The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume 6 (83 page)

S
PEECH

That leads us to another subject, which is speech. Our second subject is speech. Speech is a particular term which has been used traditionally in the sacred writings, but it doesn’t mean just words. It is the moving energy. It’s another way of communicating the form, logos, prana, force, life force, or movement. This particular principle seems to be a link between form and the movement of the form. It is also communication. Somehow there has been a lack of speech, a lack of this particular principle. Earlier on we were talking about the situation of form, the texture of form. That form must be communicated with energy, with movement, qualities that communicate. And we could also bring up communication in connection with the emotions; that equally becomes very important.

Speech is a very powerful thing. It is the crescendo of energy that moves, and that links the consciousness and the physical body. This may get a bit too abstract—but the practicality of this is that speech is communication, a link, an all-pervading link. It is like the analogy of shouting: if you shout, everybody can hear it; even if you direct your voice to one particular person, you can’t avoid having everybody hear it. That’s what speech really means, that very profound meaning of communication: you might think you are communicating to one person at the time, but further communication takes place. While you communicate to one person, that communication also inspires a chain reaction in the rest of the environment around us.

Speech is the absence of the particular self-conscious frozen quality of form, which is not movement, not communicative. This vision could be blocked by fascination or whatever, but at the same time, somehow we have to wake the fascination by speech, by mantra, by word, by energy. The word
mantra
often means “incantation” or “spell.” It is the outrageous quality, the quality which does not obey any patternness of anything at all. It just shines out directly, thoroughly, sharply with the situation. The quality of energy, the outrageousness or crazy-wisdom quality of spiritual practice, is speech. And the energy, or prana—which is also associated with warmth, the burning heat of compassion, the quality of consuming, the quality of overwhelming—is connected with this communication.

So the communication of spiritual practice is extremely important in order to deal with the stable quality of the earth. If we could not apply communication, there would be no spiritual practice at all. There would be no scriptures, there would be no teachings, there would be no gestures, there would be no guru, there would be no chela [disciple]. All these relationships exist because of energy, therefore things function along with that. That is speech. But that is not quite enough. There’s still something lacking with that exchange of communication.

C
ONSCIOUSNESS

Now there is the third one, chitta, which is heart or consciousness. Chitta, or heart, is the primeval intelligence that works with such speech and such form. A feeling of form needs intelligence to feel, and working with the energy also needs this intelligence—but generally of the heart as opposed to the brain. The heart is the center of the body. It is very much connected with direct intelligence, intuitive intelligence. But if this intelligence doesn’t function properly and becomes too passive, if it doesn’t bring out or inspire enough communication, then the brain begins to function.

It is like the analogy in the
Tibetan Book of the Dead
, which talks of the mandala of the peaceful divinities being entrusted in the heart chakra, whereas the mandala of the wrathful divinities is in the brain chakra—not the head chakra, but the brain itself. And according to the teaching, when people who die are in a state of bardo, they first experience the peaceful divinities, the tathagatas. And if they don’t experience that—there is a tendency that they might find it very irritating to see such sharp and peaceful dignified colors; there’s a tendency to run away from that—if they don’t get it, if nothing gets clicked with that, then the obvious next alternative is the vision of the wrathful divinities. [
Loud siren; laughter; Vidyadhara laughs.
]

In other words, [the brain chakra is] trying to wake you up. Just pure beautiful overwhelming colors are not enough, there has to be something expressing out of those colors. Instead of seeing beautiful bright red, the red turns into the flaming of herukas; instead of seeing pure white, the sharp dazzling light of white, then in the wrathful figures it turns into the gritting teeth and wrathful eyes of the divinities and the sharp nails. In other words, trying to wake us up. As I said, intuitive is peaceful, connected with the heart. But the intellect is associated with the brain. And this kind of intellect is not ordinary intellectual speculation as we have experienced it, but it’s the sharpness of it.

In other words, it is the outrageous quality of mantras such as
HUM,
which is penetrating sound.
HUM
is regarded as sound which penetrates. Made out of ha, yoo, oo, and mm:
HUM. HUM!
Penetrate. That’s the seed syllable of the herukas, the outrageous and penetrating quality. If you are not awakened by any other means, then the only way to wake you up is fishing you out with a hook. If somebody’s asleep, the only way to wake them up is to pour cold water on them, ice cold water on them. It’s that sudden penetrating quality. Therefore consciousness is a combination of the outrageousness of mantra, or speech, and the basic intelligence, sharp intelligence.

Q
UALITY

And then we get to the fourth subject, which is quality, or
guna
in Sanskrit.
Guna
means “good quality” or “quality.” Again, there has to be a process of awareness which links every situation of life—form, speech, and consciousness as well—something that links all of them together. And the only way of unifying them is to
feel
them as they
are
, to feel their richness. So quality, or guna, is the sophisticated quality of the chitta, the heart or the intelligence. It is a very refined quality which doesn’t particularly discriminate between that and this, but it is a feeling of the whole texture, the whole richness of it. And this richness has very much connection in particular with putting things into action. So the fifth chakra, karma, comes into it. If we could unify the solidity of the earth, the energetic quality of the speech, and the intelligent quality of the consciousness—unifying them all and developing vajra pride, real conviction in that—that is guna.

A
CTION

The fifth chakra is karma, which is action, activity or action. Having developed real conviction in things as they are, then the fifth one, karma, is the activator. We begin to put things into action, into practice. In such a case, action doesn’t mean that we have to be very active, necessarily. But it’s the spirit of action itself: really living life throughout any kind of situations there may be. There again comes the idea of meditation-in-action, because such activity brings out both the negative qualities of form, speech, consciousness, and quality, as well as the positive qualities—because action, in this case, is very provocative, a very living situation.

Action has the quality of electricity, which contains the inspiration that we might feel something is about to happen to us—a change of our lifestyle or situation. So action waits, and then action is put into practice. Whenever a situation happens; just without hesitation, one has to step into it and go with it, go with the situation. Ultimate action is described in the scriptures by the analogy of the full moon reflecting in a hundred bowls of water. The moon has no desire to reflect into them at all, but because there happen to be a hundred bowls of water, there are a hundred moons. But at the same time they are part of one moon, the one full moon in the sky. So the action is just acted. It is not directed to particular bowls of water, but it just happens, which is working with situations as they are.

This isn’t very advanced or fancy exactly at all. We could experience this particular kind of action in the meditative experience or as an aftereffect of the meditation practice. Action begins to develop; we don’t have to direct our aim and object and calculate our actions, but it just happens. And since it happens simultaneously with energy, action becomes very dignified and very beautiful, because there is no fear. This action felt the texture of the earth, the solidity of it; this action felt the outrageous energy of the speech; this action felt the sharp sword of consciousness, the intelligence; and this action felt the dignity of guna, or quality, as well. Therefore one doesn’t have to go through all the sequences of the numerology, but just one action contains all the other qualities.

S
ECRET
B
EYOND THE
M
EASURE OF
T
HOUGHTS

Therefore it becomes the secret beyond thought formations, beyond conceptualization. It is secret because it is secret, self-secret. Nobody has to keep this teaching away from anyone. If a person doesn’t feel all these qualities and situations as they are, then that person may not be particularly ready for it; they will be blind to it. It is self-secret, therefore. It is known as secret, but secret here is that which is beyond imagination, conceptualization. [
Pause
]

I hope that wasn’t too heavy. [
Laughter
] We could discuss it. My entire intention is to try to bring something practical along with these elements, these different types of situations. These five centers, or chakras, do not have to be only within one’s body, in a state of body alone at all. But there is an external chakra principle in every situation, and the application of the chakras in everyday life is, I think, extremely important.

Student:
Rinpoche, we have an idiom in English—I know you know it—when we say you “learn something by heart.” And that expresses this idea about the intelligence being connected with the heart. Because if you know something by heart, you really know it; you don’t have to refer to a book or just mull around and think about it. It’s just there, in you. Is that that same direct quality of intelligence?

Vidyadhara:
I think so, yes. You see, that’s a very interesting analogy. You can’t learn anything by heart by intellectual speculation, but you actually have to feel it and become one with the verses that you are learning by heart. It’s a direct link of intelligence.

S:
But the chitta sounded like it was some kind of a center. I didn’t understand that very well.

V:
Well, it is a center. But since a center cannot exist without its fringe, the eccentric, therefore it is related to form and speech as well. Form and speech create the possible functioning of the chitta.

S:
So it arises and dissolves according to the flow of the situation?

V:
You see, these experiences are not constant experiences, like the sun shining throughout the whole day. It is a sort of pulsating quality. It has a pulsation quality, because it radiates out with situations and because situations are revolving around it. The speed of speech is extremely abrupt and sudden: in working with the feeling of earth, sudden experiences, intelligence, sharp intelligence happens. It seems that is the principle of the different petals of the chakras, the different spokes of the chakras in the symbolism and visualizations of yogic practice. You have spokes or nadis, which are like the spokes of an umbrella, coming out of the chakras. That is the quality of the abruptness, the quality of sharpness. Chakras are not flat round things at all, but they have many spokes expanding out, which is an interesting point.

S:
I don’t understand the whole concept, so I can’t relate to that.

V:
Well, it’s the intelligence principle. But I don’t think chitta is particularly outstandingly important or more centralized than any of the other situations. It’s just pure intelligence, the wisdom quality which goes with energy and which goes with the solidity of earth.

S:
Earlier you mentioned the four elements—earth, air, fire, and water—and I was wondering how those fit into this scheme?

V:
It’s the same thing. Form is connected with earth; speech is connected with fire; action is connected with air or movement; and guna is connected with space. [And chitta is connected with water.] In other words, it is experiencing the qualities of the elements within one’s psychological state: the earthy quality; the quality of consuming, which is speech; the quality of flowing, which is intelligence or consciousness; and the quality of air, which is connected with action, because it’s very powerful and direct.

S:
I was wondering, in a slightly different context we have a saying that somebody is a wet blanket or somebody is full of hot air, and I’m wondering whether these phrases are really talking about the qualities of the elements in people. For instance, somebody who is a wet blanket might have an excess of earth and water among his qualities.

V:
[
Skeptically
] Could be. [
Laughter
]

S:
Rinpoche, in the beginning of
The Sadhana of Mahamudra
it says, “Earth, water, fire, and all the elements, the animate and the inanimate, all partake of the nature of self-existing equanimity, which is what the Great Wrathful One is.” Does that mean that the Great Wrathful One is the same as space?

V:
Well, that’s sort of the undercurrent of all of these situations. It is that which runs right through them all, whether we are talking about earth or fire or water—particular qualities of emotions, or whatever it may be we are dealing with. There is some underlying continuity of space where all of these things are taking place. From the point of view of people who are on the path, it could be said to be meditation; but for people who have transcended the path, it could be said to be the state of nonmeditation.