aspiration

Thugmön (thugs sMon) the mind of aspiration – more generally referred to as mönlam (sMon lam), the path of aspiration, is the innate vectoral verve which makes realisation a reality.

Aspiration is not hope (re sMon). It is not wishful-thinking or expectation – nor is it: hunger, yearning, longing, pining, craving, flight of fancy, eagerness, fervour, zeal, intensity, vehemence, enthusiasm, obsession, fascination, addiction, vain hope, or obsession.

These ‘emotivations’ (rang sNang ma dag pa’i kun sLong) tend to predominate where there is a primitive level of experience in practice, characterised usually by lack of devotion and commitment. Emotivations such as ambition tend to be short-lived. They dissolve over time because there is no supporting foundation of practice on which they can depend for perseverance. Ambition—in this sense—concerns what we want, rather than that for which we are prepared to make all necessary sacrifices.

Pseudo-aspiration can be worn by some as an affected garment of superior status. Mr Casaubon—an independently wealthy cleric in George Eliot’s novel ‘Middlemarch’—constructed his life around pretensions to aspiration. He convinced those around him that he was engaged in erudite, complex research, which was beyond most people’s comprehension. His wife Dorothea Brooke—excited by ‘the moral superiority of scholarship’—imagines Mr Casaubon as ‘a man who could understand the higher inward life . . . who could illuminate principle with the widest knowledge’. Mr Casaubon’s concept consciousness, however, is a recess where knowledge is subject to ‘lifeless embalmment’.

On watching the BBC production of ‘Middlemarch’ with me, Ngak’chang Rinpoche was intrigued by the character and commented that “Mr Casaubon—and persons of his disposition—are where intellectual white elephants go to die.”

Mr Casaubon’s work-in-progress, ‘The Key to All Mythologies’, is a futile and interminable undertaking – and he is utterly resistant to letting his wife help in any way whatsoever, in case she realises the sad truth that his work is both unpublishable and lacking in any significance to the world he wishes to address.

Aspiration is a quality which must be reliable – or else it is not aspiration. Those who speak of what they intend to accomplish and never accomplish it – do not have aspiration. So—in the initial stages of aspiration—discipline is required (sMon gyi tshul khrims) – the discipline of aspiration.

A publisher may well reject one’s book – but at least it has to be completed and presented to publishers if the author is to be credited with aspiration. A bare century ago, no one would speak of what their aspirations lightly, because once expressed it was anticipated that results would be forthcoming. If results were not forthcoming, the person who spoke of their aspirations would be discredited in the eyes of his or her peers. It is the same when one becomes the student of a Lama – something is expected. To take refuge is to aspire – and anyone who takes refuge should be seen to be making a valiant effort to behave according to the precepts and the eightfold path. Ngak’chang Rinpoche has often said that his respect for people rests on how they keep their word – whether they are reliable in accomplishing what they set out to accomplish.

Aspiration is the stable determination to achieve realisation – come what may – but not the determination to achieve realisation ‘come who may’. One is not careless with regard to other aspirants. One does not step on others. One does not grind the fingers of others climbing the ladder. One does not jockey for position.

Aspiration is not the ruthless ambition which criticises other disciples of the Lama in order to secure superior rank and privileges. Practitioners who display aspiration are doggedly determined in relation to how their personal circumstances evolve. They prove themselves indomitable in the face of difficulties.

Aspiration is based on the previous paramitas (which we have covered so far in the Lama’i yig-gyi) which is why aspiration is not usually found early in a practitioner’s career. The steadfast strength of mind of aspiration cannot be developed before some sense of fruition has been gained in respect of the previous paramitas.

Aspiration to the realised state means acting in the present – not in an hour’s time, tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. This is mön’jug (sMon jug) – aspiration and application or aspiring and acting.

Aspiration can only exist in the present – and that is somewhat electrifying, somewhat inflammatory. It was Trungpa Rinpoche who instructed his students to “Sit as if your hair were on fire” and it is this quality which should pervade us as practitioners. This is where mön’jug becomes mön’jug gi sem (sMon ’jug gi sems) – the aspiration and application which arise from the nature of Mind.

The point-instant in which we realise that we have drifted from aspiration should be the point-instant of action – and a moment of joy. It is a waste of time to be self-deprecatory at this moment. The point-instant resolution to return to aspiration is an instantaneously-arising ornament of practice. It may occur many times in a day – and if we remember frequently that we have drifted from aspiration, we should take this as a sign of success rather than failure. This should be a continual occurrence for practitioners.

It will—on occasion—occur to us that we would rather stay with juicy yet unhelpful mind states, than return to aspiration. To remain stuck is the comfortable option – but, in that state of fixity, we may not necessarily understand that ‘stuckness’ as comfort. The stuckness of comfort is always replete with the referential qualities of solidity, permanence, separation, continuity, and definition – and we adhere to these like the tentacle suckers of an octopus.

There will always be situations where we would rather not be practising. This will occur in formal practice and on those occasions where we simply do not wish to act like practitioners. Recognition of the first moments of these phases—where we drift from aspiration—is crucial to the development of practice. At these points we need to be resolute – and to dwell within the push and pull gestalt of vectoral verve versus deliberate obfuscation. The time that we are able to reside in this extremely uncomfortable location—experiencing the raw texture of this gestalt—is most fruitful in allowing these patterns to unwind themselves. In being clearly seen – patterns unwind of themselves.
To aspire (to non-duality) is not the same as to be inspired, but the two are linked. Inspiration arises when we see someone or something outside ourselves that resonates with our desire to practise. When this resonance occurs – the volume of aspiration is amplified and, as Ngak’chang Rinpoche comments: “. . . in relation to the amplification of aspiration; when the Lama provides support for aspiration through inspiration – he or she has recourse to an alarming array of effects pedals. These are the buddhkarmas.”

Aspiration goes beyond ordinary encouragement when fostered by the Lama – inasmuch as it is non-referential inspiration or vajra inspiration. Vajra inspiration is that which we find within ourselves as a result of practice in relation to the Lama. This is the case without knowing or even being concerned with how it came to be there.

In the Nyingma tradition there are three special gTérma lineages (khyad par gyi brGyud pa gSum) which are as follows:

1. The Kabab Lung-ten gi gyüdpa (bKa’ babs lung bsTan gyi brGyud pa) – prophetic mandate lineage.

2. The Mönlam dBang-kur gi gyüdpa (sMon lam dBang bsKur gyi brGyud pa) – lineage of empowerment through aspiration.

3. The Khandro Tad-gya gi gyüdpa (mKha’ ’gro gTad rGya gyi brGyud pa) – Mind mandate lineage of the khandros.

Aspiration is clearly far more than wishing in the sense of the Mönlam dBang-kur, and we can see that—once established—aspiration is the heart power of practice. We speak of ngön-gyi Mönlam (sNgon gyi sMon lam) – former aspirations; and ngön-gyi mönlam gyi dBang-gi (sNgon gyi sMon lam gyi dBang gis) – the force of past aspirations; and from this we can see that aspiration is our inheritance as well as the present energy toward the future. Dentsig möndrüp (bden tsig gi smon pa grub pa) – the ‘power of prophecy’ –links aspiration with the future in terms of knowing what will happen through ensuring that it happens. This is often misunderstood with regard to the Lama’s prophecies. It is not that one’s Lama’s prophecy may not be ‘literal predictions’ – but the aspirational vector of one’s Lama’s intention carries through into one’s own stream of practice – and one’s own aspiration ensures that the prophecy is realised.

It would be useful perhaps to conclude here—in respect of aspiration—by mentioning the Namthar Go-sum (rNam thar sGo gSum) – the ‘Three Portals of Emancipation’: emptiness – tongpa-nyid (sTong pa nyid), aspirationlessness – mön’mèd (sMon pa med pa), and attributelessness – tshan-nyid ’med (mtshan nyid ’med pa). Mön’mèd—aspirationlessness—is the integration of aspiration with the non-dual state in which effort is no longer necessary, and in which aspiration becomes primordial wisdom.

The Ten Paramitas

(Parol-tu Chinpa Çu – pha rol tu phyin pa drug phar bCu)

1.    Generosity (jinpa – sByin pa – dana paramita)
2.    Discipline [energy / morality] (tsultrim – tshul khrims – shila paramita)
3.    Patience (zopa – bZod pa – kshanti paramita)
4.    Diligence (tsöndrü – brTson ’grus – virya paramita)
5.    Openness [transcendental knowledge or insight] (samten – bSam gTan – dhyana paramita)
6.    Knowledge (shérab – shes rab – prajna paramita)
7.    Method – skilful means (thab – thabs – upaya paramita)
8.    Aspiration power (mönlam – sMon lam – pranidhana paramita)
9.    Strength (tob – sTobs – bala paramita)
10.  Primordial wisdom (yeshé – ye she – jnana paramita)