Read Online The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume 4 by Chögyam Trungpa - Free Book Online
Authors: Chögyam Trungpa
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with how to deal with our emotions. We have to incorporate all three mandala principles simultaneously in our experience. We can’t separate them; we can’t practice each of them separately, at different times. We have to do it all at once. In that way things become much more real.
The mandalas are reality. It is as simple as that. Of course, reality is real, but our contact with reality is through our sense perceptions, our body, and our emotions—the three mandalas. The three mandalas are what meet, or mate, with reality. When we put our finger on a hot stove, it is our perceptions that get burnt by their meeting with reality. We have to communicate with reality; otherwise, there is no reality. We might try to get out of the whole thing by saying, “Who cares?” But that becomes reality at the same time. We cannot get away from it. It is very personal, and it is very haunting. It is all over the place.
FOUR
Nontheistic Energy
U SUALLY WHEN WE TALK about energy, we are referring to an ongoing source of power, something that is able to generate power, such as an electric generator. In a similar manner, when we speak of an energetic person, we usually mean a vigorous person, someone who possesses enormous energy. When we are around such a person, we feel there is a bank of energy happening. That person works so hard that we feel guilty being idle around him or her. We feel that we should do something too, and we begin to work very hard. Then no one can say that we have been bad boys and girls, that we haven’t done our chores, washed the dishes, or ironed the sheets. Because we feel that person’s enormous energy, we begin to perk up, and we stop being idle. We begin to take part in the energy.
Then there is another kind of energy, which is self-existing. Self-existing energy is not dependent on something or somebody else; it simply takes place continuously. Although the source of such energy is difficult to track down, it is universal and all-pervasive. It happens by itself, naturally. It is based on enthusiasm as well as freedom: enthusiasm in the sense that we trust what we are doing, and freedom in the sense that we are completely certain that we are not going to be imprisoned by our own energy, but instead, freed constantly. In other words, we realize that such energy does come up by itself, and that we can work with it. This self-existing energy is the potentiality of siddhi , a Sanskrit word that refers to the ability to use the existing energies of the universe in a very special and appropriate way.
Self-existing energy is difficult to describe in words or concepts. When we try to describe this pattern of energy, we are only finger painting. Basically, it is the energy of the psychological realm. No matter what state of mind we are in, we experience a particular quality of life, that is, we experience an emotion. We begin to feel an electric spark taking place. That energy can come out of having a quarrel with our wife or out of having a severe accident or a love affair. It comes out of being either rejected or accepted.
This energy is created both when we fail to do something and when we accomplish something. Rejection or acceptance by the world does not mean that the energy is either invalid or valid. Rather, there is transparent energy happening all the time. Whether we are in an appropriate situation, in accordance with the laws of the universe, or we are in an inappropriate situation, not in accordance with the laws of the universe, energy is constantly taking place. This energy, from the vajrayana or tantric point of view, is simply the energy that exists. It does not mean being hard-working or extremely industrious, always doing things, being a busybody, or anything like that. This energy can come from all kinds of challenges, in the positive or negative sense. Such energy takes place constantly.
Self-existing energy permeates all of our emotional relationships: our emotions toward our
The mandalas are reality. It is as simple as that. Of course, reality is real, but our contact with reality is through our sense perceptions, our body, and our emotions—the three mandalas. The three mandalas are what meet, or mate, with reality. When we put our finger on a hot stove, it is our perceptions that get burnt by their meeting with reality. We have to communicate with reality; otherwise, there is no reality. We might try to get out of the whole thing by saying, “Who cares?” But that becomes reality at the same time. We cannot get away from it. It is very personal, and it is very haunting. It is all over the place.
FOUR
Nontheistic Energy
U SUALLY WHEN WE TALK about energy, we are referring to an ongoing source of power, something that is able to generate power, such as an electric generator. In a similar manner, when we speak of an energetic person, we usually mean a vigorous person, someone who possesses enormous energy. When we are around such a person, we feel there is a bank of energy happening. That person works so hard that we feel guilty being idle around him or her. We feel that we should do something too, and we begin to work very hard. Then no one can say that we have been bad boys and girls, that we haven’t done our chores, washed the dishes, or ironed the sheets. Because we feel that person’s enormous energy, we begin to perk up, and we stop being idle. We begin to take part in the energy.
Then there is another kind of energy, which is self-existing. Self-existing energy is not dependent on something or somebody else; it simply takes place continuously. Although the source of such energy is difficult to track down, it is universal and all-pervasive. It happens by itself, naturally. It is based on enthusiasm as well as freedom: enthusiasm in the sense that we trust what we are doing, and freedom in the sense that we are completely certain that we are not going to be imprisoned by our own energy, but instead, freed constantly. In other words, we realize that such energy does come up by itself, and that we can work with it. This self-existing energy is the potentiality of siddhi , a Sanskrit word that refers to the ability to use the existing energies of the universe in a very special and appropriate way.
Self-existing energy is difficult to describe in words or concepts. When we try to describe this pattern of energy, we are only finger painting. Basically, it is the energy of the psychological realm. No matter what state of mind we are in, we experience a particular quality of life, that is, we experience an emotion. We begin to feel an electric spark taking place. That energy can come out of having a quarrel with our wife or out of having a severe accident or a love affair. It comes out of being either rejected or accepted.
This energy is created both when we fail to do something and when we accomplish something. Rejection or acceptance by the world does not mean that the energy is either invalid or valid. Rather, there is transparent energy happening all the time. Whether we are in an appropriate situation, in accordance with the laws of the universe, or we are in an inappropriate situation, not in accordance with the laws of the universe, energy is constantly taking place. This energy, from the vajrayana or tantric point of view, is simply the energy that exists. It does not mean being hard-working or extremely industrious, always doing things, being a busybody, or anything like that. This energy can come from all kinds of challenges, in the positive or negative sense. Such energy takes place constantly.
Self-existing energy permeates all of our emotional relationships: our emotions toward our
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