Primordial Wisdom

Yeshé is primordially good. Kunkhyen Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche—in discussing the subject of ‘basic goodness’—speaks of it as a reflection of primordial wisdom in our everyday lives. We all have basic goodness because we are beginninglessly enlightened. We spend our lives naturally manifesting basic goodness – yet we suppress it with referentiality – attempting to prove to ourselves that we are solid, permanent, separate, continuous, and defined. Ngak’chang Rinpoche talks of nascent experiences of non-dual realisation being like a light bulb which flickers on and off. Practitioners who apply serious commitment to practice allow basic goodness to manifest simply through being less obstructive to the sparkling through of basic goodness. They become like light bulbs which flicker with greater frequency.

The manifest destiny of primordial wisdom facilitates practitioners to allow other people to manifest at their best. They expect goodness. Primordial wisdom interrupts attempts to control people and their situations. Primordial wisdom is demonstrated through: relaxed appropriateness; unperturbed suitability; tranquil aptness; and unruffled precision.

Basic goodness—as manifest primordial wisdom—enables practitioners to encourage an ethos of openness and appreciation. Basic goodness promotes a sense of immediacy and it becomes apparent to practitioners that they are capable of approaching situations without need of pre-established structures or plans. Practitioners realise that they are naturally possessed of the ability to be present without restrictive concepts of past and future. They find themselves able to allow the basic goodness of others to become opportunities for the discovery of wider margins of the same.

Having a sense of basic goodness means that everyone can be approached freshly – but this does not require gullibility or naïveté. It requires that we avoid pre-empting every situation with respect to strategies based on the predictions of dualistic derangement. Basic goodness has no need to be proactive on the basis of suspicion. We can meet the basic goodness of others with disarming friendliness. If our view of the world is pervaded by basic goodness then we can be open and our decisions can be based on trust rather than on suspicion. We expect good behaviour from people – and we are therefore more likely to be met with good behaviour.

People whose basic goodness is less manifest will tend to anticipate problems with people and situations. They will not feel safe with regard to entering situations in an unguarded manner. They anticipate problems because they are fearful and have learnt to be self-protective as their primary conduit of contact. Fearfulness always provokes the need to control.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche told me a story about his father once, which illustrates this tendency in societal terms. Rinpoche said that when he was at Art College his father had some concern about him in terms of the fact that he seemed to have no social life. Rinpoche replied that he did not socialise a great deal because he enjoyed his work and wanted to take full advantage of the Art College facilities – but that he was far from being a recluse. This was of course in contradiction to Rinpoche’s attitude whilst at school – and so it was maybe not surprising that Rinpoche’s father found his utter immersion in College work perplexing. Rinpoche’s father then asked him—apparently wishing to be helpful—how he conducted himself at social gatherings. He asked: “What is your opening gambit?” Rinpoche was confused for a moment and replied that he had not yet found he had a need for one but would be interested to hear any suggestions his father might have. Rinpoche’s father was somewhat confounded – being unable to understand how it was possible to walk into a room full of people and have no prearranged means of broaching conversation with them. The idea that it was possible simply to be in a room and not speak immediately – or not to be introduced seemed like chaos. Or simply to walk up to a group of people and listen to a conversation without joining in immediately. The idea of not introducing yourself at all – but merely speaking when it became a natural impulse with regard to the drift of the conversation seemed to Rinpoche’s father to be no different from standing on a street corner. The modes of social mien Rinpoche explained were utter mysteries to his father. Admittedly Rinpoche’s father was born in 1902. He was an old man when Rinpoche was growing up, and therefore his view was vaguely that of a Victorian Officer’s Mess. Rinpoche’s father was a major in the Royal Engineers and his social sense derived entirely from that situation – nonetheless this provides us with an illustration of reliance on pattern and bewilderment in the face of an open-ended situation.

A practitioner is not bewildered by chaos. I am not suggesting that Victorian etiquette and social mores are intrinsically deluded – we might easily find ourselves benefited by the adoption of more formal etiquette in this world of dishevelled slovenliness. It is more a question of the freedom to accept chaos and the freedom to trust the basic goodness of others.

Primordial wisdom is synonymous with Kun-zhi (kun gZhi – alaya). Trungpa Rinpoche says that ‘Kun-zhi is the fundamental state of existence, or consciousness before it is divided into ‘I’ and ‘other’ or into the various emotions.’ It is the basic ground and its natural style is goodness. It is the awakened mind.

This is how it is expressed in Sutra, where duality is defined in terms of the division between self and other. It is expressed this way in Sutrayana as a method of working against the self-cherishing mind. On hearing this, one could make the mistake of thinking that entering the state of kun-zhi would dissolve our separateness as beings. With knowledge of kun-zhi, beings do not act separately from others – as if other beings were disconnected or irrelevant. The state of kun-zhi acknowledges all beings as intrinsically interrelated. From the perspective of Dzogchen, kun-zhi is the non-dual state.

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)