The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Eight (57 page)

2. Working with Early Morning Depression

Renunciation of habitual patterns: joy of basic goodness/sadness of the setting sun

Then, Ashe arises, and you are certain what needs to be accepted and rejected.

Therefore, you have love for your teacher and respect for your elders: hierarchy.

3. Overcoming Physical Materialism

S
ACRED
E
XISTENCE
:

J
OINING
H
EAVEN AND
E
ARTH

7. Sacredness: Natural Law and Order

8. The King of Basic Goodness

Revulsion arises from meditation.

1. Caring for others (free from doubt) brings daring.

2. Knowing what to accept and reject brings gentleness.

3. Because there is a king who joins heaven and earth, body and mind are synchronized.

9. How to Cultivate the Great Eastern Sun

T
HE
P
ASSION TO
B
E

10. Blamelessness: How to Love Yourself

11. Attaining the Higher Realms

12. The Big No

F
EARLESS
R
ELAXATION

13. Aloneness and the Seven Virtues of the Higher Realms

14. The King of the Four Seasons

From a dot in space arising,

there is no setting-sun view. Decorum.

Therefore, one achieves fearlessness (like a tiger).

Fearlessness brings looseness.

This gives rise to natural hierarchy,

and in that looseness free of fear,

delight arises from the start.

1. These are probably eating, walking, lying down, and sitting.

Closing Dedication

May we be ever victorious over the warring evils of the setting sun.

May ego fixation and hesitation be liberated.

Emulating your actions, imperial warriors,

May we follow in your footsteps.

Grant your blessings so that the suffering of beings in the three realms may be dispelled

And so that the excellent peace and happiness of the new golden age,

The Great Eastern Sun, the glory of Shambhala,

May be realized quickly without obstruction.

S
ELECTED
W
RITINGS

Basic Goodness

L
ADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I would like to welcome everybody. I am very interested in why so many people came here tonight. Is it because of me alone, or is it because of the topic? Hopefully, it is because of the topic. The reason why I say that is because the good news of Shambhala is very fantastic, extraordinary—while the good news of myself, Chögyam Trungpa, being here in Boulder, Colorado, is not all that fantastic. Chögyam Trungpa is just another guy. So what Trungpa has to say is more important than what Trungpa is. It is very necessary to take that attitude.

The principles of Shambhala Training are based on the sanity and reality, as well as the gentleness, of the Buddhist tradition. However, the Shambhala tradition has its own basis, its own footing. That basis is ourselves individually, cultivating who we are, what we are, as human beings. I would like to say, ladies and gentlemen, that you shouldn’t be afraid of who you are. That’s the first key idea. You shouldn’t be afraid of who you are. It is very important for you to realize that.

In this training we frequently use the analogy of the rising sun, or the Great Eastern Sun, as opposed to the setting sun, the sun that’s going down and dissolving into darkness. So, metaphorically speaking, metaphysically speaking, there are two kinds of approaches to the sun. From the point of view of the setting sun, we are constantly afraid of ourselves. We feel that, as who we are, what we are, we can’t actually hold a proper posture. We are so ashamed of ourselves. We are ashamed of society, money, parental upbringing, the educational system, humanitarian logic, what have you. That setting-sun vision is based on trying to ward off the concept of death, trying to save ourselves from dying.

The notion of Great Eastern Sun, on the other hand, is not even a concept. It’s actual experience. We feel that we can uplift ourselves; we can experience our aliveness as human beings, basic human beings. Whether you are a great gas station attendant or a great president of the country doesn’t really matter. Basically you have some kind of sense of aliveness, of being alive, and therefore you can live, and you can respect who you are, what you are. You can actually uplift yourself as a human being. You are not intimidated by lots of bills to be paid, lots of diapers to change, lots of cooking that needs to be done or lots of office jobs. Fundamentally, in spite of all these hassles, you begin to feel that it is a worthwhile situation to be a human being, to be alive, not afraid of death. Death comes, obviously. The Buddhist tradition says that one can never avoid death, and it is true. Whether one has one’s body embalmed or has a great funeral, whatever one might do, death continues.

Nevertheless, that is not particularly the issue here. The main issue here is not particularly to try to avoid death, but to acknowledge the concept of death. You can actually die in a dignified way. You leave lots of things behind you, so that your relatives, your friends, and your children can actually appreciate who you were. You might be pushing up daisies, but nevertheless you have lived with some sense of reality and gratitude. That seems to be the general background and actually the approach to the whole thing—understanding the two attitudes of celebrating life or focusing on death.