The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume One (60 page)

May I fearlessly beat the drum of the dharma to wake sentient beings who fall asleep from desire, hatred, and ignorance and deliver them to the awakened state.

C
HÖGYAM THE
K
USULU

T
HE TWO TRANSLATIONS
that follow are from the work of two famed and much-loved Tibetan teachers.

Paltrül Rinpoche, who wrote the poem addressed to Abushri, lived at the end of the nineteenth century. He was a renowned Nyingma teacher, particularly interested in bringing the philosophy and practice of meditation together. He refused to live in an institutionalized monastery and became a great traveler.

Jigme Lingpa lived at the time of the fifth Dalai Lama. He was responsible for inspiring many people to study maha ati, which is the final and ultimate teaching of Buddha.

This teaching brings precise experiences of the awakened state. In fact, it surpasses concepts including the “idea” of buddha nature, which has an element of the not yet mature. The difference between them seems to be that the achievement of buddha nature is seen as a development, but with maha ati it is an experience all at once. The image of maha ati is the garuda, which emerges from the egg fully grown.

I have included these translations in the book even though they are advanced teaching because reading them seems to have inspired many people. There is no danger in presenting them because they are what is called
self-secret
, that is, one cannot understand what one is not ready for. Also they are incomplete without the transmission from a guru of the lineage.

Advice from Me to Myself

P
ALTRÜL
R
INPOCHE

You who enjoy the union of bliss and emptiness

Seated motionless on the lunar disc

Above a beautiful hundred-petaled flower

Radiant with white light,

I pay homage to you the divine guru, Vajrasattva.

Listen, Abushri,

You miserable, daydreaming fool,

You remember how delusions

Confused you in the past?

Watch out for delusions in the present,

And don’t lead a hypocritical life.

Stop unnecessary speculations.

You’ve made hundreds of plans

Which never came off

And only led to disappointment.

Unfinished acts are like

The overlapping action of the waves.

Stay alone and stop

Making your own head spin.

You’ve studied hundreds of philosophies

Without grasping any of them.

What’s the point of further study?

You’ve studied without remembering

Anything when you needed it.

What’s the point of contemplation?

Forget about your “meditation”!

It doesn’t seem to be

The cure for conflicting emotions.

You may have recited the set number of mantras

But you still haven’t mastered the concrete visualizations.

You may have mastered the concrete visualizations

But you still haven’t loosened the grip of duality.

You may have subdued apparent evils

But you still haven’t tamed your ego.

Forget your set periods of meditation

And following an obsessive schedule.

High and clear but not letting go,

Low and steady but lacking clarity,

Penetrating insight but only stabbing—

That’s your meditation!

Forget the stare of concentration

And the tethered mind.

Lectures sound interesting

But they don’t help your mind.

The logical mind seems sharp

But it’s really the seed of confusion.

Oral instruction sounds very profound

But it doesn’t help if it isn’t practiced.

Forget about browsing through books

Which causes distraction and eyestrain.

You bang your antique prayer drum,

But, just for the novelty of playing (with) it.

You offer up your body,

But in fact you’re still attached to it.

You play clear-sounding cymbals

But your mind is heavy and dull.

Forget about these tricks,

Attractive though they are.

Your disciples seem to be studying

But they never follow through;

One day there’s a glimmer of understanding,

But the next day it has gone.

They learn one thing out of a hundred

But they don’t retain even that.

Forget these apparently fervent disciples!

One’s closest friend is full of love

Today and indifferent tomorrow.

He is humble one minute and proud the next.

The more one loves him the more distant he becomes.

Forget the dear friend who smiles

Because the friendship is still a novelty!

Your girlfriend puts on a smiling face

But who knows what she really feels?

For one night of pleasure it’s nine months of heartache.

You can spend a month trying to bed her and still not succeed.

It’s really not worth all the scandal and gossip,

So forget about her.

Never-ending chatter stirs up likes and dislikes.

It may be amusing and enjoyable

But it’s merely imitating the faults of others.

The listeners seem receptive

But they may be critical at heart.

It only gives you a dry throat

So forget about idle talk!

Preaching without firsthand experience

Of the subject is like dancing on books.

The audience may seem willing to listen

But they’re not really interested at all.

If you do not practice what you preach

You’ll be ashamed of it sooner or later,

So forget about hollow rhetoric!

When you haven’t any books

You feel the need for them;

When you have them you don’t.

It’s only a few pages

But to copy them is endless.

All the books in the world

Would give you no satisfaction,

So forget about copying—

Unless you get a fee for it!

One day you’re relaxed,

The next you are tense.

You will never be happy

If you’re swayed by people’s moods.

Sometimes they are pleasant

But maybe not when you need them

And you might be disappointed.

So forget about politeness and flattery!

Political and religious activities

Are only for gentlemen.

That’s not for you, my dear boy.

Remember the example of an old cow:

She’s content to sleep in a barn.

You have to eat, sleep, and shit—

That’s unavoidable—anything

Beyond that is none of your business.

Do what you have to do

And keep yourself to yourself.

You’re as low as the lowest

So you ought to be humble.

There’s a whole hierarchy above you

So stop being proud.

You shouldn’t have too many close associates

Because differences would surely arise.

Since you’re not involved

In religious and political activities

Don’t make demands on yourself.

Give up everything, that’s the point!

This teaching is given by Yogi Tri-me Lodrö from his own experience to his dear friend Abushri.
¹
Do practice it, although there is nothing to practice. Give up everything—that’s the whole point. Don’t get angry with yourself even if you can’t practice the dharma.

Nyingthik or The Innermost Essence

J
IGME
L
INGPA

This is the lion’s roar which subdues the rampant confusions and misunderstandings of those meditators who have abandoned materialistic attachments to meditate on the innermost essence.

The maha ati, which is beyond conceptions and transcends both grasping and letting go, is the essence of transcendental insight. This is the unchanging state of nonmeditation in which there is awareness but no clinging. Understanding this, I pay ceaseless homage to the maha ati with great simplicity.

Here is the essence of the maha ati tantra,

The innermost heart of Padmakara’s teachings,

The life force of the dakinis.
²

It can be transmitted only by a guru of the thought lineage