanics, a very particular way of maintaining itself. Just what is the possibility of breaking through those mechanics? I wonder how an opening could take place there?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
The opening seems to take place by itself.

S:
Right, but just as there would be a particular mechanics to the maintenance, I should think there would be a specific sort of shock that would cause there to be a big gap in that maintenance process.

TR:
That’s part of the service, so to speak.

S:
Service?

TR:
Yes. It comes with the service. If you fill your gas tank, somebody else automatically wipes your windshield.

S:
Would you then have a possibility of clearing up your vision?

TR:
A possibility.

S:
The breakthrough quality in this particular maintenance process would have to do with clearing up your vision?

TR:
In terms of wearing out being in the state of the asuras. You have to maintain yourself constantly, and at some stage you begin to lose your logic, you begin to lose your faith. It is the same as being in the realm of the gods: you begin to realize that your tactic, or the meditative absorption that you have developed, is not foolproof, and you begin to wonder. As long as you begin to wonder, then automatically you are providing a more spacious situation, and other doubts come into it as well. So your experience of being in the realm of the asuras begins to diminish as you go along, the same as in the other realms. It is exactly the same thing. You see, usually one experiences a definite sense of occupation, once you are in a particular realm. It is as though you have made a great discovery: you relate to that; you would like to believe that whole thing as part of your makeup; you would like to associate with that whole thing as part of you. You begin to enjoy playing that kind of game because you have found a very solid occupation. But somehow that does not last very long; it begins to diminish.

Student:
Rinpoche, socially how does one deal with or how does one communicate with this type of person?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
It seems to be very difficult to communicate with an asura. It is kind of an isolated situation of its own.

S:
Is there any possibility of communication?

TR:
You see, the trouble is, if you try to communicate with an asura person, asura being, each communication could reinforce their trip. Communication could be interpreted as trying to destroy them.

S:
How do you deal with a student who has come to that place?

TR:
Somehow that does not happen. If you are student, you want to learn something. Therefore, you are already open. So you cannot possibly be a student and also be an asura at the same time. For that matter, you cannot be a student and be in the realm of the gods, either. A student is looking for an occupation, so you cannot be a student who tends to be stuck in the six realms of the world at all. If you are really a student, if you want to learn something, you have to give something out, you have to relate to something. But if you become a self-made spiritual person or self-made businessman, whatever it may be, then it is possible that you cease to relate to yourself as a student or a learner and you regard yourself as having found some occupation. You have found an occupation within the six realms of the world.

Student:
Why is accuracy so apparent in this realm?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
That is part of an asura’s way of maintaining that whole game.

S:
But it seems that in all the realms there is confusion, so it is surprising that accuracy is associated with this confusion.

TR:
The accuracy is part of the confusion. If you want to get really confused, you have to be accurately confused.

S:
By accuracy, I suppose that you mean you have all kinds of interpretations for events.

TR:
Yes. You have all kinds of possible ways of maintaining your own confusion.

Student:
You said one is always reaching out for something, and whatever happens to be there is the wrong thing. But if it’s there at all, isn’t it part of the situation and therefore right at the moment in some way?

Trungpa Rinpoche:
Well, it may seemingly be right at the moment, at that moment, but it is very difficult to say. If somebody is going to rob you on the spot, it seems to be right to be robbed at that moment.

S:
Well, what did you mean by wrong in that sense?

TR:
That sense of wrong has to do with whether something creates further confusion or whether it clears up the situation. A right situation is not supposed to create further confusion, because it is precise. If a situation presents confusion, then it is the wrong thing.