Raising Windhorse
The abrupt and spontaneous process that brings authentic presence (Chogyam Trungpa)

Raising windhorse is a practice that comes from the Shambhala lineage of Chogyam Trungpa, a radical Tibetan spiritual teacher. In the Shambhala teaching, he began to open a view of our human nature and our spiritual nature as completely non-separate. We are no longer aspiring to attain some rare state of awakened magnificence. We just want to discover what it is to be fully human. And fully awakened. Because they are not two things.

Windhorse is an expression of our authentic being—the dynamic aspect of who we are, the energy that sails through obstacles. Connecting with windhorse is something we can all learn how to do. We can do this because windhorse is our birthright, this dynamic and powerful capacity to work with every situation life brings us, just as it is. Windhorse is who we are when we have not contracted into a limited and confined identity. Windhorse emerges when we are fully and freely being ourselves, without trying to please anyone, or get away from anything, or prove anything to anyone. In Shambhala, they describe windhorse as arising from an ‘abrupt and sponteous process that brings authentic presence.’

Why would this process be abrupt and spontaneous? Because windhorse is already who we are. Windhorse is our primordial energy—it is not an effect that is produced by a cause. Our authentic presence never abandons us-- we have just forgotten, we have abandoned our true nature, and picked up a whole lot of ideas about who we are. So this presence, this liberating energy, gets covered, hidden, locked away, and we want to do something to bring it back. But the place we left it is right here. And the minute we turn towards it, the moment we acknowledge it, this living energy begins to emerge, as bright and fresh and pure and open as ever. As if nothing ever happened to it.

This is very good news. And it flies in the face of many of our belief structures, those systems of thought that tell us, again and again, that we have to work hard, struggle, push, understand, attain, get somewhere, become someone else.

My daughter had a windhorse dream a while ago. It came to her when she was in a very hard place.
She dreamt that she was back in India, living in a house beside a field. In the field, on the other side of the fence, lived a red horse—forlorn, matted, neglected and forgotten. One day she approached this horse and it spoke to her. It said, “Hey, you left me here a long time ago, and it’s time for you to care for me now.” It spoke to her with great authority, so she began feeding, cleaning and brushing the horse every day.

One day the horse said to her, “Climb over the fence and get on my back. “ She said, “I can’t, I’m afraid, “ and the horse replied, “Don’t think about it-- you can do it.” So she climbed on his back and started riding him every day. The more she rode him, the bigger and more beautiful he became. One day he started galloping, and she realized he was going to try to jump over the fence and out of the field.

The fence was more than 8 feet tall and it was made of huge thorns, tied together with barbed wire. She was afraid of that fence—she didn’t think the horse could jump it. But he did-- he took a huge leap and sailed right over the fence, landing in the front yard of our house. There were lots of people in the yard, looking at the horse with great wonder. Then the landlord came out, and began sidling up to my daughter on the horse.

She realized in that moment, that she had left the horse for so long with the landlord that he could now claim it now as his own. He walked up to them and looked up at her where she was sitting on the great, shining red horse.

“That horse is looking pretty good, “ he said, “Would you like to sell him to me?”
“I thought you owned him, “ my daughter said.
“What are you talking about?” asked the landlord. You left him in my care, but I do not own this horse. He belongs to you. He has always been yours.”

Such dreams carry a great deal of power. They also arise spontaneously, abruptly, out of nowhere. This dream displayed very clearly the one thing we can never lose, the one thing that is always with us—windhorse, our authentic presence. It is ours, not like a possession is ours. Windhorse is our natural state.  We can never really get away from it.  Because it is ours, there is no path or practice that can take us back to windhorse. That is why it is a spontaneous process-- what is it that we can do to reclaim what is already ours?

When we are connected to authentic presence, the fence of thorns in our life does not enclose us. We come into a very different relationship with all of the obstacles and challenges in our lives. They lose their solidity, their ferocity. The radiant energy of presence, of windhorse, allows us to relax and open to a way of being that is full of power, ease, and loving kindness. We’ve all tasted this—windhorse can flash forth in the most unexpected ways.

In what field is your windhorse waiting? Have you left your authentic being in someone else’s care? What kind of food and care does this presence need in order to ride right into your life? Maybe all you have to do is call out, maybe all you have to do is ask. This awakeness, this aliveness, this presence belongs to you. It has always been yours.