Table Of Content

1974 Seminary Hinayana Mahayana Ch6gyam Trungpa, Rinpoche 1974 SEMINARY HINA Y ANA - MAHAYANA Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche This is a transcript of talks given by Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche at the second Vajradhatu Seminary, a twelve-week period of intensive meditation and study, held at Snowmass Village, Colorado, September-November 1974. Copyright 1975 by Chogyam Trungpa. All rights reserved. No part of this manuscript may be reprinted without the written permission of the author. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Talk One: Shamatha 1 Unl!_;;ual opportunity of attending seminary. Relation of study and meditation. Two approaches to sitting: strict discipline of breath vs. improvising. Boycotting the breath. Posture. Thoughts. Walking meditation, Sense of recollection when we finish sitting. Simplify ing everyday life. Eyestrain. Falling asleep while sitting. Talk Two: The Development of Mindfulness 12 The question of mindfulness. "Touch and go." Using meditation as a way to avoid problems. The dualistic approach (sitting-nonsitting; jail-vacation) vs. the big blanket approach. Conversation and chatter. Everything as thinking process. Talk Three: Taming the Mind 24 Three types of learning: discipline, meditation, and knowledge. Mak ing friends with the four aggregates of neurotic mind: ignorance, not being aware, emotional upheavals, and not having enough devoion. Talk Four: Loneliness 30 Recollection and knowing. Aloneness. Six categories of process of aloneness. Sense of aloneness brings one-pointedness and discrimi nating awareness of dharma. Discipline. Being a hermit. Talk Five: Motivation for Practice 39 Motivation and training. Joy of change of schedule. Complaining. Ultimate complaint from sense of having no joy. Basic faith in what we are doing. Talk Six: Freedom from Ill birth 45 Freedom from illbirth and distortion. Shamatha as purification. The three lower realms. Relaxation and being without defense mechanisms. Mind as a sieve vs. mind as an iron cauldron. Importance ofjethop, the post-meditation experience. Just being, without preconceptions. The shadow. Talk Seven: Vipashyana 56 Vipashyana as a link between sitting practice and intellectual learning. The learning process of non-ego. Attitude of scholarship. Six topics of the knowable. Practicality of Buddhist approach. Restless mind vs. intellect. Talk Eight: Open Space 66 The world contains its own intelligence: vipashyana-to tune into that. Fixed concepts fuel for fire of awareness. Self-perpetuating awareness. Emptiness-basic space. Shadow and echo. Talk Nine: Awareness and Suffering 72 Egolessness. Awareness of totality and sense of no-self. Relation of awareness and suffering. Grudge against the world. Talk Ten: The Origin of Suffering 79 The origin of suffering. Set patterns in life which form basic constit uents of the origin of suffering. The two extremes of nihilism and eternalism. Talk Eleven: The Cessation of Suffering 86 Preventing the origin of suffering. Liberation as personal experience. Trying to become buddha, awake and blossoming. The three catego ries of samsara. Talk Twelve:, The Path 96 The path that's already been built for you vs. the path you construct yourself. Characteristics of the general path. The five paths. Hypoc risy of pretending we aren't trying to attain enlightenment. Talk Thirteen: Categories of Vipashyana 104 Concluding discussion of vipashyana. Seeing the Buddhist world entirely dependent on vipashyana experience. Categories of vipashyana: higher, lower; clarity, immovability; infant level, equal taste, seeing things as they are. Hallucinations of emptiness. Egolessness. Talk Fourteen: The Bodhisattva Path 114 Importance of shamatha. Greater vision and greater action of maha yana. Sense of appreciation. Bodhicitta compared with buddha nature. Two signs of properly trained student. Two types of bodhicitta. Three fold purity. Talk Fifteen: Sunyata 126 Ways of looking at sunyata. Three-fold purity. No reference point. Giving up attachment to awareness. Development of awareness into warmth and nonreference point. External, internal, and absolute emptiness. Seven riches of supreme being. Talk Sixteen: Bhumis: One-Five 137 The first five bhumis: joyful, spotless, illuminating, radiating light, difficult to accomplish. Paramitas of generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, and meditation. Talk Seventeen: Bhumis: Six-Ten 153 The last five bhumis: experiencing reality, far gone, not moving, good intellect, and cloud of dharma. Paramitas of knowledge, skillful means, inspiration, power, and wisdom. The basic sense of devotion through out mahayana. The seven mahayana exercises. Talk Eighteen: The Achievement of Enlightenment 162 The eleventh bhumi, always luminous. Learning to relax. The vajra like samadhi. The three kayas. Importance of the historical Buddha. Appendix: Lists in order of appearance in the text 175 Index of Tibetan Terms 179 Index 183 TALK ONE Shamatha Welcome. At this point we have finally made it to the beginning. There is a great possibility that we'll make it to the end. The question of what we are going to do now that we are here has dawned on people. We heard what happened last year at the seminary and we have had all kinds of struggles to earn money, and to get onto the list of seminary participants. We've had certain expectations, reaching the anxiety level in some situations. But we are here, and my first encouragement is: please try to be here. There are some situations which might inspire you to take off and go back to the good old world, but I don't think that would be possible; I don't think that would be very healthy. The good old world that you might want to go back to won't be so good and aged any more. It will have become a brand new world, which consists of a lot of sharp edges. Once we are here we must stick with what we are doing. We have to stick with it, not only for your own sake, but for the sake of all sentient beings. We mustn't create any chaos or possible history of chickening out for future practitioners. So we have a double role. I hope that everybody's well settled as far as their own reference point of comfort or daily schedule is concerned. I chose every one of you with personal friendship, personal understanding, so you and I know each other, everyone in this entire hall. We have some personal relationship going, and some understanding of the need for this particular situation. We worked hard on choosing this particular group of people for the seminary, and finally we came to this conclusion. I felt personally, and also my colleagues felt very much, that we should co~bine a certain collection, a certain chemistry of people. This year is a very timely situation. You are unusually and specially privileged to be here, if you would like to put it that way, in that we have turned away hundreds of people. In order 1 to include one of you we had to turn at least three people away. So hopefully you will make a good job out of it on behalf of those other three people. I'm sure you will. [Laughs.] Without special circumstances, such as this seminary, it is very hard for individuals to get into extremely concentrated situations. You might take a retreat, but then have to come back to your job, your career or whatever. Holding this seminary for three months has created a very special situation. Those of you who have careers or jobs had to abandon them, temporarily or permanently. That allows you to settle down, relax, and open yourself to the actual practice, nothing but practice, which is very powerful and very important. So this special situation is created purely so that the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, the nine-yana approach, can seep through your entire system, even your bones and marrow. You ~an be completely and properly soaked in it, and you can actually experience the whole thing-discipline actually means discipline; learning means real learning. In this community we have a lot of people who are worn out by administrative jobs. They've been answering telephones, having constant meetings and 'Yriting reports. This seminary is very compassionate; it's kind of a vajra vacation for them, so that they can get into the practice properly before they become hypocrite officers or hypocrite administrators. The same thing may apply to the ordinary students who are not particularly into administration, so that they also don't become hypocritical members of the Vajradhatu scene. We are doing what we are doing, and we have a purpose to live life through, to experience other people and the world. Everything becomes very personal. So this particular situation, I would like to remind you again, is very special and very fortunate. Maybe this is just beating a dead horse, but I would like to tell you again, I want you to keep in mind that this particular situation is unusual and very special. In order to make it worthwhile, needless to say, there is your practice and discipline. We have a tradition which developed last year at the seminary in Jackson, Wyoming. We have developed certain programs for the day-to-day living situation, for serving meals and for having days off, having study periods and sitting-practice periods. We learned something from last year.'s experience, so we are trying to implement things in the same way. We would like to make a tradition out of it. Basically, the schedule has a pragmatic purpose. There is time to have a rest, time to have meals, time for sitting practice, time to study and so forth-all carefully worked out. And needless to say, the basic point is the practice of meditation. It is the primary purpose of all this. And the meditation practice is based on intense experience-blocks of intense sitting practice and blocks of intense learning practice. That seems to be much better than mingling them together. So for the first few days we're going to have a chunk of intensive sitting practice, which is an important opening. People have a chance to catch up with themselves. If people have been doing less sitting before they carne here, or if they have gone sour in sitting, this is the time to renew their practice by creating an intense situation of sitting meditation. The duration in hours and minutes of each particular sitting is not predictable. That's part of the approach, which is the same as with nyinthuns. The length of each sitting is unpredictable, and each day has a particular schedule which is not released 2