Aro gTér Dzogchen and Tantra Teachings Wiki

Pawo

16 min read

Pawo

Pawo (dPa’ bo) is the Tibetan for Sanskrit ḍāka — the enlightened masculine principle / male tantric adept. Literally: “hero” or “warrior.”

The Elemental Role

Ch.5 of Spectrum of Ecstasy supplies the technical definition:

“The physical aspects of the five elements are known as the five pawos. The word ‘pawo’ means hero or warrior. This pawo characteristic applies to the dynamic qualities of the elements: the colossal enduring ruggedness of earth; the powerful surging force of water; the bright lascivious incendiary hunger of fire; the all-pervasive relentless turbulence of air; the fundamental fecundity of space.”

Ch.11 supplies a refined definitional clarification:

“Pawo means the actual physical elements — their dynamism. Khandro means the glow, lustre, or ambience of the elements — their innate vividness. In terms of emotions, khandro is the feeling-tone, and pawo is the activity that is manifested out of the feeling-tone. Khandro is the atmosphere, and pawo is the way that atmosphere plays in creating its own specific direction in time. However… they are always aspects of each other. So whatever can be seen as pawo, can also be seen as khandro.”

Pawo / Khandro polarity (Ch.5 + Ch.11 refined):

  • Pawo = physical / dynamic / outer / hero-warrior / masculine aspect; the actual physical elements, their dynamism; in emotions: the activity manifested from the feeling-tone; the way atmosphere plays in creating its own specific direction in time.
  • Khandro = spatial / feeling-quality / inner / sky-goer / feminine aspect; the glow, lustre, or ambience of the elements, their innate vividness; in emotions: the feeling-tone itself; the atmosphere.

They are not separate beings but two complementary sides of each element’s energy. The Pawo is the element’s outward-dynamic presentation; the Khandro is its inward-spacious presentation. Practice with one implies practice with the other. Ch.11 notes: “the beauty of entering this view, is that it can never be frozen — there is never one fixed understanding which can be turned into a reference point without losing the view of khandro and pawo.”

Source-reference: Ch.11 footnote 8 identifies the “Khandro-pawo-nyi-da-me-long-gyud” — the Aro gTer teachings on khandro/pawo reflection, and relationship as spiritual practice — as the lineage-text on this framework.

Ch.13 supplies the book’s most compressed technical-definition of pawo:

“The word ‘pawo’ means ‘hero’ or ‘warrior’. Pawo is the method-display quality of reality — the form aspect of the phenomenal world as perceived through the pure energy of primal space.”

Two-fold compressed definition:

  • Pawo = method-display quality of reality (form aspect of phenomenal world)
  • Pawo = form as perceived through the pure energy of primal space

The Vow of the Female Tantrika

Ch.13: “Female tantrikas take the vow to view the phenomenal world as male — as method-display, as the play of form. Female tantrikas hold men in very high regard, and they view men (and maleness) as the source of accomplishment. Men are the source of compassionate activity — the action that channels energy and galvanises situations for the benefit of everyone and everything everywhere.”

Gendered practice-vow: the female tantrika vows to see-phenomena-as-pawo — as method-display. The male tantrika’s reciprocal vow is to see-phenomena-as-khandro — as wisdom-display.

Pawo’s Historical Under-Emphasis

Ch.13 Q&A: the canonical three-roots-of-Tantra formulation “Lama, yidam and khandro” is, per NR, “not coherent in Tantra… It only reflects the practice from a male point of view. From the female point of view it would have to be Lama, yidam and pawo.”

KD: “Patriarchy affects the direction of practice. With patriarchy, there’s always this emphasis on emptiness — the life of the ascetic, and concentration on the path of renunciation. Renunciation is a male direction, because method, or form, has a tendency to travel in the direction of emptiness. For women things will take the opposite direction, towards form, maybe with an integration into family life. This is why pawo is very rarely mentioned; the emphasis is always on khandro.”

Structural-claim: the pawo teachings are “not exactly rare. It’s just rare to hear it presented.” Can be found in essence across all Tibetan schools and the Bon tradition; the specific presentation in Spectrum of Ecstasy follows the Aro gTér’s Khandro-pawo-nyi-da-melong-gyud.

Pawo at the Awareness-Being Register — Dorje Sempa

Ch.13 names Dorje Sempa (Vajrasattva) — “thunderbolt Mind-hero” — as the exemplar-pawo at the peaceful-register awareness-being level. Dorje Sempa’s iconographic name explicitly contains pawo (hero) combined with rdo rje (thunderbolt) and sems (Mind). Structural-pattern: Dorje Trollo is the wrathful-register pawo awareness-being; Dorje Sempa is the peaceful-register pawo awareness-being.

KD’s Description of Pawo (Method-Display / Delicious Connection)

Ch.13: “Method display or ‘delicious connection’… this is the dynamic movement of solidity, full and strong: the heaviness and tensile strength that throbs in the muscles of reality. It’s the way that movement bursts forth in linearity and forceful direction. It’s delicious because you can taste it — it’s like horseradish, it’s so obviously there. It almost lifts the roof off your head! Form doesn’t hint at itself. It’s a connection because that’s how you perceive form. It struts in all its nakedness for your enjoyment. It communicates to you.”

The Five Pawos

Ch.5’s verbal portraits of each element’s Pawo quality:

  • Earth Pawo — the colossal enduring ruggedness of earth (yellow)
  • Water Pawo — the powerful surging force of water (white)
  • Fire Pawo — the bright lascivious incendiary hunger of fire (red)
  • Air Pawo — the all-pervasive relentless turbulence of air (green)
  • Space Pawo — the fundamental fecundity of space (blue)

These phrases compress the dynamic-outer mode of each element into a single characterizing phrase. The individual Pawos are named and iconographically developed in Ch.6–10.

Earth Pawo — Unfolded (Ch.6)

Ch.6 develops the earth-pawo’s “colossal enduring ruggedness” in full:

  • Magnificent forms that humble by scale — Himalayas, Alps, Andes, Rocky Mountains, cultures shaped by the presence of such ranges.
  • Awesome, overpowering, gigantically solid — “It is easy to feel dwarfed by the sheer weight and volume of the earth element.”
  • The discontinuity within solidity — “Earthquakes exhibit the neutral arrogance of the earth element — they can crumble the labour of years in seconds” — the earth-pawo’s show of its own emptiness-quality (insubstantiality) as geological fact.
  • The dissolution-renewal cycle — “earth cannot be permanently moulded. It has a tendency to crumble, slip and level out, as well as to thrust itself up as the gigantic mountain ranges.”
  • Geological-historical inversion — Tibet as once-ocean, now highest plateau; fossilised conches on the plateau becoming Tantric ritual horns and ngak’phang spiral earrings.

Harvest-mode (autumn, Ch.6’s season of the earth pawo):

“The yellow sky dancers and warriors perform in the autumn. It is harvest time: the trees are heavy with fruit; chestnuts are falling to the ground; and, bushes are bulging with berries. Gleaming crops are being gathered in, and grain is being ground and milled into flour.”

The earth-pawo’s wisdom-mode is the generous inexhaustible provision — the warmth-and-wealth “inexhaustible and free to whomever needs it.”

Water Pawo — Unfolded (Ch.7)

Ch.7 develops the water-pawo’s “powerful surging force of water” through water’s full phase-space:

  • White water — the Be-as river in Manali near Apo Rinpoche’s gompa: “its current of aggression is lethal”; the crushing-before-drowning force; NCR’s sitting in side pools to practise integration with sound; “in its rampant ferocity there was a clear, crisp and immaculate beauty that seemed completely pure — utterly unadulterated.” Ferocity and clarity are not two.
  • Boiling / frothing / raging water — in cauldrons, geo-thermal springs; anger’s hot-mode manifestation.
  • Ice — frozen water — anger’s cold-mode; “the cold bitter rage of calculating destructiveness”; “the sharpness and lacerating precision of broken glass; or fragmented ice”; “When water freezes it can be the instrument of severe surgical mutilation.”
  • Wreckage, flotsam, jetsam — the seashore markers of the element’s power over attempted-structures.
  • Undisturbed reflective surface — the water-pawo’s wisdom-mode: “The undisturbed surface of water perfectly mirrors the sky”; “clear water is barely visible.”
  • Pebbles, shingles, stones, rocks, weeds, fish visible as if no water present — the perfected mirror-mode.

Winter-mode (Ch.7’s season of the water pawo): “pristine and clear-cut… snow-drift ridges that curve with beautiful precision. The white hills in the distance hold no secrets. The landscape is open and devoid of confusion. Sounds carry in the clear cold air and find no surfaces from which to bounce distorted echoes. There is an enormous sense of tranquillity. There is the purity of silently falling snow, and the sparkling geometry of crystalline structures.”

The water-pawo’s wisdom-mode is the pristine undistorting reflection — the mirror-wisdom in its most visible element-form.

Fire Pawo — Unfolded (Ch.8)

Ch.8 develops the fire-pawo’s “bright lascivious incendiary hunger of fire” through fire’s full dynamic phase-space:

  • Sun, moon, stars — ordinary observation of cosmic fire; “We need merely observe the sun, moon, stars, and the fire in the hearth.”
  • Surrounded by fire — “the fire of the sun and stars; the cold fire of angler fish and glow-worms; fireflies; fox-fire; the northern lights” — fire as pervasive element not just as conflagration.
  • Fire in the hearth — contemplative-shamanic mode; “One could sit and gaze into a fire for hours, hypnotised by transmogrifying forms”; flint-and-tinder fire-making as relationship-development.
  • Fire’s constructive uses — warmth (bodily temperature, vs “dense mass of ice like the far planets beyond Jupiter”), protection (fire keeping predatory beasts at bay), cooking (bringing out subtle flavours), metallurgy (metal implements, vitrified clay), illumination (enabling activity in winter’s darkness), conviviality.
  • Fire-neurotic pawo: “a vital passionate force that devours its own world… omnivorous: consuming everything with which it makes contact.” Fire as seductive, provocative, flirtatious, lascivious (logs “licked by flames”). Fire can “boil and spit with fury in a cauldron, or in a geo-thermal spring”; can manifest as “emotional napalm.”
  • Fire’s refinement — oxyacetylene torches and medical laser beams: “fine needles of flame to the exact point required” — fire’s wisdom-mode as precision.
  • Sunset vignette (spring season, west-direction): soft green cliff tops, Japanese-rock-garden cove coastline, chamomile cushioning the seat, the brilliant deep-red sun dipping — fire-pawo’s most visible wisdom-mode.

Spring-mode (Ch.8’s season of the fire pawo): “freshness and vitality — the charming play of young creatures, and the joy of being able to leap with excitement at any age. There is the wonder of growth: buds succulent with life decorate the bare branches of the trees, bursting into leaf or blooming into flower. There are catkins and bluebells in the woods — delicate green shoots sprouting into the light.”

The fire-pawo’s wisdom-mode is the precise, sustaining, illuminating warmth — fire as the element that enables rather than consumes.

Air Pawo — Unfolded (Ch.9)

Ch.9 develops the air-pawo’s “all-pervasive relentless turbulence of air” through air’s full dynamic phase-space:

  • Breeze, wind, strong wind, forceful destructive hurricane — the full range of air’s motion-intensity; “demolishing any obstacle in its path” at its most intense.
  • Whirlwind — the air-neurotic signature form: “The circling energy of a whirlwind energetically mirrors the vicious cyclical qualities of paranoia. A whirlwind continually chases its tail; it leaves havoc in its wake in the same way in which people lash out — dragging others into their paranoid experience of the world.”
  • Air always seeking but never finding: “Air flurries in all directions: touching everything; exploring each surface; examining all angles; investigating every crevice. It is always seeking but never finding. The wind has to press on; constantly searching, unable to rest.” This characterises the air-element’s motion-without-fixed-object quality — which dualistically is paranoid-vigilance and nondually is self-accomplishing activity.
  • Lightning — the nondual-mode air-pawo; “the free unobstructed movement of lightning. Lightning does not waver… does not weigh the pros and cons… does not hesitate before it reaches the ground but moves with complete purpose, charging the air with electricity.” Lightning is the air-pawo’s most direct-action wisdom-mode expression.
  • Strong steady wind: “the strong steady wind that enables ships to make good headway. It is not the tornado that wrecks them. It is the fresh clean wind in our hair that enables us to shake off lethargy. This fresh clean wind stimulates the feeling that we could accomplish anything.” The unhindered-but-direction-fulfilling mode.

Summer-mode (Ch.9’s season of the air pawo):

“Wherever you look, insect activity is frenetic: fields and meadows crawl with millions of minuscule creatures, all engaged in prolific activity. Nothing is static. Nothing is at rest. The air seems to buzz and shimmer with a haze of heat. Bees hum from flower to flower. Tadpoles become frogs and leap in search of flies to catch on the cusp of an accurate tongue. Sudden dramatic thunderstorms end as abruptly as they commence.”

The rook-roost-vignette: “Cawing rooks roosting in the trees jostle each other for perching positions. Late-comers try to find space on the branches, dislodging others and getting dislodged themselves in turn. There is a constant squabble going on that never seems to draw to an end. This imagery displays a small fraction of the incredible dynamism of this field of energy which in its non-dual nature is the essence of power.”

Early-night mode: “the time when the sun has set and the dusk is vibrating with grasshoppers and crickets.”

The air-pawo’s wisdom-mode is the direct, unhindered, self-accomplishing motion — air as the element whose energy moves-through-space without obstruction.

Space Pawo — Unfolded (Ch.10)

Ch.10 develops the space-pawo’s “fundamental fecundity of space” through space’s dual-position (element + ground):

  • Space as dimension-in-which-elements-manifest — “It is within the space of empty potential, that the elements perform as the primal play of reality — the dance of the khandros and pawos.” The space-pawo is not one among five pawos; it is the field in which the other four pawos perform. This is consistent with space’s Ch.10 dual-position: both an element and the ground of elements.
  • Space as the sky — “Blue is the colour of the sky; it is the depth of the sky, stretching into infinity. It is rich, radiant and empty; unaffected by clouds of any colour.” The sky is the space-pawo’s most accessible physical-form-expression. “We only need to stare into the nature of our own Mind, or into the vast expanse of the sky.”
  • Space as the creative-reabsorbing ground — “Space continually creates and reabsorbs these fields of energy without effort.” The space-pawo’s dynamic is non-directed creation-reabsorption — not a specific activity but the space-of-activity.
  • Fecundity as the pawo-quality — the “fundamental fecundity” is the space-pawo’s active-mode: space as generative, not as empty-static. Everything can arise from space because space is alive with generative-potential.
  • Neurotic-mode space-pawo (corresponding to the “dull, opaque, dense and flat, or like smoke” blue) — the clotted-sky; space-turned-into-fog-of-nothingness; the cocoon-of-virtual-insentience as collapsed space-pawo mode.

No-season / no-direction / no-time (Ch.10’s distinctive associational-absence): unlike the other four pawos (earth = autumn, water = winter, fire = spring, air = summer; each with a cardinal direction and time-of-day), the space-pawo has no specific season, direction, or time of day — because space is the ground from which seasons/directions/times arise. “The phenomenon of time passing arises from the continuity of now — the perpetual experience of space.”

The space-pawo’s wisdom-mode is the generative-reabsorbing fecundity — space as the element whose pawo-activity is the making-possible of all other activity.

Further Reference

Ch.5 footnote 2 provides detailed sources:

“For detailed discussion of pawo and khandro, see articles: ‘Cutting Through Spiritual Chauvinism’ in The Middle Way, Journal of the Buddhist Society, Vol. 62, No. 1, May 1987; Tantra Magazine No. 6, 1993; and Der Biß des Murmeltiers, Junferman Verlag, Köln, Germany. See also Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon by Khandro Dechen and Ngakpa Chogyam (in press from Aro Books).”

These are additional Aro gTér materials elaborating the Pawo-Khandro taxonomy beyond what Spectrum of Ecstasy can contain.

Pawo as Visionary Wisdom-Being

At the long-ku level, the pawos appear as visionary wisdom-beings — male enlightened figures paralleling the khandros. In this mode they function as yidams for sadhana practice.

Kuntuzangpo (Samantabhadra) is the chö-ku (dharmakāya) pawo in the Nyingma tradition — the male counterpart of Kuntuzangmo.

The Ch.5 “Wisdom Brothers” Framing

Though Spectrum of Ecstasy does not use the phrase, the parallel to Ch.5’s khandros-as-”wisdom sisters” framing would be wisdom brothers — the pawos are the masculine wisdom-brothers whose energy is the outward-dynamic expression of each element.

Graph View

Backlinks