The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Seven (81 page)

GARUDA enters from the west. He speaks:

I am the garuda!

I never wait for somebody’s neurotic timely scheme.

King King Ki Ki

As I cry, I dive and prey on the corpse of neurosis.

Ki Ki Ki So So So

Dive! Dive in!

We invite the world to dive in. The garuda vision is good and outrageous. Come and outrage with us.

Dive Dive Dive

Ki Ki Ki So So So

WHITE FIGURE:

From the north, I invite the lion.

Ki Ki So So

LION enters from the north. He speaks:

I am the lion of the north.

I consume and crunch and chew the delicious neurosis of the setting sun.

I nest in snow.

I come along with snowstorms.

I appreciate rainy day.

Consume! Consumption!

We invite the world to consume.

The lion vision is good and perky.

Come and perk with us.

Consume Consume Consume

Ki Ki Ki So So So

BLACK FIGURE enters, bows to WHITE FIGURE. He speaks:

Good evening!

Good morning!

Good night!

To WHITE FIGURE:

So good to see you sir, for the good cause of this universe.

To audience:

But this does not have to be all that solemn and we could develop some sense of humor. What is this wretched setting-sun hero, Rudra, frog, left over meat, pathetic alligator lying here. Let us do something about this.

Good evening!

Let us do something about this.

BLACK FIGURE dances around Rudra while saying:

Let us perform

This good dance

Which will separate

The limbs and heads of such Rudra

Fixation of ego

Haha! with tremendous humor

Fantastic humor

We do the performing mudra

Of separating and destroying

the Rudra of ego,

This setting-sun hero.

BLACK FIGURE divides up the Rudra

To WHITE FIGURE:

Take this head of egomaniac Rudra, sir.

To TIGER:

Take this right arm and torso.

To DRAGON:

Take this left arm and torso.

To GARUDA:

Take this right leg.

To LION:

Take this left leg.

WHITE FIGURE remains seated. Others dance around stage while all chant:

Ki Ki So So

We have killed the setting sun.

We have destroyed

The neurosis of setting sun.

As we go

As we come

As we perform

We are victorious

Over the good old setting-sun vision.

It is very funny.

And very sad.

None the less

Such celebration

Is hilarious.

WHITE FIGURE rises, all walk around the stage chanting the Heart Sutra, audience joins in:

“Thus have I heard. . . .”

Basic Sanity in Theater

I
N ORDER TO PERFORM
we have to relate to reality. This is asking a lot I suppose, but if we are going to give an enlightened performance, we have to do it. So to begin, we must have some training on how to relate to reality. It’s not a matter of questioning the nature of reality, it’s learning about your style of relating to reality. The theme of our theater practice is how we relate to things. Whether we are dramatic or expressive or musical, whether we can dance beautifully or act beautifully doesn’t seem to matter particularly. Our approach is to simply relate completely to one coin or one log.

I think what we are trying to work out is some sense of speech and body coordination generally. As ordinary healthy people we coordinate quite well, we can talk, we can listen, we can behave in the different ways that our emotions permit. But in theater we tend to become hesitant. We no longer know what to do or how to behave. We become completely incompetent and lost and don’t know how to handle anything. So the process that is involved here is to grow out of that babylike mentality, and to learn to coordinate our body and speech as though an ordinary, natural life situation were taking place.

It seems that our goal is not to reach Broadway of nirvana, particularly. Anyway, Broadway is not my idea of nirvana. We are more interested in changing people’s perceptions about theater—it’s the backbone approach to theater rather than the glamour approach. Although possibly our approach may become glamorous in a few years, or a few centuries. But as long as we plant some kind of seed in the field of American energy and entertainment, we could make a contribution which would be extraordinarily powerful. I feel it would be a very helpful and compassionate thing to do.

A lot of people are afraid of the world of entertainment. They would prefer to rush into retreat to develop themselves, rather than make a contribution to others. But we could combine the bodhisattva and yogic practices in our theater work. I think there’s a lot of room to teach by performing. I don’t mean that we have to present a Buddhist paradox of the morality plays or do children’s stories about Milarepa, or the tantric equivalent
of Macbeth.
We could develop a broader sense of theater than that, writing scripts as well as performing. We could present all kinds of alternatives. Even the Broadway type of play, which is extremely paranoid and painful and bewildering, would be very interesting to do.

At the moment religious theater in the West is extremely limited. Ranging from
A Christmas Carol
to
Murder in the Cathedral
, it’s like one pipe without any bend, even without any leak. It seems to spring from a monotone approach to the gospel of the voice of goodness. The consequences are always predictable.

We aren’t interested in laying any heavy trips on the audience, or creating gimmicks, but we could combine the fundamental Buddhist approach to perception with some of the philosophical ideas that have developed in Buddhism.

Hopefully we could raise some funds to sustain a living situation so we could create a good school for dedicated people working in theater. It would be another kind of retreat practice, in fact. It’s a worthwhile course, needless to say. We need committed people who would regard this as their practice, as their sadhana. Theater is extremely appealing to a lot of people, but it also is the epitome of the dilettante, which is actually “theater materialism,” the equivalent of spiritual materialism which we have to cut through. It’s more a life and death attitude than a theatrical approach. People have to get into it properly. An extraordinary amount of discipline is involved. This theater school is far away in terms of our present financial situation, but that is my dream.

Heaven, Earth, and Man

T
HE PHENOMENAL WORLD
is self-existing. You can see it, you can look at it, you can appreciate your survey, and you can present your view to others. It is possible to discover the inherent state of things. It is possible to perceive how the world hangs together. It is possible to communicate your appreciation to others. The possibility of freshness is always there. Your mind is never totally contaminated by your neuroses. Goodness is always there. Catch it on the spot. Click into the sense of delight that comes from basic wakefulness.

There is an old Buddhist tradition of perception based on threefold logic. The tantric art of Tibetan Buddhism uses the element of dharmakaya as the background of manifestation, sambhogakaya as the potential of manifestation, and nirmanakaya as the final manifestation. Basically, these elements comprise the principles of heaven, earth, and man.

The first aspect of threefold logic, the heaven principle, establishes the ground. For example, this fan. The second aspect, the earth principle, develops a relationship with the ground. In this case the fan could open. The third aspect, the man principle, confirms its existence. We can wave the fan and create a breeze.

The general meaning of ground, or heaven, is a totality of space that we operate in. We can walk, dance, kick, and stretch ourselves in the atmosphere. There’s lots of room, lots of freedom, and a sense of wakefulness. We can afford to relax. We can discover the sacred quality of art, which has nothing to do with the artist’s faith or religion. Any good work of art has a sense of sacredness that is powerful, dignified, and very real.

The second aspect, which complements and activates the heaven principle, is earth. Earth is fertile and wholesome and accommodating. It serves as an anchor and, at the same time, an oar. But heaven and earth without occupants is unfulfilling. So the natural order includes man, which joins them together and creates a dynamic interrelated situation. We can use these principles to uncover the cosmic dignity and elegance that exist in our lives and in our art.

1. Heaven.
Heaven is more than empty space. It has the authority of divine principles coming down to earth. In this calligraphy heaven has the quality of conquering space. This is the basic principle of heaven, the sense of being unyielding and regal.

2. Playful heaven.
We could go further and experience a playful heaven which has more openness, more room to work with. But the heaven principle can con you into self-deception. It could be dangerous if you trip out on it.