The Guru Drinks Bourbon?

"Since Chögyam Trungpa, there have been a lot of wannabe Chögyam Trungpas who mimic his actions. But time and again they have proved that to manifest crazy wisdom, one must be absolutely sober. Where the lions leap, the fox should not jump—it would only break the fox’s rib. If a Zen master asks, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” at the right time to the right person, such a seemingly ridiculous question can be a profound and valuable pith instruction.

Likewise, methods such as ngöndro (the classic Vajrayana preliminary practice), visualizing yourself as the deity, controlling the breath, the infinite and elaborate construction of mandalas, burning food, wearing amulets, using emotion as the path, and not treating emotion as a nemesis can all be pithy and profound. The Vajrayana’s mantra recitation is as absurd as the sound of one hand clapping, as pointless as concentrating on the philtrum just below the nostrils. Yet mantra can be a powerful nutcracker that cracks the shell of conventional thinking. While these instructions are important, it’s even more important that we learn how to interpret Buddhist theory. To return to the example of learning to drive: Think of how many times people say, “Drive carefully.” It’s good advice and something drivers in general all want to put into practice, but how to drive carefully isn’t explicit. In fact, “drive carefully” is a theoretical statement open to interpretation.

Different drivers should be careful for different reasons and in different ways. In the ngöndro, we have a practice of accumulating one hundred thousand prostrations. Many people benefit from completing this preliminary practice, but for others it’s not necessary. Milarepa, for example, probably didn’t do one hundred thousand prostrations. Instead, his teacher, Marpa, refused to teach him even one word of Dharma until he had built a stone tower.

As soon as the tower was completed, Marpa instructed Milarepa to tear it down and start again, not just once but many times. This unreasonable treatment, the noncommonsensical construction, the forced penance, not to mention the verbal, physical, and emotional abuse endured by Milarepa, were all Marpa’s methods intended specifically for his disciple.

The account of Marpa’s demands and Mila’s willingness to obey has inspired countless people ever since. The story itself is a pith instruction on “no questions asked,” but this doesn’t mean unaccomplished, immature teachers should start ordering their students to build towers. Wishing to help cut delusion once and for all, an accomplished guru may instruct a successful Hong Kong student to quit his dream job at Morgan Stanley and sell hand-painted postcards in Goa for a living. Or wishing that a student actualize the truth in this lifetime, a guru may instruct a lazy, idealistic, leftist hippie from Byron Bay to get a job at Sotheby’s auction house in New York City. Doing prostrations, letting go of comforts, and going against principles all aim at the same result: dismantling the perfectly engineered machine of illusion.

All these methods work. Don’t get fixated on the idea that all Vajrayana students who aspire to raze the walls of duality must follow the Tibetan tradition of doing one hundred thousand prostrations. That would be like thinking that every driver must drink a cup of coffee before they get in the car.

Then again, if you avoid doing prostrations because you think they are just for Tibetans or because the very idea of lying down and standing up one hundred thousand times exhausts you, you are deceiving yourself. In that case, you shouldn’t do one hundred thousand prostrations—you should do two hundred thousand. Never opt for the easy way out. Be ruthless toward the desires of the mind."
-- The Guru Drinks Bourbon? By Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse
"Devotion to one’s teacher is the lifeblood of the Vajrayana path. Because the guru can and will use whatever means it takes to wake us up, this relationship may require us to drop our most deeply held beliefs and expectations. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse addresses some of the most misunderstood aspects of this powerful relationship and gives practical advice on making the most of this precious opportunity for transformation. Through stories and classical examples, he shows how to walk the path with eyes wide open, with critical-thinking skills sharpened and equipped to analyze the guru, before taking the leap."