The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Seven (40 page)

Pacifying 2.

Pacifying 3.

Suppose we place the heaven, earth, and man principle on this particular ground. The placement of heaven, earth, and man complements the circles, particularly the inner circle. There is a sense of no neurosis and a sense of gentleness. But if we have more than this happening, it becomes very confusing. There is no gentleness because there are so many things going on.

Enriching 1.

Enriching 2.

Again you see a circle on the perimeter, representing manifested mind, the mental state of being, but in this case there is a square in the middle, which is the energy field of the second karma, the enriching principle.

If we turn it, it gives an entirely different effect. We begin to realize that there are too many sharp angles. But if we keep it the original way, it has a sense of being, of harmony, a well-settled situation. Enriching is the intrinsic energy of our state of mind. It is the idea of dignity, or in Tibetan,
ziji.

Enriching 3.

Within that enriching situation, we could have a perfect heaven and earth side by side, which complements the squareness of enriching, the earthiness of it. And we could even put a little man in it; there is still a sense of dignity.

Enriching 4.

Enriching 5.

If we want to place more emphasis, we could change it like this [as in Enriching 4]. Or we could make the man principle larger [as in Enriching 5]. Perfect! It possesses dignity.

Now we have more or less a half circle, which is the idea of the third karma, or magnetizing. Within our intrinsic nature, magnetizing is basic richness. It is also the idea of letting go, daring to let go. [See Magnetizing 1.]

The heaven, earth, and man principle goes along with that. It is the idea that once there is a sense of richness and of no poverty, we can let go, give away, be generous. This is the source of the magnetizing principle. [See Magnetizing 2.]

Magnetizing 1.

Magnetizing 2.

Magnetizing 3.

On the other hand, if we put everything together and jump off the edge, we have miserliness, holding on to the purse strings very tightly and not wanting to give anything away. We want to jump off the cliff before we have to give somebody even half a penny. [See Magnetizing 3.]

Destroying 1.

Destroying 2.

The fourth karma is the heavy one—destruction. Its basic, inherent nature is fearless. The notion of balance comes along with that, because if there is too little fearlessness, you might be a coward, and if there is too much fearlessness, everything is too intellectual. So we have a basic point of balance. [See Destroying 1.] We could place heaven, earth, and man right in the middle. If we organize it that way, there is lots of humor as well as fearlessness. [See Destroying 2.]

Having introduced the four karmas, we can now discuss the manifestation of the four karmas. This has to do with how we actually work with these four principles. The idea of fully manifesting the karmas is represented by placing the characteristic shape of each of the four karmas within a square background.

The square represents manifestation. In a traditional mandala diagram, within the architecture of the mandala, the square represents the courtyard. It is also the earth principle. Previously we discussed the circle as heaven, or the “first thought” principle. Now we have an earth principle to go with it. The inner drawings are connected with the man principle. So we have heaven, earth, and man that way.