The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume 6 (89 page)

Let’s not make an idol of this. Let’s look at it more cosmically. Feminine inspiration is related to giving birth and caring for the young so that there is no threat. The only threat the mother poses to her young is devouring. If her offspring is not safe, she might devour it to keep it safe, return it to its origin. Such a gesture of compassion may be overwhelming, but it is sincere.

Feminine inspiration projects a world which it can regard as workable and friendly since it is its own creation. It does not render it less friendly for a mother to suck a baby’s snot and spit it out, or change its diapers with their lovable odor.

Another aspect of feminine inspiration is regarding what you have created as sacred. You have created Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism—it is your production. Since it is fully yours, respect it, work with it. These teachings did not come from somewhere else; your own openness gave birth to them. Moreover, you gave birth to pleasure and pain. You built Paris, London, New York City. You produced the president of the United States. These things are the product of feminine inspiration.

T
HE
P
LAYFUL
M
AIDEN

Once this world is created, it becomes an unguided missile. You have created it; now your creation is going to seduce you or attack you. You might find this relationship strange, incestuous for that matter. Nevertheless, fighting your war, making love to your world is inevitable. It is the only way to keep immediate contact with what’s happening around you. . . . You were angry at the construction site. You fell off the top floor of the building because you were so angry. This could be called incest, but it is still a love affair. What is around you is the world, is the mother, is the enemy, is the lover. If not, you couldn’t communicate at any point.

The playful maiden is all-present. She loves you. She hates you. Without her your life would be continual boredom. But she continually plays tricks on you. When you want to get rid of her she clings. To get rid of her is to get rid of your own body—she is that close. In tantric literature this is referred to as the dakini principle. The dakini is playful. She gambles with your life.

Vajrayogini is one of the main dakinis. She is a sow-headed goddess who is prominent in the tantric iconography and mandala practice. She is the consort of the herukas (the Sambhogakaya Buddhas). She represents the essence of tantric practice because she is the channel as well as the activator. She is the living force, the life-thread of the world. She abruptly instigates situations of chaos or joy. Her sow’s head represents ignorance as an adornment. She drinks the hot blood of passion and the intoxicating liquor of confusion. She creates pestilence, war, and famine.

T
HE
M
ANIFESTATION OF THE
G
LAMOROUS
W
ORLD

The feminine principle is the perception of colors, directions, time. Thus it is the manifestation of the colorful aspect of the world. Without it, there is no perceiver of this. The perceiver is the masculine principle. In this framework, the masculine principle is not regarded as the master dominating the scene. Moreover, we are not saying that the feminine principle belongs to women and the masculine principle to men. Wherever there is a perceiver, that is the masculine principle; wherever there is a perception, that is the feminine principle.

According to the hinayana tradition of Buddhism, Buddha was compelled to ordain his female cousin. Because women were accepted by the Order, the reign of the Buddhist teachings was supposedly shortened by five hundred years. Also, a woman’s body is considered the unfortunate result of bad karma, better only than that of an animal. Women are regarded as being incapable of complete reception and comprehension of the teaching.

This whole approach is valid if you take the feminine principle negatively and narrowly as creator and devourer. But if we relate to femininity as a fundamental and cosmic principle, then the physical situation of having a woman’s body is no longer important. Any doctrine is limited. The dogma of the early Buddhists is inseparable from their cultural attitudes. They blamed the feminine principle for giving birth to the phenomenal world. They failed to see the phenomenal world as mother, sister, maiden, or child.

Since dharma is universal, we cannot say to what sex the dharma belongs. Maybe it belongs to neither or either. As long as you respect your manhood or your womanhood, your masculinity and femininity will be an integral part of your being on the spiritual path.

GLOSSARY

T
HIS GLOSSARY CONTAINS
many of the terms appearing in this volume that may be unfamiliar to the readers. Please note that the definitions given here 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
. The detailed investigation of mind, including both mental process and contents. The
Tibetan Book of the Dead
provides a detailed geography of the workings of mind and thus might be considered a vajrayana abhidharma text.

abhisheka
. In vajrayana Buddhism, elaborate ceremonies initiating students into particular spiritual practices. More specifically, abhisheka refers to the meeting of minds between teacher and student, which is essential for the transmission of the teachings. Without the direct oral transmission and empowerment of a master, pursuing such practices would be meaningless.

alaya
. The eighth level of consciousness, literally the “storehouse” consciousness. It is the fundamental ground of dualistic mind and contains within it the seeds of all experience.

awake
. Trungpa Rinpoche used the term awake as an expression of unconditional wakefulness. Rather than being wakeful, cultivating wakefulness, or waking up, one simply is awake.

dawn of Vajrasattva
. This phrase evokes the quality of indestructible purity that arises in the midst of confusion, just like the first light of day. Vajrasattva symbolizes the pristine purity of awareness.

five buddha families
. The mandala of the five buddha families represents five basic styles of energy, which could manifest dualistically as confusion or nondualistically as enlightenment. The enlightened mandala is portrayed iconographically as the mandala of the five tathagatas, or victorious ones. All experience is said to be colored by one of these five energies. The central, or buddha, family represents ignorance which can be transformed into the wisdom of all-encompassing space. In the east is the vajra family, representing aggression, which can be transformed into mirrorlike wisdom. In the south is the ratna family, representing pride, which can be transformed into the wisdom of equanimity. In the west is the padma family of passion, which can be transformed into discriminating-awareness wisdom. And in the north is the karma family of envy, which can be transformed into the wisdom that accomplishes all action.

heruka
(Skt.). A wrathful male deity.

The Jewel Ornament of Liberation
. A classic text by Jetsun Gampopa, outlining in clear detail the stages of the mahayana path. In it the six perfections (paramitas), or transcendent actions, are presented sequentially, culminating in prajna paramita, or transcendent knowledge.

jhana
. A Pali word (not to be confused with the Sanskrit term
jnana
, or wisdom), referring to a state of meditative absorption. Traditionally, four such states are mentioned: desirelessness, nonthought, equanimity, and neither pain nor pleasure. In his book
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
, Trungpa Rinpoche describes the four jhanas, which are associated with the meditative experience of the realm of the gods, as limitless space, limitless consciousness, not that / not this, and not not that, not not this.

karma family
.
See
five buddha families.

kriyayoga
(Skt.). The vajrayana path is divided into six yanas, or vehicles. The first, kriyayoga, emphasizes purification.

mahamudra / maha ati
(Skt.). Mahamudra refers to lower tantra, and maha ati to higher tantra. These two approaches to understanding the nature of mind are presented at times sequentially and at other times as complementary.

mahamudra practice
. The predominant formless meditation practice of Tibetan Buddhism, in which the practitioner simply lets the mind rest naturally, without contrivance or manipulation.

mantra
(Skt.). Mantras are Sanskrit words or syllables that are recited ritually as the quintessence of various energies. For instance, they can be used to attract particular energies or to repel obstructions.

mara
(Skt.). One of the temptations or distractions that practitioners encounter on the path. It is said that maras go hand in hand with the degree of one’s realization: the more awake one is, the more maras one attracts. Thus, immediately prior to his attainment of complete enlightenment, the Buddha engaged in conquering the attacks of the maras. These forces have been personified as the demon Mara, with her sons (aggressions) and daughters (passions).

Nagarjuna
(Skt.). Nagarjuna, who lived in second-century India, was a foremost teacher and philosopher of the Madhyamaka, or “middle way,” school of Buddhist logic, and abbot of Nālandā, India’s renowned Buddhist university.

Padmasambhava
(Skt.). Padmasambhava, also referred to as Guru Rinpoche, or “Precious Teacher,” introduced vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century.

prajna / prajnaparamita
(Skt.).
Prajna
means “knowledge”; it has also been translated as “wisdom.” As prajnaparamita, the sixth paramita, or perfection, it is said to be the transcendent knowledge revealing the emptiness of all phenomena.

sword of Manjushri
. The sword of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Knowledge, symbolizes penetrating insight which cuts completely through ego’s deception.

shunyata
(Skt.). Literally translated as “emptiness,” this term refers to a completely open and unbounded clarity of mind.

samsara / nirvana
(Skt.). Samsara is the whirlpool of confusion, and nirvana refers to the cessation of confusion, or enlightenment.

satori
(Jap.). In the Zen tradition, great emphasis is placed on the experience of satori, sudden realization.

Tibetan Book of the Dead
. This famous text, whose title literally translates as the “Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo,” is one of a series of instructions on six types of liberation: through hearing, wearing, seeing, remembering, tasting, and touching. Its origin can be traced to Padmasambhava and his consort, Yeshe Tsogyal. It was later discovered by Karma Lingpa, in the fourteenth century. Intensively studied in Tibet, both academically and during retreat practice, the text is often read aloud to dying persons to help them attain realization within the bardo.

Tilopa
(Tib.). A renowned teacher of vajrayana Buddhism in India in the eleventh century. His most famous disciple was Naropa, who through his student Marpa introduced Tilopa’s teachings into Tibet.

vajrayana
(Skt.). The literal meaning of
vajrayana
is “diamond path.”It is also known as the sudden path, because it is claimed that through the practice of vajrayana one can realize enlightenment in one lifetime.

SOURCES

“The Bardo,” originally published as “Nyingma Teachings on the Intermediate State,” in
Creative Space
, pp. 11–17. Date of publication unknown. © 1968, 2004 Diana J. Mukpo and Rigdzin Shikpo.

Commentary, in
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo
by Guru Rinpoche according to Karma Lingpa. A new translation from the Tibetan with commentary, by Francesca Fremantle and Chögyam Trungpa. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2000, pp. 1–29. © 1975 by Francesca Fremantle and Diana J. Mukpo.

“Femininity,” in
Woman: Maitreya 4
. Edited by Samuel Bercholz and Michael Fagan. Coedited by Hazel Silber Bercholz, Micheline Stuart, and Vincent Stuart. Berkeley & London: Shambhala Publications, 1973, pp. 23–26. © 1973 by Diana J. Mukpo.

Foreword, in
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo
by Guru Rinpoche according to Karma Lingpa. A new translation from the Tibetan with commentary, by Francesca Fremantle and Chögyam Trungpa. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2000, pp. xi–xii. © 1975 by Francesca Fremantle and Diana J. Mukpo.

Glimpses of Space: The Feminine Principle and
E
VAM.
Edited by Judith L. Lief. Halifax: Vajradhatu Publications, 1999. © 1999 by Diana J. Mukpo.

Orderly Chaos: The Mandala Principle.
Edited by Sherab Chödzin Kohn. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, 1991. © 1991 by Diana J. Mukpo.

Secret Beyond Thought: The Five Chakras and the Four Karmas.
Edited by Judith L. Lief. Halifax: Vajradhatu Publications, 1991. © 1991 by Diana J. Mukpo.

Transcending Madness: The Experience of the Six Bardos.
Edited by Judith L. Lief. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, 1992. © 1992 by Diana J. Mukpo.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

J
UDITH
L. L
IEF IS THE EDITOR
of three of the books that are incorporated into Volume Six of
The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa.
In 1976 Mrs. Lief became the Editor-in-Chief of Vajradhatu Publications, the small publishing operation within Chögyam Trungpa’s network of meditation centers, which publishes transcripts and small volumes of teachings. At that time, Sherab Chödzin Kohn, the first Editor-in-Chief of Varjadhatu Publications, left that position to establish a headquarters for Vajradhatu and Chögyam Trungpa’s work in Europe. In those days Vajradhatu Publications was simply called the Editorial Department. Mrs. Lief remained as the Editor-in-Chief there until late 1981, when she left to become the Dean of the Naropa Institute. At that time, I came on board with Vajradhatu Publications. Mrs. Lief and I have exchanged places, editorially speaking, several times. I remained the Editor-in-Chief of Vajradhatu Publications from 1981 to 1989. During that time, I employed Mrs. Lief as a freelance editor for several projects. When I left Vajradhatu Publications to start the Vajradhatu Archives, later the Shambhala Archives, in 1989, Judy Lief replaced me as the editorial head of Publications. In that role, which continues to this day, she has employed me on various editorial projects. It’s always been a delight working with her, in whatever capacity.