Entering ‘the Unified Maṇḍala of All the Siddhas:’
The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the
Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects
By
Eben Matthew Yonnetti
B.A., Siena College, 2012
A thesis submitted to the
Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Colorado Boulder in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
Department of Religious Studies
2017
© Eben Yonnetti
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This thesis entitled:
Entering ‘the Unified Maṇḍala of All the Siddhas:’
The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects
written by Eben Matthew Yonnetti
has been approved for the Department of Religious Studies
__________________________________________
(Dr. Holly Gayley, Committee Chair)
__________________________________________
(Dr. Jules Levinson, Committee Member)
__________________________________________
(Dr. Greg Johnson, Committee Member)
__________________________________________
(Dr. Amelia Hall, Committee Member)
__________________________________________
(date)
The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the
form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline.
© Eben Yonnetti
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Abstract:
Yonnetti, Eben Matthew (M.A., Religious Studies)
Entering ‘the Unified Maṇḍala of All the Siddhas:’ The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Making of
Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects
Thesis directed by Assistant Professor Holly Gayley
This thesis examines the role of translation and the formation of Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects in
religious transmission through an analysis of the tantric Buddhist ritual practice, the Sādhana of
Mahāmudrā (SOM). Reported to be revealed as a Mind treasure (ད"ངས་ག'ར་) by the Tibetan reincarnate
teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche ()ས་*མ་,ང་པ་.ན་0་1་; 1940-1987) while on retreat in Bhutan in 1968, and
subsequently translated into English by Trungpa Rinpoche and his student Richard Arthure (1940- ), the
SOM played an important role in the early process of the transnational transmission of Vajrayāna
Buddhism to the ‘West.’ Nevertheless, after more than fifty years of practice by individuals and
communities around the globe, the role of the SOM in this process has yet to be studied. Moreover,
scholarship on the role of Vajrayāna rituals in contemporary religious transmission is also in its
nascency. In this thesis, I aim to address this lacuna through a study of the revelation of this text, its
strategic translation, and its role in the making of Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects. Given that the SOM
emerged at a pivotal moment as Trungpa Rinpoche re-evaluated how to best teach the buddhadharma in
the ‘West,’ I argue that its partially domesticating translation was a strategic means of inducting
‘Western’ students into a foreign ritual world. As such, I argue that the SOM was a skillful method to
introduce ‘Western,’ non-Buddhist students to the Vajrayāna through an iterative process of ritual
enactment and training in a subjectivity both described and prescribed within the text. As such, in this
thesis I analyze the important role that the SOM played in the early formation of Vajrayāna subjectivities
as Vajrayāna Buddhism came to North America and in preparing the ground for the later teachings that
Trungpa Rinpoche would introduce to his students. This thesis informs my broader research question:
how are new subjectivities created in the process of religious transmission across radically different cultural
contexts? More generally, it contributes to emergent conversations around performativity in Buddhist
ritual practice and will also prove relevant to those working on the intersection of ritual practice and
religious transmission in other traditions.
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Acknowledgements
Coming to the culmination of my studies at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU
Boulder), this thesis has only been possible through the support, generosity, and input of
numerous individuals over the past several years. While space does not permit me to mention all
of those who have contributed to the success of this work, I would like to thank the CU Boulder
School of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Religious Studies, the Center for Asian Studies, the
University Libraries, and the Graduate School at the CU Boulder for financially supporting my
studies in the US and abroad.
I would particularly like to thank my colleague and friend Sonam Nyenda, who was
always happy to share his experience and knowledge, and whose modesty with what he knew was
always overstated. My thanks also go to Sherab Wangmo, Noel Smith, Greg Mileski, Caitlyn
Brandt, Tyler Lehrer, Joshua Shelton, Scott Brown, and other members of my graduate cohort in
the CU Boulder Department of Religious Studies who have all been engaging conversation
partners and good friends during our studies together. Thanks also to participants in the Tibet
Himalayan Study Group at CU Boulder creating a robust and interactive interdisciplinary
environment for the study of Tibetan and Himalayan cultures.
I also wish to thank Executive Director of the Nālānda Translation Committee, Larry
Mermelstein, who granted permission and supported my work on the Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, as
well as to Kunga Dawa (Richard Arthure), Frank Berliner, Barry Boyce, and Derek Kolleeny for
sharing their experience and knowledge of this ritual practice. Moreover, thanks go to Walter and
Joanne Fordham and to Carolyn Gimian whose work on the Chronicles Project and the Chögyam
Trungpa Legacy Project has preserved and made accessible to the public Chögyam Trungpa
Rinpoche’s teachings in a wide variety of formats.
I would also be remiss if I did not thank Hubert Decleer, Isabelle Onians, and Nazneen
Zafar who first ignited my interest in the Tibetan and Himalayan region as an undergraduate
studying abroad in Nepal, and who have served as sources of wisdom and inspiration ever since.
At the CU Boulder and Naropa University, I would like to thank Jules Levinson, Amelia Hall, Sarah
Harding, Phil Stanley, and Lhoppon Rechung for nurturing and supporting my studies of Tibetan
language and Vajrayāna Buddhism. Moreover, I would like to thank Greg Johnson, Loriliai
Biernacki, Terry Kleeman, Lucas Carmichael, and faculty in CU Boulder’s Religious Studies
Department whose courses and conversations helped me to grow as a scholar.
Deep thanks also go to my advisor, Holly Gayley, who has supported my work and
professional development throughout my graduate studies and pushed me to develop as a critical
thinker and close reader of texts. She is an inspiration for the type of scholar I hope to become.
Thanks to my family who have supported me in ways too numerous to mention
throughout my years of study and travel in places near and far. Finally, I wish to thank my wife,
Sierra Gladfelter, whose profound insight, kindness, and patience have helped tremendously in
many drafts of this thesis, as well as every other piece that I have written. It is truly a blessing to
share my life with such a supportive partner.
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Table of Contents
I.
Introduction
II.
Transformation: Trungpa Rinpoche and the Treasure Tradition in the ‘West’
1
16
III. Translation: The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, Treasure Texts, and Domestication
37
IV. Transmission: The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Formation of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects
A. Disciplinary Practices, Speech-Acts, and Vajrayāna Subject-Making
B. The Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects in the Sādhana of Mahamudra
61
64
74
V.
90
Conclusion: Taming Subjects and Opening the Gates for the Ocean of Dharma
VI. Bibliography
98
VII. Appendices
107
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I. Introduction
This is the darkest hour of the dark ages.༔ Disease, famine and warfare are raging like the
fierce north wind.༔ The Buddha’s teaching has waned in strength.༔ The various schools of
the saṅgha are fighting amongst themselves with sectarian bitterness; and although the
Buddha’s teachings were perfectly expounded and there have been many reliable
teachings since then from other great gurus, yet they pursue intellectual speculations.༔ […]
As a result, the blessings of spiritual energy are being lost. Even those with great devotion
are beginning to lose heart.༔ If the buddhas of the three times and the great teachers were
to comment, they would surely express their disappointment.༔ So to enable individuals to
ask for their help and to renew spiritual strength, I have written this sādhana of the
embodiment of all the siddhas.༔1
Thus begins the Sādhana of Mahāmudrā Which Quells the Mighty Warring of the Three Lords of
Materialism and Brings Realization of the Ocean of Siddhas of the Practice Lineage ("་ནང་གསང་བ)་*་+,་ག-ལ་/ན་0་བ1ོག་
3ང་4ན་བ5ད་7་8བ་9བ་:་མ<་མ=ན་>་?བ་པ)་A་ག་Bག་:་/ན་0་Cས་D་བ་བEགས་F།). According to its opening lines, the mundane
world is in an awful state, full of suffering, and even formerly-dedicated religious practitioners have
abandoned their soteriological pursuits in favor of exploiting the buddhadharma for the sake of material
gain. Due to this wretched state of the world and the degeneration of the Buddhist community,
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche wrote down this liturgical text as a means of correcting the deterioration
of spiritual practices and to renew the strength of the Vajrayāna Buddhist teachings in the
contemporary world. In doing so Trungpa Rinpoche hoped this practice would spread and cause, “the
chariot of the new perfected [age] to be ushered in.”2 What makes this text unique, however, is not its
claim to renew the Buddhist teachings, but rather its role as a ritual practice in English that played a
1
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, trans. Chögyam Trungpa and Kunga Dawa (Halifax, NS: Nālānda
Translation Committee, 2006), 5.
:ས་ལ་Hགས་Iན་གསར་པ)་Kང་L་Mར་>་Nང་Oབ་པ)་Pར་5ར་3ག; zur mang drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog
jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho mngon du sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so (Halifax, NS and Boulder,
CO: Nālānda Translation Committee, 1988, 2011), 24A.
2
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significant role in the early transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism to the Euro-North American context
and the formation of ‘Western’3 Vajrayāna Buddhist (Q་R་Sག་པ་)4 subjects.
The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā (SOM) is reported to be a Mind Treasure (དTངས་གUར་)5 revealed by
Surmang Trungpa Chökyi Gyatso (Vར་མང་Wང་པ་༡༡་Aས་7་:་མ<་; 1939/40–1987), more commonly known as
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (Aས་:མ་Wང་པ་Yན་0་/་),6 while on retreat at the famed Bhutanese monastery of
Paro Taktsang (Z་[ོ་\ག་ཚང་) in 1968. Translated and introduced by Trungpa Rinpoche to his students
immediately upon his return to the United Kingdom (UK), the SOM was one of the first tantric liturgical
texts (Skt: sādhana; Tib: ?བ་ཐབས་) practiced in English in the Euro-American context and was a
foundational element of the Vajrayāna teachings and practices that Trungpa Rinpoche later taught.
Today, the SOM continues to be practiced globally in Shambhala Centers, associated Buddhist groups,
online practice communities, and by individual tantric practitioners (Skt. tāntrika/ māntrika; Tib. Pད་པ་
3
Ever since Edward Said’s Orientalism was published in 1978, it has become irresponsible to utilize terms such as ‘East’ and
‘West’ without acknowledging their constructed nature and historical configurations of power that generated and policed
these artificial categorizations. Nevertheless, these terms have remained in use, perhaps largely for their apparent utility in
describing vast groups of people and geographic areas. Acknowledging their use both by Trungpa Rinpoche and by many of his
studenst, I will continue to use these terms in this paper, albeit marked off for their problematic nature with quotes.
4
This paper will use the term ‘Vajrayāna Buddhism’ to refer broadly to the diverse traditions of teachings and practices
understood to have been introduced to areas of the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau in the 8th century by the Indian master
Padmasambhava and which have been subsequently been propagated and practiced across much of the Himalayas, the Tibetan
Plateau, as well as Central and Inner-Asia. I employ ‘Vajrayāna’ rather than ‘Tibetan’ Buddhism to acknowledge various
communities and peoples across this region (Sherpa, Manangi, Mustangi, Dolpopa, Tamang, Hyolmopa, Humli, Gurung, , Bhote,
Ladakhi, Drukpa, Sharchogpa, Mongol, Buryats, Kalmyks, etc.) who although largely share religious beliefs and numerous
cultural practices, may or may not self-identify as ‘Tibetan’ either by ethnicity or nationality. Even so, I acknowledge that even
my use in this sense is incomplete, as it excludes other Vajrayāna communities, such as the Newar Buddhists of the Kathmandu
Valley, as well as various Vajrayāna Buddhist schools in northeast India, China, Korea, and Japan.
5
According to the contemporary Nyingma (_ང་མ་) teacher Tulku Thondup (`ལ་a་4ན་8བ; 1939- ) Mind Treasure (དTངས་གUར་) is one of
three types of Treasure (གUར་མ་) objects prominent in the Nyingma school, the other two being Earth Treasures (ས་གUར་) and Pure
Vision (དག་bང་) Treasures. See Tulku Thondup, Hidden Teachings of Tibet: An Explanation of the Terma Tradition of the Nyingma School
of Buddhism, ed. Harold Talbot (London & Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1986, reprint edition 1997).
6
Trungpa Rinpoche’s full ordination name was བ\ན་འdན་eན་ལས་དཔལ་Iན་བཟང་0་
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/gགས་པ་). As a widely disseminated ritual practice that has not hitherto been studied at length, the SOM
is an important practice to examine to better understand how religious traditions move across space
and time through their translation and ritual enactment.
In this thesis, I approach religion and specific religious practices not as static entities, but as
dynamic processes of ongoing negotiation, evolution, and meaning-making that continue to be formed
in dialogue with the contemporary world. To use Thomas Tweed’s cartographic metaphor, religions
involve not only the establishment of roots and distinct identities, but also the crossing of boundaries
and movements through space and time. The religious, he writes, “are migrants as much as settlers, and
religions make sense of the nomadic as well as the sedentary in human life.”7 To study religious
transmission, therefore, is to investigate the numerous ways in which traditions, rituals, and knowledge
move across space and time and how these practices re-root themselves in novel contexts and form new
subjectivities among their populations. In examining the transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism, I pay
attention not only to how the SOM crosses geographical and cultural boundaries, but also to the ways it
is localized and takes root in new contexts.
Practitioners of the SOM generate and enter what Richard Davis calls the ritual universe of the
text,8 visualizing and positioning themselves within the realm of the wrathful central deity (Skt.
iṣṭadevatā; Tib. h་དམ་), Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi (Q་R་[ོ་iད་ཀk་་པl་). Like other Buddhist sādhana-s, the SOM
begins with the practices of going for refuge (aབས་m་འ[ོ་བ་) to the Three Jewels(དnན་མAག་གmམ་)9 and taking
7
Thomas Tweed, Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2006), 75.
Richard H. Davis, Worshiping Siva in Medieval India: Ritual in an Oscillating Universe, 2nd Indian ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,
2008), ix.
8
9
These are Skt. buddha dharma saṅgha; Tib. སངས་:ས་Aས་དo་འ>ན་
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the Bodhisattva vow (Dང་pབ་qམས་དཔ)་rམ་པ་), followed by a brief period of sitting meditation before
launching into the visualization practice. As practitioners generate and enter into the ritual universe of
the SOM, they begin with the outer environment and move to the innermost elements of the universe
occupied by the figure of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi. This universe is filled with figures of the Kagyü
(བཀའ་Pད་), Nyingma (_ང་མ་) and combined Ka-Nying (བཀའ་_ང་) schools of Vajrayāna Buddhism, including
various protector deities (Skt. dharmapāla; Tib. Aས་sང་), members of the Kagyü lineage, and the central
figure of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi himself. As practitioners step into the Ka-Nying Vajrayāna universe
of the SOM, they establish themselves in a deferential relationship to the figures and forces contained
therein. In visualizing these various figures and professing their devotion to them, practitioners train
themselves to become subjects disillusioned with the degraded state of the mundane world who
supplicate Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi and other figures for help in overcoming material and
psychological obscurations.
Revealed at a pivotal time, shortly after the onset of the Cultural Revolution (Chin.;
Tib. Yག་གནས་གསར་བR་/ན་0་) in the People’s Republic of China, the SOM is an important ritual practice for
understanding the transnational transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism. Most notably, the SOM is an
example of a contemporary Treasure text (གUར་མ་) that is explicitly transnational in orientation, having
been revealed as a result of Trungpa Rinpoche’s supplications to Padmasambhava and his lineage
teachers guidance in how to transmit Vajrayāna Buddhism into a geography where it had not hitherto
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been established, to historically non-Buddhist peoples, and in the English language.10 According to his
wife, Diana Mukpo, while Trungpa Rinpoche had previously revealed Treasures in Tibet, the SOM was
the first Treasure that he revealed after fleeing Tibet in 1959.11 Moreover, the SOM emerged at a critical
juncture when Trungpa Rinpoche was especially concerned with how teach the buddhadharma to
students in the ‘West’ and was one of the earliest sādhana-s that he introduced to his Euro-American
Buddhist students. Consequently, the SOM became the text through which many students were first
introduced to Vajrayāna Buddhist practice. As Trungpa Rinpoche’s organization, Vajradhatu
International, expanded and new Dharmadhatu centers12 were founded across the UK and the United
States (US), the SOM became a foundational practice among practitioners in many of these locales.
The SOM is also a notable example of a Ka-Nying sādhana that seamlessly interweaves the
distinct mahāmudrā (Bག་:་/ན་0་) teachings of the Kagyü school with the mahāati (Hགས་པ་/ན་0་) teachings of
the Nyingma. The union of these two traditions is most uniquely embodied in the central deity of the
SOM who combines the two figures of the wrathful manifestation of Padmasambhava (Tib. པt་འuང་གནས་),13
Dorje Drolö (Q་R་[ོ་iད་) and the Second Karmapa (ཀk་པ་), Karma Pakshi (ཀk་པ་པl་; 1204-1283). As practitioners
enact the creation stage (Skt: utpattikrama Tib: བvད་པ)་Yམ་པ་ of the SOM and enter the ritual universe of
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 4th ed. (Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2010), 253-254. More will be
said on the revelation of the SOM below, in the second section.
11
Diana J. Mukpo and Carolyn R. Gimian, Dragon Thunder: My Life with Chögyam Trungpa (Boston and London: Shambhala
Publications, 2006), 9.
12
The original name for Trungpa Rinpoche’s organization was Vajradhatu International and its various centers were each titled
Dharmadhatus. While there was a gradual change in names, it was not until 2000 that Trungpa Rinpoche’s son, Sakyong
10
Mipham Rinpoche (ས་sང་w་ཕམ་Yན་0་/་; b. 1962), officially changed the name of the overall organization to Shambhala International
and to the individual centers as Shambhala Centers.
13
While the literal translation of Padmasambhava in Tibetan is པt་འuང་གནས་, he is also commonly referred to across Tibet and the
Himalayas by the epithet ‘Guru Rinpoche’ (y་z་Yན་0་/་), meaning ‘Precious teacher.’
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the sādhana, they simultaneously enter a realm where the distinction between these two Buddhist
schools and their teachings overlap and augment one another. Thus, the SOM not only inducts
practitioners into the Ka-Nying ritual universe of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi, but more broadly into the
Ka-Nying Vajrayāna Buddhism that Trungpa Rinpoche inherited and presented.
In addition, the SOM is distinctive within the context of Vajrayāna Buddhism’s transnational
transmission in that although originally written in Tibetan, it has been almost exclusively practiced in
English since its revelation. Indeed, the SOM is one of, if not the earliest Vajrayāna Buddhist practice to
have been widely propagated and practiced in English. Even when some of Trungpa Rinpoche’s students
were later competent enough in Tibetan to probe the completeness of the initial translation by Trungpa
Rinpoche and his non-Tibetan speaking secretary Kunga Dawa (Richard Arthure; b. 1940), Trungpa
Rinpoche refused to allow major revisions of the English practice version due to the special ‘termalike’
quality of the translation.14 Indeed, the unique quality of the English practice text has been recognized
by several other Tibetan teachers, one of whom referred to it as the “absolute best translation” because
it completely transferred the meaning of the original into a new language and context.15
Thus, the SOM stands as an important multilingual Treasure text that played a significant role in
the initial and subsequent transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism to Europe and North America.
Nevertheless, prior to this project, the SOM’s role in the transmission process has not been the subject of
any detailed academic inquiry. Consequently, this thesis aims to address this lacuna through a critical
14
Larry Mermelstein, “Introduction,” in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans. and ed. The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā:
Resources for Study, (Halifax, NS: Vajravairochana Translation Committee, 2012), ix-xv.
15
Ringu Tulku, personal communication with the author, November 11, 2015.
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examination of this text and its translation, historical context, author, and role in the early
transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism. I argue that the selectively-domesticating translation of the SOM
served as a strategic means of conveying key Vajrayāna ontological, hierarchical, and soteriological
truth-claims in language that connected with a counter-cultural subset of Euro-North American society
and which enabled them to enact and through enacting become subjects of the Vajrayāna universe of
the text. Following ritual theorists such as William Sax who discusses ritual as an “especially powerful
means for creating (and sometimes undermining) selves, relationships and communities,”17 I analyze
how the iterative performance of the SOM and the process of generating and entering its ritual universe
serves as a technology of inducting and disciplining Vajrayāna subjectivities, I process I refer to as
‘Vajrayāna subject-making.’
Through the process of enacting, a verb that Ronald Grimes employs to set ritual action apart
from mere ‘playing’ or ‘acting,’18 practitioners generate the ritual universe of a liturgical text like the
SOM and are simultaneously inducted as subjects of it. As Glenn Wallis writes in his study of the
Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, Vajrayāna liturgical practices not only present “a vision of a transformed person,”
but also serve as guides for individuals to undertake the transformation into said literary subject.19 As
such, through the iterative enactment of a prescribed subjectivity embedded within a ritual text,
practitioners train themselves to embody the ontological and soteriological truth-claims of that
universe. In other words, through enacting Vajrayāna rituals, such as the SOM, individuals come to
17
William Sax, Dancing the Self: Personhood and Performance in the Pāṇḍav līlā of Garhwal (Oxford and New York: Oxford University
Press, 2002), 12.
18
Ronald L. Grimes, The Craft of Ritual Studies (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 196.
19
Glen Wallis, Mediating the Power of Buddhas: Ritual in the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2002), 157.
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connect with the wretchedness of their current state and develop devotion toward the lineage, the
Three Jewels, and the Three Roots ({་བ་གmམ་).20 Above all, practitioners train themselves to view the
Vajrayāna teacher (Skt. guru; Tib. |་མ་) as the source of teachings, blessings, and realization. Thus,
through the “apt performance” of Vajrayāna rituals, to use the language of anthropologist of religion
Talal Asad,21 I argue that ritual performance is a means to discipline practitioners to embody and master
a Vajrayāna subjectivity. Thus, I examine the SOM as a translation of words and worlds, the enactment of
which led to the making of some of the ‘West’s’ earliest Vajrayāna subjects.
Questions pursued in this thesis are: (1) What does the ritual universe created in the SOM look
like and how does this practice serve as a technology of religious transmission? and (2) What type of
Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects are formed through the enactment of the SOM create? More broadly, I ask
(3) How does the strategic translation of words and worlds facilitate the transmission of Vajrayāna
Buddhism? and (4) What role does ritual enactment play in the broader process of religious
transmission? By examining these questions, I aim to contribute to conversations on the topic of
translation and transmission that have inspired the 2014 and 2017 Tsadra Translation and Transmission
Conferences. Moreover, through a close examination of ritual practice as a technology of subject-
20
In the Nyingma school the Three Roots are comprised of the Teacher (Skt. guru; Tib. |་མ་), the Tutelary Deity, and the Sky-
Goers (Skt. ḍākinī; Tib. མཁའ་འ[ོ་མ་). The Outer Refuge is Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. In the Nyingma, these there is also the Secret
refuge of the channels (Skt. nāḍi; Tib. {་), wind (Skt. prāṇa ; Tib. ~ང་), and drops (Skt. bindu; Tib. ཐིག་Ä་), and the ultimate refuge
which are manifestations of the Three Kayās (Å་གmམ་), dharmakāya (Aས་Å་), sambogakāya (iངས་Å་), and nirmanakāya (`ལ་Å་).
Talal Asad, Geneologies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam (Baltimore and London: John Hopkins
University Press, 1993), 62.
21
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making and the transmission of Vajrayāna traditions, I hope to contribute to an emergent body of
literature on the contemporary, global transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism.22
From an emic perspective, especially within the Nyingma school, the Treasure tradition (གUར་
Çགས་) is one technology of religious transmission, an important method for the movement of the
buddhadharma into new spaces and times in ways that are uniquely pertinent for them while still being
firmly rooted in the past.23 Treasures, such as the SOM, are understood to have been hidden at various
places, both physical and immaterial in the mindstream of Treasure revealers (གUར་Éན་), by
Padmasambhava so that they could later be revealed at appropriate times to benefit beings in a specific
22
With few exceptions, most studies on the transmission of Buddhism to North America remain focused on the narrative
histories of religious groups, rather than examinations of specific religious practices and the role these play in the process of
transmission. On Buddhism in America see: Abraham Zablocki, “Transnational Tulkus: The Globalization of Tibetan Buddhist
Reincarnation,” in TransBuddhism: Transmission, Translation, Transformation, ed. Nalini Bhushan, Jay L. Garfield, and Abraham
Zablocki (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009), 43-53; Amelia Hall, “Revelations of a Modern Mystic: The Life
and Legacy of Kun bzang bde chen gling pa 1928-2006,“ (PhD diss., University of Oxford, 2012); Charles S. Prebish, Luminous
Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999); Charles S. Prebish and
Kenneth K. Tanaka, ed. The Faces of Buddhism in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998); Charles S. Prebish and
Martin Baumann, ed. Westward Dharma: Buddhism beyond Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002); Emma Layman,
Buddhism in America (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1976); Jeffery Paine, Re-Enchantment: Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West (New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 2004); Mariana Restrepo, “Transmission, Legitimation, and Adaptation: A Study of Western Lamas in
the Construction of ‘American Tibetan Buddhism,’” (Phd diss., Florida International University, 2012); Martin Baumann, “The
Dharma Has Come West: A Survey of Recent Studies and Sources.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 4 (1997); Paul David Numrich,
ed. North American Buddhists in Social Context (Leiden: Brill, 2008); Richard Hughes Seager, Buddhism in America (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1999); Rick Fields, How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, 3rd ed.
(Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 1992); Scott A. Mitchell, Buddhism in America: Global Religion, Local Contexts (London
and New York: Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2016; Scott A. Mitchell and Natalie E.F. Quili, Buddhism Beyond Borders: New
Perspectives on Buddhism in the United States (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2015); Stephen Batchelor, The
Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1994). For a recent examination of
ritual practice in the context of Vajrayāna transmission, see Rachael Stevens, “Red Tārā: Lineages of Literature and Practice,”
(Phd diss., University of Oxford, 2010).
23
For more on the Treasure tradition in general, see: Andreas Doctor, The Tibetan Treasure Literature: Revelation, Tradition, and
Accomplishment in Visionary Buddhism (Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 2005); Janet Gyatso, “Drawn from the Tibetan
Treasury: The gTer ma Literature,” in Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, ed. José Ignacio Cabezón and Roger Reid Jackson, (Ithaca,
New York: Snow Lion Publications, 1996): 147-169; Janet Gyatso, “The Logic of Legitimation in the Tibetan Treasure Tradition,”
History of Religions 33, no. 2 (1993): 97-134; “Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, Hidden Teachings of Tibet: An Explanation of the Terma
Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
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context.24 As Tulku Thondup writes, “it is beneficial for various types of Terma [Treasures] to be
discovered at different periods to suit the mental desires, needs, and capacities of people born in these
times.”25 In this way, Treasures are unique types of translations, not merely in the colloquial sense of the
term, expressing the sense of a text or speech from one language in another, but in the etymological
sense of the Latin word trans-ferre, meaning to carry or to bring across. Such translations contribute to the
broader process of transmission or the sending across (Latin: trans-mittere) of ontological, soteriological,
and cosmological understandings.
Nevertheless, as Jay Garfield points out, to translate is inextricable from its etymological relative
to transform (Latin: transformare), meaning to change in shape or form, and every translation is in many
ways a transformation of the original text.26 As translators go about their work, they must interpret and
replace terms in the original language with other phrases in the target language, make clear some
ambiguous terms and introduce new ambiguities, offer interpretations based upon their own
experiences, understandings, and fidelities, and shift the context in which a text is read. Thus, Garfield
rightly concludes, “no text survives this transformation unscathed,” in that every translation is
essentially a re-interpretation of a text by an individual or team of translators.27 Similarly, I would
argue, Treasure revealers, such as Trungpa Rinpoche, serve as translators who actively carry the
teachings, practices, and ontological outlook of the buddhadharma across spaces and times, transforming
24
While Padmasambhava is named the most common source of Treasures, he is by no means the only figure understood to
have locked teachings away to be revealed later. See Gyatso, “The Logic of Legitimation in the Tibetan Treasure Tradition,” 98.
25
Tulku Thondup, Hidden Teachings of Tibet, 63.
26
Jay Garfield, “Translation as Transmission and Transformation,” in TransBuddhism: Transmission, Translation, Transformation,
ed. Nalini Bhushan, Jay L. Garfield, and Abraham Zablocki (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009), 94-98.
27
Ibid., 94.
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the content in ways that enable its transmission into new circumstances. As Garfield further notes, any
project of textual translation is deeply implicated in the broader process of religious transmission once
it becomes a part of individuals’ religious practices.28
In this thesis, I closely examine a translator, Trungpa Rinpoche, and a translation of a Treasure
text, the SOM, to illustrate the transformation of Vajrayāna Buddhism within the broader process of the
transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism into ‘Western’ contexts. Since that the SOM emerged at a pivotal
moment for Trungpa Rinpoche as he re-evaluated how to best teach the buddhadharma in the ‘West,’29 I
argue that his translation is representative of Trungpa Rinpoche’s approach of connecting Buddhist
teachings and practices to the context in which they were presented. In creating a partially
domesticated translation of the SOM for practice among his students in the ‘West,’ Trungpa Rinpoche
strategically localized aspects of the SOM and presents a Vajrayāna universe in a language that ‘Western’
students can relate to. In doing so, however, the SOM does not compromise the Vajrayāna to ‘fit’ the
‘Western’ context but demands students enter the foreign Vajrayāna ritual universe prescribed within
the text. As such, I argue that the SOM was a skillful method to introduce and induct ‘Western,’ largely
North Ameican, non-Buddhist students into the Vajrayāna through an iterative process of ritual
enactment and training in a subjectivity depicted in the ritual universe of the text. As such, I conclude
that the SOM prepared the ground for the later teachings that Trungpa Rinpoche would introduce to his
students.
In the first section of this paper, “Transformation,” I examine Trungpa Rinpoche as a translator,
28
29
Ibid., 93.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 253-254. More will be said on the revelation of the SOM in the second section.
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a Buddhist teacher who carried his knowledge, writings, and practice across into a new context and
conveyed them in a unique and contextualized way to his students. I present a brief overview of
Trungpa Rinpoche’s religious and secular education and training in Tibet as well as in India and the UK
to highlight the context he came from as well as his role as a translator of the Vajrayāna. I stress here
Trungpa Rinpoche’s Ka-Nying training, studies at Oxford, and early immersion in ‘Western’ culture and
teaching Buddhism in the UK. In doing so, I highlight Trungpa Rinpoche’s autobiography,30 Born in Tibet,
which depicts his early attempts to introduce the buddhadharma into the ‘Western’ context and his
desire to find a method to translate the Buddhist teachings in ways that befit this setting to underscore
the circumstances of the SOM’s genesis.
Further, I discuss the revelation and translation of the SOM while Trungpa Rinpoche was on
retreat in Bhutan in order to contextualize its revelation and place in Trungpa Rinpoche’s presentation
of the buddhadharma. Following Lopez’ work on the biography of the Tibetan Book of the Dead,31 I examine
the textual-biography of SOM to illustrate how it is presented as a timely revelation, uniquely suited to
the context for which it was revealed, potent with the energy of spiritual renewal and the blessings of
Padmasambhava. To do this, I utilize three accounts from Trungpa Rinpoche as well as personal
communications with close students of Trungpa Rinpoche, practice instructions, as well as written and
video testimony that detail the revelation and translation of the SOM.32 Through these, I argue that the
30
First published in 1966 only three years after Trungpa Rinpoche arrived in the UK, this book was his first work in English.
Although largely written by Esmé Cramer Roberts based upon Trungpa Rinpoche’s recollections, it was one of the first
biographical works in English that included detailed accounts of the life and training of a Vajrayāna reincarnate teacher.
31
Donald Lopez Jr., The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2011).
32
These sources include Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet; Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom:
Teachings on the Sadhana of Mahamudra (Halifax, NS: Vajradhatu Publications, 2015); Jeremy Hayward, Warrior King of Shambhala:
Remembering Chögyam Trungpa, (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008); Jim Lowrey, Taming Untameable Beings: Early Stories of
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revelation and initial translation of the SOM resulted in an English language practice text that localized
Vajrayāna within specific concerns of the ‘Western,’ and especially American counter-culture, like
materialism, but which also drew practitioners in as subjects of the foreign, Ka-Nying universe of the
text.
In the second section, “Translation,” I examine through a close study of Tibetan and English
versions of the SOM, how the text works to translate both words and worlds. As mentioned above, the
Treasure tradition is understood, within the Nyingma school especially, as a technology through which
transmission or the sending of teachings and practices across space and time, occurs. Although such
teachings are firmly grounded in what Buddhist studies scholar Holly Gayley has called an ‘ontology of
the past,’ whereby an idealized past continues to manifest and have an enduring presence in the
present through Treasure revelation,33 Treasures are also conceived of as being uniquely situated for
the contexts they are uncovered within. This is true for the SOM, which was revealed and translated
especially for its use in the English-speaking, Euro-North American context. The translation of the SOM
also raises issues made in translation studies by Friedrich Schleiermacher34 and Lawrence Venuti,35 who
describe the act of translation as either serving to bring readers to a text (foreignization) or a text to its
readers (domestication). Here, I argue that the SOM functions as a partially-domesticating translation, as
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche with the Pygmies and Other Hippies (San Bernardino, CA: Blue Horse Publications, 2015); Mukpo and.
Gimian, Dragon Thunder; Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans. and ed. The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā: Resources for Study,
(Halifax, NS: Vajravairochana Translation Committee, 2012; as well as personal communications with Frank Berliner, Barry
Boyce, Kunga Dawa, and Derek Kolleeny.
33
Holly Gayley, “Ontology of the Past and its Materialization in Tibetan Treasures,” in The Invention of Sacred Tradition, ed. James
R. Lewis and Olav Hammer (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 215.
34
Friedrich Schleiermacher, “Über die verschiedenen Methoden des Übersetzers,” in Das Problem des Übersetzens, ed. Hans
Joachim Störig, 2nd ed. (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1963), 38-70.
35
Lawrence Venuti, The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2008).
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it adapts certain aspects of the Tibetan text to the intended context of its use. By closely examining
Trungpa Rinpoche’s textual translation of the SOM, I illustrate several key changes in words at the
textual level, such as incorporating the idea of materialism and the psychologization of physical forces,
to reveal how these choices evoke the ritual universe of the SOM in language resonant with EuroAmerican practitioners in the counter-cultural era.
Buddhologist Peter Della Santina argues that the translation of Buddhist texts is, “essentially
and generally [a] reinterpretation of terms and concepts within a new cultural milieu.”36 While I agree
that Trungpa Rinpoche translated diverse ontological understandings into new contexts in ways that
were resonant with their intended audiences, I also challenge Della Santana’s unidirectional view of
translation. Indeed, as Garfield has pointed out, the transmission of Buddhism is, “very much a two-way
street”37 that involves not only teachers presenting practices and teachings uniquely suited for specific
contexts, but also demanding that their students accept certain ontological truth-claims of the source
tradition. In this way, I argue that the strategic domestication of the SOM’s translation is a way of
skillfully drawing ‘Western’ practitioners into the foreign ritual universe of the SOM.
The final section of this paper, “Transmission,” examines the foreign aspects of the ritual
universe of the SOM in the context of Vajrayāna subject-making. Here, I discuss Vajrayāna subjectmaking through the creation stage of tantric visualization practice and argue that by entering the ritual
universe invoked in the SOM, individuals are simultaneously trained to embody certain cosmological,
36
Peter Della Santina, “Liberation and Language: The Buddha-dharma in Translation,” in Buddhist Translations: Problems and
Perspectives, ed. Doboom Tulku (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 1995), 97.
37
Garfield, “Translation as Transmission and Transformation,” 90.
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ontological, and soteriological truth-claims of its ritual universe. Although selectively-domesticated on
a textual level, I argue ultimately that the SOM demands that practitioners enter a prescribed foreign
space and set of relations within the ritual universe of the SOM. This, I claim, is especially the case as it
pertains to Vajrayāna understandings of hierarchy, devotion, and the role of the teacher and the lineage
(Skt. paraṃparā; Tib. བPད་པ་). Through examining the ritual universe that practitioners invoke, embody,
and inhabit during the creation stage and the devotional supplication of the SOM, I argue that
practitioners induct and train themselves in a subjectivity prescribed within the text through an
iterative process of enacting that subjectivity. Moreover, I argue that practitioners train themselves to
become subjects not only of the Vajrayāna universe embedded within the text but of the social world
outside of the text as well. In this way, by training in the hierarchy of the ritual universe of the SOM,
practitioners also develop an understanding of hierarchy and of the centrality of the Vajrayāna teacher
in their broader religious community outside of ritual. This served as a key foundation in the emergence
of Vajrayāna communities in North American during the early 1970s.
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II. Transformation: Trungpa Rinpoche and the Treasure tradition in the ‘West’
When Trungpa Rinpoche arrived in the UK in 1963, he was one of only a small number of
Tibetan religious teachers who had left Asia and established Buddhist study and practice centers in the
‘West.’38 Even among these, Trungpa Rinpoche was the first who taught the buddhadharma in English
and took an active role in translating Vajrayāna terms and practices into English. In this section, I
discuss Trungpa Rinpoche’s Ka-Nying religious training in Tibet, as well as his early encounter with the
‘West’ to contextualize the revelation of the SOM within Trungpa Rinpoche’s background and efforts to
find a method to transmit the buddhadharma in a new context.
Moreover, I discuss the importance of Trungpa Rinpoche’s meetings with two of his teachers,
the Sixteenth Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpé Dorje (ཀk་མ་པ་༡༦་པ་རང་uང་Yག་པ)་Q་R་; 1924-1981) and Dilgo Khyentse
Rinpoche (Öལ་མT་མÜན་བá་Yན་0་/་; 1910-1991) during his return to India in 1968 and how these figures
influenced the revelation of the SOM. To do so, I draw upon Trungpa Rinpoche’s recollections in his
autobiography, Born in Tibet,39 as well a December 1975 seminar given by Trungpa Rinpoche, which was
later published in the work The Mishap Lineage.40 Finally, for discussions on the historical circumstances
of the SOM’s revelation, I draw upon two accounts given by Trungpa Rinpoche in seminars in 1975, later
38
At the time of Trungpa Rinpoche’s subsequent arrival in 1970 in the US, there were few established Vajrayāna centers. Most
notable among these were that of the Kalmyk Geshe Ngawang Wangyal (དo་àས་ངག་དབང་དབང་:ལ་; 1901-1983) who set up a monastery
in Washington, NJ in 1958, Dezhung Rinpoche (â་གEང་Yན་0་/་; 1906-1987) who had emigrated to Seattle, WA in 1960, and Tartang
Tulku (དར་ཐང་`ལ་Å; b. 1934) who established a center in Berkeley, CA in 1969. For more information on early Vajrayāna Buddhist
groups in North America, see Rick Fields, How the Swans Came to the Lake, 273-303.
39
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 23-29.
40
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Mishap Lineage: Transforming Confusion into Wisdom. ed. Carolyn Rose Gimian (Boston and
London: Shambhala Publications, 2009).
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republished in the volume Devotion & Crazy Wisdom,41 as well as several accounts from Trungpa
Rinpoche’s student and then-secretary, Kunga Dawa, who accompanied him during this journey.
Trungpa Rinpoche was born in 1939/194042 in a small village in the then-kingdom of Nangchen
(ནང་/ན་) in the eastern Tibetan region of Kham (ཁམས་), in the south of present-day Qinghai province (
). Following the death of the Tenth Trungpa Rinpoche, Karma Chökyi Nyinche (ཀk་Aས་7་äན་/་; 18791939), the leader of the Karma Kagyu (ཀk་བཀའ་བPད་) sub-school of Vajrayāna Buddhism, the Sixteenth
Karmapa, revealed to students of the Tenth Trungpa Rinpoche the location and family of his
reincarnation in two prediction letters. Following these instructions, a group of monks from the Tenth
Trungpa Rinpoche’s monastery, Surmang Dütsi Til (Vར་མང་བ>ད་ã་མཐིལ་), located the suspected reincarnation
of their teacher. After a series of confirmation tests, identifying objects belonging to his predecessor,
the identity of the Eleventh Trungpa Rinpoche was confirmed. He was enthroned at thirteen months of
age by the Sixteenth Karmapa at the monastery of Surmang Namgyal-tse (Vར་མང་åམ་:ལ་á).43
During his youth, Trungpa Rinpoche underwent rigorous training in ritual practice, philosophy,
the arts, and meditation pertaining to his status as a reincarnate teacher (`ལ་Å་). While I will not repeat
what Trungpa Rinpoche has already said about his education in Tibet,44 it is important to stress here his
training in both the Kagyü and Nyingma schools of Vajrayāna Buddhism. Although himself a Kagyü
41
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom.
As Trungpa Rinpoche’s long-time editor, Carolyn Rose Gimian, notes in the introduction to the first volume of his collected
works, there is some confusion over Trungpa Rinpoche’s precise date of birth. Born in Tibet lists his birthdate as the full moon of
the first month of the Earth Hare year (1939), whereas other sources suggest that he was born in the year of the Iron Dragon
(1940). For more discussion, see: Carolyn Rose Gimian, “Introduction,” in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Collected Works of
Chögyam Trungpa: Volume One, ed. Carolyn Rose Gimian (Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2003), xxi.
43
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 23-29.
44
For more details on Trungpa Rinpoche’s education and early life in Tibet, see Born in Tibet, particularly chapters 1 through 10.
42
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reincarnate teacher, Trungpa Rinpoche had profound respect for his root teachers (Tib. {་བ)་|་མ་),
Jamgön Kongtrül of Shechen (C་/ན་nང་`ལ་པt་ç་éད་Äགས་པ)་è་[ོས་; 1901-c. 1960), whom Trungpa Rinpoche
called his “spiritual father,”45 and Khenpo Gangshar (མཁན་0་གང་ཤར་དབང་0་; 1925- ?), 46 both of whom were
Nyingma teachers. Among Trungpa Rinpoche’s other teachers were the Surmang Kagyü monks Asang
Lama (པ་སངས་|་མ་), Apho Karma (ཨ་í་ཀk་), and Rölpé Dorje Rinpoche (ìལ་པ)་Q་R་Yན་0་/་), as well as other
Nyingma and Kagyü masters, such as Jamgön Kongtrol of Palpung (ཀར་îས་nང་`ལ་Yན་0་/་; 1904-1952), Dilgo
Khyentse Rinpoche, and the Sixteenth Karmapa. Studying with these teachers, Trungpa Rinpoche
mastered multiple approaches to practicing the Vajrayāna, including the Nyingma dzogchen (Skt.
mahāsaṅdhi/atiyoga; Tib. Hགས་པ་/ན་0་) and Kagyü mahāmudrā (Tib.Bག་:་/ན་0་) teachings. He would later
incorporate and interweave these approaches in his presentation of Buddhism in the ‘West.’
Some, including Trungpa Rinpoche’s own organization, Shambhala International,48 and the
recently formed Ri-mé Society,49 often identify Trungpa Rinpoche’s approach with the so-called ‘nonsectarian’ or ‘ri-mé’ (ïག་Yས་éད་པ་) outlook, grounded in the work of the nineteenth century masters
45
Chögyam Trungpa, Born in Tibet, 50.
Khenpo Gangshar Wangpo was a very unconventional teacher and yogin. The heart son of Jamgön Kongtrül of Shechen, he
later became a respected teacher who greatly influenced Trungpa Rinpoche, as well as other important teachers in the second
46
half of the 20th century, including Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (མཁན་/ན་ñ་འy་Yན་0་/་; b. 1933), Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (`ལ་a་ó་:ན་
Yན་0་/་; 1920-1996), and Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche (མཁན་0་ཀk་ཐར་"ན་Yན་0་/་; b. 1924). While not much was written about him outside
of Trungpa Rinpoche’s reflections in Born in Tibet, recently there have been flurry of teachings and publications, particularly at
the behest of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, including Khenpo Gangshar’s collected works, which were published in 2008. See:
gang shar dbang po, mkhan chen rdo rje ‘dzin po kun bzang gang shar rang grol dbang po’i gsung ‘bum thar pa’i lam ston zhes bya ba
bzhugs so, TBRC W2CZ6597, 1 vol (Kathmandu: Thrangu Tashi Choling, 2008), accessed 20 February 2017. http://tbrc.org/link?
RID=W2CZ6597; Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar, trans. and ed. David
Karma Choephel (Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2011); Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, Naturally Liberating
Whatever You meet, trans. David Karma Choephel (Vajra Echoes: 2007), DVD; Khenpo Gangshar, “Khenpo Gangshar Series,”
Lotsawa House, accessed 20 February 2017, http://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/khenpo-gangshar/.
48
“Chögyam Trungpa,” Shambhala International, accessed 28 March 2017, https://shambhala.org/teachers/chogyam-trungpa/.
49
“Introduction to Ri-mé Society,” Ri-mé Society, accessed 20 February 2017, https://www.rimesociety.org/.
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Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (འཇམ་དDངས་མÜན་བá)་དབང་0་; 1820-1892) and Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye (འཇམ་
མTན་nང་`ལ་è་[ོས་མཐའ་ཡས་; 1813-1900). These groups describe non-sectarianism as a movement which
founded a new ecumenical presentation of Vajrayāna Buddhism that transcended sectarian divisions
and presented teachings equally from across all schools of Vajrayāna Buddhism. The Ri-mé Society, for
example, specifically dubs Trungpa Rinpoche “a consummate Ri-mé master of the Buddhist teachings”
due to his skillful manner of “presenting the core of Buddhism” through a variety of methods.50
Elsewhere, Shambhala International describes Trungpa Rinpoche as an adherent of non-sectarianism,
who “aspired to bring together and make available all the valuable teachings of the different schools,
free of sectarian rivalry.”51 No doubt Trungpa Rinpoche was profoundly inspired and impacted by the
legacies of by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgön Kongtrül as many of his region and generation
were, yet in the SOM text what comes to the fore is more of a Ka-Nying orientation, i.e. the synthesis of
the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions.
As Ringu Tulku (Y་མyལ་`ལ་Å་; b. 1952) describes, Jamgön Kongtrül and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo
did not form a break-off group that advocated a synthetic approach to the buddhadharma by merging
previous teachings.52 Rather, they were primarily concerned that many Vajrayāna teachings and
lineages were in danger of disappearing and so attempted to gather, compile, publish, and transmit
teachings from across the Eight Practice Lineages (?བ་བPད་Kང་L་/ན་ö་བ:ད་)53 in a way that provided an
50
“Introduction to Ri-mé Society-Celebrating the Living Dharma.”
“Chögyam Trungpa.”
52
Ringu Tulku, The Ri-me Philosophy of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great: A Study of the Buddhist Lineages of Tibet, ed. Ann Helm, (Boston and
London: Shambhala Publications, 2006), 2.
53
The Eight Practice Lineages refer to the eight principal traditions of Vajrayāna study and practice that are understood to have
51
been transmitted from India to Tibet during the periods of old and new periods of transmission (g་དར་དང་"་དར་) from the seventh
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“appreciation of their differences and an acknowledgement of the importance of variety to benefit
practitioners of different needs.”54 From this point of view, non-sectarianism was not so much about
creating a novel syncretic approach to Vajrayāna practice or a grab-bag of each tradition’s ‘greatest
hits,’ as it was about gathering and preserving the Vajrayāna’s diverse practice traditions. When seen in
this light, non-sectarianism reveals itself not to be an original idea or movement as much as a sensibility
that appreciates the richness of diverse Vajrayāna traditions.
Trungpa Rinpoche’s monastic training was profoundly impacted by followers of Jamgön
Kongtrül and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo’s non-sectarian approach to study and practice. His
predecessor, the Tenth Trungpa Rinpoche, was a direct student of Jamgön Kongtrül55 and later went on
to be a teacher of many of Trungpa Rinpoche’s own teachers, including his root teacher Jamgön
Kongtrül of Shechen, Jamgön Kongtrül of Palpung, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Indeed, these three
figures were themselves direct reincarnations of Jamgön Kongtrül and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, and
so Trungpa Rinpoche was trained by direct spiritual descendants of these nineteenth century nonsectarian masters. Trungpa Rinpoche described how his root teacher, Jamgön Kongtrül of Shechen
advocated a non-sectarian outlook, noting that he often told Trungpa Rinpoche “that we must make
great efforts to overcome any divisions among the followers of Buddhism and how very important this
was at the present time, if we hoped to protect ourselves from the destructive influence of materialism
through the fourteen centuries CE. These practice lineages are: Nyingma (_ང་མ་), Kadampa (བཀའ་གདམས་པ་), Lamdré (ལམ་འõས་), Marpa
Kagyü (úར་པ་བཀའ་བPད་), Shangpa Kagyü (ཤངས་པ་བཀའ་བPད་), Shijé/Chö (ù་ûདདང་གüད་), The Six Branches of Union (†ར་Wག་), and the
Approach and Accomplishment of the Three Vajras (ó་:ན་བ°ན་བPད་). For an overview of the Eight Practice Lineages, see: Ringu
Tulku, The Ri-me Philosophy of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great, 97-192.
54
Ringu Tulku, The Ri-me Philosophy of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great, 3
55
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Mishap Lineage, 54-55.
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and communism.”56 Referencing such lines, some maintain that Trungpa Rinpoche inherited this mantle
and was himself a consummate non-sectarian teacher.
Nevertheless, with respect to the SOM, I would suggest that it is more accurate to characterize
Trungpa Rinpoche as manifesting a Ka-Nying orientation rather than a non-sectarian one. Trungpa
Rinpoche’s principal teachers were from the Kagyü and Nyingma schools and he spoke of his lineage
primarily in terms of Kagyü antecedents. Moreover, in some texts, we see lines that disparage other
traditions. For example, the opening lines of the SOM depict the Bön (¢ན་)57 tradition in a pejorative light,
as mainly aiming to corrupt the Vajrayāna. In other sources, there is also little homage paid to teachings
from other schools of Tibetan Buddhism (e.g. Sakya/ས་a་, Gelug/དo་Çགས་, Jonang/£་ནང་, etc.). Thus,
although Trungpa Rinpoche crossed some sectarian divides, he certainly did not openly flaunt all of
them. Trungpa Rinpoche’s Ka-Nying training in Tibet, however, clearly had a profound impact upon
him and manifests throughout his corpus of teachings. This, as we shall see below, was first manifest in
the ‘West’ embedded within the SOM.
After the invasion of Kham by the People’s Liberation Army in the early 1950s and increasing
conflict around his home monastery, Trungpa Rinpoche fled Tibet for India on April 23rd, 1959. After a
harrowing journey of more than six months on foot, he arrived on January 17th, 1960 with only a few
dozen members of his original party of several hundred.58 From 1960 until 1963, Trungpa Rinpoche
56
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 118.
Commonly called the ‘pre-Buddhist’ religion of Tibet, Bön is often used pejoratively as a rhetorical scapegoat in Vajrayāna
texts to describe things ‘non-Buddhist,’ and therefore heretical, invalid, and/or harmful.
58
For an autobiographical account of Trungpa Rinpoche’s escape from Tibet to India, see Born in Tibet chapters 10-19. For an
account written more than half a century after Trungpa Rinpoche’s escape, also see Grant MacLean’s book From Lion’s Jaws:
Chögyam Trungpa’s Escape to the West (Mountain: 2016). For high quality maps, interactive simulations, and an accompanying
film entitled Touch and Go (2011), see also the accompanying website: www.fromlionsjaws.ca, accessed 17 March 2017.
57
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stayed in India as a principal of the Young Lama’s Home School in Dalhousie alongside his fellow Kagyü
teacher, Akong Rinpoche (ཨ་དnན་Yན་0་/་; 1939-2013), who served as the school’s administrator. In 1963,
however, after a sectarian power-struggle between the two Kagyü Rinpoches and the Gelug-dominated
Central Tibetan Administration, Trungpa Rinpoche and Akong Rinpoche were removed from their
positions at the school in favor of Gelug monks.59 Shortly thereafter, with the help of sympathetic
British and American backers, Trungpa Rinpoche secured a Spaulding Fellowship to study comparative
religion at Oxford University. Leaving India with Akong Rinpoche in February of 1963, it was a time of
both intense excitement and anticipation for Trungpa Rinpoche and the last time he would be in Asia
for five years.
At Oxford, Trungpa Rinpoche studied comparative religion, fine arts, philosophy, and
psychology, and reports to have immensely enjoyed his studies despite initial struggles with the English
language.60 In addition to his exposure to European philosophy and Christianity, Trungpa Rinpoche
recalls how he developed a deeper understanding and appreciation of Euro-North American history and
culture while immersed in a ‘Western’ context. “Arriving at Oxford was a moving experience,” he notes,
“coming from Tibet and India, one’s perception of the West was of a stark modern realm, but it turned
out to have its own dignified culture, which I began to appreciate while living and studying at Oxford.”61
These formative years studying English and trying to understand of ‘Western’ culture were, in many
ways, the basis for Trungpa Rinpoche’s ability to connect with his students during his later work.
59
MacLean, From Lion’s Jaws, 286-287; Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Mishap Lineage, 61-63.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 190.
61
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 252.
60
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Nevertheless, Trungpa Rinpoche was also plagued with a feeling of restless frustration with his
role as a Buddhist teacher and his capacity to reach his students. “There was also a sense of
dissatisfaction,” he wrote in the 1976 afterword to the third edition of Born in Tibet, because “my
ambition was to teach and spread the Dharma.”62 While Trungpa Rinpoche did teach in several Buddhist
and pro-Tibet groups during his studies, such as the London Buddhist Society and Tibet Society, and
published his first book in 1966, an autobiography entitled Born in Tibet, nevertheless, he was deeply
dissatisfied with his inability to successfully translate the Buddhist teachings to his British students and
within the settings in which he taught. There was, as he later wrote, “no situation in which I could begin
to make a full and proper presentation of the teachings of Buddhism.”63
At the London Buddhist Society, for example, Trungpa recalls teaching a rather stuffy crowd,
utterly disinterested in engaging in practice. As a result, Trungpa Rinpoche left feeling that the group
was “more concerned with its form than with its function as Buddhists.”64 In other words, he felt the
students were more interested in the structure of their meetings than in engaging in actual meditation.
Trungpa Rinpoche felt as if he was more of a decoration to these groups, rather than someone they
were genuinely engaged in studying and practicing with. One of Trungpa Rinpoche’s senior American
students, Barry Boyce, later described the situation, noting that “Wearing monk’s robes in this adopted
home, he [Trungpa Rinpoche] often felt he was being treated like a piece of Asian statuary, uprooted
from its sacred context and set on display in the British Museum.”65
62
Ibid., 252.
Ibid., 252.
64
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 193.
65
Boyce in “Introduction,” Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, xv.
63
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In 1967, this situation began to change after Trungpa Rinpoche was invited by Canadian-British
monk Ananda Bodhi (1931-2003) to take charge of Johnston House Contemplative Community in
Dumfries, Scotland. Along with Akong Rinpoche, Trungpa Rinpoche moved into Johnson House, which
the two rechristened Samye Ling (བསམ་ཡས་§ང་), after the first Tibetan monastery founded in the 8th
century by Padmasambhava.66 Trungpa Rinpoche thought that teaching at his own center would prove
more fruitful, however, this did not turn out to be so. As he wrote later, “the scale of activity was small,
and people who did come to participate seemed to be slightly missing the point.”67 Even though he
could teach a group of dedicated students at his own center, Trungpa Rinpoche found that the
traditional style of offering exegeses on canonical texts did not prove terribly effective to his students
in this new context. Something was being lost in translation and Trungpa Rinpoche was uncertain how
best to transmit Buddhism in this setting. As he later recalled, “There was as yet no situation in which I
could begin to make a full and proper presentation of the teachings of Buddhism.”68
Moreover, Trungpa Rinpoche found the atmosphere of Samye Ling not only frustrating, but
increasingly hostile as his relationship with Akong Rinpoche began to deteriorate. By this time, it was
clear that the two had divergent views on how best to present the Vajrayāna in this new context. As
Trungpa Rinpoche later described, Akong Rinpoche believed that Buddhism should be presented in the
‘West’ “as a kind of conmanship” and “advocated deception, which he thought created an air of
inscrutability with which to win people over.” 69 Convinced that translating Buddhism into English
66
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 252.
Ibid., 252-253.
68
Ibid., 252.
69
Ibid., 255.
67
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would result in its degeneration, Akong Rinpoche insisted that Samye Ling’s practices be conducted in
Tibetan, and that no transformations were necessary in a new setting. For Akong Rinpoche, at least in
these early years of exile, an important part of being ‘Tibetan Buddhist’ was being a Tibetan. Trungpa
Rinpoche, on the other hand, did not accept that the buddhadharma was tied to any one national or
ethnic identity and struggled with how to most effectively translate the Vajrayāna teachings to this new
audience in ways that fit their own context and were in their own language. In doing so, however, he
was severely criticized by his friend for becoming ‘Westernized’ and a “disgrace to Tibet.”70
In a letter written in 1969, Trungpa Rinpoche confessed that he did not privilege his ethnic
identity in his role as a Buddhist teacher, but rather viewed himself as needing to connect and ground
the buddhadharma in whichever context he found himself in. “My role is a far deeper one than a mere
cultural mission, a representative of the East in the West,” he wrote. “I am not Tibetan but Human and
my mission is to teach others as effectively as I can in the world in which I find myself. Therefore, I
refuse to be bound by any ‘national’ considerations whatsoever.”71 From this perspective, it was
increasingly clear that Trungpa Rinpoche was taking a radically different approach to translating
Buddhism than his colleague and that he would have “no one to join with in presenting the true
Dharma.”72 This frustration with the situation in Samye Ling and determination to find a more effective
means to translate Vajrayāna Buddhism into a new context seem to have been instrumental in
precipitating Trungpa Rinpoche’s decision to return to Asia in 1968.
70
Chögyam Trungpa as quoted in Mukpo and Gimian, Dragon Thunder, 29-30.
Ibid., 30.
72
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 255.
71
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In late June or early July of 1968,73 Trungpa Rinpoche set off on his first return journey to Asia
after five years in the UK. Having tutored then-Bhutanese Crown Prince, Jigme Singye Wangchuk (འ•གས་
éད་qང་o་དབང་¶ག་; b. 1955) at Heatherdown Preparatory School in England, Trungpa Rinpoche was invited
by the devout Buddhist Queen of Bhutan, Ashi Kesang Choden (ཨ་C་བßལ་བཟང་མAག་Iན་; b. 1930) to visit the
country as her personal guest and teacher.74 Accompanied by his then-secretary and student Kunga
Dawa, Trungpa Rinpoche also availed himself of the opportunity during this trip to meet with two of his
former teachers, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and the Sixteenth Karmapa.
First traveling over-land from Bhutan to the Karmapa’s monastery in Rumtek, Sikkim, Trungpa
Rinpoche and Kunga Dawa spent some time there as guests. During this time, Kunga Dawa recalls that
Trungpa Rinpoche requested and received an empowerment for a Karma Pakshi practice from the
Karmapa. Subsequently, the two started to translate the text of this practice, thereby beginning their
collaborative work as translators which they would later continue with the SOM.75 After returning to
Bhutan, Trungpa Rinpoche and Kunga Dawa stayed with Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche at his residence in
Kyichu (®ད་p་), outside of Paro. During this time Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche bestowed a Dorje Drolö
empowerment upon Trungpa Rinpoche and Kunga Dawa and gave careful practice instructions.76 Both
73
Richard Arthure in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume One, xxxv.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume One, xxii.
75
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Five, ed. Carolyn Rose Gimian (Boston and
London: Shambhala Publications, 2004), xxiii.
76
It is not clear what specific Dorje Drolö and Karma Pakshi empowerments or practices were given by the Karmapa and Dilgo
Khyentse Rinpoche. While Carolyn Gimian writes that Trungpa Rinpoche “undoubtedly would have received these abhishekas
[empowerments] earlier,” in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Five, xxv, she does not
74
mention what the empowerments were. Based upon the iconography of the SOM scroll painting by Sherab Palden Beru (àས་རབ་
དཔལ་Iན་©་zས་; 1911-2012), composed in consultation with Trungpa Rinpoche, I contend that the Dorje Drolö empowerment was
likely for a text revealed by Dudjom Rinpoche (བ>ད་འ£མས་Yན་0་/་/འ•གས་õལ་™་àས་Q་R་; 1904-1987), བ>ད་འ£མས་ñག་འOང་པt)་´ག་?བ་ཟབ་ö༔ (The
Profound Vital Essence Sādhana of the Destroyer of Māra-s, Padma Heruka). This, however, is a topic for another paper.
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the Dorje Drolö and Karma Pakshi empowerments played extremely important roles during the
subsequent weeks that Trungpa Rinpoche spent on retreat at Taktsang.
Subsequently, Trungpa Rinpoche embarked on a retreat at the fabled, cliff-side monastery of
Paro Taktsang. This is the most famous of the thirteen different places called Taktsang where
Padmasambhava is said to have manifested as Dorje Drolö.77 Trungpa Rinpoche describes Taktsang as
the place where “over a thousand years ago, Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) first manifested himself
in the wrathful form of Dorje Trollo and subjugated evil forces before entering Tibet.”78 In this form,
Padmasambhava and his consort, Yeshe Tsogyal (™་àས་མ<་:ལ་), multiplied the Treasures that they had
hidden throughout the Tibetan and Himalayan landscape and bound local spirits under oaths to protect
the Vajrayāna teachings.79 The contemporary Nyingma teacher, Khenpo Palden Sherab (མཁན་0་དཔལ་Iན་àས་
རབ་; 1942-2010), describes Dorje Drolö’s wrathful and violent manner as important “to preserve the
practice of the Dharma in Tibet, and secure the commitment of the local spirits to extend their
protection across generations.”80 Thus, this wrathful form of Padmasambhava is invoked primarily for
the purpose of subjugating (Nག་0,་ལས་) and taming (འ>ལ་བ་) obstructive forces and eliminating obstacles
for the Vajrayāna teachings. This wrathful subjugation is especially important as Dorje Drolö forces
beings into a Vajrayāna cosmology, thereby forming them into Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects.
77
Padmasambhava is said to have eight principle manifestations (y་z་མཚན་བ:ད་) that range from beneavolent to fully wrathful.
For an accessible introduction to these manifestations, see: Khenpo Palden Sherab, “The Eight Manifestations of Guru
Padmasambhava,” trans. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, Oral teachings given at Padma Gochen Ling Monterey Tennessee
May 1992, accessed 17 March 2017, http://www.turtlehill.org/khen/eman.html.
78
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 253.
79
Khenpo Palden Sherab, “The Eight Manifestations of Guru Padmasambhava.”
80
Ibid.
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Trungpa Rinpoche recalls his deep concern at that time with returning to the ‘West’ to teach.
“Taktsang was just a resting place for me,” he notes, “I knew I would have to go back to the West and
present the vajrayana teachings to the rest of the world, so to speak. That concern was always intensely
on my mind.”81 It was during this retreat that Trungpa Rinpoche recalls, “I was able to reflect on my
life, and particularly on how to propagate the Dharma in the West. I invoked Guru Rinpoche and the
Kagyü forefathers to provide a vision for the future.”82 Undertaking a retreat83 at Taktsang along with
several of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s students and Kunga Dawa, Trungpa Rinpoche devoted himself to
practicing the Dorje Drolö sādhana he received from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.84 Deeply connected to
Dorje Drolö and Karma Pakshi through the empowerments he received, it is perhaps no wonder that
Trungpa Rinpoche’s supplications were eventually answered in a form that combined these two figures.
Trungpa Rinpoche found Taktsang to be “spacious and awe-inspiring,” noting that the presence
of Padmasambhava was palpable in the shrines and caves.85 Nevertheless, he also recalls feeling a dull
anticipation and even worry as his supplications initially went unanswered. He later wrote that his first
days were full of disappointment and angst: “What is this place? I wondered. It’s supposed to be great;
what’s happening here? Maybe this is the wrong place; maybe there is another Taktsang, somewhere
else, the real Taktsang.”86 Elsewhere, he noted that despite his devotion and profound admiration of
81
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 10.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 253.
83
The precise length that Trungpa Rinpoche was on retreat at Taktsang is somewhat unclear. Although in the 1976 afterward
he penned for the third edition of Born in Tibet (253) said he was on retreat for 10 days, at an earlier seminar Trungpa Rinpoche
gave in 1975 at Karmê Chöling, VT, then called Tail of the Tiger, Trungpa Rinpoche said that he was on retreat at Taktsang for
three weeks. See Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 11.
84
It is unclear if Trungpa Rinpoche also engaged in Karma Pakshi sādhana practice or if this was only Kunga Dawa.
85
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 253.
86
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 193.
82
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Padmasambhava, “This place seemed to be an anticlimax. Nothing was happening.”87 Awaiting an
answer to his entreaties for how to translate the Vajrayāna teachings in a meaningful and effective way
once he returned to the UK, Trungpa Rinpoche’s initial time at Taktsang was marked by frustration and
apprehension. As the resident monks prodded hum daily with questions of whether he had had any
auspicious dreams or revelations, Trungpa Rinpoche was vexed: “What are you going to do after this if
you don’t get something out of this fantastic, historic, blessed, highly sacred and powerful place?”88
This overcast feeling was so intense, in fact, that Trungpa Rinpoche fell into a depression. Due to
his increasing frustration, Trungpa Rinpoche reports drinking quite heavily as his retreat continued,
until he reached an important breaking point. One evening while he was heavily inebriated and alone in
his room, Trungpa Rinpoche recalls that his exasperation reached such a climax that he let out a
massive scream. “I was not yelling for help or for mommy and daddy,” he describes, “it was an internal
yell,”89 a shout much more visceral than fearful. It was precisely at that moment that something seems
to have shifted. “It created some kind of breakthrough,” he recalls, “There came a jolting experience of
the need to develop more openness and greater energy. At the same time, there arose a feeling of deep
devotion to Karma Pakshi, the Second Karmapa, and to Guru Rinpoche. I realized that in fact these two
were one in the unified tradition of Mahamudra and Ati.”90 It was at this moment that the title of the
SOM flashed into Trungpa Rinpoche’s head and the figure of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi emerged.
87
Ibid., 9.
Ibid., 11.
89
Ibid., 12.
90
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 253-254.
88
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Waking up the next day, clear-headed and without any traces of his previous depression,
Trungpa Rinpoche furiously began to write down the text of the SOM. Although accounts differ on the
duration, it appears to have taken about six hours to pen the practice text, with a few more hours over
the next several days devoted to light editing of the text and composing the colophon.91 “I didn’t have
to think about what I was doing, the whole thing came out very fresh,” Trungpa Rinpoche recalls.92
“During the writing of the sadhana, I didn’t particularly have to think of the next line or what to say
about the whole thing; everything just came through very simply and very naturally. I felt as if I had
already memorized the whole thing.”93 Following the completion of the main text of the sādhana,
Trungpa Rinpoche wrote a colophon as a panegyric, expressing his thanks and appreciation to
Padmasambhava and his lineage teachers. [See Appendix I]
Following the revelation of the SOM, Trungpa Rinpoche and Kunga Dawa began to translate the
text together into English almost immediately. Recalling the translation process, which he notes
happened not at Taktsang but rather in a guesthouse outside of the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu,
Kunga Dawa describes it as a stumbling, slow process, made all the more so because he could not read or
speak Tibetan. Trungpa Rinpoche, who Kunga Dawa describes as having an immense grasp of English
vocabulary but a rather limited ability to combine words into grammatically correct sentences at that
time, went through the text line by line, translating words or short phrases. In reply, Kunga Dawa would
91
At two seminars given in 1975, Trungpa Rinpoche recounts the SOM taking between five and six hours to write the day after
the title emerged in his mind. Elsewhere Kunga Dawa and Trungpa Rinpoche recall the composition taking two days, with some
polishing over the next several days. For these differing accounts, see: Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 253-254;
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 13, 194; Kunga Dawa in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Collected Works of
Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Five, xxiv.
92
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 13-14.
93
Ibid., 194.
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attempt to articulate Trungpa Rinpoche’s staccato words in English and suggest possible combinations.
These were largely met with Trungpa Rinpoche shaking his head no, until finally one of Kunga Dawa’s
suggestions would be met with enthusiastic approval as Trungpa Rinpoche exclaimed ‘Yes, that’s it!’94
In this way, their translation progressed rather slowly and there was even discussion of
completing it after their return to the UK. This, however, appears as another important moment in the
story of the SOM’s origins as their departure was obstructed due to special circumstances. Kunga Dawa
writes that while he and Trungpa Rinpoche were translating, tremendous rainstorms caused floods and
landslides that destroyed roads and bridges making it temporarily impossible for pair to leave.
According to Kunda Dawa, Trungpa Rinpoche commented that “this is the action of the Dakinis making
sure we don’t leave until the translation is finished.” Subsequently, the pair completed the translation
before leaving Bhutan and making their way back to the UK.95 This celestial intervention is retold today
with a sense of admiration not only by Kunga Dawa, but also within communities of practitioners as a
sign of the special ‘termalike’ nature of the original translation.96
After Trungpa Rinpoche’s return to the UK, the SOM was introduced to the community of
practitioners at Samye Ling to be practiced in English. At first, there were no printed versions of the
text, only mimeographed copies, nor did Trungpa Rinpoche give extensive instructions on how to
practice the text.97 When Trungpa Rinpoche later moved to the US, he brought the SOM with him and
gave it to his students at his first American center, Karmê Chöling, then called Tail of the Tiger, where it
94
Kunga Dawa, personal communication with author, 18 May 2016.
Kunga Dawa in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Collected Works Volume 5, xxv.
96
This is retold by Larry Mermelstein in the 2012 publication Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans. and ed., Sādhana of
Mahāmudrā: Resources for Study, x.
97
Mukpo and Gimian, Dragon Thunder, 10.
95
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was practiced on full and new moons. Early on, Trungpa Rinpoche did not give extensive instructions on
how to practice the SOM. Students would mostly be invited or even stumble into a practice session and
join in.98 Indeed, the SOM did not require students to receive an empowerment99 prior to enacting the
SOM or to have any background on Buddhism. In this way, Larry Mermelstein recalls that, “For many,
this became among their early experiences of the Buddhist tradition—a particularly vivid and colorful
introduction indeed”100 Until recently, the SOM remained central to the liturgical calendars of
Shambhala Centers and practice groups around the world.
As with many other Treasure revealers, Trungpa Rinpoche never explicitly claimed that the SOM
was a Treasure text. Rather, this was a claim later made by many of his students. The SOM does not fit
into any of the early Treasure cycles (གUར་¨ར་) that Trungpa Rinpoche revealed before fleeing Tibet,101
nor into the later Shambhala Treasures he revealed in the US. Moreover, although Trungpa Rinpoche
discussed at some length the Treasure tradition in two seminars given on the SOM in 1975, Trungpa
Rinpoche never named the SOM to be a Treasure. Finally, the existent Tibetan version of the SOM, rewritten by Trungpa Rinpoche’s Tibetan student Lama Ugyen Shenpen (|་མ་ó་:ན་གཞན་ཕན་; d. 1994) and
98
99
Frank Berliner, personal communication with author, 14 November 2014.
In the Vajrayāna context, practitioners must normally undergo a three-part process of receiving an empowerment (Skt:
abhiṣeka, Tib. དབང་), reading authorization (Skt: āgama, Tib. Çང), and secret instructions (Skt: niyate, Tib. Æད་) prior to engaging in a
sādhana practice. Even today, anyone can practice the SOM within a group setting, the empowerment is only required for
individuals to practice the SOM privately.
100
Mermelstein, “Introduction,” in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans. and ed., Sādhana of Mahāmudrā Resources for
Study, xi.
101
See Karma Senge Rinpoche, “Trungpa Rinpoche’s Early Days as a Tertön,” Nālānda Translation Committee, accessed 17 March
2017, https://www.nalandatranslation.org/articles/trungpa-rinpoches-early-days-as-a-terton/.
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published by the Nālānda Translation Committee, also does not include the most visible textual
punctuation markers (གUར་Øག་) included in Treasure texts.102
Nevertheless, as with other transempirical phenomenon, I would suggest that it is more useful
to examine how the SOM functions within communities of practitioners. After all, as comparative
religions scholar Wilfred Cantwell Smith argues, what is or is not regarded as ‘authentic’ scripture is not
so dependent upon external, objective factors as it is upon the understandings of a community that
regards a text as such. People, he writes, “make a text into scripture, or keep it a scripture: by treating it
in certain way. I suggest: scripture is a human activity.”104 In a similar vein, I would argue that the
community of practitioners have made the SOM into a Treasure text through the ways in which they
regard, enact, and portray it.
Although it was long suspected by some of Trungpa Rinpoche’s students that the SOM was a
Treasure text, Mermelstein recalls that it was only in 1984 that Trungpa Rinpoche agreed and told
members of the Nālānda Translation Committee that the SOM could be considered a Mind Treasure.
Trungpa Rinpoche even called the English translation he wrote with Kunga Dawa ‘termalike,’ due to the
special circumstances under which it occurred, and the English practice text has been published with
Treasure punctuation marks ever since.105 Thus, although there do not seem to be public recordings or
writings where Trungpa Rinpoche explicitly names the SOM a Treasure text or mentions anything about
the special nature of the English translation, it continues to be named as one by practitioners and
102
zur mang drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho
mngon du sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so.
104
Wilfred Cantwell Smith, What is Scripture?: A Comparative Approach (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 15.
105
Mermelstein, “Introduction,” in The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, xii.
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communities today. Indeed, when the SOM is going to be practiced at centers run by Trungpa Rinpoche’s
students, the word “terma” (Treasure) is frequently found in the program description.106
Since the the Treasure tradition originated in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Treasures
have played an important role in the literature of the Nyingma, Kagyü and Bön traditions. Although
distinct in each of these traditions, Andreas Doctor notes that what makes Treasure revelation unique in
the Nyingma school especially is both its frequency, as well as its institutionalization.107 Indeed, the
Nyingma school accepts an additional canon to the standard Kanyur (བཀའ་འ5ར་) and Tengyur (བ\ན་འ5ར་),
called the Collected Tantras of the Ancients (_ང་མ་Pད་འ∞མ་), which as David Germano points out is largely
composed of Treasure texts.108 The revelation of Treasures has, however, by no means gone uncontested
and indeed, the legitimation of Treasure texts has been questioned by numerous scholars from a variety
of sources both within and outside of the Treasure traditions since their first appearances down to the
present.109 Rather than repeating what has been written elsewhere in the rich body of literature on the
Treasure tradition,110 here I will briefly review the function of Treasures, according to their proponents.
106
See program descriptions for SOM practices at the Los Angeles Shambhala Center (https://la.shambhala.org/ programdetails/?id=115755), Boston Shambhala Center (https://boston.shambhala.org/program-details/?id=292144), Philadelphia
Shambhala Center (https://philadelphia.shambhala.org/program-details/?id=295457), as well as a class on the SOM at the
Boulder Shambhala Center (https://boulder.shambhala.org/program-details/?id=309950), accessed March 29 2017.
107
Doctor, The Tibetan Treasure Literature, 17-18; Matthew Kapstein, “The Purificatory Gem and its Cleansing: A Late Polemical
Discussion of Apocryphal Texts,” in The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversation, Contestation and Memory, 121-137 (Oxford
and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
108
David Germano, “History and Nature of the Collected Tantras of the Ancients,” Tibetan Literary Encyclopedia, accessed 22 April
2017, https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/wiki/tibetantexts/history%20of%20ngb.html.
109
See Doctor, Tibetan Treasure Literature, 31-52 for an extended discussion of issues of authenticity and Treasure revelation.
110
For more on the history of the Treasure tradition and arguments over of authenticity, see: Antonio Terrone, “Rewritten or
Reused?: Originality, Intertextuality, and Reuse in the Writings of a Buddhist Visionary in Contemporary Tibet,” Buddhist
Studies Review 33, no. 1-2 (2016): 203-231; David Germano, "Re-membering the Dismembered Body of Tibet: Contemporary
Tibetan Visionary Movements in the People's Republic of China," in Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural
Identity, ed. Melvyn Goldstein and Matthew Kapstein, 53-94 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998); Doctor, The Tibetan
Treasure Literature; Gayley, “Ontology of the Past and its Materialization in Tibetan Treasures;”Gyatso, “Drawn from the Tibetan
Treasury;” Gyatso, “The Logic of Legitimation in the Tibetan Treasure Tradition;” Kapstein, “The Purificatory Gem and its
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Since the SOM is presented and understood as a Treasure text within communities that enact it,
it is worth noting the special function of Treasure literature within the Nyingma school of Vajrayāna
Buddhism.According to the eighteenth-century Nyingma master and renowned Treasure Revealer,
Jigme Lingpa (འ•གས་éད་§ང་པ་; 1729-1798), Treasures are revealed for four principle reasons. These are: (1)
so that the Buddhist teachings will not disappear, (2) so that the Buddhist teachings will not be
corrupted or adulterated, (3) so that the blessings of the Buddhist teachings will not fade, and (4) so that
the lineage of transmission is shortened.111 Treasures are revealed, in other words, to make the
buddhadharma available to new generations of practitioners, and to prevent it from disappearing.
Moreover, in emic terms, Treasures can correct any corruptions that have crept into the teachings over
the time they have been transmitted, maintain the potency of these teachings, and reassert their
authenticity. As revelations given to the Treasure Revealer (mostly) by Padmasambhava, Treasures are
considered especially efficacious and powerful.
Diana Mukpo describes the SOM as a “time bomb” in the sense that it reveals, “a new
understanding or wisdom, at the appropriate time.”112 In this way, she describes it as, “one of the most
powerful practices we have, because of how it directly addresses human issues and problems of human
life.”113 Elsewhere, Boyce describes, the SOM was “essential for opening up the teachings that Chögyam
Cleansing;” Robert Mayer, “gTer ston and Tradent: Innovation and Conservation in Tibetan Treasure Literature,” Journal of the
International Association of Tibetan Studies 36/37, no 2013/2014 (2015): 227-242; Robert Mayer, “Scriptural Revelation in India and
Tibet: Indian Precursors of the gTer-ma Tradition,” in Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association of
Tibetan Studies, ed. Per Kværne, 533-544 (Oslo: The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 1994); Tulku Thondup
Rinpoche, Hidden Teachings of Tibet.
111
Tulku Thondup, Hidden Teachings of Tibet, 62.
112
Mukpo and Gimian, Dragon Thunder, 9.
113
Mukpo in Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, xii.
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Trungpa Rinpoche has brought.”114 By providing a direct line to past enlightened teachers through
Trungpa Rinpoche, the SOM is presented as containing profound teachings tailored to the historical
context of its revelation that are replete with the blessings of Padmasambhava. In this way, the SOM is
regarded as a Treasure text within its communities of practice as a text that reveals the buddhadharma
in a manner suited to the ‘Western’ context.
Rather than engaging in the evaluation of emic understandings, it is more interesting to study
how the SOM does the work of a Treasure text within existing communities of practitioners, by taking
the teachings of the buddhadharma and translates them into a new context in a manner that is uniquely
suited to them. This involved bringing the teachings of the Vajrayāna to the contemporary ‘Western’
world, in the medium of the English language, and which addressed the unique issues that they faced.
As a result, Trungpa Rinpoche committed to a process of textual and cultural translation that enabled
him to transmit the Vajrayāna teachings to a new context in a way that was uniquely suited it.
In the next section, I will look closer at the Tibetan and English versions of the SOM to illustrate how
this process of translation played out in the text itself. I examine the ‘termalike’ English practice text
alongside the original Tibetan text to illustrate some of the strategic choices made in the revelation and
translation process that allowed the SOM to be tailored to the contemporary context. In doing so, I
analyze how the SOM answered Trungpa Rinpoche’s supplications to his lineage figures and
Padmasambhava for a method to translate the buddhadharma in a manner that effectively conveyed the
Vajrayāna to his ‘Western’ students.
114
Barry Boyce, personal communication with author, 22 October 2015.
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III. Translation: The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, Treasure texts, and Domestication
The SOM emerged at a time when much of Europe and North America were undergoing
profound social and cultural changes. By the mid-1960s, the American Beat Generation of the 1950s had
given way to the widespread Hippie movement and for many the era of ‘Free Love’ was a time not only
of societal rebellion, but also of spiritual exploration. A variety of Asian religious and cultural traditions
played an especially prominent role in this movement and various babas, roshis, gurus, lamas, senseis, and
swamis attracted large followings. A commonality amidst this diversity, however, was that these various
movements and teachers were involved in both the translation and transformation of traditions as they
were being transmitted into ‘Western’ contexts. Moreover, in the process of taking root in a new
cultural milieu, each was confronted with and had to relate to ‘Western’ norms, histories, and mindsets.
As scholar of Vajrayāna Buddhism José Cabezón has argued, the Vajrayāna transmission to the
‘West’ is complex in that these teachings and practices do not appear upon a tabula rasa, but rather
encounter peoples drenched with the influence of several thousand years of ‘Western’ thought and
cultural history. As with the historical movement of Buddhism to new and diverse contexts, such as
when it entered Tibet in the 7th century, as Buddhism enters the ‘West,’ Cabezón argues, “it becomes
understood in the light of a pre-existing nexus of intellectual and philosophical concepts that have long
histories” in these locales.115 As such, when Buddhism moves into the ‘West,’ it encounters a cultural
sphere deeply impacted by thinkers from Aristotle to Kant, with an ontological framework first formed
during the Enlightenment. As Garfield similarly argues, Buddhist teachings are “adapted as much as
115
José Ignacio Cabezón, “Comparison as a Principle of Knowledge and its Application to the Translation of Buddhist Texts,” in
in Buddhist Translations: Problems and Perspectives, ed. Doboom Tulku (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 1995), 68.
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they are adopted” when they move into new contexts in that “host cultural forms and ideologies
function as a matrix that determines the nature of these transformations and selections.”116
Trungpa Rinpoche found it crucial to understand the social, cultural, and political context in
which he was teaching to be able to effectively transmit the buddhadharma to his students. By
connecting with local histories, language, and thought, the process of transmission becomes far from a
unidirectional process of sending teachings across time and space, but rather one of interaction and
exchange. Neither those transmitting a religion nor those receiving these teachings and practices are
left unchanged in the process. In this section, I examine the SOM’s textual translation by comparing the
English practice text and the Tibetan original to uncover some strategic choices that transform this
practice and enable it to be effectively translated into a new cultural context. In doing so, I illustrate
how the SOM strategically transmitted the buddhadharma through a type of partially-domesticating
translation that transformed certain terms and figures for a counter-cultural audience in the ‘West.’
I discuss several shifts that occur in the translation, such the translation ‘materialism’ for the
Tibetan term ‘barbarian’ (*་+་), and the removal of various spirits linked to emotional states, to illustrate
how the SOM connects with the situatedness of its intended audience. I also examine examples of
Buddhist scholar David McMahan’s concept of psychologization in the text of the SOM to discuss how
the translation of the SOM illustrates this important shift that occurs in the translation of Buddhism
into the ‘West.’ In doing so, I compare the English practice text with my own, more literal translation,
thereby gaining insight and the ability to assess certain areas where distinctive choices were made to
116
Garfield, “Translation as Transmission and Transformation,” 89-90.
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transform the Tibetan text. I discuss how the SOM specifically can be understood as a selectivelydomesticated translation that moved certain elements away from their original contexts and
transformed into idioms that were familiar to specific practitioners. Nevertheless, I maintain that these
choices were strategic in that they ultimately served to effectively enlist students into the very
foreignizing ritual universe of the text, thereby actually serving as a technology for the training of
Vajrayāna subjects. This is a topic I will explore more fully in the following chapter.
Della Santina argues that when translation is not only temporal and intracultural, but is spatial
and intercultural as well, the process of reinterpretation inherent to any translation is only
accentuated.117 The reinterpretation of texts for a foreign cultural milieu is a topic of great debate
among translators and translation theorists. In his work, After Babel, George Steiner118 consolidates
hundreds of years of ideas about translation and initiates a discussion of translation as a field of study.
In doing so, Steiner follows Ronald Knox (1957) in summarizing discussions of translation in the
following two questions: (1) should priority be given to literary or literal translations? and, (2) how
much freedom do translators have to express the original text in their own style and idiom?119
Elsewhere, Steiner summarizes these key questions, asking “in what ways can or ought fidelity
be achieved?” and “what is the optimal correlation between the A text in the source language and the B
text in the receptor language?”120 For Steiner and many subsequent translation theorists, including
Tibetan scholars, the two primary questions of translation are concerned with the spectrum of literal
117
Della Santina, “Liberation and Language,” 97.
George Steiner, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
119
Ibid., 251.
120
Ibid., 275.
118
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(i.e. word for word) versus meaning (i.e. paraphrasing) translations (±ག་འ5ར་དང་4ན་འ5ར་) and the literary
style for translations. What Steiner and others often elide by focusing on the content, however, is the
important relationship between the translator, the audience, the original text, and the translator’s
intentions in the complex process of translation.
Nevertheless, other translation theorists have been more concerned with the mode through
which intercultural translation is performed and translators’ intentions as an ethical question. For these
individuals, this question boils down to a choice for the translator: does a translator have fidelity
toward the original author or toward the intended audience? This dichotomy was expressed succinctly
in 1813 by theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher, who stated that he translator has two
choices, “Either the translator leaves the author as much in peace as possible and moves the reader
toward her/him, or s/he leaves the reader as much in peace as possible and moves the writer toward
her/him.”121 He continues that the differences between these two methods are clear. On the one hand,
the translator must make an effort through her/his work to replace in the reader an
understanding of the original language, which s/he does not know - the very image, the
same impression that s/he gains through the knowledge s/he has won of the original
language of the work, s/he seeks to share with the reader and bring them to her/his own
position, which is actually a foreign one.
On the other hand, the translator can “thrust the author” directly into the world of the readers, thereby
changing the author into one of them.122 In the latter, Schleiermacher points to the example of Roman
and Greek philosophers becoming ‘Germanized’ as their works were translated to read as if they were
originally written in German. Thus, Schleiermacher coins two positions, subsequently dubbed
121
122
Schleiermacher, “Über die verschiedenen Methoden des Übersetzers,” 47. Author’s translation.
Ibid., 47-48. Author’s translation.
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‘domesticating’ and ‘foreignizing’ translations. While Schleiermacher, and later von Humboldt123 and
Venuti, view these as nearly exclusive categories, I would contend that translators rarely create works
that are entirely one or the other, but rather work to create texts that contain elements of both.
When seen in light of these categories, the SOM appears as a type of selectively-domesticating
translation that brings the buddhadharma toward the context of a practitioner. As Gayley has noted,
Treasure Revealers, like Trungpa Rinpoche, reach back to a transcendent authority and an idealized
past in order to bring these teachings to the present circumstances. In this way, tracing Treasures to the
distant past is important as a source of establishing the revealers’ authority in the present. Therefore,
she argues, Treasures can serve as a “mechanism used to bridge time and space in order to introduce
ritual systems, scriptures, images, or relics into a new context.”124 Thus, through the process of
revealing the SOM, Trungpa Rinpoche is understood to embody the authority of Padmasambhava and to
bring forward past teachings into the contemporary world. 126 Moreover, this process of bringing texts
to intended audiences is taken a step further as the text is translated into English for use by a specific
counter-cultural subset of the ‘Western,’ and especially American populace.
The SOM can be understood as a selectively-domesticated translation that strategically
translated certain terms and while being uncompromising with the translation of others. As described
123
Wilhelm von Humboldt, “Einleitung,” in Aeschylos Agamemnon: metrisch übersetzt (Leipzig: Gerhard Fleischer dem Jüngern,
1816).
124
Gayley, “Ontology of the Past and its Materialization in Tibetan Treasures,” 216.
126
For an alternative theorization of Treasure texts based upon extensive study with Vajrakīlaya (Q་R་≤ར་བ་) practices, see Robert
Mayer, “gTer ston and Tradent Innovation and Conservation in Tibetan Treasure Literature.” Mayer argues that Treasure
revealers should be seen as tradents, or as individuals who do not invent new doctrines or practices, but rather mainly
synthesize and combine already established ones. An in-depth study of intertextuality in the SOM has yet to be undertaken, but
remains outside of the scope of this thesis.
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above, the SOM emerged when Trungpa Rinpoche felt his attempts to translate the buddhadharma to
students in the ‘West’ had been ineffective and was seeking a different method of teaching appropriate
in this context. As Trungpa Rinpoche describes, even having his own center in Scotland was “not
entirely satisfying”127 and the atmosphere was “somewhat stagnant and stuffy.”128 Even as students
participated in sitting meditation, chanting liturgies Tibetan, and listening to expositions on texts, they
still seemed to be missing the point. In this way, Trungpa Rinpoche found that presenting
commentaries or having students recite prayers and practices in Tibetan was largely ineffective in that
it presented religious teachings in a way that was too foreignizing for his students at that time. As such,
Trungpa Rinpoche sought to find a way of translating Buddhism into a language that made more sense
to his students, while still maintaining a fidelity to the truth-claims of the Vajrayāna tradition.
Additionally, the translation of the SOM for practice has been commended for its poetic and
affective qualities. Mermelstein recalls that he and other students of Trungpa Rinpoche had “often
marveled at the beauty of the original translation.” Although the Nālānda Translation Committee
composed a more literal translation on the SOM in the early 1980s, largely in consultation with Lama
Ugyen Shenpen, their translation was restricted for study purposes rather than practice.129 The unique
qualities and poetic force of the initial English practice translation were, according to Mermelstein,
Trungpa Rinpoche’s “unique brilliance in presenting this dharma” as both a Treasure revealer and
translator.130 Thus, Trungpa Rinpoche’s translation of the SOM and the literary qualities in the English
127
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 252.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 192.
129
Mermelstein in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans. and ed., The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā: Resources for Study, xii-xv.
130
Ibid., xiv.
128
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translation were also composed in such a way that it resonated within a specific counter-cultural group
of practitioners, especially in the US.
Like other spiritual teachers at the time, Trungpa Rinpoche attracted students from across the
counter-cultural spectrum. Following Timothy Leary’s maxim to “Turn on, tune in, drop out,” this
counter-culture, particularly in North America, was not interested in the material wealth or economic
security that dominated their parent’s generation. Their parents’ painful experiences during the Great
Depression and the Second World War combined with the post-war global ascension of Allied nations,
and America in particular, led to an explosion in material wealth and obsession with consumerism in
the ‘West’ during the 1950s. An office job, a ranch-style home, a car, a washing-machine, a television, a
vacuum cleaner, and so forth were all parts of ‘the good life’ that was stifling to the counter-culture. Of
the societal norms they flouted, the counter-culture largely eschewed concern for material possessions
and their parent’s religious beliefs. Instead, they sought meaning in other traditions and forms of
spirituality. “Our parents and religious leaders had lied about drugs and sex and the war, so how could
they be trusted on any other topic?” writes early student, Jim Lowrey. “We were seeking new
philosophies and explanations that fit with what we were learning about our lives and our minds.”131
Similarly, Clarke Warren describes the atmosphere in Boulder, Colorado at the time of Trungpa
Rinpoche’s arrival to the US. Then a student at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder, Warren recalls
several CU professors, including John Visvader and Karl Usow, inviting Trungpa Rinpoche to Boulder
while he was still in the UK. When they later received word that Trungpa Rinpoche would arrive in
131
Lowrey, Taming Untameable Beings, 20.
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Boulder, they called a meeting of interested parties, which included an eclectic mix of CU faculty and
students, members of a local Zen group, and “a variety of American Hindus, Macrobiotic practitioners,
Pygmies, and a few others.”132 This was the counter-cultural context into which the SOM was presented.
When examining the English practice text of the SOM alongside the original Tibetan, there are
several key elements that stand out as domestications of the Tibetan text for Trungpa Rinpoche’s
‘Western’ students. The difference in the Tibetan and English titles, for example, is quite striking:
English practice text:
Tibetan Text:
My translation from Tibetan text:
The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā
which Quells the Mighty Warring
of the Three Lords of Materialism
།"་ནང་གསང་བ)་*་+,་ག-ལ་/ན་
Herein dwells that which is called
the Mahāmudrā Sādhana that
brings about the realization of the
and Brings Realization of the
Ocean of Siddhas of the Practice
0་བ1ོག་3ང་4ན་བPད་7་8བ་9བ་
:་མ<་མ=ན་>་?བ་པ)་A་ག་Bག་
Lineage༔133
:་/ན་0་Cས་D་བ་Eགས་F།།134
Ultimate Lineage of the ocean of
accomplished ones and wards off
the great war of the Outer, Inner,
and Secret Barbarians
One initially notices is that “Herein dwells that which is called…” (Cས་D་བ་Eགས་F་) is missing. This standard
formula in the titles of many Tibetan texts sometimes indicates their status as supports in rituals that
enact the ritual universe of a deity. While its omission here is not surprising as it is often regarded
simply as a perfunctory component of Tibetan literary style, its absence signals that elements of
traditional Tibetan literary style would not be carried over in the SOM’s translation into English. This is
also seen with the omission of the initial prostration in the first line of the SOM text, as well as the
colophon at the conclusion of the text.
132
Clarke Warren, “Chögyam Trungpa: The Early Years,” The Chronicles of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, accessed 30 March 2017,
https://chronicleproject.com/stories_475.html.
133
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 1.
134
zur mang drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho
mngon du sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so, 1A.
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Most intriguing here is the translation of “Three Lords of Materialism” for the Tibetan “Outer,
Inner, and Secret Barbarians” ("་ནང་གསང་བ)་*་+་). The term ‘barbarian’ in Tibetan can have multiple
references. It might, for example, correspond to the ‘barbarians’ referenced in the second chapter of the
Kālacakratantra (>ས་7་འ≥ར་i). These are often identified as Muslim peoples in the west of Tibet and the
victory of the Buddhist forces of the kingdom of Shambhala (བ¥་འuང་) over the barbarians is said to
inaugurate a new golden age of virtue and spiritual practice.136 To support this position, one could point
to the connection between Trungpa Rinpoche and the Kingdom of Shambhala. In addition to receiving a
number of Treasures both prior to fleeing Tibet and after arriving in the US related to Shambhala,
Trungpa Rinpoche is reported to have had direct contact with the kingdom and Kings of Shambhala
(Yགས་Iན་).137 While an interesting connection to ponder, this does not shed light upon the question of the
relationship between the Outer, Inner, and Secret Barbarians and the Three Lords of Materialism are.
Another, perhaps more likely possibility, is that the ‘barbarians’ are meant in a somewhat more
conventional sense as non-Buddhists. The Great Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary (¢ད་:་±ག་མµད་/ན་ö་) defines the
136
For more on the Kālacakratantra see: Alexander Berzin, “Holy Wars in Buddhism and Islam,” Study Buddhism: A Project of the
Berzin Archives, accessed 17 March 2017, https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/history-culture/buddhismislam/holy-wars-in-buddhism-and-islam; Alexander Berzin, Introduction to the Kalachakra Initiation (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion
Publications, 2011); Edward A. Arnold, ed. As Long As Space Endures: Essays on the Kālacakra Tantra in Honor of H.H. Dalai Lama
(Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2009); Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, The Kalachakra Tantra: Rite of Initiation for the Stage
of Generation, ed. and trans. Jeffrey Hopkins (Boston and London; Wisdom Publications, 1985); Gen Lamrimpa and B. Allan
Wallace, Transcending Time: An Explanation of the Kalachakra Six-Session Guru Yoga, trans. B. Alan Wallace (Boston and London:
Wisdom Publications, 1999); Vesna Wallace, The Inner Kalacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2001).
137
Former Canadian High Commissioner James George, for example, recalls that on Trungpa Rinpoche’s return from Taktsang
in 1968, Trungpa Rinpoche met with him at his home in Delhi. After inquiring about the Kingdom of Shambhala, George recalls
that Trungpa Rinpoche said that although he had never been there, he could see it in a mirror whenever he went into deep
meditation. George describes how Trungpa Rinpoche “produced a small circular metal mirror of the Chinese type and after
looking into it intently for some time began to describe what he saw… It sounded ‘out of this world.’ But there was Trungpa in
our study describing what he saw as if he were looking out of the window.” James George, “Searching for Shambhala,” The
Chronicles of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, accessed 17 March 2017, https://chronicleproject.com/stories_288.html.
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term ‘barbarian’ as those born in outlying countries or as a foolish region wherein people do not know
to adopt what is wholesome and discard what is not.138 Similarly, the Great Dungkar Dictionary (>ང་དཀར་±ག་
མµད་/ན་ö་) defines ‘barbarians’ as all those who do not accept 1) past and future lives, 2) the law of cause
and fruition, 3) the Three Jewels, and 4) the kindness of one’s parents, or alternatively as one following
any religion that teaches to do harm to others.139 What emerges from these definitions is an image of
barbarian as a shifting signifier, a term applied to various non-Buddhists, defined not so much by
nationality affiliation as their anti-Buddhist and often pro-violent disposition.
Materialism, on the other hand, is a word that was uniquely situated within the context of the
‘Western’ practitioners of the SOM’s English practice text. As mentioned above, the counter-cultural
movement had strong anti-materialist tendencies and strongly held up materialism as a hollow shell, a
shiny exterior that was devoid of meaning. The thirst for increasingly shiny and new gadgets and
gizmos and the exhortation to spend was seen by many as the poisonous influence of a capitalist system
that attempted to hypnotize its citizens with the allures of consumerism. In this way, the search for
spirituality among many in this generation was a struggle against this consumerist materialism, which
they saw as antithetical and even hostile to true spirituality, whatever that meant. Thus, although
drastically different words, the term materialism seems to do similar work in the ‘Western’ context as
‘barbarian’ does in Tibet; both signal those forces that are opposed to the development of spirituality.
Trungpa Rinpoche used the term ‘materialism’ often in the years following the revelation of the
SOM. Most notably, this term was central to a series of talks in the fall of 1970 and spring of 1971 in
138
139
bod rgya thig mdzod chen mo (Lhasa: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1984), 40.
dung dkar tshig mdzod chen po (Beijing: krung go’i bod rigs dpe skrun khang, 2002), 113.
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Boulder, Colorado that were later published into the volume Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism.140 In
these lectures, Trungpa Rinpoche introduces the Three Lords of Materialism, which he describes as a
metaphor used in “Tibetan Buddhism to describe the functioning of the ego,”141 and focuses especially
on the pernicious force of spiritual materialism. Without going into too much detail here, Trungpa
Rinpoche defines these Three Lords as (1) the Lord of Form, which references the mind’s neurotic
pursuit of physical comfort, pleasure, and security, or physical objects in general, (2) the Lord of Speech,
which refers to the mind’s use of concepts and categories to filter, sort, and manage the phenomenal
world, and (3) the Lord of Mind, which refers to the effort of consciousness to maintain an awareness of
itself. This is closely linked to spiritual materialism or the efforts of the ego to enhance itself through
spiritual practices. For Trungpa Rinpoche’s students, the resistance to physical materialism was a
familiar trope, but the idea of spiritual materialism was Trungpa Rinpoche’s novel contribution that
built upon this idea.
The Lord of the Mind, for Trungpa Rinpoche, is the most dangerous on the spiritual path
because of its tendency to subvert spiritual practices and teachings for the sake of preserving the notion
of a ‘self.’142 This process, wherein “we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing spiritually
when instead we are strengthening out egocentricity through spiritual techniques” is spiritual
materialism.143 This was a particular problem that Trungpa Rinpoche diagnosed in the ‘West’ regarding
his students’ relationships to the buddhadharma. In Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, he writes,
140
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1973).
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Shambhala Classics edition (Boston and London:
Shambhala Publications, 2002), 5.
142
Ibid., 6-7
143
Ibid., 3.
141
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Whenever teachings come to a country from abroad, the problem of spiritual materialism
is intensified. At the moment America is, without any doubt, fertile ground ready for the
teachings. And because America is so fertile, seeking spirituality, it is possible for America
to inspire charlatans… Because America is looking so hard for spirituality, religion becomes
an easy way to make money and achieve fame… I think America at this particular time is a
very interesting ground.144
In the SOM, Trungpa Rinpoche writes how its primary purpose was to exorcize “the materialism which
seemed to pervade spiritual disciplines in the modern world.”145 Thus, in connecting what he presented
as potential pitfalls to the genuine transmission of Buddhism with the anti-materialist rhetoric of the
counter-culture, Trungpa Rinpoche grounded the Tibetan idea of the ‘barbarian’ in a uniquely ‘Western’
idiom, while simultaneously challenging the exoticization of the Vajrayāna as merely another source of
spiritual techniques to collect. Moreover, Trungpa Rinpoche also further nuanced the ‘Western’ idea of
materialism by pointing out how various wisdom traditions and spiritual teachings can become material
objects that are fetishized and co-opted for personal gain. This was a critical danger in the ‘Western’
context that, Trungpa Rinpoche notes, the SOM was especially concerned with.146
This translation of ‘materialism’ for ‘barbarian’ is not only found in the title, but is repeated
several times throughout the SOM. At the end of the refuge section of the text, for example, it states:
English practice text:
Tibetan text:
My translation from Tibetan text:
In order to free those who
།3ར་bང་ད[་z་Tལ་བ)་èས།
In order to release transmigrators of
suffer at the hands of the
three lords of materialism༔
and are afraid of external
phenomenon, which are their
own projections, ༔
144
།bང་བ)་-ལ་Rས་འõངས་པ་ལས།
།*་+་â་གmམ་∂ིས་ག>ང་བ)།
།∑གས་∏)་འ[ོལ་བ)་"ར།
Ibid., 18.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Born in Tibet, 254.
146
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 54.
145
the Five Degenerations, [who are]
tormented by the Three Divisions of
Barbarians from having chased after
apparent objects as a result of
[having] minds which mistake
whatever appears to be an enemy, [I]
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།üག་བཞག་/ན་0ར་qམས་བvད་4།148
I take this vow in
meditation༔
147
arouse the intention to [achieve] the
great imperturbability.
and again in lines repeated eight times150 in text’s supplication section:
English practice text:
Tibetan text:
My translation from Tibetan text:
Although I live in the slime and
།ང་∑གས་མ)་འདམ་πབ་∫་
Although [I] dwell in the mire and swamp
of the degenerate [age,
it is] my heart-desire to meet [this] place.
Even though [I am] tormented by the
dark poison of the barbarians,
[it is] my heart-desire to meet [this]
place.
muck of the dark age,༔
I still aspire to see your face,༔
གནས་ªང་མཇལ་∑ང་
Although I stumble in the thick,
འ4ད། །
black fog of materialism,༔
*་+,་>ག་ºན་∂ིས་ག>ང་
I still aspire to see your face.༔
151
ཡང་མཇལ་∑ང་འ4ད།152
In both sections, we see the term ‘barbarian’ again replaced by ‘materialism.’ In the first example,
although the practice text describes the Lords of Materialism in a psychologized manner as making
individuals suffer for being afraid of their own mental projections and the Tibetan text mentions having
minds that mistake appearances, the Three Divisions of Barbarians and the Three Lords of Materialism
both perform the same function of harassing and obstructing individuals. Similarly, in the second
example, both Barbarians and materialism are presented as deluding and obstructive forces. These
forces are so pervasive, in fact, that the subject expresses being surrounded and unable to escape them.
In this way, a swamp of non-Buddhist barbarians in the Tibetan text is translated into the sticky muck
of materialism in the English. Both, however, convey a feeling of despair with the surrounding world
and an aspiration to seek refuge in teachings and teachers to be freed from these obstacles.
147
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 6.
drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho mngon du
sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so, 3A
150
The first two times “see it,” rather than “see your face” is used. The Tibetan text, however, does not change.
151
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 14.
152
drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho mngon du
sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so, 13B.
148
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Thus, regardless of whether barbarian or materialism, it is clear that Trungpa Rinpoche saw this
as a force harmful to the spread of the buddhadharma. While it is not possible to know precisely why and
with what rationale Trungpa Rinpoche made this translation choice, we can say that this
transformation brings the Tibetan text of the SOM closer to his students in the ‘West’ by connecting
those forces in opposition to the teaching of Buddhism with the anti-materialist sentiments present
within the counter-culture at that time. In doing so, he grounds the SOM firmly within a major issue
that his students were already grappling with in this setting.
Ringu Tulku remarked that choosing to translate ‘barbarian’ as ‘materialism’ was a brilliant
translation choice because if the term were translated literally into English, he stated, it would likely
only confuse practitioners. People in the ‘West,’ he said, often associate barbarians with individuals
with big beards and horns who live far away, and do not understand the connotations of the Tibetan
term. Thus, a literal translation would not be appropriate to convey the intention of the Tibetan.154 The
term ‘Lords of Materialism,’ however, connects the ‘Outer, Inner, and Secret Barbarians’ in that both
terms signify those forces which stand in opposition or hostility to spirituality, and particularly to the
buddhadharma. Thus, while not a literal translation, this domesticating translation choice successfully
grounds the non-Buddhist connotations of the Tibetan term ‘barbarian’ within the anti-materialist
rhetoric of the ‘Western’ counter-culture. In doing so, I would argue, this domestication was a strategic
choice that recruited ‘Western’ practitioners into the otherwise foreign ritual universe of the SOM.
154
Ringu Tulku, personal communication with the author, November 11, 2015.
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The selective process of domestication occurs further in the choice to psychologize specific
beings that appear in the Tibetan text of the SOM. McMahan describes the concept of psychologization
as part of the trend toward the demythologization of Buddhism as it is transmitted to the ‘West.’ In this
way, McMahan argues, Buddhist teachings are presented as internalizing “what in traditional accounts
are ontological realities,”155 wherein deities are turned into archetypes, demons are transformed into
various energies, and Buddhism is re-dubbed a ‘science of the mind’ or even a ‘way of life.’ These
transformations, McMahan continues are a far cry from the realities of most traditional Vajrayāna
Buddhists for whom the world around them “is alive not only with awakened beings, but also countless
ghosts, spirits, demons, and protector deities. These beings are prayed to and propitiated in daily rituals
and cyclical festivals, and they figure into one’s everyday life in very concrete ways.”156 Although,
McMahan notes, such forces can also be associated with mental phenomenon in more traditional
settings, the fact of their existence as beings of other realms of existence is often elided in Vajrayāna in
the ‘West,’ wherein such forces are transformed into purely psychological or mental states.
McMahan situates Trungpa Rinpoche’s psychologizing of the Tibetan pantheon within a lineage
of ‘Western’ interpretations of Buddhism that began with the British scholar Thomas Rhys Davids (18431922).157 Rhys Davids, as scholar of Theravāda Buddhism Charles Hallisey notes, adopted somewhat of an
‘elective affinity’ in how he interpreted aspects of the Theravādan Buddhist tradition in conversation
with certain forces in the Sri Lankan monastic establishment. Hallisey argues that Rhys Davids’
155
David McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 47.
Ibid., 55.
157
David McMahan, “Buddhist Modernism,” in Buddhism in the Modern World, ed. David McMahan (London and New York:
Routledge, 2012), 167-169.
156
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interlocutors purposely emphasized philosophical texts in their presentation of Buddhism, conscious
that such ideas would fit well with European and American scholars, and also with their own scholastic
orientation. They did not discuss, for example, ritual or the role of non-human forces in their
descriptions of Buddhism and thereby made it appear that a type of Protestant rationalism was inherent
within Buddhism.158 In a similar ‘elective affinity’ then, Trungpa Rinpoche omits certain non-human
forces in the translation of the SOM to partially portray the text in a more resonant ‘Western’ paradigm
as dealing with psychological forces.
While McMahan views this process of psychologizing as a form of modernizing, I look at it from
a slightly different angle. In light of the above discussion of translation, I argue that such choices to
psychologize in translation are also processes of domestication. As McMahan notes, the “internalization
of the gods was the passkey that granted Tibetan Buddhism entry into the modern West, whose
monotheism and modernity could not abide a gaggle of gods inhabiting the real world.”159 Thus, to
effectively translate the buddhadharma into a ‘Western’ context, soaked with rationalism, translations
had to reflect the settings into which they were moving into. As such, in the SOM, many deities and
demons were excluded and transformed into mental concepts for a context skeptical of their existence.
This domesticating process of psychologization is seen in the examples of the ogress (Ωན་ö་) and
king-demon (:ལ་འTང་) that appear in the SOM. These two common figures in Tibetan demonologies
appear in the Tibetan SOM already associated with certain emotional states: the ogress is associated
158
Charles Hallisey, “Roads Taken and Not Taken in the Study of Theravāda Buddhism,” in Curators of the Buddha: The Study of
Buddhism Under Colonialism, ed. Donald S. Lopez Jr. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 46.
159
McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism, 54.
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with desire and attachment (འ4ད་ཆགས) and the king-demons with pride (ང་:ལ་). In the English translation,
however, while their forms are elided their emotional associations remain. In addition to being a
legendary progenitor of the Tibetan people, the ogress is often described as a demon who enjoys eating
human flesh.160 The king-demon is another type of afflictive demon161 that can take numerous forms.162
The Tibetan text of the SOM contains several lines in which both beings are destroyed by the central
deity of the SOM, Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi. The practice text, on the other hand, makes no reference to
these beings, but maintains the emotional states which they are directly correlated with in the Tibetan.
English practice text:
Tibetan text:
My translation from Tibetan text:
In his [Dorje Drolö Karma
Pakshi] right hand, raised to
the heavens, he holds a ninepointed dorje of meteoric iron,
emitting a storm of red sparks,
Bག་གཡས་པས་ང་:ལ་Aས་wན་Aས་øར་
[His] right hand tames pride, the
king-demon who constructs nondharma as dharma, the ultimate
barbarian, by raising to the higher
realms a nine-pointed vajra, made of
each in the form of the letter
འAལ་པ):ལ་འTང་4ན་∂ི་*་+་འ>ལ་
བ)་གནམ་¿གས་7་Q་R་á་དy་པ་མ9་Yས་
7་གནས་m་Bར་བ་ལས་é་h་¡་དམར་∞་
HŪṂ.༔ Thus he subdues
-ག་འ¬བ་པ་øར་བ√་བ། Bག་གƒན་པས་
spiritual pride.༔ In his left hand
གནམ་¿གས་7་≤ར་པ་Oར་>་བ≈ག་3ང་
he holds a phurba, also of
meteoric iron, emitting a
shower of sparks in the form of
འ∆ལ་བས། བ«་»ད་འ4ད་ཆགས་7་བqན་
thousands of mahākālas.༔ The
ཅན་Q་R་མTན་0,་â་<གས་ལས་ལ་འÃད་
phurba pierces through the
heart of seductive passion.༔163
160
161
162
ö,་∑ང་{་ཐལ་འ…ན་>་བ ལ་ùང་། དམ་
པ།164
meteoric iron, fiery red HŪṂ are
dispatched like a swirling blizzard.
[His] left hand [holding] a dagger of
meteoric iron, strikes downward and
rolls. [It] cuts through the root of the
veins of the heart of the ogress of
deception and attachment and sends
out a host of oath-[holding ones],
adamantine protectors, to act.
dung dkar tshig mdzod chen po, 2071.
bod rgya thig mdzod chen mo, 550
Ones such form is the pernicious demon Dolgyal (4ལ་:ལ་). Also called Dorje Shugden (Q་R་Õགས་Iན་) by his proponents, this
figure has caused great controversy in recent years within the Tibetan community. For a general overview, see Georges
Dreyfus, “The Shugden Affair: Origins of a Controversy I and II,” His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, http://www.
dalailama.com/messages/dolgyal-shugden/ganden-tripa/the-shugden-affair-i and http://www.dalailama.com/messages/
dolgyal-shugden/ganden-tripa/the-shugden-affair-ii, accessed 29 March 2017.
163
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 10.
164
drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho mngon du
sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so, 9A-9B.
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While deities in the Vajrayāna are often correlated with emotional states, such as seen in the above lines
where the ogress is associated with deception and attachment, and the king-demon with pride and
delusion, this does not mean that these beings are merely imaginary or metaphorical. Indeed, as
McMahan notes, to Tibetan Himalayan peoples, “buddhas, bodhisattvas, and protector deities are not
merely symbols of psychological forces but real beings… who can have actual effects in the world, both
benevolent and malevolent.”166 No Vajrayāna Buddhist would assert that such forces have inherent
existence (རང་བùན་∂ི་8བ་པ་), but neither would they assert that practitioners do either. Thus, deities and
demons are understood to be at least as real as anything else can be said to be.
The ogress and king-demon appear along with the barbarians again later in the SOM, and are
once again elided in translation. In the final stanzas of the supplication section of the text, it states:
English practice text:
Tibetan text:
My translation from Tibetan text:
The tradition of meditation is waning༔
།?བ་བPད་7་བ\ན་པ་ཉམས་
With reference to the way the teachings
of the Practice Lineage have
degenerated,
with reference to the way all the
dharma-practitioners’ minds have
exhausted,
And intellectual arguments
predominate.༔
Çགས་ལ། །Aས་ûད་œན་hད་
ཐང་ཆད་Çགས་ལ། །Aས་wན་
∂ིས་འ•ག་–ན་གང་Çགས་
ལ། །ང་:ལ་∂ི་:ལ་འTང་
Eགས་Çགས་ལ། །འ4ད་ཆགས་
We are drunk with spiritual pride༔
And seduced by passion.༔
The dharma is used for personal gain༔
7་བqན་öས་»ད་Çགས་ལ། །ཐ་
—ད་7་±ག་"ར་འõང་Çགས་
ལ། །དམ་Aས་7ས་Ωད་uས་sང་
Çགས་ལ། །"་πས་7་*་+་Qལ་
Çགས་ལ། །ནང་ø་བ)་*་+ས་
And the river of materialism has burst
“བ་Çགས་ལ། །གསང་qམས་
its banks༔
7་*་+ས་བ«་Çགས་ལ། །ཕ་
166
McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism, 54.
with reference to the way the transient
world has become filled with nondharma,
with reference to the way the kingdemons of pride have appeared,
with reference to the way the ogresses of
desire have deceived,
with reference to the way the excellent
doctrine has [been used to] guard
political machinations,
with reference to the way the barbarians
of external reality have wandered about,
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The materialistic outlook dominates
everywhere༔
And the mind is intoxicated with
55
Üད་7་Oགས་Rས་འ4ར་íད་
དམ། །∞་བདག་ལ་དTས་པ)་
worldly concerns.༔
>ས་uང་=་། །Üད་ཟང་ཟང་”་
Under such circumstances, how can
མAད་པས་w་མ‘ས་ªང་། །?བ་
you abandon us?༔
The time has come when your child
needs you.༔
No material offering will please you༔
So the only offering I can make༔
Is to follow your example.༔167
པ་ཉམས་Äན་∂ི་མ’ལ་འ∞ས།168
with reference to the way the barbarians
of inner view have pervaded,
with reference to the way the barbarians
of secret mind have deceived,
Father – how can your compassion dare
to forsake?
The time has arisen when I, the son, have
need.
Even though you will not be pleased by
any wholesome offerings, [I] offer the
maṇḍala of accomplishment [and]
practice.
In this passage, beings active in the surrounding world and causing negative impacts are transformed
into their psychologized impacts. The ogress and king-demon are again dropped and only their
emotional correlates, spiritual pride and seductive passion, remain in translation. Moreover, the Outer,
Inner, and Secret Barbarians are translated as a materialistic outlook and concern for the mundane
world. In both cases, associations made elsewhere in the text are maintained: external demonic forces
are erased from the English translation and barbarians are translated as various forces of materialism.
Psychologization is also seen with Trungpa Rinpoche’s presentation of the Six Realms of
Existence (གནས་Yས་Wག་) as mental states rather than as ontologically existent realms. Indeed, in The Myth
of Freedom, Trungpa Rinpoche describes the Six Realms as “emotional attitudes toward ourselves and
our surroundings – reinforced by conceptualizations and rationalizations. As human beings we may,
during the course of a day, experience the emotions of all the realms, from the pride of the god realm to
167
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 17.
drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho mngon du
sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so, 15B
168
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the hatred and paranoia of the hell realm.” 170 Similarly, sections of the practice text of the SOM that
refer to other realms or to beings as transmigrators are translated in such a way as to remain within
this, human world. For example, the supplication section also contains the following lines:
English practice text:
Tibetan text:
Living, as I do, in the dark age༔
I am calling upon you, because I
am trapped༔
In this prison without refuge or
།ང་∑གས་མ)་འ[ོ་བས་w་འ¢ད་
P། །aབས་éད་མTན་éད་÷་
protector.༔
བ◊ན་རར་¬ད། །>ག་གmམ་ནད་
The age of the three poisons has
མ<ན་∂ི་བßལ་པ་བ4། །"་ནང་
dawned༔
And the three lords of
གསང་གmམ་∂ི་*་+་གཟིར། །ངན་
materialism have seized power.༔
Fང་ས་ÿང་>་Qལ་བ)་>ས།
This is the time of hell on earth; ༔
་་་
...
Think of us poor, miserable
།བདག་ཉམས་ཐག་”་འ[ོ་ལ་Rས་
wretches.༔
m་དTངས། །è་s་ùང་ག>ང་ལ་
With deep devotion and intense
དད་པ)་Õགས། །≥ང་མŸ་མ་
longing༔
I supplicate you.༔171
འ⁄གས་པས་གFལ་བ་འ¥བས།172
My translation from Tibetan text:
I, a person transmigrating in the
Degenerate Age, call out.
[I] have been imprisoned in a prison
without refuge, without protector.
The age of the Three Poisons, disease,
and warfare abounds
Tormented by the Three: the Outer,
Inner, and Secret Barbarians,
[it is] the time when the bad
transmigrators have burst forth upon the
earth.
…
Think after [me], an exhausted
transmigrator.
[With] a sorrowful mind and the strength
of faith in [the truth of] suffering, with a
mind bursting to tears, [I] make
supplications.
Here, in addition to the repeated trope of the Three Lords of Materialism for the Outer, Inner,
and Secret Barbarians, one catches a glimpse of the androcentric ontology presented to students. While
the term འ[ོ་བ་, for example, can be understood as a synonym for the term ‘sentient being’ (qམས་ཅན་), here
I have rendered it as ‘transmigrator’ due to its connotations and context. Regarding its connotations,
170
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation, ed. John Baker and Marvin Casper (Boulder and
London: Shambhala Publications, 1984), 24.
171
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 16.
172
drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho mngon du
sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so, 14B-15A.
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the term is also the verb meaning ‘to go’ or ‘to move,’ conjuring an image of motion. Moreover, the
context in which the term appears suggests the movement of a being. In the first usage, it can describe
how a person moves in the Degenerate Age (ང་∑གས་མ)་འ[ོ་བས་w་་་). This connotation is missing, however, in
the practice text where the term describes living in a dark age.
A second place in this section this choice is made is with the translation of ‘hell’ for the Tibetan
term ངན་Fང་. Rather than ‘hell,’ (ད€ལ་བ་) which is only one of the six realms of existence, this term, which I
have translated as ‘bad transmigrations,’ literally means ‘those who have gone badly/evilly’ (ངན་>་Fང་བ་)
and refers to beings of the three lower realms of existence (animals, hungry ghosts, and hell realms; >ད་
འ[ོ་དང་h་‹གས་ད€ལ་བ་). While the line in the practice text ‘This is the time of hell on earth’ is poetically
evocative and can be understood metaphorically, to say the bad transmigrators have ‘burst forth upon
the earth’ evokes an apocalyptic scenario wherein the divisions between the human and lower realms
has broken down and those of lower births walk atop the earth with humans. In avoiding this latter
meaning, I would argue that the practice text internalizes the six realms in the English context.
Recalling Ringu Tulku’s statement that such translations are the most effective because they are
done with the intention of being relevant to the receiving audiences’ context, I would argue that such
psychologizations are forms of domestication. In omitting explicit reference to external forces and
focusing on psychological states, the SOM is brought toward Trungpa Rinpoche’s students in the ‘West.’
In doing so, Trungpa Rinpoche transformed this practice through a process of selective-domestication
to correspond with a ‘Western’ counter-cultural context.
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Whereas Schleiermacher and Venuti understand domesticating translation to be an inherently
violent and ethnocentric process, I argue that the translation of the SOM challenges this assertion by
revealing that domestication can be selective and done with the purpose of recruiting an audience into
a foreign space. Following Schleiermacher, Venuti argues that domesticating translation is essentially
the “forcible replacement of the linguistic and cultural differences of the foreign text with a text that is
intelligible to the translating-language reader” in a way that inevitably enacts a degree of ethnocentric
violence upon a text. In attempting to offer a reconstruction of the foreign text, he argues, the
translator considers only the values, beliefs, and representations that preexist within the target
language and culture.174 While Venuti’s argument is persuasive in the context of the ethnocentric,
neoliberal, American press, his theory presumes that translators be outsiders to the material they are
working on, co-opting material from another cultural context.
Not only is the revealer of the SOM an integral part of the translation process, something that
Venuti does not account for, but the SOM, I argue, was ultimately translated precisely with a
foreignizing intention. Far from leaving its practitioners unchanged, the translation of the SOM employs
strategic domestications of key words and concepts, such as materialism, that resonate with
practitioners in order to bring them into a foreign ritual world. As Garfield writes, “the transformation
through transnational transmission is part and parcel of maintaining the longevity of the continuum,
not despite, but because of its constant change and adaptation.”175 When seen from this angle, the
practice translation of the SOM appears more as a calculated domestication of specific words to more
174
175
Venuti, The Translator’s Invisibility, 14.
Garfield, “Translation as Transmission and Transformation,” 100.
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effectively recruit ‘Western’ subjects into an otherwise foreign Vajrayāna world rather than a violent
translation.
If any violence is enacted through this text and its translation, it comes not from a translator
compromising its content for the intended audience, but rather from the wildly undomesticated visage
of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi to which new audiences are introduced. Practitioners of the SOM call forth
this wrathful manifestation not only to grant blessings, but also to eliminate obstacles and for the task
of subjugation. Entering the ritual universe of the SOM as beings to be tamed, practitioners train
themselves to give up their egos as an offering to this enlightened being. Thus, far from the feel-good
messages of many other spiritual teachers in the counter-culture, Trungpa Rinpoche presents Dorje
Drolö Karma Pakshi as a clearly wrathful and foreign force. In domesticating specific elements of the
text and positioning Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi as a destroyer of the counter-culture’s nemesis
materialism, Trungpa Rinpoche simultaneously recruits practitioners into a ritual universe where they
train to give themselves up to Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi and the Ka-Nying lineage he represents.
In the context of the SOM, while certain elements of the Tibetan text are erased to better fit the
‘Western’ counter-cultural context, as described above, other elements from the Tibetan text are not
erased and are carried across forcibly in in the English practice translation. Most notably in this are the
various Kagyü and Nyingma lineage figures, dharma protectors, and the central deity of the SOM, which
correspond to the Three Roots in Vajrayāna Buddhism. Although, as shown above, two facets of the text
were transformed and domesticated in the process of translation, namely the term barbarian being
rendered as materialism and demons and ogresses associated with emotional states removed, the
figures of the Three Roots appear neither negotiable nor adaptable.
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The deference, devotion, and surrender shown to these figures and to Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi
in the liturgy’s recitation is the central aspect of the SOM that does not get domesticated in translation.
In fact, far from being domesticated, students are made to step into the very foreign ritual universe of
the SOM and in doing so, to refashion themselves as subjects of that universe, abiding by certain nonnegotiable conditions. In the next section, I illustrate the importance of these figures, and particularly
of the Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi, in the process of Vajrayāna subject making. As practitioners generate
and enter into the foreign ritual universe enacted in the SOM, they submit themselves as subjects to be
tamed by Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi and train to embody the Vajrayāna subjectivity prescribed within
the text.
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IV. Transmission: The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Formation of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects
As one of the first practices that Trungpa Rinpoche gave to his students, the SOM served as an
important means for the early transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism to the ‘West.’ In doing so, it was a
method for training students in how to orient themselves within a Vajrayāna Buddhist universe, and
thereby in how to become Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects. Trungpa Rinpoche’s selectively-domesticated
translation of the SOM, as discussed in the previous section, provided a text that stressed several key
ideas resonant with his students who were both shaped by and rebelling against the materialistic
context of the ‘West’ in the 1950s and 60s. At the same time, its structure and prescriptive depiction of
the ritual universe of the text, laid forth a distinctively foreign Ka-Nying ritual universe that students
were called to enact. By generating and taking their place in this universe through an iterative process
of ritual enactment, students trained themselves to become subjects of a Vajrayāna world and thereby in
how to become Vajrayāna Buddhists.
In this way, as practitioners chant the words of the text and visualize the ritual universe
described within the SOM, they invoke a disgust with the circumstances of the mundane world and
enter deferentially and devotionally into a ritual universe filled with Ka-Nying protectors, Kagyü
lineage figures, and the central deity Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi. Through this enactment, the SOM
induct and instills in practitioners a subjectivity prescribed within the text that is disabused with the
material world and reliant upon these Ka-Nying figures for help to quell the forces of materialism and
to tame the unruly forces and obscurations within the practitioners themselves.
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Like other religious traditions of South Asian origin, Vajrayāna Buddhism employs the practice
of bhāvanā (›མ་པ་), which has been translated as “imaginative recreation,”177 “generative imagination,”178
“cultivation,”179 and commonly as “meditation,” as a primary method of practice. This is a process
whereby Vajrayāna Buddhist practitioners attempt to visualize and inhabit a fully enlightened ritual
universe as a means of realizing the underlying enlightened nature of reality. En route to this lofty and
final goal, practitioners seek the blessings and benefits of those dwelling within these universes to assist
them in the process of overcoming obscurations and developing wisdom. Following Shulman’s use of
the term ‘generative imagination,’180 this section will examine this practice in the SOM and the specific
ways in which it creates Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects through repeated ritual practice.
As noted above, the SOM is a liturgical text enacted bi-monthly primarily in group settings. The
text of the SOM is recited aloud with differing cadences depending upon the affect invoked. The initial
visualization section, for example, is spoken rapidly, “with no pauses between sentences, paragraphs or
stanzas”181 to invoke a flood of images that roll over practitioners “like an amazing river” that does not
allow them to stop and latch onto any one of them.182 As long-time student of Trungpa Rinpoche Frank
Berliner notes, this rapid recitation is part of the beauty and power of the SOM. There is no place for
practitioners to stop and think, no perch to land upon. Rather, they can only go be carried along by the
177
Davis, Worshiping Siva in Medieval India, ix.
David Dean Schulman, More Than Real: A History of the Imagination in South India (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
2012), 119.
179
Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary, ed. Jeffrey Hopkins (Unpublished, University of Virginia Tibetan Studies Program), 63.
180
I use ‘imagination’ here not in the sense of conjuring up what is not real in the mind, but rather in the etymological sense of
the Latin word imaginare, meaning to ‘form an image.’
181
“Practice Instructions” in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans. and ed., The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā: Resources for
Study, 24.
182
Barry Boyce, personal communication with author, 5 November 2015.
178
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torrent of energy of the practice.183 The offering and devotional sections that follow, on the other hand,
are recited “more slowly and with feeling”184 to invoke the longing and respect that practitioners feel
for the central deity, Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi, and the other lineage figures in the SOM’s ritual
universe.185 Visualizing the central deity of the SOM above and in front of them, the SOM is a type of
guruyoga (|་མ)་åལ་འfiར་) practice whereby practitioners supplicate and make offerings to the central deity
and lineage figures of the SOM to bestow their blessings to overcome obstacles on the path toward
attainment. In this process, practitioners chant the mantra (gགས་) of the triple HŪṂ (¡་) as their minds
unite with that of the deity and the visualization dissolves into a mixture of vibrant colors as the
blessings of the deity shower down upon the practitioners.
In this section, I analyze the ritual performance of the SOM to illustrate how Vajrayāna subjects
are inducted and trained through enactment of the SOM English practice text, discussed in the previous
section. In doing so, I follow Talal Asad and Catherine Bell in analyzing rituals not as metaphorical acts
or as processes primarily meant to be understood, but rather as performances that do things. While
Vajrayāna rituals, like the SOM, do have meanings that require decoding, explanation, and commentary,
I argue that they function mainly as disciplinary actions meant to induct and train practitioners
through an iterative process of generating and entering into what Wallis describes as a specific
discursive or rhetorical subjectivity laid forth in the ritual text.186 By visualizing and entering the ritual
183
Frank Berliner, personal communication with author, 15 November 2014.
“Practice Instructions” in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans. and ed., The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā: Resources for
Study, 24.
185
Barry Boyce, personal communication with author, 5 November 2015
186
Wallis, Mediating the Power of Buddhas, 167.
184
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universe of a text, Vajrayāna subjects not only enact new disposition prescribed within the ritual text,
they also train themselves to embody that very subjectivity and set of relations outside of the ritual
context.
In this way, the recitation and enactment of liturgical texts, such as the SOM, is performative in
several ways. First, by generating the ritual universe in vivid detail as it is described within the text,
practitioners perform a rhetorical subjectivity that is prescribed within the text. Second, through the
recitation of the triple HŪṂ, practitioners enact a performative utterance in the Austinian sense of
declaring themselves blessed by the figures within the SOM’s ritual universe. Additionally, by visualizing
a Vajrayāna ritual universe, practitioners train themselves to embody a subjectivity and set of relations
that, to use Tambiah’s word, is indexically linked with the world outside of the ritual universe. By
forming a subjectivity within the ontological, hierarchical, and soteriological truths of the SOM’s ritual
universe, practitioners also form themselves in relation to parallel truths in the world outside of it. This
is especially true as the central deity, Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi, is indexically linked to the Vajrayāna
teacher, Trungpa Rinpoche.
A. Disciplinary Practices, Speech-Acts, and Vajrayāna Subject-Making
In analyzing the SOM as a practice of subject-making, it is important to recall Asad’s distinction
of rituals as disciplinary practices rather than symbolic actions. Rituals, Asad notes, have come to be
understood in the ‘West’ through a Protestant lens as “a type of routine behavior that symbolizes or
expresses something” in relation with individual consciousness and societal organization, but that does
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not inherently ‘do’ anything in the Austinian sense.187 In contrast to the ‘Western’ understanding of
rituals as strictly representational behavior, Asad posits an alternate understanding of rituals as “apt
performances.”188 By this, Asad refers to ritual enactment as a type of disciplining or regulative process,
one in which “we can assume that there exists a requirement to master the proper performance of
these services.” Such an understanding posits rituals not as symbols to be interpreted, “but abilities to
be acquired according to rules that are sanctioned by those in authority; it presupposes no obscure
meanings, but rather the formation of physical and linguistic skills.”189 In this way, the iterative process
of ritual enactment is a disciplinary process of world and subject-making.
Asad’s discussion of ritual enactment as apt performances draws upon Catherine Bells’
description of ritual action as not only expressing inner states, but primarily acting to “restructure
bodies and subjectivities through ritual enactment.”190 In writing about ritual enactment, Bell notes how
ritualized bodies are produced “through the interaction of the body with a structured and structuring
environment.”191 In other words, by enacting a ritual, practitioners mold themselves in accordance with
the ritual’s prescriptions in the very act of enacting it. Hence, she concludes, “required kneeling does
not merely communicate subordination to the kneeler. For all intents and purposes, kneeling produces a
subordinated kneeler in and through the act itself.”192 This process of subject-making through the
enactment of a ritual also resonates with theorizations both by academics and Buddhist cleric-scholars
187
Asad, Genealogies of Religion, 57.
Ibid., 62.
189
Ibid., 62.
190
Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 100.
191
Ibid., 99.
192
Ibid., 100.
188
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of the role of Vajrayāna rituals to gradually train and tame subjects. Indeed, the Tibetan term for
generative imagination, ›མ་, although commonly translated as ‘meditation,’ literally means to
familiarize, cultivate, or “to bring to memory again and again in the mind.”193 Furthermore, I argue that
this process occurs through an iterative practice of calling forth and entering ritual universes. Thus, in
enacting such practices at the SOM, individuals are iteratively performing a certain subjectivity and at
the same time instilling that same subjectivity within themselves.
In thinking about Vajrayāna ritual enactment as a process of disciplining, it is important to
understand language and speech in the Austinian sense as performative utterances, as language that
does things. In the mid-twentieth century, philosopher J. L. Austin articulated how words and language
can be used not only to describe or make assertions about the world, but to also do things within it. In
this latter sense, words can act as what Austin calls ‘performative utterances’ or ‘illocutionary acts.’
When they are spoken in a certain context, by a specific person, words can function to perform
actions.194 In the proclamation ‘I now pronounce you…,’ for example, an officiant’s words actually unite
a couple in matrimony. Austin thus argues that certain words or phrases when uttered under specific
circumstances, by particular individuals, and often accompanied by certain actions can be efficacious
(or to use his language, felicitous) in a sense of doing something rather than merely describing it.195
This argument was later taken up by Tambiah, who draws upon Austin to describe how rituals
achieve their efficacy through the medium of performance. Rather than judging rituals as true or false,
193
dag yig gsar bsgrigs, (Delhi: she rig dpar khang, 2008), 169.
J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962), 6.
195
Ibid., 8.
194
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Tambiah proposes a more relevant question is whether a ritual was enacted under the appropriate
conditions. In this sense, Tambiah asserts that performative utterances can be considered efficacious or
felicitous, to use Austin’s term, in a ritual context only if they are uttered in the appropriate
circumstances. In this way, Tambiah states, ritual acts must be “subject to normative judgements of
felicity or legitimacy and not to rational tests of truth and falsity.” 196 Thus, the legitimacy of enacting
the SOM can be said to hinge upon practitioners’ inculcation into the Vajrayāna universe of the SOM. In
emic terms, the efficacy of reciting the triple HŪṂ near the end of the SOM, then, depends upon them
having first created the requisite conditions through generating and stepping into the prescribed
subjectivity of ritual universe of the text.
The term ‘ritual universe’ I have been using was coined by Richard Davis. Although writing
about Śaiva contexts, many of Davis’ remarks are applicable to Vajrayāna visualization. Davis writes that,
Ritual discloses knowledge through action, in a condensed, reiterative, and compelling way.
The ritual world is a synecdoche by which one may be able to perceive more immediately,
with less interference, the fuller state of things… The worshipper is called upon to focus,
over and over, day after day, on the primary principles of the Śaiva world as he acts with
and through them in ritual. What he sees, directly, as they animate his own actions, are the
multiple projections of the cosmological and theological foundations of the single world,
Śiva’s world.197
Thus, Davis points out how Śaiva practitioners call forth and enter a ritual universe that is understood
to be more real than the normal world of delusory appearances (Skt. Māyā). More importantly for the
topic of subject-making, Davis describes how practitioners seek to familiarize themselves with a ritual
universe through an iterative process to more fully embody and realize its cosmological and ontological
196
197
S J. Tambiah, “A Performative Approach to Ritual,” British Academy 65 (1979): 127.
Davis, Worshiping Siva in Medieval India, 73-74.
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truths, with the aim to achieve release or liberation (Skt. mokṣa). In doing so, I would add, practitioners
engage in a process of re-forming their own subjectivities in light of and in line with those expressed in
the ritual text. Although Buddhists do not accept the experience of the non-dual, omnipresent essence
of Śiva as the achievement of liberation, the practice of enacting and entering ritual universes is still
practiced with parallel cosmological constructions, as well as mundane and soteriological goals.
Wallis draws on Davis to describe how a Vajrayāna Buddhist ritual universe is understood as “a
particularized world, permeated by the cosmological and metaphysical assumptions operating in the
text.” In this way, he continues, “the rituals, grounded in these assumptions, constitute the actions by
which these [assumptions] are, in turn, realized.”198 In the Vajrayāna ritual context, practitioners follow
texts, such as the SOM, to generate ritual universes in which they seek to enter not as their normal
selves, but rather as discursive or rhetorical subjects prescribed within in a text. As Wallis writes, for
practitioners the success of enacting the ritual “rests on the practitioner’s ability to become the type of
person described in the text.”199 Similar to Bell’s arguments,200 such rituals universes and subjectivities
are not only already formed, as in they already described within ritual texts, they are also formative, as
practitioners train themselves to become the discursive subjects prescribed within a text. As such, the
efficacy of such a ritual comes through the repeated enactment of a ritual, during which practitioners
seek to discipline themselves to embody the subjectivities prescribed in a text and in doing so strive to
198
Wallis, Mediating the Power of Buddhas, 1-2.
Ibid., 167.
200
Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, 98.
199
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realize that subjectivity. Thus, Vajrayāna ritual practice, Wallis writes, becomes a space for mediating
the actual and the ideal states of practitioners.201
While this may first appear to echo J.Z. Smith’s claim that rituals are arenas for consciously
acting out what ought to be rather than what is,202 I would caution against such a connection. For,
whereas Smith sees the idealized state enacted in ritual as distinctive from reality and one that remains
forever unattainable, Vajrayāna generative imagination practices understand ritual enactment as a
means of realizing the ontological claims laid forth in ritual texts. Through an iterative process of
gradual familiarization, practitioners are understood to be able to actually achieve the state of the ideal,
rhetorical practitioners laid forth in a text, and thereby to exchange the practitioner’s “present dimwitted, limited, and corrupt personality for the crystalline, spacious, and altruistic state of supreme
enlightenment.”203 In this way, practices like the SOM, serve not as free or meaningless performances,204
but as disciplined, apt performances, the repeated enactment of which leads to the induction and
development of Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects, individuals training to become the idealized subjects
described within the text. Thus, rituals like the SOM are spaces to mediate actual and ideal practitioners,
as guides to undertaking the transformation of subjects from one to the other.205 This, I would argue, is a
second way in which the ritual enactment of the SOM can be understood as performative. By reciting
201
Wallis, Mediating the Power of Buddhas, 167.
Jonathan Z. Smith, Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 63.
203
Daniel Cozort, “Sādhana (sGrub thabs): Means of Achievement for Deity Yoga,” in Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, ed. José
Ignacio Cabezón and Roger Jackson (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1996), 338.
204
On the meaninglessness of ritual, see Frits Staal’s provocative article “The Meaninglessness of Ritual,” Numen 26, 1 (1979): 222.
205
Wallis, Mediating the Power of Buddhas, 167.
202
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and enacting the text, practitioners not only generate a ritual universe, they also enact a gradually
process of training whereby they strive to become the rhetorical subjects of the text.
In the Vajrayāna context, the creation stage206 is one of the primary components of generative
imagination practices.207 Creation stage encompasses a wide variety of meanings, but is generally
described as “the practice of a sādhana of a particular deity with the aim of generating or transforming
the body, environment, enjoyments, and activities of the practitioner into the body, environment,
enjoyments and activities of a Buddha.”208 In this context, practitioners generate a constructed universe
or maṇḍala (ད7ལ་འ≥ར་) of a specific deity. In Tibetan, the term ད7ལ་འ≥ར is composed of two words meaning
‘center’ (ད7ལ་) and ‘surroundings’ (འ≥ར་), which refer to the central deity and the circumjacent retinue
and environment. Thus, the creation stage involves the practice of universe making, the transportation
of practitioners and their surroundings into enlightened sights, sounds, and thoughts through the ritual
construction of an enlightened universe. While practitioners are not initially expected to generate such
a complex universe vividly and flawlessly, with repetition practitioners it is said they will become more
206
བvད་པ)་Yམ་པ་ or utpattikrama has also been translated as ‘generation stage,’ ‘development stage,’ and ‘production stage.’
There is also the subsequent practice of the completion stage (Tib. Hགས་པ)་Yམ་པ་; Skt. sāpannakrama) which has also been
translated as ‘perfection stage’ or ‘fulfillment stage.’ While an important point of discussion, there is not room here to fully
explore both topics. For a more detailed presentation on these two stages of practice see: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Primordial
Purity: Oral Instructions on the Three Words that Strike the Vital Point, trans Ani Jinba Palmo (Halifax, NS: Vajrayairochana
Translation Committee, 1999); Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Pure Appearance: Development & Completion Stages in Vajrayana Practice,
rev. ed., trans Ani Jinpa Palmo (Halifax, NS: Vajravairochana Translation Committee, 2002); Gyatrul Rinpoche, Generating the
Deity, 2nd ed., trans. Sangye Khandro (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1996); Jigme Lingpa, A Presentation of Instructions for the
Development Stage Deity: “A Stairway Leading to Akanishta,” trans Tony Duff (Kathmandu: Padma Karpo Translation Committee,
2011); Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche, and Getse Mahāpaṇḍita, Deity, Mantra and Wisdom: Development Stage Meditation in Tibetan
Buddhist Tantra, trans. Dharmachakra Translation Committee (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2006); Jamgön Kongtrul
Rinpoche, Creation and Completion: Essential Points of Tantric Meditation, rev. ed., trans. Sarah Harding (Boston: Wisdom
Publications, 2003); Thinley Norbu, The Small Golden Key to the Treasure of Various Essential Necessities of General and Extraordinary
Buddhist Dharma, trans. Lisa Anderson (Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 1993).
208
Robert E. Buswell and Donald S. Lopez, The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014),
946.
207
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stable. As Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche states, “the dharma is something we [practitioners] have to become
accustomed to repeatedly.”209 Practicing for a long time checking one’s concentration and awareness,
Dilgo Khyentse states, “one’s practice will become stabilized.”210
In the SOM, practitioners generate a ritual universe that, as described above, Trungpa Rinpoche
revealed and translated in Bhutan to be introduced in a ‘Western’ context. Visualizing this ritual
universe, practitioners generate the maṇḍala of the charnel ground (Skt. śmāśāna; Tib. >ར་flད་) of the
wrathful deity Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi. Far from the beautiful celestial realms of benevolent deities,
practitioners call forth Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi in a blazing charnel ground, littered with corpses and
cremation pyres, wherein all manner of wrathful deities, monstrous trees, beasts, and other forces
dwell. The charnel ground imagery is common in a tantric context, especially in practices like the SOM
that serve, as the Nyingma teacher Getse Mahāpaṇḍita Tsewang Chokdrup (དo་á་པཎ་/ན་Ø་དབང་མAག་8བ་; 17611829) describes to “tame those of a more intractable nature” untamable by any other means.211 In this
way, enacting the SOM generates a charnel ground wherein Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi tames those who
need to be tamed: non-Buddhist barbarians, Lords of Materialism, and the practitioners themselves.
Similarly, Gyatrul Rinpoche (:་`ལ་Yན་0་/་; b. 1924) describes figures such as Dorje Drolö Karma
Pakshi not as wrathful in the conventional sense of being uncontrollably angry and violent, but rather
as figures who have adopted rough and tumble manifestations to overcome the negative aspects of
human dispositions. Just as parents sometimes find it necessary to harshly scold their children, so too
209
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Primordial Purity, 102.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Pure Appearance, 87.
211
Getse Mahāpaṇḍita Tsewang Chokdrup, Deity, Mantra, and Wisdom, 116.
210
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must the afflictions of sentient beings sometimes be tamed with wrathful and powerful methods. In this
way, the wrathful deity’s scary disposition is necessary so that “wild sentient beings might be tamed.”212
Noting that many sentient beings are difficult to tame with peaceful methods, wrathful deities manifest
not as expressions of anger but rather as “an intense expression of the ultimate compassion that has
manifested in coarse, illusory form to tame sentient beings impossible to tame otherwise.”213
In this way, Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi is invoked to tame individuals who are untamable by any
other, more compassionate means. He is invoked for the purpose of taming, a process that geographer
Emily Yeh notes is central to Tibetan notions of the environment and the self.214 As a manifestation of
Padmasambhava, Dorje Drolö is seen as a heroic and ruthless being who tamed obstructive forces of the
land to clear a pathway for the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet. This, as we shall see, is important
when considering the role of the SOM in making Vajrayāna subjectivities. As practitioners repeatedly
enact the generation of the ritual universe of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi, they are simultaneously
engaging in a process of positioning themselves within his realm as subjects to be tamed.
At the same time, practitioners of the SOM do more than enact a ritual universe and their
position within it through the creation stage, they also train their subjectivity both within and outside
of the ritual practice setting. As performative acts, Tambiah argues that ritual enactments are also
powerful methods for inscribing in subjects a set of social relations within a broader cosmological
paradigm. A powerful impulse for the enactment of ritual, he writes, comes from the fact of “ritual’s
212
Gyatrul Rinpoche, Generating the Deity, 55.
Ibid., 50.
214
Emily Yeh, Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development (Ithaca and London: Cornell University
Press, 2013), 5-6.
213
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duplex existence, as an entity that symbolically and/or iconically represents the cosmos and at the
same time indexically legitimates and realizes social hierarchies.”215 In this way, ritual enactment
exhibits a form of disciplining or subject-making that links cosmological and ontological truth-claims in
the ritual world with social relations outside of it through the medium of performance.
Tambiah uses the term indexical symbols to describe how objects or aspects within a ritual
context point to social truths outside of the ritual context and have “an existential and pragmatic
relation with the objects they represent.”216 In this way, not only do forces within a ritual point to
aspects of the social context outside of the ritual, but the way they are presented within a ritual also
carries over to the qualities of the entities they are linked to outside of it. In the SOM, practitioners
generate figures and hierarchical relations within the ritual universe of the text, which are indexically
linked to dispositions demanded of Vajrayāna subjects outside of the ritual context. This is seen, most
notably in the connection between the authority and power of the central deity and retinue and the
practitioner’s Vajrayāna teacher and lineage. In the SOM, this is manifest in the connection between
Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi and Trungpa Rinpoche. Thus, practitioners of the SOM train as subjects of the
hierarchical, ontological, and soteriological claims of the text’s ritual universe, and in doing so also
train as subjects of the hierarchies and truth-claims in the world outside of the ritual.
Thus, the ritual universe generated in a Vajrayāna practice, such as the SOM, can be understood as a
space to enact and rehearse a set of relations and understandings of hierarchical, ontological, and
soteriological truths. In this iterative, disciplinary process, practitioners invoke a ritual universe and
215
216
Tambiah, “A Performative Approach to Ritual,” 153.
Ibid., 154.
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train themselves to embody a subjectivity that is laid out within it. In doing so, practitioners are not
only inducting and developing themselves as subjects of one specific Vajrayāna ritual universe, but are
disciplining themselves as Vajrayāna subjects in the world more broadly. As such, the SOM introduces
students not only to Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi and other members of the Ka-Nying pantheon and
lineage, but also inducts them as Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects of the Ka-Nying school and its teachers,
especially as students of Trungpa Rinpoche.
B. The Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects in the Sādhana of Mahamudra
The text of the SOM begins with a telling description that not only surveys the circumstances of
practitioners, but also positions them for enacting the remainder of the ritual. The opening lines state:
This is the darkest hour of the dark ages.༔ Disease, famine and warfare are raging like the
fierce north wind.༔ The Buddha’s teaching has waned in strength.༔ The various schools of
the saṅgha are fighting amongst themselves with sectarian bitterness; and although the
Buddha’s teachings were perfectly expounded and there have been many reliable
teachings since then from other great gurus, yet they pursue intellectual speculations.༔
The sacred mantra has strayed into Pön,217 and the yogīs of tantra are losing the insight of
meditation.༔ They spend their whole time going through villages and performing little
ceremonies for material gain.༔
… The jewellike teaching of insight is fading day by day.༔ The Buddha’s teaching is used
merely for political purposes and to draw people together socially.༔ As a result, the
blessings of spiritual energy are being lost. Even those with great devotion are beginning
to lose heart.༔ If the buddhas of the three times and the great teachers were to comment,
they would surely express their disappointment.༔ So to enable individuals to ask for their
help and to renew spiritual strength, I have written this sādhana of the embodiment of all
the siddhas.༔218
Before even beginning to recite the liturgical text, practitioners read silently or listen as a chant leader
217
218
This is a reference to ¢ན་/Bön.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 5.
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(ད∞་མཛད་) describes the wretched state of the world. Thus, practitioners begin the SOM already having
positioned themselves as lost in a sea of materialistic horror, crying out to the Buddhas and Buddhist
teachers for help. As discussed above, this type of anti-materialist language had a lot of currency among
many of those who the SOM was introduced to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
This connection, nonetheless, is rhetorically linked to a specific Vajrayāna universe of the SOM
that practitioners are then called to enact, enter into, and in the process, become subjects of. By
beginning the SOM in this way, practitioners rehearse their initial disposition as remorseful and fed up
with the anguish of worldly existence, the corrupt state of current spirituality, and the importance of
Buddhist authorities as possessing knowledge of a way out of this whole mess. In other words,
practitioners invoke the dejected state of the world and position themselves as beneficiaries of the
Buddhas and Vajrayāna teachers, aspiring for their blessings to remedy this situation.
As with most other sādhana-s, during the generative imagination of the SOM, practitioners move
from the outermost to the innermost elements of the ritual universe. Beginning with the environment,
practitioners imagine the palace and retinue of the deity. The charnel ground, a symbol of the ruinous
nature of worldly existence and attachments and the first noble truth of suffering,219 is filled with all
manner of gruesome and scary phenomena, which are described as “the raw and rugged experience of
our life, as it is.”220 These include the Three Poisons (>ག་གmམ་) transmuted into the Three Wisdoms (™་àས་
གmམ་), which are “the vajra anger, the flame of death,” which “burns fiercely and consumes the fabric of
219
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 130-131.
Dorje Loppön Lodrö Dorje in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans. and ed., The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā: Resources for
Study, 20.
220
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dualistic thoughts,” “the black river of death, the vajra passion” which “destroys the raft of
conceptualization,” and the “great poisonous wind of the vajra ignorance” which “sweeps away all
thoughts of possessiveness and self like a pile of dust.”221 Additionally, there are all manner of fearsome
beasts, including vultures, ravens, hawks, tigers, bears, and jackals who roam about, flaunting their
strength, craving meat and blood.222 Reciting these lines, practitioners enter into the universe of the
charnel grounds of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi. The imagery is overwhelming, but that, according to one
of Trungpa Rinpoche’s senior students, Derek Kolleeny, is the nature of its power over practitioners.223
In enacting the SOM, practitioners generate and enter a Ka-Nying Vajrayāna universe, thereby
establishing themselves in deference to and reliance upon Ka-Nying protectors, deities, and lineage
figures, the embodiments of the Three Roots of Vajrayāna practice. In doing so, practitioners are
themselves becoming ‘refugees,’ so to speak, subjects who revere the Three Roots as a source of
blessings and realization. Along with the outer environment of the SOM, practitioners invoke one of the
Three Roots, the protector deities that connect them to Trungpa Rinpoche’s Ka-Nying lineage of
Buddhism. These are described in the practice text as the protecting mahākālis.224 Rather than an
association with the Hindu deity, Kāli or Mahākāli, this term is Trungpa Rinpoche’s translation for the
Tibetan term ma-mo (མ་ö་), a class of goddesses that are said to have been tamed by Padmasambhava
upon his arrival in Tibet. They can bring both disaster, disease, and misfortune, but can also act as
221
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 8.
Ibid., 9.
223
Derek Kolleeny, personal communication with author, 12 November 2017.
224
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 9.
222
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dharma protectors.225 These include the goddesses Rangjung Gyalmo (Skt. Svayambhūdevī; Tib. རང་uང་:ལ་
ö་), Dorje Sogdrubma (Tib. Q་R་´ག་?བ་མ་), Tüsölma (Skt. Dhūmavatī; Tib. >ད་Fལ་མ་), and Ekajaṭī (‚་ཀ་ཛ་„་).
Of particular interest here are these figures connections to Padmasambhava and Dorje Drolö as
well as to the Karma Kagyü lineage. Tüsölma, for example, is often associated as a personal protector for
Marpa Lotsawa (མར་པ་i་ཙ་བ་; 1012-1097/9), one of the founders of the Kagyü lineage. Ekajaṭī, in addition to
being a protector deity in the Karma Kagyü, is also considered one of the primary protectors of the
Treasure tradition among the Nyingma. This Ka-Nying connection can be seen further in the protector
deities at the bottom of the Sādhana of Mahāmudrā scroll painting (Skt. paṭa; Tib. ཐང་ཁ་) [See Appendix II],
painted under Trungpa Rinpoche’ guidance by Sherab Palden Beru.226 On the bottom left and center are
the figures Rangjung Gyalmo and two-armed Mahākāla (ནག་0་/ན་0་), protectors of the Karmapas and the
Karma Kagyü lineage. Although two-armed Mahākāla (©ར་ནག་ཅན་) is not mentioned in the SOM text, this
Kagyü protector’s inclusion in the thangka seems purposeful as two-armed Mahākāla was originally a
protector of the Nyingma Treasure tradition but was brought into the Kagyü by the Second Karmapa.227
The Second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi is half of the central deity of the SOM, Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi.
The third dharma protector in the painting, Garwa Nagpo (Tib. དམ་ཅན་མགར་བ་ནག་0་), also presents a
joining of Kagyü and Nyingma iconographies. An emanation of the primarily Nyingma Treasure
For more on མ་ö་, see Réne de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet: The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective
Deities (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), 269-273.
226
Larry Mermelstein in Jeffrey Dolma, Sherab Palden Beru, and David Senge Neviasky, ed., A Tribute to the Life and Work of Sherab
Palden Beru on the Occasion of His 100th Birthday Celebration, 14th August 2011 (Blurb Books, 2011), 99.
227
Jeff Watt, “Mahakala: Bernagchen (Black Cloak),” Himalayan Art Resources, last updated October 2008, accessed 19 March 2017,
http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=417.
225
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protector Dorje Legpa (Skt. Vajrasādhu; Tib. Q་R་Äགས་པ་;), in the scroll painting, their forms overlap. In the
Kagyü Garwa Nagpo is normally depicted with a blue body. 228 In the SOM scroll painting, however, his
body is red, marking, a combination of the Kagyü Garwa Nagpo with the Nyingma Dorje Legpa, who
normally is red. This figure, along with the other protectors in the SOM text and scroll painting, stresses
the combination of Kagyü and Nyingma teachings in the SOM.229 By invoking these figures, SOM
practitioners not only generate and enter into the charnel ground as beings disgusted with the nature
of worldly existence, they also enter a universe where they are both protected by guardians of both the
Kagyü and Nyingma schools. In doing so, practitioners train themselves in a deferential relationship to
these figures who have the power to manifest as either friendly goddesses or harmful demons.
The SOM then describes the central deity of this wrathful maṇḍala, Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi,
“the personification of the body, speech, and mind of all the buddhas.”230 He emerges from the seed
syllable (Skt. bīja; Tib. Oགས་´ག) HŪṂ and stands in the heruka (ñག་འOང་) posture atop a pregnant tigress, a
manifestation of his consort, Yeshe Tsögyal.231 Each aspect of his figure is described in detail with its
own meaning. His body which is a dark red color symbolizes the oneness of emptiness and compassion
and he wears the three monastic robes, which symbolize the three higher trainings (Skt. triśikṣa; Tib. Âག་
པ)་བÊབ་པ་གmམ་;). His right hand holds a nine-pointed vajra (Q་R་) and his left hand holds a three-pointed kīla
228
Nālānda Translation Committee, “Vajrasadhu,” Nālānda Translation Committee, accessed 19 March 2017,
https://www.nalandatranslation.org/offerings/notes-on-the-daily-chants/commentaries/vajrasadhu.
229
While space does not permit a nuanced discussion of this topic here, the subject of the union of Kagyü and Nyingma
teachings in the SOM, and particularly the interrelation between the Kagyü mahāmudrā teachings and the mahāati (Hགས་པ་/ན་0་) is
a subject that warrants its own exploration.
230
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 10.
231
Other accounts describe the tigress as a manifestation of another of Padmasambhava’s consorts, Tashi Chidren (བÁ་བKས་Ë་འÈན་)
See, for example, Khenpo Palden Sherab, “The Eight Manifestations of Guru Padmasambhava”; Keith Dowman, Sky Dancer: The
Secret Life and Songs of the Lady Yeshe Tsogyel (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1996), 270.
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(≤ར་པ་). Dorje Drolö is overlaid with the Second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi, seen especially through Karma
Pakshi’s black goatee and the black crown (Í་ནག་) of the Karmapa lineage. Karma Pakshi is depicted in
guruyoga, form, holding a vajra and kīla, thus making him a central part of the tutelary deity.232 The text
further emphasizes Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi’s demeanor and wrathful nature, noting that “He is
inseparable from peacefulness and yet he acts whenever action is required.༔ He subdues what needs to
be subdued, he destroys what needs to be destroyed and he cares for whatever needs his care.༔”233
Having accepted the dejected state of the world, practitioners invoke the need for themselves and the
surrounding world to be tamed and cleared of obstructions. Accordingly, practitioners train themselves
to call forth Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi to enact the wrathful activities of subjugation and destruction at
the center of the SOM’s ritual universe.
Both Dorje Drolö and Karma Pakshi are particularly powerful figures who are described as
devastating forces that oppose the buddhadharma. Dorje Drolö, as previous mentioned, is a wrathful
emanation of Padmasambhava, and is especially associated with taming demons and spirits. Trungpa
Rinpoche describes Dorje Drolö as representing “the aspect of crazy wisdom234 that doesn’t relate with
232
There is an interesting connection here with the origin story of Karma Pakshi as a tutelary deity, appearing first in a vision
to the famous Nyingma Treasure Revealer Yongge Mingyur Dorje (ƒངས་དo་w་འ5ར་Q་R་; 1628/41-1708). This is particularly
intriguing as the story relates that the protector deities that appeared to Yonge Mingyur Dorje were the same as painted in the
SOM scroll painting (Two-Armed Mahākāla, Rangjung Gyalmo, and Garwa Nakpo). A fuller exploration of this connection,
however, is outside the scope of this project. For more information see: Jeff Watt, “Teacher: Karmapa, Karma Pakshi
(Guruyoga), Himalayan Art Resources, accessed 19 March 2017, http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=2216.
233
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 10.
This is an interesting term that Trungpa Rinpoche says corresponds to the Tibetan word ™་àས་འAལ་བ་ and to a whole class of
rather extraordinary and controversial religious teachers in Tibet and the Himalayas. David DiValerio, however, makes an
234
interesting case that Trungpa Rinpoche likely invented this term himself and notes that the term ™་àས་འAལ་བ་ does not exist in
traditional hagiographies or other sources. The term does, however, roughly map onto the ‘madman’ (Îན་པ་) phenomenon in
Tibetan literature, which was long used to describe unconventional figures such as Drukpa Kunleg (འÏག་པ་ཀན་Äགས་; 1455-1529) or
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gentleness in order to tame somebody.”235 Rather, he is “an enlightened samurai, a savage person, a
crazy-wisdom person,”236 who tames forces, both external and internal to the practitioner, obstructive
to the buddhadharma. Karma Pakshi, on the other hand, was famous for teaching at the Mongol court
and for supposedly surviving numerous forms of torture and attempted assassination.237 His ferocity
and unpredictability match well with those of Dorje Drolö and together the two form a rather powerful
force at the center of the charnel grounds of the SOM. For practitioners, Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi is
supplicated to not only grant blessings but also to eliminate obstructive forces. These include not only
those external, but also those within the mind of the practitioner, thereby positioning the practitioner
as a subject to be freed from obstacles and tamed by Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi’s wrathful means. These
obscurations are not worked through gradually, but are rather pierced through directly and severed.238
The SOM continues to describe three Karma Kagyü lineage figures at the forehead (དÌལ་བ་),
throat (མ∆ན་པ་), and heart (Oགས་ཀ་) of Karma Pakshi Dorje Drolö. The first figure is the First Karmapa
Tüsum Khyenpa (>ས་གmམ་མÜན་པ་; 1110-1193), in the form of the Buddha Vairochana (åམ་པར་bང་མཛད་). The
second is the Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje (w་བsད་Q་R་; 1507-1554) in the form of the Buddha Amitābha (bང་བ་
མཐའ་ཡས་). Revered as a great meditator, scholar, and grammarian, he holds the sword of wisdom, which
cuts through conceptions of a permanent self. Finally, the third figure is the Third Karmapa, Rangjung
Tsangnyön Heruka (གཙང་Îན་Ó་z་ཀ་; 1452-1507). For more, see David DiValerio, “Chapter 7: The Enduring Trope of Holy Madness,”
in The Holy Madmen of Tibet (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 220-242.
235
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 113.
236
Ibid., 113.
237
For more information see: Karma Thinley, The History of the Sixteen Karmapas of Tibet (Boulder, CO: Prajna Press, 1980);
Michelle Sorenson, “The Second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi,” The Treasury of Lives, accessed March 15, 2017,
http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Second-Karmapa-Karma-Pakshi/2776.
238
Barry Boyce, personal communication with author, 12 November 2015.
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Dorje (རང་uང་Q་R་; 1284-1339) in the form of the Buddha Vajrasattva (Q་R་qམས་དཔའ་). He is depicted as the
primordial (Skt. adibuddha; Tib. 9ག་མ)་སངས་:ས་) Buddha of the Nyingma school, Samantabhadra (œན་∫་བཟང་0་),
although he wears the black crown of the Karmapas. In positioning these figures as the body, speech,
and mind of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi, practitioners relate to them as manifestations of enlightened
form, enlightened speech, and enlightened mind, as well as realized lineage figures in the Kagyü school.
Thus, by enacting their exalted place within the ritual universe, practitioners position and train
themselves as disciples of this lineage, reliant upon them as the source of blessings and realization.
For Trungpa Rinpoche, these lineage figures were not merely historical antecedents to be
respected, but were rather forces that transcended temporal boundaries. They are not figures limited to
the past, but are present today, most especially as they are embodied in those who carry their tradition.
To practice with a Vajrayāna teacher, Trungpa Rinpoche states, is “like studying with somebody who is
fully soaked in his or her own tradition,”239 with someone who is “the spokesperson for your lineage.”240
In this way, Kolleeny describes Trungpa Rinpoche as an embodiment of thousands of years of teachers
and teachings brought to life.241 Understood in this way, Trungpa Rinpoche himself becomes an
embodiment of these lineage figures in the universe outside of the SOM, and by connecting with them,
practitioners relate with Trungpa Rinpoche as an embodiment of their realization and power. As such,
in generating these figures, practitioners train themselves in a relationship to Trungpa Rinpoche as a
Vajrayāna teacher, as the source of the teachings and wisdom of the Ka-Nying lineages.
239
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 118.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Profound Treasury of The Ocean of Dharma Volume Three: The Tantric Path of Indestructible
Wakefulness (Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2013), 369.
241
Derek Kolleeny, personal communication with author, October 29 2015.
240
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Taken together, the protectors, tutelary deity, and lineage figures embody the Three Roots of
Vajrayāna practice. In generating and paying homage to them, practitioners not only place themselves
within a specific Vajrayāna universe, they also enter into relation with these three groups of figures in a
very specific way. Trungpa Rinpoche described the practice of taking refuge as definite commitment,
like stepping onto a “train without reverse and without breaks.”242 It is the moment when one receives
transmission and becomes a “full-fledged follower of the buddhadharma” and a follower of one’s
lineage.243 Key to the action of taking refuge is the practitioner’s surrender and devotion to the Three
Jewels, which in the Vajrayāna context are the Three Roots. Similarly, Trungpa Rinpoche describes
devotion as the basis for the SOM, noting that the practice cannot be properly understood without
“appreciating the sense of hierarchy… in the relationship of the teacher and the student.”244 As such, the
objects of refuge and sources of blessing are preserved in the English practice text and deemed nonnegotiable conditions for its enactment. Thus, in enacting, paying homage, and expressing reliance
upon these figures for blessings, protection, and attainment, practitioners of the SOM train themselves
as Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects who go for refuge in the Three Roots as the source of teachings and
realization.245 What is more, they become ‘refugees’ of a very distinctive Ka-Nying inflection.
Following the generation of the ritual universe of the SOM, practitioners further establish their
place amidst the forces within it, as mentioned above. In this section of supplication, practitioners
242
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Heart of the Buddha: Entering the Tibetan Buddhist Path, ed. Judith L. Lief (Boston and London:
Shambhala Publications, 2010), 73.
243
Ibid., 86.
244
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 85-86.
245
Of the Three Roots, the Teacher is the source of blessings (Skt. adhiṣṭhāna; Tib. …ན་བÔབས་), the central deity is the source of
accomplishment (Skt. siddhi; Tib. ད=ས་8བ་), and the protectors or Sky-Goers are the source of activity (Skt. karman; Tib.eན་ལས་).
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invoke a sense of deference and humility, relating with their own delusions and with the brilliance of
the figures within the SOM. As Trungpa Rinpoche states, this is where practitioners try to relate with
the glorious condition of the deities. “Our own condition is highly wretched. So we are trying to link
together wretchedness and gloriousness.”246 This is done not particularly by turning Dorje Drolö Karma
Pakshi into a divine savior, but rather through a process of transmutation. Like much of tantric practice,
in the SOM, practitioners enact the transmutation of afflictions to productive use on the spiritual path.
This is seen in lines, such as “On seeing your face I am overjoyed.༔ Now pain and pleasure alike have
become༔ Ornaments which it is pleasant to wear. ༔”247 While in hīnayāna (Sག་pང) practice, one is exhorted
to abandon these and cultivate their antidotes, in the Vajrayāna248 the afflictions and their remedies are
alchemically transmuted and considered of the one taste (Skt. samarāsa/ekarāsa; Tib. ì་མས་/ì་ག3ག་).
Practitioners make supplications then, not to beseech a higher power to enlighten them, but
rather to assist them in ultimately realizing their own innate enlightened nature (Skt. tathāgatagarbha/
sugatagarbha; Tib. ¥་བùན་གàགས་པ)་∑ང་0་དང་བ¥་བར་གàགས་པ)་∑ང་0་). Trungpa Rinpoche asserts that practitioners
should develop devotion and admiration towards the figures in the SOM to cultivate an outlook that
does not express an expectation of deliverance, but is devoid of self-centered ideas altogether. Such
devotion (öས་yས་), he notes, is characterized by the qualities of longing and an absence of arrogance.
This attitude, he points out, “can only exist when you have no personal investment in the ‘cause’…You
246
247
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 47.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 18.
Here, I am not referring to the three vehicles (Skt. triyāna; Tib. Sག་པ་གmམ་) as historical developments, but rather echoing
Vajrayāna formulations of the three vehicles as three different modes of practice (e.g. practicing for one’s self, practicing for
the benefit of others, practicing based upon cultivating pure perception).
248
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are no longer expecting a certain cut of the deal.”249 Elsewhere he notes that practitioners “have to give
in on the spot,” and there can be no holding back to any notion of selfhood.
Subsequently, after practitioners have opened and offered their ‘selves’ up, they make offerings
and request for the blessings of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi and the lineage. The SOM text states:
Whatever arises is merely the play of the mind.༔
All this I offer, filling the whole universe.༔
I offer knowing that giver and receiver are one;༔
I offer without expecting anything in return and without hope of gaining merit;༔
I make these offerings with transcendental generosity in the mahāmudrā.༔
Now that I have made these offerings, please grant your blessings so that my mind may
be one with the dharma.༔
Grant your blessings so that dharma may progress along the path.༔
Grant your blessings so that the path may clarify confusion.༔
Grant your blessings so that confusion may dawn as wisdom.༔250, 251
In this way, practitioners offer up all of their surroundings and mental activities in what amounts to a
complete surrender to Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi and the Vajrayāna teacher.252 Trungpa Rinpoche notes
that, “You can’t actually receive blessings unless you are open to the guru, and the guru is open to you.
That is the basic point.”253 With openness there can be a transference, not only of blessings, but also of
the essence of the buddhadharma itself. As Trungpa Rinpoche explains, this latter point it what one is
striving to enact in the SOM, “We are appreciating a particular aspect of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi, and
249
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 152.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 20-21.
251
These are, of course, the Four Dharmas of Gampopa, a traditional and concise formulation of the entire Buddhist path, which
has been the focus of a great deal of attention with the Kagyü tradition in particular. For Trungpa Rinpoche’s thoughts see the
transcripts of a series of talks gave in 1975 at Karmê Chöling, VT republished in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Four Dharmas
of Gampopa (Halifax, NS and Boulder, CO: Vajradhatu Publications, 2007).
252
Barry Boyce, personal communication with author, 19 November 2015.
253
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 159.
250
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we are appreciating that particular aspect coming to us.”254 In this way, practitioners of the SOM enact
the giving away of their ‘selfhood,’ thereby positing a subject devoid of notions of self as the empty
vessel for the blessings and the mind of the teacher to be poured into. As Boyce states, the Vajrayāna
teachers and lineage figures are the fullness that practitioners seek to be filled with.255 This is the final
preparation in the SOM before practitioners enact the meeting of their mind with the mind of the
teacher.256 Practitioners train themselves to offer attachments to sensory objects and the self-clinging
ego to receive the blessings of the central deity and the Vajrayāna teacher. In doing this, practitioners
enact the loosen the strings of their attachments to the material world and to themselves.
Finally, at the apex of the SOM text, practitioners enact the meeting of their mind with those of
the teacher and lineage through the recitation of the triple HŪṂ mantra. Trungpa Rinpoche describes
this mantra as the point in the liturgy when “the boundary between you and your guru becomes vague,
and you are uncertain whether or not a boundary exists at all. At that point, there is a possibility of
being one with your guru.”257 Having created the proper conditions through the generation and
entrance into the subjectivity prescribed within the SOM text, at the moment practitioners enact the
performative utterance of the mantra recitation they are understood to receive the empowerment from
the teacher. Barry Boyce describes the mantra recitation as a proclamation that links the practitioner
with the deity and the teacher, as moment as akin to electricity running from the teacher to the
student.258 In a very Austinian sense, the recitation of the triple HŪṂ delivers what Trungpa calls this
254
Ibid., 160.
Barry Boyce, personal communication with author, 19 November 2015.
256
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 177.
257
Ibid., 73.
258
Barry Boyce, personal communication with author, 19 November 2015.
255
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the “final ati stamp of approval,” a sign that “real things have taken place in the proper way.”259 In this
way, having first generated the proper environment and devotional attitude in the previous sections of
the SOM, the recitation of the mantra serves as a proclamation that inaugurates practitioners as
Vajrayāna subjects and as students of the Vajrayāna teacher.
What becomes apparent in the way the SOM is discussed and the language of the text is that
there is a great deal of slippage between Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi and the figure of the teacher. Indeed,
this is because although not explicitly stated in the SOM text or the two seminars that Trungpa
Rinpoche gave on the practice in 1975, in the Vajrayāna practitioners’ tutelary deity is understood to be
their teacher and vice-versa.260 As Trungpa Rinpoche says while explaining the Vajrayāna path,
since the guru gave you your yidam, the guru is the yidam, and the yidam is your guru. The
yidam might be regarded as something transcendental and extraordinary, in the realm of
the gods, but your guru's activities can be seen in the ordinary world. The guru is an actual
physical, corporeal being who you can relate with as an expression of your yidam.261
The energy, power, and wisdom of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi is indexically linked to that of Trungpa
Rinpoche. Thus, in enacting the ritual universe of the SOM, practitioners not only position themselves as
subjects to be tamed by Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi, but also by Trungpa Rinpoche himself. Here, it is
important to note that this language of taming and of students submitting themselves to a teacher is
fraught with complexities. Indeed, tantric practice more broadly accords the spiritual teacher an
incredibly charged role, as the source of all blessings and realization with tremendous authority over
259
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 74.
260
Indeed, a more precise classification for the SOM rather that the general term for generative imaginaries (›མ་པ་) is the term
guru yoga (|་མ)་åལ་འfiར་), which is the practice of visualizing the guru, requesting her/his blessings, receiving those blessings, and
ultimately merging one’s mind with that of the teacher.
261
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Profound Treasury of The Ocean of Dharma Volume Three, 370.
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her or his students. Numerous sources both within and external to various tantric practice traditions
issue both cautionary tales against the potential for abuse in this relationship, as well as stories that
honor the figure of the spiritual teacher as the key to spiritual realization.262 While Trungpa Rinpoche
does not question the importance of this relationship, indeed he celebrates it, he also cautions students
to not only develop openness and devotion toward their teacher, but to also be cynical. In discussing
the SOM, he says that the two, devotion and cynicism are synchronized together. “It shouldn’t be a
purely kill-or-cure situation. You think that you have to be very naïve or terribly cynical to the point of
being ready to drop the whole thing.” Rather, somehow “those two attitudes have to work together.”263
Thus, in enacting the SOM, Trungpa Rinpoche exhorts practitioners not to view Dorje Drolö Karma
Pakshi or the figure of the teacher as a savior, but rather as beings with the “ways and means to create
situations in according with our own receptivity.”264
Although in a more traditional course of Vajrayāna study and practice, practitioners would be
262
For academic discussions of the complexity of the student-teacher relationship in tantra, see: Hugh Urban, The Power of
Tantra: Religion Sexuality and the Politics of South Asian Studies (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2010); Hugh Urban, Tantra: Sex,
Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). In the Tibetan tradition, the
student-teacher relationship is explored at length in numerous volumes, many of which have been translated into English,
such as Jamgön Kongtrul, The Student Teacher Relationship, trans., Ron Garry (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1999); Patrul
Rinpoche, Words of my Perfect Teacher, trans., Padmakara Translation Group (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1998).
Additionally, this topic is commonly explored in hagiographies, such as those of Milarepa, Marpa, and Tilopa in the Kagyü
school. See: Mar-pa chos-kyi bLo-gros, The Life of the Mahāsiddha Tilopa, trans., Fabrizio Torricelli and Āchārya Sangye T. Naga,
ed., Vyvyan Cayley (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1995); Tsangnyön Heruka, The Life of Marpa The
Translator: Seeing Accomplishes All, tras., Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Nālānda Translation Committee (Boulder: Prajñā
Press, 1982); Tsangnyön Heruka, The Life of Milarepa, trans., Andrew Quintman (New York: Penguin Books, 2010). In the context
of Vajrayāna in the West, the German monk Tenzin Peljor, has put collected and published a series of resources and critical
essays from both scholars and practitioners, such as the 14th Dalai Lama, Alexander Berzin, Jetsuma Tenzin Palmo, Rob Preece,
Jamgön Kongtrul, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, John Snelling, and others on the topic of the student-teacher relationship in
the Vajrayāna. See his website: Tenzin Peljor, ed., Tibetan Buddhism in the West: Problems of Adoption & Cross-Cultural Confusion,
accessed 22 April 2017, http://www.info-buddhism.com.
263
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, 101.
264
Ibid., 98.
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introduced to a similar practice through a ritual empowerment by their Vajrayāna teacher,265 during
which they would be given a meditative deity, in the case of the SOM, this situation is inverted. In the
SOM, practitioners become introduced to Trungpa Rinpoche as a Vajrayāna teacher through the
generation of and devotion expressed towards Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi and the lineage figures in the
Ka-Nying the charnel ground of the SOM. As such, these figures serve as indexical symbols linked to
Trungpa Rinpoche and thus, the deferential and devotional positionality practitioners enact in relation
to them is transferred to how they relate with Trungpa Rinpoche and vice-versa.
By enacting and positioning themselves as beings to be tamed within the context of the SOM’s
ritual universe, practitioners are actively participating in their induction into a Ka-Nying Vajrayāna
cosmology that imparts a Vajrayāna ontology with the teacher as the revered source of teachings,
blessings, and realization. In doing so, they train themselves gradually to become the rhetorical
Vajrayāna subjects envisioned in the SOM: confused and deluded beings, who offer up attachments to
themselves in need of the blessings, protections, teachings, and taming not only by Dorje Drolö Karma
Pakshi and other Ka-Nying figures, but also by their Vajrayāna teacher, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Thus, it is through repeated enactments of the SOM that practitioners seek to train in and embody this
specific subjectivity, which is itself laid out in the SOM. It is in this sense that the enactment of the SOM
functions in Asad’s sense as an ‘apt performance,’ as a disciplined set of actions aimed at mastering a
subjectivity that is itself described within the ritual text.
265
An initiation text for the SOM was penned at the request of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche in 1988.
In 1993, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche used this text for the first time to confer the empowerment for the first time within the
Shambhala community. See Larry Mermelstein, “Introduction,” in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans. and ed., The
Sādhana of Mahāmudrā: Resources for Study, xiii.
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Tambiah observes that in the context of religious transmission, although transmitters of a text
or practice may act to change or violate particular traditional norms to transform said ritual for a new
context, the innovator might not be attempting “to upset the over-all framework of customs.” Rather,
in transforming certain aspects of the ritual, the innovator may actually expand the sphere of influence
and felicity of the practice.266 Similarly, I would argue that Trungpa Rinpoche strategically translated
the SOM, domesticating certain words of the text to resonate with his ‘Western’ students in order to
recruit them as subjects of the foreign Vajrayāna world of the text. Rather than abandoning his KaNying Vajrayāna training, Trungpa Rinpoche employed a strategic domestication to bring students out
of their cultural context and into the foreign universe of the SOM, firmly grounded in reverence for the
Three Roots and the figure of the Vajrayāna teacher. In this way, I would argue that the SOM represents
an important example of a transnational and transcultural Treasure text, that translates Vajrayāna
worlds in a way that expands the technology of Vajrayāna subject-making into a novel context. In doing
so, the SOM serves as an early means of transmitting the Vajrayāna to the ‘West.’
266
Tambiah, “A Performative Approach to Ritual,” 160.
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V. Conclusion: Taming Subjects and Opening the Gates for the Ocean of Dharma
The story of the establishment of Buddhism in Tibet is largely tied to Padmasambhava’s taming
of numerous obstructive forces of the Tibetan and Himalayan landscape. As described in The Lotus
Born,267 Padmasambhava was invited to Tibet after the Tibetan King Trisong Deutsen (Æ་´ང་¥Ò་བཙན་; 742800) and Indian Abbot Śāntarakṣita (ù་བ་འ<་; 725-788) were unable to construct the monastery of Samyé.
According to the story, despite the pair’s best efforts, whatever work was laid down during the day was
torn asunder during the night by all manner of malicious deities, spirits, demons, and other forces of
the land. In response, Śāntarakṣita finally proclaimed,
These malicious gods and demons of Tibet must be tamed by wrathful means. In the cave
of Yangleshö in Nepal stays a siddha, who became the son of the king of Uddiyana. He is
the incarnated Padmasambhava, who possesses great spiritual strength and overwhelming
power… If you invite him, he will fulfill your aspiration and subjugate the local spirits.268
Subsequently, Padmasambhava was requested to come to Tibet and subjugate forces in the surrounding
landscape as he traveled. Once he subdued the obstructing forces, the construction of Samyé could be
completed.269 In the end, no matter the altruistic intentions of the King or Śāntarakṣita, only after
Padmasambhava subjugated and tamed these forces that opposed the buddhadharma, could the
buddhadharma enter Tibet.
Just over one thousand years later, this history was localized for many of Trungpa Rinpoche’s
‘Western’ students in the way that Trungpa Rinpoche related it to their own circumstances. In a series
The full title of this work is Úབ་ད0ན་པt་འuང་ནས་7་vས་རབས་Aས་འuང་Ûར་∞)་Ùང་བ་åམ་ཐར་ཟང་§ངས་མı། It is commonly abbreviated to the ཟང་§ང་མ།
Yeshe Tsogyal, The Lotus-Born: The Life Story of Padmasambhava, revealed by Nyangrel Nyima Öser, trans. Erik Pema Kunsang,
ed. Marcia Binder Schmidt (Boudhanath and Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2004), 59.
269
For a complete version of this story, see Yeshe Tsogyal, The Lotus-Born, 57-74.
267
268
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of talks given in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 1972, for example, Trungpa Rinpoche brings
Padmasambhava and the entrance of Buddhism to Tibet and the Himalayas into an analogous situation
with the then-present situation of the Vajrayāna entering the ‘West.’ Trungpa Rinpoche states,
The students he [Padmasambhava] had to deal with were Tibetans, who were
extraordinarily savage and uncultured. He was invited to come to Tibet, but the Tibetans
showed very little understanding of how to receive and welcome a great guru from another
part of the world. They were very stubborn and very matter-of-fact—very earthy. They
presented all kinds of obstacles to Padmasambhava's activity in Tibet. However, the
obstacles did not come from the Tibetan people alone, but also from differences in climate,
landscape, and the social situation as a whole. In some ways, Padmasambhava's situation
was very similar to our situation here. Americans are hospitable, but on the other hand
there is a very savage and rugged side to American culture. Spiritually, American culture
is not conducive to just bringing out the brilliant light and expecting it to be accepted. So
there is an analogy here. In terms of that analogy, the Tibetans are the Americans and
Padmasambhava is himself.270
What emerges from this statement is a connection between Tibet before the introduction of Buddhism
and the non-Buddhist US of the early 1970s. In both contexts, Trungpa Rinpoche notes that although
many individuals are well intentioned, there are all manner of physical and psychological opposing
forces that prevented the entrance of the buddhadharma. What is necessary in both cases before the
Buddhist teachings can be established, he suggests, is for Dorje Drolö to enter and tame these
obstructing forces. As Boyce notes, in the same way that Padmasambhava manifested as Dorje Drolö to
deal with the wilds of Tibet, Trungpa Rinpoche repeated that manifestation as Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi
to bring Buddhism to the ‘West.’271 However, if the ‘West’ was not full of demons and evil spirits, then
what were the obstructions that Dorje Drolö was being called upon to overcome?
270
271
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Crazy Wisdom, ed. Sherab Chödzin (Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2001), 4.
Barry Boyce, personal communication with author, 22 October 2015.
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As I have illustrated above, for Trungpa Rinpoche the most pernicious force preventing the
establishment of the buddhadharma during his early years of teaching was that of spiritual materialism.
This tendency for individuals to use spiritual practices to build up their own egos and notions of a
definitive ‘self,’ evidenced in the spiritual supermarket of the 1960s and 1970s, firmly undercut the
establishment of the Vajrayāna. As longtime student and current Shambhala senior teacher, Acharya
Jeremy Hayward notes, taming and cutting through ‘spiritual materialism’ was for Trungpa Rinpoche
“the key to laying the ground so that Buddhism could be presented properly in the West, and so that the
true dharma could actually be heard by Western students.”272 In other words, before the buddhadharma
could be successfully transmitted to the ‘West,’ the obstructive forces of spiritual materialism had to be
subdued and tamed.
Although Trungpa Rinpoche could speak of the need to cut through spiritual materialism in
general, Vajrayāna Buddhism understands that until individuals realize teachings like this through their
own meditation practice, such theoretical knowledge is useless. In a famous verse, the 17th century KaNying teacher Karma Chagmé (ཀk་ཆགས་éད་; 1613-1678) says, “Even though you know much, if you do not
practice, it will be the same as dying of thirst at the shore of a vast lake. It's possible that you'll become
an ordinary corpse on a scholar's bed.”273 Without experience and realization through practice, there
can be no speaking of the efficacy of the Buddhist teachings. Thus, in the case of the SOM, until
272
273
Hayward, Warrior King of Shambhala, 6.
My thanks to Hubert Decleer for bringing this citation to my attention. The original Tibetan lines read: མང་>་àས་ªང་ཉམས་m་མ་|ངས་
ན། :་མ<,་འ[མ་>་¨མ་çར་K་དང་འN། མཁས་པ)་མལ་>་ཐ་མལ་ì་འuང་Ωད།
Karma Chagmé Rinpoche, The Quintessence of the Union of Mahamudra and Dzokchen: The Practical Instructions of the Noble Great
Compassionate One, Chenrezik, trans. Yeshe Gyamtso, (Woodstock: Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Publications, 2007), 218-219.
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practitioners enact the ritual universe of the SOM and embody the subjectivity of individuals who need
to be tamed through the activity of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi, speculations of cutting through spiritual
materialism remain just that, whimsical wishes.
Thus, although Trungpa Rinpoche spoke of cutting through spiritual materialism in numerous
talks and publications, the SOM provides an embodied means to train in this process. Far from being
strictly a historical figure, Padmasambhava is, as Trungpa Rinpoche notes, “alive and well” actively
acting across the American landscape.274 Thus, I would argue that by inducting practitioners as subjects
in the charnel grounds of the wrathful form of Padmasambhava, Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi, the SOM is a
technology through which practitioners train to become subjects who submit themselves to
Padmasambhava to be tamed and who also understand the ‘West’ more broadly as a place in need of
taming. As practitioners enter the ritual universe of the SOM, they train themselves to undermine
spiritual materialism through cutting their attachment to a ‘self’ and then offering this self and all other
afflictive emotions up as an offering for Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi. By repeatedly enacting the
subjectivity prescribed within the SOM, practitioners also discipline themselves to embody a set of
ontological, hierarchical, and soteriological claims laid out in the text. The mundane world is swirling in
a sea of suffering and the only way out is to seek the blessings of the protectors, lineage figures, deity,
and the teacher. By humbly offering one’s ‘self’ and striving to follow their example, practitioners
aspire to slowly extract themselves from the ‘slime and muck of the dark age.’
As Treasure texts are understood to do, the SOM manifested in a form that was particularly
274
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Crazy Wisdom, 4.
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fitting to the circumstances of its revelation. Thus, the SOM emerged at a pivotal moment not only in
Trungpa Rinpoche’s life but also in the transmission of Buddhism to the ‘West’ and is frequently
referenced as,275 opening the doors, so to speak, for his other methods of teaching the buddhadharma. His
son and current head of Shambhala International, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, writes that “The Sādhana
of Mahāmudrā came to the Vidhyādhara [Trungpa Rinpoche’s title] at a unique point in his life. Within it
lies not only the confluence of ati and mahāmudrā, but also of East and West, past and future.”276
Similarly, Trungpa Rinpoche’s student and long-time editor Carolyn Gimian notes that, “The
Sādhana of Mahāmudrā had such a huge impact on Trungpa Rinpoche’s development as a teacher and on
the whole thrust of his teaching in the West. In a sense, the most articulate presentation of spiritual
materialism and the most profound understanding of how to vanquish it are presented in this
sadhana.”277 In this way, many students of Trungpa Rinpoche view the SOM as a Treasure text, revealed
to him by Padmasambhava at a critical point in Trungpa Rinpoche’s teaching in the ‘West.’ Moreover,
some even credit the SOM with making possible the teachings and practices which would follow over
the next seventeen years Trungpa Rinpoche was active teaching in the ‘West.’ When seen in this light,
the SOM appears to have been successful in inducting many early practitioners into the Vajrayāna
275
For several examples, see: Boyce in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Devotion & Crazy Wisdom, xiv-xxiii; Gimian in Chögyam
Trungpa Rinpoche, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Five, xxv-xxvi; Mukpo and Gimian, Dragon Thunder, 77; Fabrice
Midal, Chögyam Trungpa: His Life and Vision, trans. Ian Monk (Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2010), 18-19;
Francisca Freemantle in Fabrice Midal, ed. Recalling Chögyam Trungpa (Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2005), 259272; Hayward, Warrior King of Shambhala, 5-10; Lowrey, Taming Untameable Beings, 13-18; Kunga Dawa in Chögyam Trungpa
Rinpoche, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Five, xxii-xxv; Mermelstein in Vajravairochana Translation
Committee, trans. and ed., The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā: Resources for Study, ix-xii; Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in Vajravairochana
Translation Committee, trans. and ed., The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā: Resources for Study, xii.
276
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in Vajravairochana Translation Committee, trans. and ed., The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā: Resources
for Study, vii.
277
Gimian in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Five, xxv-xxvi.
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universe and training them as Vajrayāna subjects. Later, after having been tamed and trained to cut
through spiritual materialism, such practitioners served as appropriate vessels for Trungpa Rinpoche to
pour the Vajrayāna teachings into. In this way, one could say that the work of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi
was a success. A wrathful manifestation of Padmasambhava, a vanguard to clear a path for the Buddhist
teachings, Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi subdued obstacles and made way for the buddhadharma to enter the
‘West.’ It is in this sense that Boyce calls the SOM the “Magna Carta of Trungpa’s lineage.”278
As I have argued above, this understanding is echoed in Trungpa Rinpoche’s descriptions of the
SOM’s revelation at Taktsang in 1968. It came at a critical juncture, when he was uncertain how to
present the buddhadharma in the ‘West,’ having vehement disagreements with his childhood friend and
co-teacher, Akong Rinpoche, and when he was devoutly supplicating his lineage teachers and
Padmasambhava to convey the best means to teach Buddhism in a new context. It was only with his
return trip in 1968 from the UK to India, visits with his teachers, and time spent on retreat at Taktsang,
Trungpa Rinpoche writes in the SOM’s colophon, that, “Together with many, diverse omens, suddenly
the youthful sun of the excellent dharma is clear and shining, unsoiled by sins, joining together
excellent aspirations and activity as a chariot and driver.”279 In this way, the youthful sun of the
excellent dharma” shone through with the revelation of the SOM; Trungpa Rinpoche’s supplications on
how to best convey the buddhadharma in the ‘West’ were answered with the revelation of the charnel
ground of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi.
278
Barry Boyce, personal communication with author, 19 November 2017.
w་འN་བ)་øས་>་མ་དང་བཅས་ˆ་∞ར་>་དམ་པ་Aས་7་ä་ག˜ན་གསལ་ùང་འØར་བ་¯བ་པ)་མ་Tས་པ་ùག་”་Kང་L་Nང་བ)་ûད་0ར་ལས་དང་˘ན་ལམ་བཟང་0ས་མཚམས་˙ར་ནས།
zur mang drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho mngon
du sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so, 23A.
279
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In this thesis, I have argued that the SOM is a unique translation both in terms of translating
words and worlds, that carries the meaning of the Tibetan text across into the context of the ‘West’ in
the late 1960s. It was revealed at an important moment, not only in Trungpa Rinpoche’s life but in the
inchoate stages of the transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism to the ‘West.’ The text of the SOM was not
only in English, but in an idiom that resonated with the largely North American counter-cultural
movement that Trungpa Rinpoche largely taught within. Using prevalent terms and concepts, such as
being directed against materialism, and omitting descriptions of beings foreign to the ‘Western’
landscape in favor of psychological descriptions, the SOM presents a Vajrayāna universe in a language
that ‘Western’ students can relate to. In doing so, however, the SOM does not compromise the Vajrayāna
to ‘fit’ the ‘Western’ context. Rather, it brings those students into the cosmology and hierarchy of a
Vajrayāna ritual universe, namely the Ka-Nying charnel grounds of Dorje Drolö Karma Pakshi.
Although Buddhist pedagogy understands different individuals to require various teachings in
accordance with their own dispositions, predilections, and aversions and it is the teacher’s role, after
considering these, to assess what the most practice suitable practice for a student is, the SOM stands out
as something of a blanket prescription for the ‘West.’ In a maze of individuals drowning in materialism,
the SOM was introduced as a means for practitioners to learn to whom they should look for guidance in
order to find their way out. Thus, the SOM is a Treasure text that brings a method of taming and
inducting students into a Vajrayāna universe to a new place of Buddhist study and practice.
As long-time student and Acharya Marty Janowitz wrote shortly after Trungpa Rinpoche passed
away, it was only after many years of studying and practicing that he realized “what an orthodox vajra
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master he [Trungpa Rinpoche] truly was.”280 Emerging in an environment of spiritual curiosity and
exploration, Trungpa Rinpoche had to relate and convey to his students how to ‘be Buddhist’ before he
could introduce the buddhadharma in this non-Buddhist context. In other words, to teach Vajrayāna
Buddhism, Trungpa Rinpoche had to first have students who had developed an understanding of
Vajrayāna Buddhist ontology and hierarchy and who related properly with the various lineage figures,
protectors, meditational deities, and most of all, to the Vajrayāna teacher.
In this way, the SOM was revealed and domesticated in a way that effectively translated the
Vajrayāna world into an idiom of the ‘Western’ counter-culture. By effectively connecting to this group
of practitioners, it also drew early practitioners in the ‘West’ into the Vajrayāna world of the text and
introduced them to the figures in Trungpa Rinpoche’s Ka-Nying tradition. In doing so, the SOM
conveyed to early practitioners what a Vajrayāna subject should be and, through an iterative process of
disciplined enactment, increasingly inducted and trained them to embody the discursive Vajrayāna
subjectivity prescribed within the text. Once students were inducted and trained into their proper
relationality and devotion to these figures as the source of blessings, teachings, and realization, the
ground was prepared for the students to become Buddhist subjects and enter the Vajrayāna. In this way,
the SOM played a pivotal role in establishing the ground for Trungpa Rinpoche’s later manifold means of
teaching Vajrayāna Buddhism, as well as an important role in the early formation of Vajrayāna Buddhist
subjects as the Vajrayāna expanded into the Euro-North American context more broadly.
280
Marty Janowitz in Fabrice Midal, Chögyam Trungpa, 366.
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Appendix I
At the conclusion of the SOM, Trungpa Rinpoche wrote a colophon that contains both a panegyric in
verse and a poetic reflection on the SOM’s revelation. While a translation of the poem and some details
on the composition and translation appear in the English practice text, these are greatly abridged from
the Tibetan colophon. Below is the colophon as it appears in the English practice text, and the complete
version in the original Tibetan and my own translation.
Colophon in the English practice text:
In the copper-mountain cave of Taktsang
The maṇḍala created by the guru,
Padma’s blessing entered in my heart.
I am the happy young man from Tibet!
I see the dawn of mahāmudrā
And awaken into true devotion:
The guru’s smiling face is ever-present.
On the pregnant ḍākinī-tigress
Takes place the crazy wisdom dance
Of Karma Pakshi Padmākara,
Uttering the sacred sound of HŪṂ.
His flow of thunder-energy is impressive.
The dorje and phurba are weapons of self-liberation:
With penetrating accuracy they pierce
Through the heart of spiritual pride.
One’s faults are so skillfully exposed
That no mask can hide the ego
And can no longer be conceal
The antidharma which pretends to be dharma.
Through all of my lives may I continue
To be the messenger of dharma
And listen to the song of the king of yānas.
May I lead the life of a bodhisattva.
This sādhana was written in 1968 by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche at Taktsang in Bhutan, where, about eleven
hundred years ago, Guru Rinpoche meditated and manifested the wrathful form known as Dorje Trolö.
The sādhana was completed on the auspicious full-moon day of September 6, 1968. It was translated into English
at Thimphu by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Kunga Dawa. 281
281
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, 26-27.
© Eben Yonnetti
Tibetan text
108
Authors’ translation282
།Â་ག3ག་པt)་…ན་Ôབས་∑ང་ད∞ས་m་འíས་པས། །ßལ་
བཟང་¢ད་7་∞་pང་hད་bང་˚་®ད་4། །4ན་བPད་ཀk)་Éན་
པ་◊ལ་éད་7་གqར་Ùང་། །bང་éད་4ན་∂ི་|་མ་Lག་“བ་∫་
བEགས་པས། །བ¸་Aས་bང་བ)་བnད་པ་™་àས་7་ıད་
bང་། །öས་yས་Bག་:་/ན་0,་a་˚ད་འÖ་མཇལ་i། །བ¥་
/ན་˝་÷་˛མ་མ)་:་\ག་”་ÿང་ནས། །པད་འuང་ཀk་པl་
འAལ་ˇད་7་མཛད་པས། །Aས་äད་¡་”་9ལ་!)་ང་ì་དང་
འ[ོགས་པས། །Yག་{ལ་9ག་/ན་འ©བས་པ)་"མ་ཟིལ་འÖ་
མཚར་ì། །ཐལ་འ…ན་Q་R་≤ར་པ)་ཤར་[ོལ་∂ི་མ<ན་
ཆ། །>ས་ལས་ƒལ་བ་éད་པར་:ལ་འTང་ལ་གཟིར་
བས། །Aས་wན་Aས་m་བ#་བ)་འN་འབག་¥་མ་$ད། །རང་
མཚང་Rན་ལ་≤ད་པ)་ཐབས་མཁས་འÖ་མཚར་ì། །བདག་ªང་
Ø་རབས་Ùང་བ་•་Ωད་7་བར་>། །œན་མÜན་◊ལ་éད་Éན་
པ)་བ\ན་འdན་>་5ར་ནས། །ཉམས་དགའ་Sག་པ)་:ལ་
པ)་:ང་!་ལ་ཉན་བùན། །ù་བ¥)་Hགས་Iན་གསར་པ་Nང་
བ་ལ་˘ན་Û། །eན་ལས་བཟང་0་sང་བ)་?བ་པ་h་མAད་
པ། །འÖ་ག3ག་≥་ནས་མ‘ས་པ)་hད་/ས་7ས་བÅལ་
བ)། །%ག་éད་དམ་བཅ)་h་o་∑ང་ñག་”ས་»ས་
པ)། །eན་བཟང་Q་R)་ཐ་±ག་3་དགའ་z་≤ལ་ན། །ཕ་ག3ག་
8བ་9བ་:་མ<་གཟིགས་ö་ལ་&བས་མµད།
།བ་'་ཅན་∂ི་:་མ<,་ཕ་ìལ། །ø་h་∞)་བ>ད་7ས་sང་བ)་
§ང་(ན། བßལ་པ)་ºན་པ་མOག་0ར་འÆགས་པ)་§ང་>།
Â་དང་|་མ)་…ན་Ôབས་7་)ན་é་≥་ན)་ıད་bང་ལ་བ–ན་
ནས། དགའ་[ོགས་དང་s་[ོགས་|་མ་དང་Úབ་མ་རང་”ས་
རང་ལ་Dས་ནས་>ས་Yང་ö་ùག་∫་ག3ག་*)་བ+ལ་Eགས་
282
Due to the blessings of Padma, the deity, having
entered the center of [my] heart, the fortunate, the
small son of Tibet, [in my] mind appears every
happiness. The teachers of the Kagyü, the ultimate
lineage, the effortless golden garland, the ultimate
lama without appearance, by abiding eternally and
pervasively, he is light appearance of the pristine
knowledge of the primordial, the array of apparent
signs [and] phenomena. The dawn of devotion, the
Great Seal, [I] meet this. From atop the pregnant
Indian tigress, the great bliss ḍāki, Padmasambhava
Karma Pakshi enacts the disarrayed practice joined
with the roar of the spontaneous song of noumenon
HŪṂ. This awesome splendor which is the
thunderbolt of awareness energy descends, how
wondrous! The all piercing vajra and kīla, the weapons
that liberate upon arising, from time never-stopping,
strike the King Demon. The mask of non-dharma
masquerading as dharma is no longer found. The
skillful means that strip naked ones’ faults is amazing.
Throughout the garland of my continuum of lives,
[may I] hold the teachings which teach effortless
omniscience. Like listening to the distant song of the
king of the vehicles, joyous experience. [I] pray for a
new perfect age of peace and bliss to dawn. The
offering of accomplishment which guards the good
[enlightened] activity, encouraged by the faith that
takes delight from only this one, this speech of
promise without reverse, written in [my] heart’s
blood. When [I] offer the adamantine oath of good
activity as whatever is liked, only the Father, the
ocean of Accomplished Ones, should come to the
spectacle.
On the other side of the salt ocean, the on island that
is guarded by the demons who are the sons of deities,
in the continent that is covered with the thick
For an alternate translation, see the Nālānda Translation Committee’s more literal translation, published in Vajravairochana
Translation Committee, trans. and ed., The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā: Resources for Study, 15-16.
© Eben Yonnetti
7ས། དགའ་ùང་,ག་ལ། །s་ùང་ཉམས་མཚར་བ)་w་Øར་
ˇད་པ)་Ø། w་འN་བ)་øས་>་མ་དང་བཅས་ˆ་∞ར་>་དམ་པ་
Aས་7་ä་ག˜ན་གསལ་ùང་འØར་བ་¯བ་པ)་མ་Tས་པ་ùག་
”་Kང་L་Nང་བ)་ûད་0ར་ལས་དང་˘ན་ལམ་བཟང་0ས་
མཚམས་˙ར་ནས། "་:ལ་∂ི་w་b་མང་0་ùག་Oན་öང་དང་
Oན་wན་∂ི་<ས་›ར་འ-ད་ßབས་m། |་མ)་eན་ལས་དང་
…ན་Ôབས་7ས་བÅལ་ནས་:་གར་འཕགས་པ)་-ལ་>་
བsད་¥་མཚན་Iན་∂ི་|་མ་དམ་པ་åམས་7་མ>ན་>་Aས་7་
བ)་.ང་4ན་དང་Iན་པ་ཡང་Dས། Q་R)་མ/ད་[ོགས་åམས་
ªང་Êར་ཡང་མཇལ་བ)་ßལ་པ་བཟང་0་uང་ùང/ Âག་པར་>་
ཡང་-ལ་ལ་དo་བ)་གཡང་ཆགས་Kང་། ~ང་Yག་‹ངས་པ་
མ་0་y་z་Q་R་[ོ་iད་7་ད7ལ་འ≥ར་བEགས་པ)་í་õང་
/ན་0་\ག་ཚང་qང་o་བསམ་འ8བ་∫་བ°ན་?བ་ལ་གནས་
པ)་ßབས་9བ་3ང/ ཀk་པl་Q་R་[ོ་iད་7་ད7ལ་འ≥ར་>་
མAག་”་™་àས་/ན་0,་དབང་བÅར་9བ་པ་དང་4ན་བPད་
7་|་མ་Tང་མ་åམས་7་Q་R)་གmངས་hད་བùན་∂ི་Ûར་∞་
ø་∞་åམས་མཇལ་བ)་མOན་1ན་∂ིས་བÅལ་ནས། ཀk་ངག་
དབང་འ•གས་éད་Aས་7་:་མ<་œན་དགའ་བཟང་པ)་དཔལ་
ç་éད་ıད་2ར་Cས་པ)་འ>་གmམ་པ་3ང་ùང་+ལ་ལ་¬ལ་
wན་∂ི་Aས་མང་0ས་རང་Pད་གང་བ་¥ས་`ལ་པ)་གནས་/ན་
0་དཔལ་∂ི་\ག་ཚང་¥་äད་>་Hགས་པར་»ས་པ་འÖས་ªང་
ཕན་བ¥)་འuང་གནས་7་བ\ན་པ་Yན་0་/་:ས་ལ་Hགས་
Iན་གསར་པ)་Kང་L་Mར་>་Nང་Oབ་པ)་Pར་5ར་
3ག
283
།།283
109
darkness of the age, [I] have relied on the light of only
the lamp of the Teacher’s and deities’ blessings.
Happy and sad companions, Teachers and students, I
have made for myself. For a long time, as a result of
[such] solitary modes of conduct, [I] have lived this
life of joy and suffering, sadness and amazement.
Together with many, diverse omens, suddenly the
youthful sun of the excellent dharma is clear and
shining, unsoiled by sins, joining together excellent
aspirations and activity as a chariot and driver. When
causing many varieties of foreign peoples to enter the
doors of common and uncommon dharma, [I was]
urged on by the blessings and activity of [my]
Teachers [and] was caused to go to India, land of the
noble ones. In front of many thoroughly qualified
Teachers, [I] engaged in dharma discussions endowed
with meaning and the had the good fortune of
meeting again many [of my] vajra, spiritual friends.
Surpassing that, in the land [of] virtuous prosperity,
winds that clean awareness, in the great palace where
the maṇḍala of Guru Dorje Drolö abides, in Taktsang
Senge Samdrup, [I] had the opportunity to stay in
retreat to practice approach and accomplishment. [I]
achieved the empowerment of great, supreme,
pristine knowledge of the primordial in the maṇḍala of
Karma Pakshi Dorje Drolö. Encouraged by these
conducive conditions of meeting the adamantine
speech of the highest lamas of the Ultimate Lineage,
like wish-fulfilling jewels, in the very great place of
emanations, the glorious Taktsang [I] the one called
Karma Ngawang Jigme Chökyi Gyatso Kunga Sangpo
Pal Drime Öser, a dull and deluded kusulu [a yogi who
does nothing but eat, sleep, and defecate] whose own
continuum is filled with many unsuitable dharma-s,
wrote this completely. Nevertheless, by this may the
precious teachings which are the origin of prosperity
and bliss, spread and cause the chariot of the new
perfected age to be ushered in.
zur mang drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho
mngon du sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so, 22A-24A.
© Eben Yonnetti
110
Appendix II
Image 1. The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā scroll painting, painted by Sherab Palden Beru (àས་རབ་དཔལ་Iན་©་zས་),
1911-2012. It currently hangs in the main shrine room of the Boulder Shambhala Center, formerly
known as Karma Dzong. Image available at “The Sadhana of Mahamudra,” The Chronicles of Chögyam
Trungpa Rinpoche, accessed 22 March 2017, https://www.chronicleproject.com/stories_110.html.
© Eben Yonnetti
Image 2. A close-up of Garwa Nagpo (མགར་བ་ནག་0་), albeit with a red body like Dorje Legpa (Q་R་Äགས་པ་).
Photo by author
Image 3. A close-up of Two-Armed Mahākāla (©ར་ནག་ཅན་). Photo by author.
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© Eben Yonnetti
Image 4. A close-up of Rangjung Gyalmo (Skt. Svayambhūdevī; Tib རང་uང་:ལ་ö་). Photo by author.
Image 5. A close-up of Rangjung Dorje (རང་uང་Q་R་), the Third Karmapa in the form of
Samantabhadra (œན་∫་བཟང་0་). Photo by author.
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© Eben Yonnetti
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Image 6. A close-up of Mikyö Dorje (w་བsད་Q་R་), the Eighth Karmapa in the form of Amitābha (bང་བ་མཐའ་ཡས་).
Photo by author.
Image 7. A close-up of the Tüsum Khyenpa (>ས་གmམ་མÜན་པ་), the First Karmapa in the form of Vairochana
(åམ་པར་bང་མཛད་). Photo by author.
© Eben Yonnetti
Image 8. The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā scroll painting hanging in the main shrine room of the Boulder
Shambhala Center (Karma Dzong). Photo by author.
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© Eben Yonnetti
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Image 9. A contemporary rendition of the Sādhana of Mahāmudrā scroll painting by artist Greg Smith. All
the deities are the same as the original Sādhana of Mahāmudrā scroll painting, with the exception of the
addition of the protectress Ekajaṭī (‚་ཀ་ཛ་„་). Photo by author.
© Eben Yonnetti
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