In
five energies work we often talk as if people were one type or another. Thus I
refer to "vajra people" and "padma people." However,
although certain individuals may manifest a particular family vividly, it is
probably more accurate to say that Rebecca displays a lot of vajra energy than
to say that she's a vajra person. Although someone's style of behavior might
display one particular energy clearly, the

other
energies are always at play. It takes awareness, time, and practice to really
understand the full range of energies within ourselves. We are all very colorful.

As
in any good novel, the people and their circumstances in this book are
fictitious. Their stories are based on what I have observed, and sometimes I
have simplified them to make a point.

Origins:
A Practice for Westerners

In
the early 1970s Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche introduced a way of approaching
the five wisdom energies, traditionally known as the five Buddha families, that
made them accessible to non-Buddhists. His great friend and spiritual colleague
Zen teacher Shunryo Suzuki Roshi was involved with the initial idea. The two of
them observed that some people, especially those who were emotionally disturbed
or confused, found traditional Buddhist sitting meditation difficult. They
thought of creating a community where such people could live together and
practice. The question was, what practice would they do? Unfortunately Suzuki
Roshi died before the seeds of their discussion could bear fruit. But something
was soon to happen to Trungpa Rinpoche that gave him an idea for putting their
original inspiration into practice.

While
teaching a residential program in a hotel, Trungpa attended a party one night
in someone's room. One person was creating a scene—singing and dancing, trying
to get everyone else to join in. As the energy became more and more intense,
Rinpoche felt the room becoming claustrophobic. Suddenly he realized that, in
fact, they were in a box—four walls, ceiling, floor—and that the box was
becoming colored by a particular energy. It reminded him of a traditional
Tibetan Buddhist retreat practice using a small room in total darkness.

Shortly
after that evening Rinpoche started drawing diagrams of rooms. Eventually he
designed five rooms, each with its own color and window shape. In each room the
student would lie in a specific posture. The combination of space, color, and
posture evoked and intensified one of the five basic energy patterns. The
process of taking a specific posture in a specific room would allow the student
to work through that particular neurosis and find the wisdom and sanity
inherent in that energy.

Thus
Maitri Space Awareness
^TM
practice—"Maitri"
for short—was born. The word
maitri
in
Sanskrit means openness and friendliness. Space refers to the total
environment—not just of the room but also of the world at large. Space is the
totality of experience. It includes everything in our sphere: what we think,
see, feel, hear, touch. Awareness is our attentiveness to what is happening in
that space.

It
was part of Trungpa Rinpoche's genius to present esoteric tantric teachings in
an immediate and direct way that was accessible to anyone. With Maitri Space
Awareness practice, anyone can experience and transform the energies of the
five Buddha families. So although this practice is presented as a contemplative
discipline, it is not presented in a traditional Buddhist format. (For further
information see appendix B, "Maitri Programs," and appendix C,
"Places to Practice Meditation and Maitri.")

Levels
of Understanding

When
we begin to become aware of the energies, we see how our patterns of behavior,
emotions, intellect, and temperament correspond to one or more of the five
families. This awareness can become the foundation for developing a practical
way of working with ourselves, others, and the phenomenal world. It's not that
we'll filter every minute of our day through the perspective of the five
colors. However, we will find that some situations become clear and workable
only when we connect to their energetic dynamic.

My
children, Julian and Chandra, have been brought up on the five wisdom energies.
As a result they better understand many aspects of their lives: their own
style, their relationships with others, where they feel at home. They talk
about the energies of their friends, teachers, and work colleagues. They also
enjoy observing people's styles in movies and books. They are attuned to
environments and how they react to them: earthy, more ratna Chandra loves to
live in the country and care for animals; fun-loving, speedy padma/karma Julian
loves cities. His padma passion dramas over the years have given us occasion
for many a conversation about the energetic patterns of relationships.

The
importance of developing a sense of loving-kindness—maitri—toward ourselves
plays a big part in working with the five wisdom energies. It is a universal
truth that we all want to love and be loved. Yet what we often miss in
desperately seeking love from others or loving blindly without reserve is that
what we most need is to love ourselves. It is only when we love ourselves that
we can love others; it is through loving ourselves that we become lovable. No
matter how many times we hear it or from whom, this message is all too easy to
forget.

Loving
ourselves has to do with accepting, relaxing, opening, and feeling warmth. Even
as I write and remember this, I feel the tension in my body unwinding; I feel
gentler toward myself. As I open to myself, I feel gentler toward others as
well. The space provided by relaxing my body allows me to open to my sense
perceptions. Looking out my window, I see that it is a beautiful day; I almost
missed it. Gentleness toward myself feels peaceful. I notice that I breathe
more deeply and easily. I am no longer struggling against myself or what's
around me. I feel comforted by the openness of my own heart. This nourishment
is coming from within. This is maitri.

Working
with maitri in the context of the five energies is a way of tuning in to the
energetic quality of life. When we experience loving-kindness, we allow
ourselves to feel the energies without holding back; we have the potential to
be brilliantly sane. With maitri we see that we and the world are fundamentally
good. Maitri allows us to make friends with ourselves and our world.

Five
energies work is based on the premise that fundamentally we are good, sane,
intelligent people. When we experience a sense of well-being, we know that,
however bad we sometimes feel about ourselves, our sanity is intrinsic,
fundamental. We discover that we accept more fully who we are and engage
genuinely with every aspect of our lives. The unconditional friendliness of
maitri is the key to the most powerful aspect of working with the five
energies: transforming neurosis into wisdom.

As
a frequent flier, I never cease to be amazed that up there, above the clouds,
the sun is always shining—twenty-four hours a day. Too often we forget this,
see only the clouds, and become convinced that they are real. We make the
clouds solid and identify with them. However, with maitri we can begin to see
the clouds as transparent and illusory. In fact, we can fly right through them,
though the ride might get a little bumpy. When we identity with the sun, we are
touching our intrinsic sanity. It is characterized by openness, clarity, and
compassion.

Knowing
what the five energies are is only the beginning. To experience their
transformative power, you need to tune in to them daily, refining your
sensitivity and understanding. Direct experience speaks louder than words. So,
please, jump in. This book requires your input, your engagement. Working with
the five wisdom energies is not academic; it's experiential. The approaches
offered here are intended to guide your experience, drawing it out as well as
elucidating it. They encompass three stages: learning, contemplating, and
embodying. In the learning stage, the five energies and ideas around them
remain somewhat conceptual. In the contemplating stage, you start to feel
affinity with the energies as part of who you are and spontaneously use them as
a reference point. At the embodying stage, they become both psychologically and
physically integrated, and there is no separation between what you understand
intellectually and how you live.