The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume Three: 3 (70 page)

Your sow’s face manifesting nonthought, the unchanging dharmakaya,

You benefit beings with wrathful mercy;

Accomplishing their welfare; with horrific accoutrements.

We prostrate to you who benefit beings in nonthought.

Nonthought is an important aspect of the Vajrayogini principle. It is the experience of mind totally freed from the habitual chatter of ego, freed from the grasping and fixation that give rise to neurotic thought patterns. Until the aggression and wildness of mind are tamed through meditation practice, there is no possibility of experiencing the nonthought possibilities in one’s mind.

Vajrayogini is often depicted with a sow’s head over her right ear. When she wears this ornament, she is referred to as Vajravarahi, “Vajra Sow.” The sow traditionally represents ignorance or stupidity. In this case, the sow’s head symbolizes the transmutation of ignorance, or delusion, into the vajra ignorance, which is nonthought or complete spaciousness of mind.

This stanza equates nonthought with dharmakaya, which, roughly translated, is the primordial mind of buddha. The practice of the Vajrayogini Sadhana is very much connected with realizing this primordial non-reference point. The purpose of the sadhana practice is not so much to cut immediate thoughts as it is to cut the habitual tendencies that are the root of discursive thought.

The “horrific accoutrements” referred to in the stanza are the necklace of freshly severed heads that Vajrayogini wears. It says in the sadhana that she wears this necklace because “the fifty-one samskaras are completely purified.”
Samskara
means “formation,” which refers to concepts. Vajrayogini’s necklace of heads signifies that all habitual concepts are purified or destroyed in nonthought.

The praise continues:

Terrifying heroine who annihilates the unsuitable,

With three eyes, clenched fangs, the absolute trikaya,

Your terrifying cry cuts off the kleshas.

We prostrate to you who subjugate and conquer the maras.

Vajrayogini is frequently called the conqueror of the maras, which are the forces of worldly confusion. In the stories of the Buddha’s enlightenment, Mara, “the Evil One,” sends his daughters, the four maras, to tempt Shakyamuni and his armies to attack him. Vanquishing them, Shakyamuni becomes the Buddha, “the Awakened One.” Thus, the basic idea of Vajrayogini as the conqueror of the maras is the conquest of ego. From ego’s point of view, Vajrayogini is “terrifying” because her wakefulness is so piercing and uncompromising. At another point the sadhana says: “Grimacing wrathfully to subdue the four maras, she clenches her fangs and bites her lower lip.” This further explains the stanza’s reference to Vajrayogini’s fierceness.

The reference to Vajrayogini’s three eyes means that nothing escapes the vision of Vajrayogini; therefore, ego has nowhere to hide. The sadhana also says: “Because she is the knower of the past, present, and future, she rolls her three furious bloodshot eyes.”

The notion that Vajrayogini is “the absolute trikaya” is that her wisdom and skillful means manifest on all levels of body and mind: the dharmakaya level of absolute, primordial mind; the sambhogakaya level of energy, emotions, and symbols; and the nirmanakaya level of manifested form, or body. The trikaya also refers to the levels of body, speech, and mind in one’s practice, which are the levels of physical body, the emotions and concepts, and the basic spaciousness of mind. Vajrayogini joins all of those levels together, and again she leaves no place for the maras to hide.

The stanza also says that her terrifying cry “cuts off the kleshas.” Kleshas, or obscurations, refer to conflicting emotions, neurotic emotion. The five kleshas are passion, aggression, delusion, jealousy, and pride, all of which are subjugated by the Vajrayogini principle.

The next stanza reads:

Naked, with loosed hair, of faultless and terrifying form;

Beyond the vice of the kleshas, benefiting sentient beings;

You lead beings from the six realms with your hook of mercy.

We prostrate to you who accomplish Buddha activity.

Vajrayogini is naked because she is completely untouched by the neurosis of the kleshas; therefore she has no armor of ego to clothe her. Because of this, she is able to “do benefit for sentient beings,” to extend absolute compassion to them. The reference to her loosed hair signifies her compassion for beings. The “hook of mercy” refers to Vajrayogini’s hooked knife, with which she lifts beings out of the suffering of the six realms, or samsara, into the vajra world. Therefore, she completely accomplishes action that is free from karmic defilement—buddha activity, or action that is completely awake.

The next stanza reads:

Dwelling in the charnel ground, subjugating Rudra and his wife,

Wrathful, fearsome, uttering the sound of
PHAT,

You benefit beings with the mercy of your skill.

We prostrate to the wrathful one who subjugates the maras.

The “charnel ground” refers to the basic space in which birth and death, confusion and wakefulness arise—the ground of coemergence. Vajrayogini is not an ethereal principle; she dwells in the heart of samsaric chaos, which is also the heart of wisdom. “Rudra and his wife” refers to ego and its embellishments, which Vajrayogini subjugates utterly. She is “the terrifying heroine who annihilates the unsuitable”; therefore, “she is wrathful and fearsome and utters the sound of
PHAT,
” a syllable associated with subjugation, destruction of ego-clinging, and the proclamation of vajra truth. At the same time, she is skilled and merciful. Combining these qualities, she is, again, the subjugator of the maras.

The next verse reads:

You have realized ultimate dharmata and abandoned death.

On a seat of a corpse, sun, moon, and lotus,

Your wrathful form is beautified with all the ornaments.

We prostrate to you who have perfected all good qualities.

The lotus, sun disk, and moon disk are the customary seats for both buddhas and yidams in tantric iconography. The lotus is a symbol of purity, and it also signifies the birth of enlightenment amidst the world of confused existence. The sun symbolizes jnana, or wisdom, while the moon is a symbol of bodhichitta, or compassion. The fact that Vajrayogini also stands on a corpse signifies that she is a semiwrathful deity. There are peaceful, semiwrathful, and wrathful yidams in tantric iconography. The peaceful deities represent the energy of pacifying and taming while semiwrathful and wrathful yidams work more directly and forcefully with passion, aggression, and delusion—conquering and trampling them on the spot.

The figure of the corpse symbolizes the death of ego and shows that Vajrayogini has “abandoned death.” “Ultimate dharmata” in the stanza is a reference to Vajrayogini’s stance. In an earlier section of the sadhana, it says: “Since she does not dwell in the extremes of samsara or nirvana, she stands on a seat of a lotus, corpse, and sun disk, with her left leg bent and her right leg raised in dancing posture.” The idea of ultimate dharmata is transcending the dualism, or extremes, of samsara and nirvana by realizing coemergent wisdom: seeing how confusion and enlightenment arise simultaneously.
Dharmata
means “the state of dharma.” It is complete realization of the dharma, which is seeing the “isness” or “suchness” of reality.

This stanza also refers to the ornaments that beautify Vajrayogini’s wrathful form: her bone headdress, her bone earrings, her necklace, her girdle, and her anklets and bracelets. These present her perfection of generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, and meditation—five of the six paramitas, or transcendent actions of the mahayana. The perfection of the sixth paramita, prajna, is not represented as an ornament because the being of Vajrayogini is itself the epitome of prajna. Thus she is called Prajnaparamita. Prajna as the perception of shunyata was mentioned earlier. At the level of prajnaparamita, prajna is complete, nondual realization which cuts through any clinging to either existence or nonexistence. Prajnaparamita is also called “the Mother of All the Buddhas”: all the buddhas of the past, present, and future are born from this stainless good knowledge which shows the nature of phenomena as shunyata. In an earlier section of the sadhana, Vajrayogini is praised as Prajnaparamita:

Prajnaparamita, inexpressible by speech or thought,

Unborn, unceasing, with a nature like sky,

Only experienced by discriminating awareness wisdom,

Mother of the victorious ones of the three times, we praise you and prostrate.

The next stanza reads:

Holding a hooked knife, skull cup, and khatvanga in your hands,

Possessing the light of wisdom, cutting off the kleshas.

As the spontaneous trikaya, you cut off the three poisons.

We prostrate to you who benefit beings.

The second line—“Possessing the light of wisdom, cutting off the kleshas”—further emphasizes the Vajrayogini principle as Prajnaparamita, the essence of discriminating-awareness wisdom.

The hooked knife has been discussed as Vajrayogini’s “hook of mercy.” It is also a weapon that is used to slice through the deceptions of ego. It is a symbol of the power and cutting quality of nonthought. In her left hand Vajrayogini holds a skull cup, or kapala, filled with amrita, representing the principle of intoxicating extreme beliefs. The kapala filled with amrita is also a symbol of wisdom. The khatvanga is the staff that Vajrayogini holds up against her shoulder. It represents her skillful means. The staff is also the secret symbol of Vajrayogini’s union with her consort, Chakrasamvara, who is the essence of skillful means.

On the khatvanga are three heads representing the trikaya principle mentioned in this stanza. The reference to Vajrayogini as the spontaneous trikaya means that the brilliance of her wisdom applies equally to all levels of experience. Because of the universality of her wisdom, she utterly cuts off the three poisons: passion, aggression, and delusion. In doing so, she benefits beings.

The next stanza reads:

Self-born great bliss, O Vajrayogini,

Unchanging wisdom vajra of dharmakaya,

Nonthought, unconditioned wisdom, absolute dharmadhatu—

We prostrate to your pure, nondual form.

Again, this stanza praises Vajrayogini as the essence of wisdom, which is the primordial “wisdom vajra of dharmakaya” and the even more primordial “unconditioned wisdom” of “absolute dharmadhatu”; this wisdom is completely nondual. Beyond that, this stanza brings together the Vajrayogini principle of wisdom with the principle of the great bliss, mahasukha, which is self-born, that is, self-existing rather than created or manufactured by conceptual mind.

Mahasukha is an actual experience of bliss—a physical, psychological, total experience of joy that comes from being completely without discursive thoughts, completely in the realm of nonthought. One unites with the nondual, awake state of being. This experience is the fruition of the Vajrayogini practice; it comes only from complete identification with the wisdom mind of the yidam. According to the scriptures, mahasukha and wisdom are indivisible; therefore, the practice of Vajrayogini leads to this experience of the self-born great bliss because she is the essence of wisdom.

In the next stanza of the praise, the third line reads:

Self-born great bliss, you are ultimate mahamudra

This refers to Vajrayogini. Experiencing mahasukha, or the wisdom of bliss and emptiness, is the realization of mahamudra, which is the pinnacle of the tradition of anuttaratantra.
Maha
means “great” and
mudra
means “sign” or “gesture.” To experience mahamudra is to realize that the literal truth, the symbolic truth, and the absolute truth are actually one thing, that they take place on one dot, one spot. One experiences reality as the great symbol which stands for itself.

The bliss of mahamudra is not so much great pleasure, but it is the experience of tremendous spaciousness, freedom from imprisonment, which come from seeing through the duality of existence and realizing that the essence of truth, the essence of space, is available on this very spot. The freedom of mahamudra is measureless, unspeakable, fathomless. Such fathomless space and complete freedom produce tremendous joy. This type of joy is not conditioned by even the experience of freedom itself; it is self-born, innate.

C
ONCLUSION

Some of what has been discussed here may be very difficult to grasp. In fact, it should be that way. If it were possible to experience the vajrayana simply by reading about it, it would cease to exist, because no one would practice it; everyone would simply study the texts. Luckily this does not work. The only way to gain the vajra freedom is to practice buddhadharma as it was taught by the Buddha and as it has been preserved and passed down for twenty-five hundred years.