The Lion's Roar: An Introduction to Tantra

Dharma Ocean

by Chögyam Trungpa

This book is based on two historic seminars of the 1970s, in which Chögyam Trungpa introduced the tantric teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to his Western students for the first time. Each seminar bore the title "The Nine Yanas." Yana, a Sanskrit word meaning "vehicle," refers to a body of doctrine and practical instruction that enables students to advance spiritually on the path of Buddha-dharma. Nine vehicles, arranged in successive levels, make up the whole path of Buddhist practice. Teaching all nine means giving a total picture of the spiritual journey. The author's nontheoretical, experiential approach opens up a world of fundamental psychological insights and subtleties. He speaks directly to a contemporary Western audience, using earthly analogies that place the ancient teachings in the midst of ordinary life.

Genres: Buddhism, Religion, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Meditation, Psychology

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (Tibetan: ཆོས་ རྒྱམ་ དྲུང་པ་ Wylie: Chos rgyam Drung pa; also known as Dorje Dradul of Mukpo, Surmang Trungpa, after his monastery, or Chökyi Gyatso, of which Chögyam is an abbreviation) was a Buddhist meditation master, scholar, teacher, poet, and artist. He was the 11th descendent in the line of Trungpa tulkus of the Kagyü school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was also trained in the Nyingma tradition, the oldest of the four schools, and was an adherent of the rimay or "non-sectarian" movement within Tibetan Buddhism, which aspired to bring together and make available all the valuable teachings of the different schools, free of sectarian rivalry.

Trungpa was a significant figure in the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism to the West, founding Naropa University and establishing the Shambhala Training method, a presentation of the Buddhadharma largely devoid of ethnic trappings. In 1963, he moved to England to study comparative religion, philosophy, and fine arts at Oxford University. During this time, he also studied Japanese flower arranging and received an instructors degree from the Sogetsu school of ikebana. In 1967, he moved to Scotland, where he founded the Samye Ling meditation centre.

Shortly thereafter, a variety of experiences—including a car accident that left him partially paralyzed on the left side of his body—led him to give up his monastic vows and work as a lay teacher. In 1969, he published Meditation in Action , the first of fourteen books on the spiritual path published during his lifetime. The following year he married Diana Pybus and moved to the United States, where he established his first North American meditation centre, Tail of the Tiger (now known as Karmê-Chöling) in Barnet, Vermont.

In 1986, he moved to Nova Scotia, Canada, where hundreds of his students had settled. That Autumn, after years of heavy alcohol use, he had a cardiac arrest, and he died of heart failure the following Spring. His legacy is carried on by his son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, under the banner of Shambhala International and the Nalanda Translation Committee.

Reviews

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs]

I knocked off this one in a few days’ rash of enthusiasm back in the late eighties, when this Tibetan writer’s influence was at its zenith.

Disciplined as I was back then, I found the fast & loose methodology of tantra quite beyond my grasp...

Except for one central idea - TRUE freedom can ONLY be attained by shedding our “24 Hour Watcher.”

Wuzzat, you ask?

Well, it’s like this. When we were little, our parents WATCHED us 24/7. So you know what we did as we grew up, especially if we couldn’t blow our noses without them knowing about it?

We INTROJECTED their watching of us. So we all grew a Superego. Our own home-grown supervisor!

But - this is where the plot thickens - when we grew to be teens, we had NEW Watchers:
The School In-Crowd.

Yes... we VOLUNTARILY took that group, whether cool or uncool, to be our new Role Models. So we grew into adulthood. Cool or uncool.

So, adulthood. And coming of age - which produces the Three Poisons: Passion, Agression and Ignorance - which in turn produce all the conflicts, and all the wars that make up the world.

That gives a whole new meaning to our political allegiances, don’t it?

So, guess what? These guys’ behaviour was then introjected into our NEW superego.

So we became adults. We played by the rules or we didn’t. And the WHOLE WORLD by now was watching us. We did that to ourselves, guys.

Ergo, we were trapped!

Then, along came mid-age crisis. Most of us loosened up.

But I read Trungpa... and he helped me get through it safely.
***

You know, with COVID-19 I take lots of naps. Don’t you? So today, being at my cranky worst, I went upstairs to nap at 2. All well and good.

Oh, yeah? When I awoke it was SIX!

Groggily, I stumbled downstairs again. My wife was cooking, definitely one of her FAVE things in the whole world.

But I was relaxed, and she was relaxed. And you know what happened as we just talked for an hour? Nothing. No disagreements or accidents of circumstance.

We BOTH lost our watchers at this evening’s dinner. No conflicts or battles…

And then, after a few drinks, our Speech Chakras miraculously opened!

Yeah, temporarily, I know. But wuzzat tell you?

It tells ME that we can simulate Trungpa’s rare moments of enlightenment sometimes on our own.

Just by goofing off.

But, seriously…

On the other hand, if you want to Roar like a Victorious Lion over your dying personal WATCHER - Orwell’s Big Brother - who hounds us all, all the time, read this book!

[TL]

'The preparation for tantra... is the mahayana path. First we prepare ourselves in such a way that we have a chance to know just ourselves. Then we begin to know otherness, and then we know everything in mandala perspective. This approach is based on a sense of individuality and on a sense of egolessness at the same time.

What happens with the sense of our individuality here is that, in giving up hope, in reaching a state of hopelessness, complete and total hopelessness, a sense of openness begins to develop simultaneously [which contains an element of egolessness]. Because we have given up hope completely, utterly, totally, there is a sense of opening... We have completely tired ourselves out, exhausted ourselves beyond our hopefulness. We realize that life is hopeless and that any effort we put in to gain further experience is also hopeless. Then we get into a real understanding of the space between us and our goal. That space is totally and completely full. And that fullness is what is called faith.

Faith here means dedication to and conviction in one’s own intelligence, which permits one’s own intelligence to begin to manifest as one’s guru, teacher, spiritual friend. You have trust in the basic truth of what you are, who you are. You have some understanding of that, and therefore there is tremendous trust. Trust in oneself in turn radiates further trust toward the other...

Then we have a second category after faith, which is called vigor. The Tibetan word for that is tsöndrü. Vigor here has the sense of energy. You are not tired of yourself and you are not tired of working with your spiritual friend or the rest of your friends either. Out of the hopelessness comes inspiration, which brings vigor and a sense of joy—after all, there is something out there that is workable. So you have a feeling of inquisitiveness, an interest in rediscovering your hopelessness [from a different angle]. You have faith in your hopelessness and the communicative relationship you have established with your spiritual friend. In other words, you have devotion.

And then beyond that, there is a sense of energy. You are intrigued by the whole thing. You feel something highly intriguing: “Maybe there is something in this after all.” It is true, maybe there is something happening. Something’s cooking. This sense of intrigue or mystery also ignites your energy, your vigor... There’s actually something taking place. But this doesn’t turn out to be so much on the fantasy level. There is something realistic happening.

Virya is the Sanskrit word for this. The definition of virya, our second Buddhist-dictionary term, can be understood like this: A person becomes highly inspired, therefore highly inquisitive; therefore he does not become tired of his task. He’s inspired, intrigued, tickled. That’s the definition of virya, tsöndrü.

Shantideva talks about tsöndrü... His definition of it is “taking delight in the virtue of rediscovering oneself.”

The next category, number three, is trenpa in Tibetan, which means awareness, intelligent awareness. At this level [the mahayana] one practices the six perfections or transcending actions [Skt: paramita], which are generosity, discipline, vigor (energy), patience, meditative awareness, and knowledge. All six of those happen with awareness. In talking about awareness, we don’t mean that you have to meditate on a certain thing you’ve been told to meditate on... Awareness here is pragmatic awareness of what is actually taking place in the realm of your consciousness, in the realm of your intelligence connected with your sense of being.

The next is number four, meditation; in Tibetan, samten [Skt: dhyana]. Here meditation is an extension of the sense of well-being, or awareness, that we’ve been talking about. There is a feeling of understanding and a feeling of security, which enables you to let go of your mind. The definition of meditation here is the ability to be as you are without further contrivances to make yourself comfortable. The definition of meditation is just a sense of being, a sense of isness that is happening... Suppose I said now, “This lecture is over. This is the end. I bid you good night.” The moment you heard those words, you would have a sense of your antennae beginning to retract into your basic being. “Wow, the whole thing’s gone, finished.” And you’d have a sense of well-being taking place. That is the meaning of meditation, samten.

Your television set is turned off, your antennae are retracted: no further entertainment. Yet you are there, definitely there. There is something very ironical, very funny about this. There is some kind of humor involved here. One catches a glimpse of one’s own seriousness: “Now I have turned off this set, and I am still here.” You are very serious—something very real is taking place. Empty space. There is a sense of beingness that takes place there that is the essence of meditation. It is not a matter of getting into a spiritual absorption, a higher trance, or anything of that nature. It’s a sense of being there, and then being there [Da-sein] providing no ground. No entertainment. Blank.

Number five, the fifth category, is prajna, which means “knowledge.” Jna means “intelligence” and pra means “premium,” “higher,” “greater.” That’s the Sanskrit word, and the Indo-European word comes from that. [Know, gnosis, cognition, etc., are etymologically related to jna.] Prajna is the premium knowledge, the highest and greatest knowledge of all. It’s premium in the sense of premium gas that you can ask for at the gas station. There is a gas shortage these days [December 1973], but I’m sure there is no shortage of prajna. It’s ongoing stuff.

Prajna... is a process of looking. It is the highest way of looking at reality. It is like making an acquaintance (in the sense of picking a colleague, a fellow worker). You are working hard enough so you hire your own intelligence to work with you. You create a colleagueship with yourself, you make an acquaintance to work with you—knowledge.

We run into a conflict here with the Christian tradition concerning mystical wisdom. According to the Christian tradition, or any theistic tradition, wisdom comes first and knowledge comes afterward. But in Buddhism, knowledge comes first and wisdom comes later.

In the nontheistic traditions, such as Buddhism (and at this point, the only nontheistic traditional religion we have in this universe is Buddhism), the idea is to see in order to look. Looking is regarded as much more important, because you can’t abandon the world, you can’t abandon relationships.

First you have to see. Projections are necessary in order for you to work with yourself. Having related with your projections properly—clearly and thoroughly—having seen things as they are, you start to scrutinize, you start to look. When you look, you discover all kinds of subtle qualities of things as they are, subtleties upon subtleties, fantastic details of things as they are, fantastically colorful.

Saying that you have to see in order to look is a tantric statement. It is very subtle and very precise.

Looking is premature discrimination, and seeing is discriminating wisdom. But you can look once you have seen...
You don't deliberately try to see. That would be looking... Seeing is feeling. Then, having seen it, you begin to look.
Q: Seeing is more panoramic, Rinpoche?
A: Yes.
Q: It's intuition as opposed to thought?
A: Well said.

What might happen to us is: We look in order to see. We look first and have a flash of something fantastically beautiful. We look at something and get dazzled by it. We get dazzled and begin to see psychedelic visions of the universe. Fantastic! Wow! Then we are supposed to see whatever it is. But seeing isn’t important anymore, because we have already looked. We lost so many subtle little details, because we looked [already]. The Buddhist approach toward perceiving phenomena is to see in order to look, not look in order to see. This is a definition of prajna that leads toward tantra... The idea of seeing in order to look is closer to... the American Indian approach.

If you see a spot, you should arrange yourself suitably in it and then begin to look. That seems to be the point in discussing prajna as a preparation for discussing tantra... Looking is demanding, if you look prematurely. But seeing is undemanding if you do it properly. The sense of well-being that we talked about takes place.

Having accomplished faith, vigor, awareness, meditation, and prajna, then we begin to become somewhat proud of ourselves. We feel good. There is a sense of well-being. We do not have to reduce ourselves to the level of bullshit. We are Mount Meru. We are worth being proud of... We now begin to feel that maybe we could stick out our necks again, once more. We are noble sons and daughters of Buddha. We are Buddha. Why should we crunch ourselves down and deform our state of being? Why don’t we just expand ourselves into our perfect form, our perfect being?

We have perceptions and energies and inspirations. We have everything. We have a spiritual friend, we have the teaching. We have everything. What more do we want? We have everything in this whole universe. We have everything there. We have intelligence and understanding and the materials to understand. We have everything. We can afford to extend ourselves a bit more. That is why this approach is called the mahayana, the great vehicle, the bodhisattva path. It is heroic.

We beat the drum of dharma, sound the trumpet of wisdom and compassion, celebrate the feast of intelligence. It is very joyous. And the reason that it is so joyous is because the whole thing is so hopeless. It doesn’t provide us with any hope. Once we become hopeful, we are taking the approach of poverty. We are adopting a penniless mentality. We are locking ourselves into the ghettos of the samsaric world.

We have an enormous sense of delight. There are wonderful things taking place in us. That is the sense of the bodhisattva path. That is also connected with tantra, because in tantra, the whole thing is based on pride, vajra pride, as we call it, indestructible pride, adamantine pride. An enormous sense of delight begins to take place. There is no room, absolutely none whatsoever, for misery. This has nothing to do with being “love-and-lighty” [Nietzsche against 'beautiful souls']. We don’t have to furnish ourselves with goodness, whiteness, cleanness. We don’t have to adopt the conviction that finally we are good and beautiful, loving and lighting. Rather we are what we are. We are sons and daughters of noble family, in the direct line of the Buddha. We have our heritage, our lineage. We can take pride in ourselves. It’s fantastic.

That is the preparation for tantra. I suppose we could talk about it in terms of looking. We have seen already; then we begin to look.

You are already subject to the skandhas. But there is the possibility of being free from them at the same time.
Q: Do you find yourself personally in and out of the skandhas all day long?
A: Sure. As long as you have a body. As long as you have to shit and eat and make love.

Whenever there’s hopefulness about yourself, there’s also a problem related to a goal. Hopelessness is hopeless all over. But there are some gaps... There’s still chutzpah. Believe it or not, hopelessness is encouragement. It’s fantastic. From our point of view, it means we are starting on a new dimension of reality. With vigor, virya, chutzpah.
Q: Isn’t that because you have nothing left to defend, so you have nothing left to fight against?
A: Yes, that’s right.
Q: So you can do anything you want.
A: Precisely, sure, yes. It’s your universe. It’s your world. Let’s celebrate.

Q: Is there any separation between daily life and art in terms of seeing?
A: No. Everybody’s an artist.



Fundamentally, tantra is based on a process of trust in ourself that has developed within us, which is like a physical body. Tantra involves respect for our body, respect for our environment. Body in this sense is not the physical body alone; it is also the psychological realization of the basic ground of sanity that has developed within us as a result of hinayana and mahayana practice. We have finally been able to relate with the basic form, the basic norm, basic body. And that body is what is called tantra, which means “continuity,” “thread.” That body is a sense of a working base that continues all through tantric practice.

Thus tantric practice becomes a question of how to take care of our body, our basic psychological solidity, our solid basic being. In this case, the solidity is comprised of sound, sight, smell, taste, feeling, and mind. Body here is the practitioner’s fundamental sanity. The practitioner has been able to relate with himself or herself to the extent that his or her basic being is no longer regarded as a nuisance. One’s basic being is experienced as highly workable and full of all kinds of potentialities. On the tantric level, this sense of potential is called vajra, which means, “adamantine,” or “diamond,” or “indestructible.” A sense of indestructibility and a strong continuous basic body has developed.

The notion of mahamudra is prominent in tantric teaching. Maha means “great” and mudra means “symbol.” Maha here means “great” not in the sense of “bigger than a small one,” but in the sense of “none better.” And “better” even has no sense of comparison. It is “nonebetter,” on the analogy of “nonesuch.” And mudra is not a symbol as such. It refers to a certain existence we have in ourselves, which is in itself a mudra. Eyes are the mudra of vision and nose is the mudra of smell. So it is not a symbol in the sense of representing something or being an analogy for something. In this case, mudra is the actualization of itself. The idea is that physical activity has been seen as something workable; it is something very definite and at the same time highly charged with energy.

Particularly in Buddhist tantra, a lot of reference is made to the idea that pleasure is the way, pleasure is the path. This means indulgence in the sense perceptions by basic awakened mind. This is the mahamudra attitude. Things are seen clearly and precisely as they are [phenomenology]. One does not have to remind oneself to be in the state of awareness. The sense objects themselves are the reminder. They come to you, they provide you with awareness. This makes awareness an ongoing process. Continuity in this sense does not need to be sought but just is.

We have a basic body, which is very intelligent, precise, sensitive to sense perceptions. Everything is seen clearly and the buddha-family principles are acknowledged. There is vajra intellect, ratna richness, padma magnetizing, karma energy of action, and the basic, solid, contemplative being of buddha. We have acquired such a body, which is not a new acquisition. It is the rediscovery of what we are, what we were, what we might be. With the rediscovery of that, a sense of being develops, a sense of vajra pride, to use tantric language. That is, there is a sense of dignity, of joy, a sense of celebrating the sense perceptions, sense consciousnesses, and sense objects, which are part of the coloring of the mandala experience.

Nobody has to take on the duty of bringing the sun up and making it set. The sun just rises and sets. There is no organization in the universe that is responsible for that, that has to make sure that the sun rises and sets on time. It just happens by itself. That is the nature of the continuity of tantra that we have been talking about. Discovering this is discovering the [basic] body... We see light coming from the east... the dawn of Vajrasattva.

[After the three preliminary 'outer' tantric yanas - kriyayoga, upayoga, and yogayana,] the next three are described as the ultimate yanas[:] mahayoga-yana, anuyoga-yana, atiyoga-yana. These yanas provide the most advanced teaching Buddhism can ever present to you. They are the dead-end point at which you should attain enlightenment. It is demanded of you: You are required to be enlightened at that point. You are guaranteed to be enlightened once you reach the highest point of atiyoga. You have no choice. And you will become enlightened in the fullest way of all.

As an analogy for the lower tantric yanas, we talked about bathing, getting dressed, and putting on ornaments. At this point, in the mahayogayana, you no longer put on ordinary clothes: It’s more like going back to ape instinct. Instead of putting on a crown of jewels and gold, now you put on a headdress of skulls. Instead of an ordinary skirt, you wear a tiger-skin skirt. Instead of an ordinary shawl, you wear a shawl of human skin. You begin to change your perspective on the world and get back to a more organic approach.

There is a hint of savagery, a hint of craziness. A hint of crazy wisdom begins to appear. Having bathed, purified, now you wear skins and bone ornaments. At this level of mahayogayana, consciousness begins to change. Some kind of dignity begins to appear—fearlessness. Fearlessness of blood, fearlessness of earth, fearlessness of human skulls and skin. We strip away all kinds of purified levels that we have gone through before in previous yanas

Previous yanas have taken a very genteel approach. We tried to make ourselves into an emperor or king. We bathed, we wore beautiful clothes and jewelry of all kinds. Now we develop a sense of reality of a different nature. Neurosis as such is no longer regarded as bad at all. It is regarded as an ornament, a delightful ornament, a real ornament. We can wear such ornaments, we can adorn ourselves with all sorts of neuroses that we have. This is a fantastic proclamation of sanity in fact.

This approach explains why vajrayana is very dangerous, very freaky. Nevertheless, here it is. At this point, we are willing to swim in the shit pile once again, willing to adorn ourselves with bones and skulls and skins. It is very organic. We might even say it is macrobiotic in the ultimate sense. We begin to realize, totally without fear, that we are [non-transcendent] divine beings.

Next is anuyogayana. Here the sense of indulgence just described has become a trip. Abiding in the fermented manure of neurosis becomes a problem. Maybe we have indulged ourselves too much in the organic trip. Now we don’t even care about that. We take off our costumes, strip. There is no need to dress up as vampires or imitate them... We begin to relate more with our heart and brain. The Tibetan Book of the Dead describes how the wrathful herukas come out of your brain and the peaceful herukas come out of your heart. This takes place now. More coordination is developed between the vajra type of heart and brain. You develop an enormous sense of being the conqueror of the whole universe. You transcend apeness altogether, or maybe you become a transcendental ape. It is very powerful. You see a panoramic openness and there is a fantastic sense of already having conquered. The conquering has already taken place and you’re just revealing it.

The last level is atiyogayana. [Now] you don’t need any kind of outfit at all. Dressing or undressing is irrelevant. Again you expose your naked body. No clothes at all, none whatsoever... The only relationship that you have at this point is to your sense perceptions of sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. [They] become guidelines... extraordinarily high level...

There we are. We have come back... to square one. We realize that the journey need never have been made. All the journeys are a way of fooling ourselves. The journey becomes an endless journey, so there is no point in making journeys at all.'

[Kerstin Heydrich]

This is perhaps the single most comprehensive guide on buddhism you'll ever read, particularly insightful for the uninitiated or those with a very low degree of understanding.

Now, since this book is divided in two seminars with similar themes, one might think that reading a singular part is more than enough for understanding the basis of Tantra, yet I found both to be interesting in their own way.

Either of them discusses Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana, as the three big groups of Tantra thinking, however, the first seminar is more abstract and spiritualist in nature: I didn't quite get it at first, and for a more descriptive and practical approach, I've personally preferred the second one, which made me comprehend and visualize the workings of the five skandhas (foundation of Hinayana), the six paramitas and essence of bodhichitta (foundation of Mahayana), and then the separate yoga forms in Vajrayana.

Nonetheless, it's crucial to highlight that, although very exhaustive, someone who is invested in exploring tantric buddhism should continue to read on the subject, for instance "Awakening Wisdom: Heart Advice on the Fundamental Practices of Vajrayana Buddhism" (if looking for practice straight away) and/or the Foundation on Buddhist Thought series by Tsering (if sparing enough time to explore on a more theoretical basis); as it also feels quite relevant to note a deep understanding of Hinayana and a bit of Mahayana should be the bare minimum before moving onto Tantra and its visualizations, since otherwise it can rend the practice useless and make the user take a self-destructive path (what is called vajra hell.)

Finally, I would recommend anyone interested to read this volume with a little caveat: you might get a better appreciation of its contents by swapping the seminars, that is, starting with the second segment over the first, as the metaphysical descriptions are more thought-evading in the initial than what I've noticed in the predominantly logical later.

[Sarah]

An essential run-down of what the Vajrayana has to offer, and what the initiatory curriculum actually is. Trungpa Rinpoche offers his unique perspective as a Tibetan born traditional monk, who decidedly took a different route, breaking away in the 60s to join the counter-culture, and teach Buddhism to American counter-culture in Seattle. He offers profound insights on drug use, sex, and other taboo topics regarding the path, and it is a great book for the curious scholar to use comparatively with other schools of initiation in both the occult, and Tantric world.

[Aliisa]

Tantra refers to "continuous" nature of reality as it is instead of the non-dual compassion training from the Mahayana path. According to Trungpa the Theravada path is an advanced form of the Mahayana, and thus the completion of the Bodhisattva path. An American that jumps straight to Tantra without training in Mahayana is a danger to himself and others, according to Trungpa.

[Kendra]

Interesting book, but quite honestly, I got tired of how we are our own problems, and the world is a crappy place.

[william m manzie]

intense and so informative

[Duncan]

Great presentation of the 9 yanas of Tibetan Buddhism