ZenLife Blog
The Four Dignities: Path of a Spiritual Warrior (Bodhisattva)
Some years ago, I did a series of four paintings on what are known in the Shambhala tradition as “the four dignities”. This tradition which was developed by one of my teachers, Chogyam Trungpa, used these rich metaphors to represent the path of a spiritual warrior (bodhisattva). I am writing this blog to share these paintings and some of the teachings the accompany them…
In the Buddhist tradition, the path of the Bodhisattva is well laid out. In the Shambhala teachings Chogyam Trungpa spoke of this as the path of a spiritual warrior. Part of this practice uses four metaphors known as the Four Dignities. These are the Tiger of Meekness, the Snow Lion of Perkiness, the Garuda of Outrageousness and the Dragon of Inscrutability.
Trusting the Dharma
A teaching Joshin Roshi gives in the Six Paramitas: Courage and Grace Under Fire course is to trust the Dharma. The spiritual path need not be religious. It could very well be secular. But the Dharma while including science and physics goes beyond that. The logic of science is that 1 + 1 = 2. In the Dharma, 1 + 1 need not equal 2. It can equal anything because emptiness operates mathematically like infinity. So measurement doesn’t apply. The Dharma is a force-multiplier.