The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Eight (23 page)

Observing the order of lha, nyen, and lu is what makes human beings civilized, and therefore we might refer to them as the ultimate protocol. By following the order of lha, nyen, and lu, your life can be harmonized with the order of the phenomenal world. Some people would like to ignore such basic societal norms. They say: “So what if I put my shoes on my head?” But everybody knows that something is not quite right in doing that, although nobody knows exactly why. People have an instinct that prompts them to have a place for each article of clothing or household belonging. Those norms actually make sense. Your bedroom and your entire house are much tidier if you put certain belongings in certain places. From that, you develop rhythm and order in your experience. You do not throw your garments on the floor, you do not put your slippers under your pillow, and you do not use your hairbrush to polish your shoes.

Ignoring the order of lha, nyen, and lu is very destructive. If instead of winter, summer followed autumn, and if instead of autumn, spring followed summer, the whole order of cosmic principles would be violated. In that case, crops wouldn’t grow, animals wouldn’t reproduce, and we would have devastating droughts and floods. When the order of lha, nyen, and lu is violated in society, it is like disrupting the order of the seasons: It weakens society and causes confusion.

Sometimes you see the violation of lha, nyen, and lu reflected in the actions of political leaders: the president of the United States putting his feet on the desk of the Oval Office, or the famous incident of Premier Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the United Nations’ podium. It is not that those actions in themselves are the real problem. Incorporating the law of lha, nyen, and lu is more than just having good manners. What is truly problematic is the attitude that violates the sacredness of life: thinking that the way to make a forceful statement is to turn the world topsy-turvy by ignoring its basic norms. You lose your trust in the phenomenal world, and at the same time, you become an untrustworthy person yourself, someone who thinks that wheeling and dealing his way through life is the road to success. Maybe there is some temporary victory in that kind of approach, but ultimately you are throwing yourself into the gutter of the world.

So respecting the order of lha, nyen, and lu is very important. This does not mean just paying lip service to those principles by having an orderly household with everything in its place. You begin by appreciating your world, by taking a fresh look at the universe, which we have discussed over and over. Then, out of that, you feel the presence of lha, nyen, and lu in your body, your entire being. You feel the wakefulness and vision of lha, the solidity and gentleness of nyen, and the rich possibilities of treading the earth, which are lu principle. Then, from that discovery of basic decorum, you begin to understand how to join the lha, nyen, and lu principles together by giving yourself to others, by serving your world.

Joining lha, nyen, and lu is exemplified in the act of bowing, which in many Oriental cultures is a traditional greeting. For the Shambhala warrior, the bow is a symbol of surrendering to others, serving them. We are not talking here just about the literal act of bowing, but about the warrior’s whole attitude toward his or her life, which is one of selfless service. When as a warrior you make a bow, you begin by establishing your head and shoulders, uplifting your posture. You don’t just roar in and bow, but first you hold yourself erect. This connects you with the realm of lha and with raising windhorse. It is as if you had glaciers on your head, as if you were Mount Everest. Then, from that cutting and fresh glacier mountain realm of lha, you begin to bend down by lowering your head and hunching slightly. You give to your shoulders from your head. This is making friends with nyen: You acknowledge the breadth and vastness of your shoulders. Then finally, you complete your bow. You submit to the realm of lu. You completely surrender. Your entire three systems of lha, nyen, and lu are offered as you bend down.

Bowing is giving away basic goodness and windhorse to others. So in bowing you are surrendering potential power and magic, and you do that with real, proper feeling. It is a threefold process: hold, feel, and give. First you have to hold; otherwise you don’t make any statement. If you bow to someone by just flopping down, that is a very gullible bow. It does not have any heart to it. The witnesser of that bow, the person you bow to, will regard you as an untrustworthy person. The idea is that the magic of the bow, the power of the bow, actually confirms both people. When you bow to your friend or to a good, trustworthy person who also possesses that power, then you are sharing something together. If you bow to the setting sun, if you bow to Mickey Mouse, you are degrading yourself. The warrior never does that. So the bow is based on acknowledging someone else’s worth, his or her lha, nyen, and lu existing in front of you. And, as a mark of respect, you do not rise from your bow until the other person rises.

The bow represents a complementary exchange of energy, as well as being a mark of decency, loyalty, and surrender. It is both an example and an analogy of how to join lha, nyen, and lu together. Basically, the point is to serve the world. Tools, which help us to shape our world, are also regarded as joining lha, nyen, and lu and should be given special respect. The same is true for human beings who help to shape the lives of others by serving them. So a teacher is highly respected, because he or she is joining lha, nyen, and lu in the students. Ideally, politicians and public servants also have this role. The role of the warrior altogether is to join lha, nyen, and lu in order to help his or her fellow human beings.

Living in accordance with natural hierarchy is not a matter of following a series of rigid rules or structuring your days with lifeless commandments or codes of conduct. The world has order and power and richness that can teach you how to conduct your life artfully, with kindness to others and care for yourself. However, just studying the principles of lha, nyen, and lu is not enough. The discovery of natural hierarchy has to be a personal experience—magic is something you must experience for yourself. Then, you will never be tempted to put your hat on the floor, but more importantly, you will never be tempted to cheat your neighbors or your friends. You will be inspired to serve your world, to surrender yourself completely.

EIGHTEEN

How to Rule

The notion of ruling your world is that you can live in a dignified and disciplined way, without frivolity, and at the same time enjoy your life. You can combine survival and celebration.

T
HE WARRIOR
’
S JOURNEY
of discovering the natural hierarchy of reality and his place in that world is both exalted and very simple. It is simple, because it is so immediate and touching. It is touching your origin—your place in this world, the place you came from and the place you belong. It is as if you were taking a long walk through the woods at twilight. You hear the sounds of birds and catch a glimpse of the fading light in the sky. You see a crescent moon and clusters of stars. You appreciate the freshness of the greenery and the beauty of wildflowers. In the distance dogs are barking, children are crying, and occasionally you hear the sound of a car or truck making its journey on the highway. As the wind begins to blow on your cheeks, you smell the freshness of the woodlands, and perhaps you startle an occasional rabbit or bird as you pass them by. As twilight goes on, memories of your husband, your wife, your children, your grandparents, your world, come back to you. You remember your first schoolroom, where you learned to spell and read and write. You remember tracing the letters
i
and
o, m
and
a
. You are walking in the forest of the dralas, but still there is a feeling that this woodland is surrounded by other living human beings. Yet, when you listen, you hear only the sound of your own footsteps—right, left, right, left, a crackle when you step on a dry twig.

When you walk into this world of reality, the greater or cosmic world, you will find the way to rule your world—but, at the same time, you will also find a deep sense of aloneness. It is possible that this world could become a palace or a kingdom to you, but as its king or queen, you will be a monarch with a broken heart. It is not a bad thing to be, by any means. In fact, it is the way to be a decent human being—and beyond that a glorious human being who can help others.

This kind of aloneness is painful, but at the same time, it is beautiful and real. Out of such painful sadness, a longing and a willingness to work with others will come naturally. You realize that you are unique. You see that there is something good about being you as yourself. Because you care for yourself, you begin to care for others who have nurtured your existence or have made their own journey of warriorship, paving the way for you to travel this path. Therefore, you feel dedication and devotion to the lineage of warriors, brave people, whoever they have been, who have made this same journey. And at the same time, you begin to care for all those who have yet to take this path. Because you have seen that it is possible for you, you realize that you can help others to do the same.

You begin to see that there are seasons in your life in the same way as there are seasons in nature. There are times to cultivate and create, when you nurture your world and give birth to new ideas and ventures. There are times of flourishing and abundance, when life feels in full bloom, energized and expanding. And there are times of fruition, when things come to an end. They have reached their climax and must be harvested before they begin to fade. And finally, of course, there are times that are cold and cutting and empty, times when the spring of new beginnings seems like a distant dream. Those rhythms in life are natural events. They weave into one another as day follows night, bringing, not messages of hope and fear, but messages of how things
are
. If you realize that each phase of your life is a natural occurrence, then you need not be swayed, pushed up and down by the changes in circumstance and mood that life brings. You find that you have an opportunity to be fully in the world at all times and to show yourself as a brave and proud individual in any circumstance.

Normally, there appears to be a conflict between survival and celebration. Survival, taking care of your basic needs, is based on pragmatism, exertion, and often drudgery. Celebration, on the other hand, is often connected with extravagance and doing something beyond your means. The notion of ruling your world is that you can live in a dignified and disciplined way, without frivolity, and at the same time enjoy your life. You can combine survival and celebration. The kingdom that you are ruling is your own life: it is a householder’s kingdom. Whether or not you have a husband or wife and children, still there is a structure and pattern to your daily life. Many people feel that the regularity of life is a constant imposition. They would like to have a different life, or a different menu, every second, at every meal. It is necessary to settle down somewhere and work at having a regular, disciplined life. The more discipline that occurs, however, the more joyous life can be. So the pattern of your life can be a joyous one, a celebration, rather than obligation alone. That is what it means to rule the kingdom of your life.

The notion of kingdom here is that your life is potentially wealthy and good. There is a great deal of misunderstanding about wealth. Generally being wealthy means that you have lots of money, but the real meaning of wealth is knowing how to create a goldlike situation in your life. That is to say, you may have only twenty dollars in your bank account, but you can still manifest richness in your world.

Interestingly, if you are lost in the desert, without food and water, even if you have lots of gold in your pack, you can’t eat it and you can’t drink it—so you are still starved and parched. That is analogous to what happens to many people who have money. They have no idea how to eat it and how to drink it. Once I heard a story about an Indian chief who struck oil on his property and became rich. He decided to buy twenty basins and bath taps at once as a sign of his wealth. People can spend thousands of dollars and still be dissatisfied and in tremendous pain. Even with all that supposed wealth, they may still be unable to enjoy a simple meal.

True wealth does not come about automatically. It has to be cultivated; you have to earn it. Otherwise, even if you have lots of money, you will still be starved. So if you want to rule your world, please don’t think that means you have to spend a great deal of money. Rather, true wealth comes from using manpower, individual power. If your suit has lots of lint, don’t send it to the cleaners right away—clean it yourself. That is much less expensive, and also more dignified. You put your own energy and effort into caring for your world. The key to wealth, or the golden key, is appreciating that you can be poor—or I should say, unmoneyed—and still feel good, because you have a sense of wealthiness in any case, already. That is the wonderful key to richness and the first step in ruling: appreciating that wealth and richness come from being a basically decent human being. You do not have to be jealous of those who have more, in an economic sense, than you do. You can be rich even if you are poor.

That twist is a very interesting one and very powerful in terms of how to deal with world problems. Too often the politics of this world are based on poverty. If people are poor, they want to take money or resources away from those who have more. And if people are wealthy—in the sense of having money—then they want to hold on to what they have, because they think that giving up some of their money will make them impoverished. With that mentality on both sides, it is difficult to imagine any fundamental change taking place. Or if it does take place, it is based on tremendous hatred and violence, because both sides are hanging on so tightly to what they think is important.