The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume One (71 page)

Then comes the second stage, where the bodhisattva follows the six transcendent acts—dana paramita, shila paramita, and so on. These are very important to study. The first one means a gift—giving out. It is associated with the first principle of a bodhisattva, and means that the bodhisattva learns how to give out. And in giving out, he also learns. That is the perfect example of the teacher—the dana paramita, sometimes called the dana dharma. Whatever a bodhisattva does, it is for others, therefore he is giving a gift to the dharma of dharma. Instructors and teachers should follow these footsteps. The perfect teacher does not just give out what he has learned, but while he is giving out, he himself also learns. So he is an advanced teacher? Not at all; he is an advanced
student
, but he tries to help others all the way along. As he teaches he also learns. Therefore the bodhisattva has respect for his pupils. He does not overlook them. He always has respect. So he is always prepared to investigate, prepared to learn from his pupils—always willing to learn. But in developing this respect toward his pupils, the bodhisattva does not wish to make his disciples just like himself; because he does not want to expand his ego on them, but merely sow a seed of whatever may be in the person. Therefore, because of this detached attitude, the dana paramita benefits both himself and others.

Then there is shila paramita, or the transcendent morality, which means that, because of his continuous awareness of his attitude and work, he must find a perfect way of life. And he lives this perfect life, this life of constant mindfulness, for others, not because of any ambition or any particular desire; it is part of his act; because he has to act as a kind of symbol, a reminder for other people; just like having a buddha rupa—it is a symbol of stillness, meditative quietness, a symbol of nirvana. So the bodhisattva has to act as a living symbol, a living example, a demonstration for other people.

And then kshanti paramita is patience, and that is necessary because there is always difficulty in obeying certain tasks. The bodhisattva, even though he leads a perfect life and gives out everything, and by giving out also gains everything, still has some very difficult tasks. Until one achieves a certain level, one cannot help still
trying
to do something; there is always an effort involved. It is like the story of Avalokiteshvara when he first took a vow that from his first kalpa, his first eon, he was going to save all sentient beings; and, having worked for one eon, then the next eon he awoke from his meditation, and he looked around to find many more sentient beings in the world than there were before—and then he gave up his vow. The minute he gave up his vow, his head cracked into one thousand pieces—that is the analogy. Then Amitabha appears to him and says that now he is going to bless Avalokiteshvara; and his effort, his energy becomes a thousandfold greater than before; and Avalokiteshvara is blessed and continues with his work. Which analyzed means that patience also needs prajna, wisdom. If the bodhisattva is trying to work without wisdom, then he still has the concept of time; and also he still has a certain amount of ambition. So he has to achieve both skillful means and wisdom. Amitabha here represents his own advanced insight which instructs him saying, “Your work is not complete; continue your work.” And the reason why his effort, his power, becomes greater is because he learns this particular lesson at this particular period, and so at the next stage he becomes more advanced. The whole concept here is expressed in the image of Avalokiteshvara; you will find a small Amitabha in his crown, symbolizing that the act of the bodhisattva contains insight.

Then comes virya, or energy. Virya means, as Shantideva describes in a very beautiful way, not so much working hard and just being persistent; but it signifies understanding of the meaning, discovery of the meaning. Therefore the bodhisattva’s work automatically becomes creative, and therefore more effective. For instance, if he is giving a talk every day, 365 talks a year, then, if he is not learning anything in the course of these talks, toward the end of the year he would have no more subjects to talk about. Because he would have given out what he had learned. But virya here means that there is a discovery in each talk; so, when he gives his first instruction, his second instruction, or maybe his hundredth, it always produces more possibilities for the next; he discovers something. There is always excitement and discovery in his giving-out process, and he is not wearing out his knowledge. Because of this excitement, this discovery, his effort becomes more and more vigorous; and that is why virya is vigorous from a sense of happiness, joy, the joy of dharma, because he discovers more and more each time.

And then the next thing is of course dhyana or mindfulness, awareness; and this awareness is understanding of the situation. Shantideva also describes this as meaning that the bodhisattva does not react immediately to a situation or sudden discovery; he considers it. As he considers it carefully, he discovers the coincidence of the situation. This kind of coincidence is the same as we have in the twelve chains of the Wheel of Existence. They appear to be by chance; there is a kind of chance situation which appears to be by coincidence, but there is always meaning in them. It is not chance at all; it is a natural development, a pattern of the universal; there is always this—one thing leads to another—the karmic kind of creation. But they hold meaning. The bodhisattva in this particular stage becomes very much aware of this acute situation, but he does not react immediately; therefore he always makes the right choice. That is to say, he is always clear and confident enough to see the
first
inspiration, the
first
choice. The bodhisattva is in a state of dhyana; he discovers he has a first-flash memory, first-flash wisdom of the right situation, and then he does not interpret it any more, does not analyze anymore, and he can very quietly, calmly, let this knowledge develop; and then, when the situation has arrived, and his knowledge is fully discovered by discovery of this subject, he makes decisions. Whatever action he takes proceeds from his own intelligence, but with a certain understanding of the pattern of this coincidence. Therefore the bodhisattva never makes a mistake, because he is in control of this real continuity of coincidence, of the true universal pattern, true karmic pattern. And here I am using
karmic
in a rather broad sense; it means happenings of various times and developments rather than just the cause and effect of karma.

And then the last thing is the sixth paramita, the prajna; and this prajna is wisdom; the most important of all. This is really shunyata also; and this is the particular stage where bodhisattvas fully achieve the nonexistence of self. You see, you cannot achieve the knowledge of nonexistence without going through the six steps of actions—generosity, morality, patience, energy/vigor, perfect dhyana; and these five are like the five means and then prajna is like a light which lights the skillful means into a full understanding. This full understanding means that the bodhisattva discovers the real true nature of world appearance, the true truth, the absolute truth and the relative truth. So here the bodhisattva realizes the full essence of relative truth. That is to say he discovers, without going into the higher state of shunyata, that form is form, sound is sound, feeling is feeling, perception is perception. He then discovers the true nature, true isness, of the form—of this relative truth. The first introduction of shunyata to the bodhisattva is that for the first time he sees things as they really are. Clearly sees, because between the bodhisattva himself and others—objects, five-sense objects—there is no barrier, but he is able to make direct contact, for the first time clearly seeing the objects. This is not the awakened state of mind of the Buddha; but this is a first glimpse of the first truth; he does not say, “This is false, therefore there is no form”; he does not defend emptiness as described in the texts; he does not defend emptiness and he does not emphasize emptiness, saying that this is false and that there is no such thing as form, it is just emptiness. He would not say it. He will say that there
is
form; this
is
form; and in fact a bodhisattva will be able to describe particular objects with wonderful knowledge. He sees very clearly. This is different from the concepts we discover from the practice of shamatha meditation, and also from what arhats discover. This is the difference: Arhats discover that everything is voidness, emptiness, another form of emptiness, not shunyata emptiness, but emptiness from the point of view of nothingness. This, from the point of view of a bodhisattva is very crude, because it is merely analyzing, you cannot feel it, you cannot see it; you have to analyze, you just have to believe in it. Whereas the bodhisattva’s discovery of emptiness—the shunyata aspect—is understanding that as well, but seeing things so clearly that, by seeing things so clearly and perfectly, there is no psychological form involved.

As an example: In any talk of a table we do not usually see the full aspect of a table, but just our own version and our own concept and our own attitude to a table; and to you and me this table would differ. I would think in terms of the Tibetan mind, and others would think in terms of their own attitude and way. There is always the table itself; what a table is; the tableness aspect; and then, on top of that there are differing concepts of a table. There is always our attitude to table, rather than actually seeing the table itself, the
isness
of table.

In this way the bodhisattva begins to see very clearly, in a down-to-earth and direct manner; he begins to see prajna develop. And having developed wisdom, he approaches the two kinds of anatta—the anatta of selflessness and the anatta of dharma. Both are selflessness, but the first is selflessness meaning only
without a self;
there is no self because everything is within the reach of time, and everything is within the reach of atoms. But with dharma anatta, all dharma begins to be anatta. So you do not analyze
because you do not see it
. You do not say that there is any
emptiness
of water; it is
absence
of water; because in the presence of water you can still describe the nothingness of water. And in fact,
because
there is water, therefore some can see very clearly the sunyata of water.

So now the bodhisattva begins to see in the two ways. But—and this is very important—he never denies the existence of feeling concepts. He in fact speaks for it. He says there are feelings; feelings of happiness and suffering and so on; these exist; but still it is shunyata. So, in order to describe shunyata, there is no need to go into details of nothingness—not-feeling and not-being and so on. Very being is in fact the essence of shunyata, and comes first; and the dharma anatta is the last stage in the bodhisattva experience where, instead of describing objects individually, he begins to see through his wide panoramic awareness which we have been talking about—he begins to see the sameness of things as well. You see, bodhisattvas are able, up to then, to direct their wisdom to particular objects, and then they see nothing else; but the second step enables the bodhisattva to see the object in panoramic awareness; and there his shunyata concept becomes the
sameness
of everything as well at the same time.

So the bodhisattva need not analyze so much, need not study; he now lives in the positive aspect of shunyata. That is the final lesson of the bodhisattva, the luminous state of shunyata. We have so far been saying that form is emptiness and emptiness is form, voidness, or whatever you like to call it; and we were able to see the negative part of it; but the last bit of development here is that form is
luminous
, and
luminosity
is form. And there is a kind of living atmosphere in shunyata; this is really the living awareness in the practice of meditation. In the practice of meditation we often have a glimpse of this; although it is a kind of quietness and nothingness in one sense, yet it is completely full—there is some dynamic element in it; not only a dynamic but a clear element; not only clear but luminous. And there the essence of mind—the buddha nature—may be described as luminosity. There is no mind, but only luminosity—only brilliance, only clarity, only light. And that is the bodhisattva’s final discovery of shunyata in a form of positiveness—in a positive, existing state of living shunyata—a form of luminous concept.

Now, what is the final thing the bodhisattva has to discover? How to relate this to others, and how to create situations. The differences between the bodhisattva who reaches this state and the buddha, is that the bodhisattvas have a clear perception and knowledge of shunyata, but are not able to put it into effect; but a buddha is able to create the right situation, where he can have relatedness to a situation. That is to say that buddhas do not even act for sentient beings at all. It is described in the text as a potter’s wheel; first you make an effort with the wheel, but once the wheel is going continuously, then it produces pots automatically; you just throw clay, and they are produced; you don’t have to set the wheel in motion again once it is started. In the same way, the Buddha does not have to act consciously, directly; he acts as a kind of mirror, where things are reflected. So it is a question of being perfect—in a full sense. There is no need to try to be perfect; but being natural becomes the most perfect way.

You may remember a story from the life of the Buddha; three people asked him three different questions, and he gave just one answer, and that answer solved the queries of three people because the Buddha is able to create this right kind of environment, the right kind of situation. There are hundreds of arhats, and hundreds of bodhisattvas, but there would be only one buddha at a time. Which means that only one person would be able to create this kind of situation where others could fit in. That is the karma of the Buddha—and this karma of the Buddha is described in great detail in the scriptures. The karma or act of Buddha is vast like space, pure like crystal, indestructible as a mirror image, has a wish-fulfilling aspect like a wish-fulfilling gem, and a luminous aspect like the sun. These are the five analogies used; and therefore now we begin to see that the mahaparanirvana is an achievement of the positive, beyond limitation of positive-negative; the achievement of the real dynamic act of the bodhisattva, the act of Buddha, the act of bodhi.