From the journal Material For Thought, issue number
2
© 1990 Far West Editions
BORN IN
By Chogyam Trungpa Harcourt,
Brace & World, 1968
In 1950 the Chinese Communists began the takeover of
Chogyam Trungpa is a tulku.
... the forces which produce his (a tulku’s) existence are of a different order. A “something” or a “someone”, that has no “individuality” or personality in the ordinary sense, decides to work on this earth for the sake of all beings.
After the death of the previous Trungpa Tulku, a party of monks traveled five days northward from
Surmang, heeding the details of a vision and searching
out the house which it pictured. There they
found a mother and her infant.
... they looked closely at the baby, for as soon as he had
seen them in the distance he waved his little
hand and broke into smiles as they
came in. So the monks felt that this must be the child and gave him the gifts ... ; the sacred protective cord and the traditional scarf; this latter the baby took and hung around the monk’s neck in the prescribed way, as if he had already been taught what was the right thing to do; delighted, the monks picked me up. for that baby was myself, and I tried to talk. (p. 26)
Several
days later the child was put through more tests which revealed his
ability to select from many articles those which belonged to his earlier incarnation.
His training began at
once, with an intensity and calculation that is not the least of the miracles described in this book.
When
I was eight I had to learn how to perform various rites, how to intone and how to improve my reading, and
I was taught the practice and history of Buddhism and about the life of the Buddha....
I read the life of Milarepa
many times over.... Guru Padmasambhava’s story was my favorite, for I loved to read about the
way he brought Buddhism
to
When,
however, Chogyam tells us:
I
was deeply affected by all this: living in this place, studying these
teachings and constantly meditating, I began to develop greater depths of understanding, as a
preparation for the way of life that lay ahead of me. (p. 57)
he
could not have known that what, in fact, lay ahead would put this
understanding to the severest of tests.
Not
that his teachers had failed to forewarn him. He had been told by one of
his masters,
“It
is no use just having theories, you must reflect about the meaning;
you must not accept anything just because it is given as the teaching of the Buddha,
but always examine it for yourself.... Knowledge must be tested in the same way as gold,
first refined, then beaten and made smooth till it becomes the right color and shows that it is pure gold.” (p.
98)
In
one sense, of course, Trungpa’s test begins well in advance of the
eventual decision to leave
Thus,
in place of a traditional and serene life amid established religious
ritual, Chogyam’s spiritual life was destined to continue in the midst of prolonged upheaval. He soon
found himself torn between his wish to carry on with preparations for his office as head of the
Surmang group of monasteries and the need to escape.
Although
he consults with his monks and his teachers, they refer the final decision back to him. To remain meant risking
capture or death from the Communists; escape was equally forbidding. For Chogyam was far more
apprehensive about the spiritual consequences of leaving
It
may be trying for the occidental mind to appreciate the inner and
outer upheaval brought about by this forced movement, this going-out.
When
necessity for escape does become obvious, it transcends all personal
considerations. His teacher says to him:
“…a tulku like myself who has received such deep spiritual instruction
has a duty to pass it on to others, so that I might have to consider escaping, not to save
my own life, but to save the spiritual teaching of which I had become the repository.” (pp. 139-140)
The place of the Bursar,
Tsethar, now assumes a great importance. This high administrative functionary acts again and again in the role of
cautious maintainer
of established form. Despite the growing danger—even as the
Communists began widespread pillaging and murder, and still later, during the exodus through the
mountains—Tsethar always offers equal and opposite resistance to Chogyam’s initiative to take
decisive action.
No
matter that Chogyam clearly saw the future: that they were near the time
“when our world as we had known it would come to an end.” It was still the Bursar he had to
deal with and his reassurance: “All would go on as before.”
Yet
the Bursar’s role appears to serve a vital function—a kind of
resisting principle which obliged Chogyam again and again to re-examine the total situation. And
this was never the same from one day to the next. Thus he provided an indispensable link in the
chain of influences that helped to strengthen Chogyam’s spiritual resolve, bringing him an inner
certainty as to the meaning and purpose of the proposed escape.
“Our journey to
There
follow weeks of unbelievably difficult struggle on foot over harsh,
wintry mountain terrain where the enemy was not just extreme cold, fatigue and starvation, but
also the Communists who at any moment might discover and capture the entire party. From time
to time even the guide lost his way. Often the party crosses a mountain in the hope of finding their
way only to see another and another range lying before them.
They
remained cheerful.
My
attendant suggested that it was now time to practice the yoga of
`Inner Heat’ (known as tummo in Tibetan), but Yag Tulku retorted that sitting down on the
crackling holly leaves
in order to take the cross-legged position required for this yoga
would make too much noise, not to mention the sound of accompanying breathing
exercises. I had to laugh and Tsepa whispered “Hush! you must all keep quiet, someone is coming.” I whispered back “perhaps this
time, it is the spirits who are coming to protect us.” This bantering helped us to relax. (p.
232)
The
winter storms began, and it took even longer to climb the mountains. The
food shortage became critical. Some of the party died, others remained behind in the small
villages. Lost now, they travelled only at night in order to avoid detection
in the bare scrubby landscape. Yet:
…
no-one ever attempted to kill any of the wild animals that we came across in our wandering;
this compassionate self-control displayed by a whole band of desperately hungry people moved me greatly at the time, and it
remains a treasured memory of those heart-searching days. (p. 222)
In the next days they
finally made contact with villagers who helped them with food and
information. After a month they reached the town of
How
shall the West understand the destruction of this ancient traditional
culture and the killing or dispersion of its holy men? Moreover, if they are continuing their spiritual
work, if they are teaching here in the West, what is it they are teaching? If the old forms are no
longer useful, it may be that the inner spirit of the teaching will have to attract new forms that, in
new circumstances, incarnate the ancient teaching.
The
question we are left with is: Can Tibetan tradition, which is
indescribable, continue to exist apart from the monasteries, the background? Some flavor of the mechanical and psychic forces
opposing
the tradition can be sensed from Chogyam’s account of his first
contact with modern transport.
We had never travelled by motor transport before. ... Khenpo noticed how excited I was. … He turned to me and said, “You know how strong material forces are: now you are having one of your first direct encounters with them. Study what you are; don’t lose yourself.” (p. 125)
Is
this tradition finished or will there eventually be a return to