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Shambhala Sun
Jolly Good
"There is a natural healthiness and sense of goodness we can all experience personally," says CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA RINPOCHE on the Shambhala teachings. "Then we will discover what kind of joy is needed to help the world. We find that the joy of warriorship is always needed."
We
are going to discuss the ground for building an enlightened society. No
matter where we are in the world, there is a need for enlightened
society, wherever natural disasters hit. In this case, “natural
disaster” refers to aggression, passion, and ignorance. These kinds of
natural disasters occur in the minds of people. They may be easy or
difficult to deal with, but nonetheless they are workable.
If
a building collapses, you spend thousands of dollars to fix it. If a
hydroelectric dam breaks, it may cost millions of dollars to repair. In
some sense, the disasters in the mind are cheaper to fix, but on the
other hand the solution could be more demanding, because it requires
personal attention and individual awareness. It is up to us to realize
how and why and in which way we could bring about an enlightened
society. Passion, aggression, and ignorance are regarded as problems or
obstacles to this, but they are also part of the working basis.
While
building enlightened society requires us to overcome passion,
aggression, and ignorance, the means to do this also requires a
realization of joy, that you are not in a dungeon or the black hole of
Calcutta. You get so resentful when you feel that someone or something
in your life has imprisoned you in that way. You can’t even hear or talk
properly. When you talk, you stutter with anger. When you hear, you
only hear the destructive side of the argument.
So
there is need for a sense of humor. it is impossible to overcome
passion, aggression, and ignorance with a long face. We have to cheer
up. When you begin to see yourself fully and thoroughly, then you
discover your sense of humor. It is not the same as telling bad jokes.
humor here is natural joy, the joy of reality.
The
Shambhala tradition is very closely connected with the principles and
vision of Buddhism. At the same time, this approach provides us with a
secular view of how we can actually commit ourselves to a world that is
true and genuine and good for us. There is something about human nature
that is good, excellent, and cheerful. We are not particularly talking
on a religious level. We are just talking about being human beings and
cheering ourselves up. If we smile genuinely each day, that is jolly
good. Having smiled already, then we can help the rest of society, the
rest of the world. Enlightened society has genuineness, gentleness, and
honesty, and on the whole, it comes with tremendous joy. When you help
the rest of the world, you don’t have to be solemn.
There
is always something in the situation that can cheer you up, but you
have to discover and understand it yourself. There is no point in me
telling you how to cheer up. It is up to you to find the intrinsic
cheerfulness that exists in you. You have to actually experience it. If
somebody simply puts an idea in your head, it is not good enough. You
can cheer yourself up much better than somebody talking you into
something.
As
you learn to cheer up, you will also see the problems in our society,
but you can’t immediately criticize them or do anything about them right
away. You have to develop yourself first. Then you can begin to work
with others. In the Shambhala tradition, we don’t jump the gun, so to
speak. If you are going into battle, you don’t put on your suit of armor
hastily before you sit on the toilet. First you sit on the toilet and
make sure your system’s clear. Then you put on the suit of armor. It
could be a big problem if you do it the other way around.
So
in order to help society, you need to work on yourself first. In the Shambhala tradition we talk about becoming a warrior. “Warrior” here is
the English translation of the Tibetan word pawo. Pa means “brave.” when you add wo,
it means “he or she who is brave.” It has nothing to do with warfare.
If an infant is afraid to suck its mother’s nipple, you have to train
the infant, so that the infant would not be afraid to nurse. That is the
idea of the warrior’s bravery.
The
basic definition of the Shambhala warrior is one who appreciates human
goodness. Goodness here means simply being yourself. Out of being
yourself a sense of upliftedness arises, rather than you becoming
solemn. That upliftedness is a sense of basic human virtue. on that
basis, you can train yourself to have a good sense of head and
shoulders, or good posture, and good speech. Then a good way of working
with others will come naturally.
The
principle of virtue also includes a sense of decency. Decency does not
just mean that Joe Schmidt is a decent chap because he pays his bills
and never had a bad relationship with the neighbors. That might be part
of it, but there is more to it than that. Even animals can do a decent
job. When you give them a dish of food they eat; give them a dish of
water and they drink. They are very loyal to their masters.
Here,
decency goes beyond that level. It is embracing the joy of living, the
joy of being alive. So when we talk about the bravery or fearlessness of
the warrior, we are not simply talking about overcoming fear.
Fearlessness here is delight, cheerfulness, and a sense of sparkling
eyes and good head and shoulders.
Usually
when we talk about joy it is connected with how wonderful things are,
how pleasurable things are. But in the Shambhala teachings, there is a
sense of joy even in difficult circumstances. You might have no hot
water available and your house might not be insulated. Your children
might be screaming and scheming, and you only have one outhouse. But at
the same time, if you can raise your head and shoulders there is some
sense of joy. It’s not any kind of cheap joy. It’s individual dignity.
Joy
and unconditional healthiness arise from the basic virtue of being what
we are, just like we are, right now, at this point. There is natural
healthiness, a natural sense of goodness that we can experience
personally. Then, from that beginning point, when we go out and relate
with the greater realities, we will discover what kind of joy is needed
to help the world. We find that the joy of warriorship is always needed.
For
the warrior, it is joyful to be in such good health, joyful to keep
such good posture, joyful to experience that you are alive, that you are
here. You can appreciate the colors of the world and you can appreciate
the temperature of the air. You can appreciate smells and you can
appreciate sounds. There is a tremendous feeling of pleasure and
appreciation.
but
at the same time there is sadness. It is like the sound of a flute,
which is so melodic and so beautiful that it ravishes your mind. It is
almost like a mixed blessing, sweet and sour together. So joy brings a
sense of sadness at the same time. Joy doesn’t stay by itself. If it
does, there must be something wrong with it, something perverted about
it.
Instead,
when there is fundamental joy, fundamental pleasure, an appreciation of
yourself and your world, then a notion of empty heart begins to
develop. You think you might be falling in love, but you never know who
you are falling in love with. You just fall in love. It is so
pleasurable and so painful at once. You are almost falling in love with
the universe, with the general situation. At that point, there is no
reference point to anyone or anything. You can simply be a lover without
loving anybody in particular. It is just being in love, just
appreciating your world. You don’t have to crank anything up. The main
point is developing some kind of appetite for the universe, that
everything is workable and lovable.
At
the same time, one has to view the world with critical intelligence.
You begin to use your eyes, your ears, your nose, and your tongue—your
sense perceptions—to relate with reality. For the first time you see
such penetrating and extraordinary red, such cool and beautiful blue,
such warm and delicate yellow, such refreshing, earthy, and wet green.
We could include sound and smell and taste: they are all part of our
sense of appreciation. How wonderful the world is! How beautiful the
world is! How exotic and how fabulous the world is! You might take it
for granted, but if you look again, you begin to discover the tremendous
beauty and subtlety that exist in your sense perceptions.
When
there is this sense of joy and well-being, there is also sadness. You
wish that you could share your sense of well-being with other people.
Our sadness and delight bring us to work with others. They begin to be
included in our vision, in our experience. Other people have
difficulties relating to the world, which may take the form of
aggression, passion, or ignorance—the three natural disasters we
discussed earlier. But just as we work with these things in ourselves,
we begin to work with them in others. as long as people possess sense
perceptions, sense organs, and sense consciousness, then there is a
working basis. Being able to work with others, one is able to work with
oneself at the same time.
One’s
appreciation of the world never diminishes. Whenever there is doubt
about that, that provides another step on your staircase. That means
that you have to take another step to go beyond. So each time there is
an obstacle, you go step by step. You walk or jump step by step until
you see the Great Eastern Sun, the great sun of wakefulness and joy.
This is the warrior’s path.
Adapted
and edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian from a public talk given by Chögyam
Trungpa Rinpoche in Chicago, September 1982, and a seminar in Boulder,
Colorado, April 1983.
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