Shambhala Sun - “The Warrior Tradition: Conquering Fear,” by Chogyam Trungpa

I am a huge fan of Chogyam Trungpa's teachings on Shambhala and the tender heart of the warrior. This is an unpublished transcript of a talk he gave in 1979 - it was controversial at the time, but useful now.

“The Warrior Tradition: Conquering Fear,” by Chogyam Trungpa

Today is Shambhala Day and, in its honor, we present this teaching from our founder, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. It’s based on a seminar Rinpoche conducted in 1979 for teachers in Shambhala Training on meditation and the view of warriorship. As Carolyn Gimian, Chögyam Trungpa’s personal editor, explains:

“The 1979 seminar was about fearlessness, and as well, about how to recognize and conquer real enemies in the world outside. The material was controversial at the time, and the full transcript of the seminar was never edited. It just seemed too outrageous.

“He was not just addressing his immediate audience when he lectured. His life was dedicated to helping others-and some of those others, he knew, would live in difficult times to come, where they would need the ‘rock meets bone’ teachings that he specialized in. I think that he gave such teachings during his lifetime knowing that they would be needed later, even though they seemed a bit extreme at the time. He didn’t present outrageous material to shock people or to indulge himself. He knew that the world was a much more difficult place than most of us, immersed in 20th-century North American comfort, were willing to admit.

“When I dusted off the transcripts of these talks on fearlessness given in 1979, I found that they were full of penetrating and helpful advice. They are still provocative and somewhat outrageous. But they also seem compassionate and designed to make us more wakeful, so that we can find a sane and direct way to work with fear.”

May they be of help and encouragement to you, now.

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The Warrior Tradition: Conquering Fear
by Chögyam Trungpa

When we bring together the ancient spiritual traditions of the West with those of the Orient, we find a meeting point where the warrior tradition can be experienced and realized. The concept of being a warrior is applicable to the most basic situations in our lives-to the fundamental situation that exists before the notion of good or bad ever occurs. The term “warrior” relates to the basic situation of being a human being. The heart of the warrior is this basic aliveness or basic goodness. Such fearless goodness is free from doubt and overcomes any perverted attitudes towards reality.

Doubt is the first obstacle to fearlessness that has to be overcome. We’re not talking here about suppressing your doubts about a particular thing that is taking place. We’re not talking about having doubts about joining an organization, or something like that. We are referring here to overcoming a much more basic doubt, which is fundamentally doubting yourself and feeling that you have some kind of shortcoming as a human being. You don’t feel that your mind and body are synchronized, or working together properly. You feel that you are constantly being short-changed somewhere in your life.

When you were growing up, at a very early stage-perhaps around two years old-you must have heard our father or mother saying no to you. They would say, “No, don’t get into that,” or, “No, don’t explore that too much,” or, “No, be quiet. Be still.” When you heard the word no, you may have responded by trying to fulfill that no, by being good. Or you may have reacted negatively, by defying your parents and their no, by exploring further and being “bad.” That mixture of the temptation to be naughty and the desire to be disciplined occurs very early in life. When our parents say no to us, it makes us feel strange about ourselves, which becomes an expression of fear.

On the other hand, there is another kind of NO, which is very positive. We have never heard that basic NO properly: NO free from fear and free from doubt. Instead, even if we think that we’re doing our best in life, we still feel that we haven’t fully lived up to what we should be. We feel that we’re not quite doing things right. We feel that our parents or others don’t approve of us. There is that fundamental doubt, or fundamental fear, as to whether or not we can actually accomplish something.

Doubt arises in relating with authority, discipline and scheduling throughout our life. When we don’t acknowledge our doubt, it manifests as resistance and resentment. There is often some resentment or a reaction against the sitting practice of meditation as well. The moment that the gong is struck to signal the beginning of meditation practice, we feel resistance. But in that situation, we find that it’s too late. We’re already sitting there on the cushion, so we usually continue to practice.

However, resistance in everyday life provides us with many ways to manipulate situations. When we are presented with a challenge, we often try to turn away rather than having to face it. We come up with all kinds of excuses to avoid the demands that we feel are being put on us.

The basic NO, on the other hand, is accepting discipline in our life without preconceptions. Normally, when we say the word “discipline,” it comes with a lot of mixed feelings. It’s like saying “porridge.” Some people like porridge, and some people hate it. Nevertheless, porridge remains porridge. It is a verystraightforward thing. We have similar feelings about discipline and the meaning of NO. Sometimes, it’s a bad NO: it is providing oppressive boundaries that we don’t want to accept. Or it could be a good NO, which encourages us to do something healthy. But when we just hear that one word, NO, the message is mixed.

Fearlessness is extending ourselves beyond that limited view. In the Heart Sutra, it talks about going beyond. Gone beyond, gate, is the basic NO. In the sutra, it says there is no eye, no ear, no sound, no smell-all of those things. When you experience egolessness, the solidity of your life and your perceptions falls apart. That could be very desolate or it could be very inspiring, in terms of shunyata, the Buddhist understanding of emptiness. Very simply, it is basic NO. It is a real expression of fearlessness. In the Buddhist view, egolessness is pre-existing, beyond our preconceptions. In the state of egolessness everything is simple and very clear. When we try to supplement the brightness of egolessness by putting a lot of other things onto it, those things obscure its brilliance, becoming blockages and veils.

In the warrior tradition, sacred outlook is the brilliant environment created by basic goodness. When we refuse to have any contact with that state of being, when we turn away from basic goodness, then wrong beliefs arise. We come up with all sorts of logics, again and again, so that we don’t have to face the realities of the world.

Read the whole lecture.

Tags: Shambhala Sun, The Warrior Tradition, Conquering Fear, Chogyam Trungpa, Warrior Heart, basic goodness, fearlessness, Buddhism, sacred outlook