The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume 6 (71 page)

Becoming, or femininity, is very intangible. The feminine principle has become—for a long time in the history of the human race, from as soon as philosophy was set up—a debatable point. People try to create chauvinistic barriers of all kinds, a masculine
and
feminine approach. But none of them have become particularly good ones, or at least, enlightened ones. So if you resort back to tantric attitudes and ideas of feminine principle, you end up seeing everything as a real world that you cannot grasp. That seems to be the essence of the feminine principle—that real world that you cannot grasp.

You cannot actually capture that in the form of chauvinism. Why? Because the feminine principle is the mother of all principles. If you can catch the mother, then the mother ceases to be a mother—it becomes a lover. So the mother is regarded as something that is hierarchically above. Nobody will question the existence of the mother; the mother reigns on a high throne. She just behaves as a mother.

In order to experience that kind of situation, that kind of reality—however unrealistic it may be—one has to be willing to give in to it, to abandon trying to capture it philosophically, or by metaphysical concepts. You cannot put the mother principle in black-and-white written language. Although books on prajnaparamita are written, as the mother of all the buddhas, those books say that this book cannot be captured, cannot be put into a corner, cannot be cornered. This book cannot be realized. If you
have
realized the meaning of this book, you are regarded as a heretic!

[
Long pause
]

U
NCEASING

We can discuss unceasing here, which is our second topic tonight. Unceasing. Unceasing occurred because it is unborn, obviously. [
Laughs
] You could say unborn is some kind of birth,
maybe so
, but on the other hand
absolutely not.
For the very fact that the idea of that becomes reality—that means that idea cannot be captured, which is the unceasing quality. You cannot grasp, you cannot hold, you cannot capture, anymore. The reason it is called unceasing is because out of that particular arrogance that we discussed, some kind of leak of secret information or of secret experience begins to take place. On the quiet, the unborn begins to manufacture a world, an underworld—in midair, the bottom of the ocean. And that is unceasing because it cannot be obstructed or prevented.

If the underground world is very active, the overground world of the established samsaric administration cannot see; it is not able to see that particular world. In other words, we are talking about the black market of the mother. That concept is extremely powerful,
extremely
powerful. That concept is some kind of spiritual atomic bomb—that has been manufactured in the basement. [
Laughter
]

The idea of unceasing is not so much unceasing as a resigned, passive thing—but it is unable to be controlled by any efficient organization of anything. The overlay of reality is unable to detect the underlayer of reality anymore. The surface may go quite nonchalantly, it usually does, but the undercurrent is extraordinarily powerful. It begins to manufacture a world of its own, in the feminine principle of potentiality, embryonic and resourceful and glamorous at the same time.

Well, I’m afraid that maybe you don’t have any questions. [
Laughter
] I have completely cut its own throat, that is to say, the questions. However, I would like to make a gesture here, that we have space for that.

Student:
Last night you talked about space expressing itself in attributes, and that was like space putting on makeup. Are we, as we generally see ourselves in this physical world of matter, that makeup? Or one aspect of that makeup?

Vidyadhara:
The physical world is not regarded as the makeup, it is the body. Within the physical world, the
expressions
of the physical world—that fire burns, water moistens, wind blows, space accommodates—that is the makeup. So the idea of makeup is expressing its own integrity.

S:
You mean that the makeup is the qualities that the physical world has?

V:
Yes.

S:
If you took the qualities
away
from the physical world, what would you have left?

V:
Basic minimum. [
Laughter
]

S:
Well, considering that basic minimum, which doesn’t have any qualities of its own—what’s physical about it?

V:
That’s the biggest question of all! It doesn’t have any, therefore it does. [
Laughter
]

S:
It has the quality of having no qualities.

V:
And all potentialities.

S:
You mean the
potentiality
of having makeup is another of its qualities?

V:
Yes, obviously. Space is not particularly castrated.

S:
[
Pause
] Mm-hmm. [
Laughter
] It sounds like you’re saying space is fertile in some sense.

V:
That’s one of the qualities.

S:
Now we’ve got three qualities. Is space anything
more
than the potentiality for the makeup?

V:
As well, space is that which accommodates
room
for the makeup.

S:
Space is that which accommodates room for the makeup?

V:
If you missed a part of your makeup on your face—that’s space. [
Laughter
]

S:
Wait, when you said
room
for the makeup—

V:
I don’t mean a room with windows and doors.

S:
—you mean by room ability to accommodate?

V:
Yes.

S:
So space is that which accommodates the accommodation of makeup?

V:
Yes.

S:
Then what is the accommodation of makeup, if that is not space but something that is accommodated by space?

V:
Well, that is the same thing.

S:
So you have space accommodated by space, and that’s space?

V:
You got it! [
Uproarious laughter
] It is a question of making love to itself—but not quite at the level of masturbation.

S:
What is the relationship between the black market of the mother and practice?

V:
What is practice?

S:
Meditation.

V: The
practice.

S: The
practice.

V:
Mm-hmm. I think they are synonymous, as a matter of fact. Synonymous, yes. Meditation
is
the black market, from that point of view—it is a very powerful black market that could change a nation’s economy.

S:
What would you call the law enforcement officers trying to clean up that black market?

V:
Well, I think law and order becomes, at that point, part of the black market. In the beginning they attempt to speak the language: the organization is trying to speak the language of the black market. And then—when they try to speak the language so that they could communicate with the black marketers—they find
themselves
in the black market.

S:
The black market that you were just referring to, is that synonymous with sangha?

V:
Not quite, it is the ghetto of the sangha. And actually, we have not gotten to that level yet, particularly. It is a very embryonic state we are talking about. We are not talking about anything that is actually applicable; we are talking about the metaphysics of the feminine principle at this point.

S:
Also, could you explain the relationship between dharmadhatu as you spoke about it last night, dharmakaya, and dharmata? Mostly, how does the principle of dharmakaya relate to dharmadhatu? Is it some potential energy within that or—

V:
It seems that dharmakaya comes much later, actually. What we are talking about at this point is dharmadhatu, on a very primeval, embryonic level.

S:
So dharmakaya would be?

V:
Obsolete.

S:
In the beginning you said that the substance of the feminine principle is threefold: unborn, unceasing, and like the sky. You described unborn and unceasing, but you forgot the sky.

V:
Tomorrow. It’s too many things to say at once.

S:
Is space associated with both the underlay and overlay of reality?

V:
I think so. You see, the underlay and overlay are interdependent, which is not a complete world. In order to have a unified world, in order to be under, in order to be over, there has to be some governing factor, which is space.

S:
Is there anything you can say about the world that is revealed by participating in this black market?

V:
What do you mean by this black market?

S:
The black market that you spoke of.

V:
You don’t mean this or that—do you mean,
it?

S:
It.

V:
Yeah. Well, I think that you cannot get away from it, cannot not participate. You are participating in any case.

S:
Yeah, but is there something you can say about the qualities of the alternative world that is sort of created on the quiet?

V:
On the quiet is not regarded as an alternative—it is
necessary.
Among fires, they have their secret language, to be together as fire as much as possible—whether it is lit with flint or matches. Among waters,it is the same thing: they have their secret message all the time. It is a black market that doesn’t have to be transmitted to each other or work out passwords. It is a self-existing black market that doesn’t need a password anymore. It is a self-existing one already.

S:
Are you saying that the black market is really the
only
market?

V:
Well, that’s just an expression, I’m not talking about marketing in terms of—what’s the word?

S:
Production? Commerce? Barter?

V:
—commerce. I’m talking about black market in terms of purely the exchange of money and goods taking place that the rest of society doesn’t know about. Basically what it does is use raw material.

S:
What’s happening with the masculine principle while all this is going on with the feminine principle?

V:
That hasn’t arrived yet, at this point.

S:
You mean it hasn’t manifested?

V:
Well, as it goes on it
does
manifest, but somehow it is not quite visible yet.

S:
Is the feminine principle manifest before the masculine principle?

V:
Seemingly so.

S:
Would understanding the white reality, the white market, as ego, be in some way correct? That the world being created, the black market of the mother, is happening beneath the surface of what the ego sees? And if so, then the ego’s willingness to learn that language, to be interested in communication with the black marketeers—is that another form of subtle ego game, hoping it can do commerce in that market in some way?

V:
First, it wouldn’t be all that serious about the whole thing. And another, the whole thing is not really divided, particularly, it is an organic process. If you have ups or if you have downs, they are both the same thing. The growth of trees and flowers is the expression of the depressions of the earth, otherwise you couldn’t have trees and flowers growing. So it works both ways. You can see beautiful flowers, with honey and nectar and everything—that is an expression of the depressions, which is the black market. [
Laughs
]

S:
So then ego in some sense is an expression of the accommodation of space?

V:
Well, supposedly. But at the same time, it doesn’t manifest that way. The whole thing becomes very confused. But what we are talking about at this point is a very primordial level, an early stage. We have not gotten into the later stages yet. So I wouldn’t take it too seriously, in terms of a pragmatic level.

Well, talking about pragmatism, people should be hungry. We should close.

TALK 3

Nature Like Sky

G
IVING BIRTH TO REALITY.
I think we should be very careful about what we mean by “reality,” at this point. We do not know exactly, but we have some vague concept of it. And probably it would be difficult for those who haven’t followed the previous two talks on this particular content to follow completely what we are talking about tonight, tomorrow, and so on. Therefore, it may be worthwhile for newcomers to try to follow up on what has already been said yesterday and the day before.

The question of reality that we are going to discuss tonight contains the basic capacity to give birth to reality; and the second question is, what is reality? The first one, the basic capacity to give birth to reality, is based on the idea of a sense of space: traditionally it has been said that its nature is like the sky. The reason why its nature is like the sky is that tantric imagery speaks of a triangle, or cervix, which is the basis, background, in which birth takes place as you present yourself as the mother principle. The notion of triangle is an interesting point. The definition of triangle refers to the three principles: unborn as one corner, unceasing as another corner, and its nature is like sky as another corner. So there are three corners, three qualifications, three principles. That brings a sense of triangle, at this point.

That basic point is based on a sense of noncentralized space, in terms of one’s awareness. It is purely that there is a sense of reminder, or boundary, which actually helps us relate with reality as we go about our daily experiences. The only reminder that takes place is the absence of our awareness; that is the actual reminder. Once that has taken place, then we begin to feel that we have reached a state in which we are not aware of things that are going on around our life.