The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Eight (25 page)

The setting-sun world is afraid of space, afraid of the truth of non-reference point. In that world, people are afraid to be vulnerable. They are afraid to expose their flesh, bone, and marrow to the world outside. They are afraid to transcend the conditions or reference points they have set up for themselves. In the setting-sun world, people believe, absolutely, in their reference points. They think that, if they open themselves, they will be exposing an open wound to germs and disease. A hungry vampire may be nearby and smell the blood and come to eat them up. The setting-sun world teaches that you should guard your flesh and blood, that you should wear a suit of armor to protect yourself. But what are you really protecting yourself from?
Space
.

If you succeed in encasing yourself completely, you may feel secure but you will also feel terribly lonely. This is not the loneliness of the warrior but the loneliness of the coward—the loneliness of being trapped in the cocoon, cut off from basic human affection. You don’t know how to take off your suit of armor. You have no idea how to conduct yourself without the reference point of your own security. The challenge of warriorship is to step out of the cocoon, to step out into space, by being brave and at the same time gentle. You can expose your wounds and flesh, your sore points.

Usually when you have a wound, you put a Band-Aid on until it heals. Then you take off the bandage and expose the healed flesh to the world outside. In this case, you expose an open wound, open flesh, unconditionally. You can be completely raw and exposed with your husband or your wife, your banker, your landlord, anyone you meet.

Out of that comes an extraordinary birth: the birth of the universal monarch. The Shambhala definition of a monarch is someone who is very raw and sensitive, willing to open his or her heart to others. That is how you become a king or queen, the ruler of your world. The way to rule the universe is to expose your heart, so that others can see your heart beating, see your red flesh, and see the blood pulsating through your veins and arteries.

Ordinarily, we think of a king in the negative sense, as someone who holds himself apart from others, hiding in his palace and creating a kingdom to shield himself from the world. Here we are speaking of opening yourself to other human beings in order to promote human welfare. The monarch’s power, in the Shambhala world, comes from being very soft. It comes from opening your heart so that you share your heart with others. You have nothing to hide, no suit of armor. Your experience is naked and direct. It is even beyond naked—it is raw, uncooked.

This is the fruition of warriorship: the complete primordial realization of basic goodness. At that level, there is absolutely no doubt about basic goodness or, therefore, about yourself. When you expose your naked flesh to the universe can you say: “Should I put a second skin on? Am I too naked?” You can’t. At that point, there is no room for second thoughts. You have nothing to lose and nothing to gain. You simply expose your heart completely.

TWENTY

Authentic Presence

At this stage, the warrior’s journey is based on resting in the state of warriorship, rather than struggling to take the next step. The warrior experiences a sense of relaxing in his achievement, which is not based on ego-centered concerns but on resting in unconditional confidence, free from aggression. So the journey becomes like a flower unfolding—it is a natural process of expansion.

A
CHIEVING THE REALIZATION
of the universal monarch, which we discussed in the last chapter, is the fruition of developing what is called the warrior’s “authentic presence.” In Tibetan, “authentic presence” is
wangthang,
which literally means a “field of power.” However, since this term refers to a human quality, we have loosely translated it here as “authentic presence.” The basic idea of authentic presence is that, because you achieve some merit or virtue, therefore that virtue begins to be reflected in your being, your presence. So authentic presence is based on cause and effect. The cause of authentic presence is the merit you accumulate, and the effect is the authentic presence itself.

There is an outer or ordinary sense of authentic presence that anyone can experience. If a person is modest and decent and exertive, then he will begin to manifest some sense of good and wholesome being to those around him. The inner meaning of authentic presence, however, is connected more specifically to the path of Shambhala warriorship. Inner authentic presence comes, not just from being a decent, good person in the ordinary sense, but it is connected to the realization of primordial space, or egolessness. The cause or the virtue that brings inner authentic presence is emptying out and letting go. You have to be without clinging. Inner authentic presence comes from exchanging yourself with others, from being able to regard other people as yourself, generously and without fixation. So the inner merit that brings inner authentic presence is the experience of nonfixed mind, mind without fixation.

Wangthang, or “authentic presence.”

CALLGRAPHY BY CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA. PHOTO BY GEORGE HOLMES.

When you meet a person who has inner authentic presence, you find he has an overwhelming genuineness, which might be somewhat frightening because it is so true and honest and real. You experience a sense of command radiating from the person of inner authentic presence. Although that person might be a garbage collector or a taxi driver, still he or she has an uplifted quality, which magnetizes you and commands your attention. This is not just charisma. The person with inner authentic presence has worked on himself and made a thorough and proper journey. He has earned authentic presence by letting go, and by giving up personal comfort and fixed mind.

On the one hand, authentic presence is the result of a gradual, developmental process of letting go of ego fixation. On the other hand, it is also the result of an instantaneous, magical process of letting go of fixed mind. The two always work together. The abrupt and spontaneous process that brings authentic presence is raising windhorse, or lungta, which is basically rousing the energy of basic goodness into a wind of delight and power. Although it is beyond the scope of this book to provide actual instruction in the practice of raising windhorse, I hope that you have begun to understand the basic energy of windhorse from our discussion of it. Raising windhorse is a way to cast out depression and doubt on the spot. It is not a form of exorcism but a cheering-up process. That is to say, raising windhorse invokes and actualizes the living aspect of fearlessness and bravery. It is a magical practice for transcending doubt and hesitation in order to invoke tremendous wakefulness in your state of mind. And when you have raised lungta, authentic presence occurs.

At that point, however, your experience of authentic presence may be only a glimpse. In order to sustain that glimpse and manifest that presence fully, there is a need for discipline. So there is a developmental process for deepening and furthering authentic presence. This process is called the warrior’s path of the
four dignities
. This path is connected with how to incorporate more and more space into your world, so that ultimately you can achieve the realization of the universal monarch. As your world becomes more and more vast, obviously, any notion of self-centered, egotistical existence becomes increasingly remote. So the path of the four dignities is also connected with realizing egolessness. The four dignities are
meek, perky, outrageous,
and
inscrutable
. All human beings experience the four dignities in some form. Meekness is basically experiencing a humble and gentle state of being, while perkiness is connected with uplifted and youthful energy. Outrageousness is being daring and entering into situations without hope and fear, and inscrutability is the experience of fulfillment and uncontrived, spontaneous achievement.

Although everyone has some experience of these expressions of energy, unless there is actual discipline and awareness applied, there is no fundamental sense of going forward in your life, and the four dignities are buried as part of your habitual pattern rather than becoming a path toward egolessness. So, fundamentally, the four dignities must be connected to the path of warriorship. In fact, they are an advanced stage on that path. The warrior is able to realize the four dignities only after he or she has developed an unshakeable conviction in basic goodness and has seen the Great Eastern Sun reflected in the experience of sacred world. At that point, the warrior is plugged into a source of energy that never runs down, the energy of windhorse, which makes the journey very powerful. So windhorse is the fuel that energizes the four dignities and authentic presence is the vehicle.

DESIGN BY CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA. EXECUTED BY MOLLY NUDELL.

This is somewhat paradoxical: On the one hand, the four dignities are a process of developing authentic presence; on the other hand, the experience of authentic presence is what allows the path of the four dignities to unfold. To explain that somewhat, we could say simply that egolessness is both the ground and the fruition of this journey. Unless we have some sense of letting go of ourselves, we cannot make this journey of warriorship at all. On the other hand, once we have let go, then we find that we can incorporate greater vision and greater mind. So egolessness is the thread of vastness—if such a thing can be said to exist—that runs through the entire journey. At this stage, the warrior’s journey is based on resting in the state of warriorship, rather than struggling to take the next step. The warrior experiences a sense of relaxing in his achievement, which is not based on ego-centered concerns but on resting in unconditional confidence, free from aggression. So the journey becomes like a flower unfolding—it is a natural process of expansion.

T
HE
W
ARRIOR OF
M
EEK

Meekness is the first dignity. Meek here does not mean being feeble; it just means resting in a state of simplicity, being uncomplicated and, at the same time, approachable. Whether others are hostile or friendly, the warrior of meek extends a sense of kindness to himself and mercy to others. Altogether, your mind is not filled with ordinary preoccupations and you are never seduced by trivial situations. This is because your awareness allows you to refrain from activities that dim the vision of the Great Eastern Sun. Therefore, you always remain meek and well disciplined.

The principle of meekness has three stages. The first is that, because the warrior is modest, his mind is never bloated by poisonous arrogance. Modesty does not mean thinking of yourself as tiny or small. Modesty here means feeling true and genuine. Therefore the warrior feels self-contained, with no need for external reference points to confirm him. Part of modesty is an underlying brilliance, being self-contained but shining out. The warrior’s awareness shines out with tremendous inquisitiveness, a keen interest in everything around him. You begin to see things as natural messages, rather than as reference points for your existence. The difference between ordinary inquisitiveness and that of the warrior’s path of meek is that the warrior’s awareness is always joined with discipline. Therefore you don’t miss anything; you see every detail. Such disciplined awareness is clearing the ground in such a way that the universe begins to become part of your vision.

The second stage of meekness is the expression of unconditional confidence. The analogy for meekness is a tiger in its prime, who moves slowly but heedfully through the jungle. In this case, the tiger is not searching for prey. He is not stalking in the jungle, hoping to pounce on other animals. Rather, the image of the tiger expresses a combination of self-satisfaction and modesty. The tiger walks slowly through the jungle, with mindfulness. But because the tiger likes his body and his bounciness and sense of rhythm, he is relaxed. From the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail, there are no problems. His movements are like waves; he swims through the jungle. So his watchfulness is accompanied by relaxation and confidence. This is the analogy for the warrior’s confidence. For the warrior of meek, confidence is a natural state of awareness and mindfulness in the way he conducts his affairs.