The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion
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Absolute Bodhichitta 1975: 17
Lojong I: The Main Practice, Which Is Training in Ultimate Bodhichitta 1979: 11
Lojong II: The Main Practice, Which Is Training in Relative Bodhichitta 1979: 12
Relative Bodhichitta Practice: Tonglen 1980: 12
Discovering Bodhichitta: Shamatha and Vipashyana Joined Together 1981: 13
Chapter 37. Point Two: Training in Relative Bodhichitta
Relative Bodhichitta 1975: 18
Lojong II: The Main Practice, Which Is Training in Relative Bodhichitta 1979: 12
Lojong III: Carrying Whatever Occurs in Your Life onto the Path 1979: 13
Relative Bodhichitta Practice: Tonglen 1980: 12
Discovering Bodhichitta: Shamatha and Vipashyana Joined Together 1981: 13
Overcoming Hypocrisy: The Ground of Generosity 1981: 14
Tonglen 1984: 10
Chapter 38. Point Three: Transformation of Bad Circumstances into the Path of Enlightenment
Relative Bodhichitta 1975: 18
Working with Neurosis 1975: 19
Drive All Blames into One 1976: 15
Lojong III: Carrying Whatever Occurs in Your Life onto the Path 1979: 13
Paramita Practice: Generosity 1980: 13
Chapter 39. Point Four: Showing the Utilization of Practice in One’s Whole Life
Lojong IV: Bodhichitta Practice in Life and Death 1979: 14
Chapter 40. Point Five: Evaluation of Mind Training
Groundlessness and Compassion 1975: 20
Compassion 1976: 17
Lojong V: Evaluation of Mind Training 1979: 15
Chapter 41. Point Six: Disciplines of Mind Training
Lojong VI: Ethics of Mind Training 1979: 16
Chapter 42. Point Seven: Guidelines of Mind Training
Lojong VII: Guidelines of Mind Training 1979: 17
Notes: Unpublished Interview with Trungpa Rinpoche. Boulder, Colo., 1977.
Chapter 43. Additional Mind-Training Instructions
Conflicting Emotions 1975: 21
PART EIGHT. THE BODHISATTVA’S JOURNEY
Chapter 44. The Paths and Bhumis
Path of Unification: First Bhumi 1973: 17
Bhumis: One to Five 1974: 16
Bhumis: Six to Ten 1974: 17
The Five Paths: Generosity 1978: 15
Chapter 45. Very Joyful: The First Bhumi
Path of Unification: First Bhumi 1973: 17
Bhumis: One to Five 1974: 16
Bhumis: Six to Ten 1974: 17
Chapter 46. The Second through Tenth Bhumis
Second through Tenth Bhumis: Path of Meditation 1973: 18
Bhumis: One to Five 1974: 16
Bhumis: Six to Ten 1974: 17
Chapter 47. Complete Radiance: The Eleventh Bhumi
Eleventh Bhumi: Path of No More Learning 1973: 19
The Achievement of Enlightenment 1974: 18
RESOURCES
PRACTICE CENTERS
For information about meditation instruction or to find a Shambhala-affiliated practice center near you, please contact one of the following:
Shambhala International
1084 Tower Road
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada B3H 2Y5
phone: (902) 425-4275, ext. 10
website: www.shambhala.org
Karmê Chöling
369 Patneaude Lane
Barnet, Vermont 05821
phone: (802) 633-2384
website: www.karmecholing.org
Shambhala Mountain Center
4921 Country Road 68C
Red Feather Lakes, Colorado 80545
phone: (970) 881-2184
website: www.shambhalamountain.org
Gampo Abbey
Pleasant Bay, Nova Scotia
Canada B0E 2P0
phone: (902) 224-2752
website: www.gampoabbey.org
Dechen Choling
Mas Marvent
87700 St. Yrieix sous Aixe
France
phone: +33 5-55-03-55-52
website: www.dechencholing.org
Dorje Denma Ling
2280 Balmoral Road
Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia
Canada B0K 1V0
phone: (902) 657-9085
website: http://dorjedenmaling.org
e-mail: info@dorjedenmaling.com
NAROPA UNIVERSITY
Naropa University is the only accredited, Buddhist-inspired university in North America. For more information, contact:
Naropa University
2130 Arapahoe Avenue
Boulder, Colorado 80302
phone: (303) 444-0202
website: www.naropa.edu
OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK
Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week brings you the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. An e-mail is sent out several times each week containing a quote from Chögyam Trungpa’s extensive teachings. Quotations of material may be from unpublished material, forthcoming publications, or previously published sources. Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week are selected by Carolyn Rose Gimian. To enroll go to www.shambhala.com/oceanofdharma.
THE CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA LEGACY PROJECT
The Chögyam Trungpa Legacy Project was established to help preserve, disseminate, and expand Chögyam Trungpa’s legacy. The Legacy Project supports the preservation, propagation, and publication of Trungpa Rin-poche’s dharma teachings. This includes plans for the creation of a comprehensive virtual archive and learning community. For information, go to ChogyamTrungpa.com.
SHAMBHALA MEDIA
For publications from Vajradhatu Publications and Kalapa Recordings, including both books and audiovisual materials, go to www.shambhalamedia.org.
SHAMBHALA ARCHIVES
For information about the archive of the author’s work, please contact the Shambhala Archives: archives@shambhala.org.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
THE VENERABLE Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was born in the province of Kham in eastern Tibet in 1940. When he was just thirteen months old, Chögyam Trungpa was recognized as a major tülku, or incarnate teacher. According to Tibetan tradition, an enlightened teacher is capable, based on his or her vow of compassion, of reincarnating in human form over a succession of generations. Before dying, such a teacher may leave a letter or other clues to the whereabouts of the next incarnation. Later, students and other realized teachers look through these clues and, based on those, plus a careful examination of dreams and visions, conduct searches to discover and recognize the successor. Thus, particular lines of teaching are formed, in some cases extending over many centuries. Chögyam Trungpa was the eleventh in the teaching lineage known as the Trungpa Tülkus.
Once young tülkus are recognized, they enter a period of intensive training in the theory and practice of the Buddhist teachings. Trungpa Rinpoche, after being enthroned as supreme abbot of Surmang Dütsi Tel Monastery and governor of Surmang District, began a period of training that would last eighteen years, until his departure from Tibet in 1959. As a Kagyü tülku, his training was based on the systematic practice of meditation and on refined theoretical understanding of Buddhist philosophy. One of the four great lineages of Tibet, the Kagyü is known as the Practicing (or Practice) Lineage.
At the age of eight, Trungpa Rinpoche received ordination as a novice monk. Following this, he engaged in intensive study and practice of the traditional monastic disciplines, including traditional Tibetan poetry and monastic dance. His primary teachers were Jamgön Kongtrül of Shechen and Khenpo Gangshar—leading teachers in the Nyingma and Kagyü lineages. In 1958, at the age of eighteen, Trungpa Rinpoche completed his studies, receiving the degrees of kyorpön (doctor of divinity) and khenpo (master of studies). He also received full monastic ordination.
The late fifties was a time of great upheaval in Tibet. As it became clear that the Chinese Communists intended to take over the country by force, many people, both monastic and lay, fled the country. Trungpa Rinpoche spent many
harrowing months trekking over the Himalayas (described later in his book Born in Tibet). After narrowly escaping capture by the Chinese, he at last reached India in 1959. While in India, Trungpa Rinpoche was appointed to serve as spiritual adviser to the Young Lamas Home School in Delhi, India. He served in this capacity from 1959 to 1963.
Trungpa Rinpoche’s opportunity to emigrate to the West came when he received a Spalding sponsorship to attend Oxford University. At Oxford he studied comparative religion, philosophy, history, and fine arts. He also studied Japanese flower arranging, receiving a degree from the Sogetsu School. While in England, Trungpa Rinpoche began to instruct Western students in the dharma, and in 1967 he founded the Samye Ling Meditation Center in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. During this period, he also published his first two books, both in English: Born in Tibet (1966) and Meditation in Action (1969).
In 1968 Trungpa Rinpoche traveled to Bhutan, where he entered into a solitary meditation retreat. While on retreat, Rinpoche received a pivotal terma text for all of his teaching in the West, “The Sadhana of Mahamudra,” a text that documents the spiritual degeneration of modern times and its antidote, genuine spirituality that leads to the experience of naked and luminous mind. This retreat marked a pivotal change in his approach to teaching. Soon after returning to England, he became a layperson, putting aside his monastic robes and dressing in ordinary Western attire. In 1970 he married a young Englishwoman, Diana Pybus, and together they left Scotland and moved to North America. Many of his early students and his Tibetan colleagues found these changes shocking and upsetting. However, he expressed a conviction that in order for the dharma to take root in the West, it needed to be taught free from cultural trappings and religious fascination.
During the seventies, America was in a period of political and cultural ferment. It was a time of fascination with the East. Nevertheless, almost from the moment he arrived in America, Trungpa Rinpoche drew many students to him who were seriously interested in the Buddhist teachings and the practice of meditation. However, he severely criticized the materialistic approach to spirituality that was also quite prevalent, describing it as a “spiritual supermarket.” In his lectures, and in his books Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973) and The Myth of Freedom (1976), he pointed to the simplicity and directness of the practice of sitting meditation as the way to cut through such distortions of the spiritual journey.
During his seventeen years of teaching in North America, Trungpa Rinpoche developed a reputation as a dynamic and controversial teacher. He was a pioneer, one of the first Tibetan Buddhist teachers in North America, preceding by some years and indeed facilitating the later visits by His Holiness the Karmapa, His Holiness Khyentse Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and many others. In the United States, he found a spiritual kinship with many Zen masters, who were already presenting Buddhist meditation. In the very early days, he particularly connected with Suzuki Roshi, the founder of Zen Center in San Francisco. In later years he was close with Kobun Chino Roshi and Bill Kwong Roshi in Northern California; with Maezumi Roshi, the founder of the Los Angeles Zen Center; and with Eido Roshi, abbot of the New York Zendo Shobo-ji.
Fluent in the English language, Chögyam Trungpa was one of the first Tibetan Buddhist teachers who could speak to Western students directly, without the aid of a translator. Traveling extensively throughout North America and Europe, he gave thousands of talks and hundreds of seminars. He established major centers in Vermont, Colorado, and Nova Scotia, as well as many smaller meditation and study centers in cities throughout North America and Europe. Vajradhatu was formed in 1973 as the central administrative body of this network.
In 1974 Trungpa Rinpoche founded the Naropa Institute (now Naropa University), which became the first and only accredited Buddhist-inspired university in North America. He lectured extensively at the institute, and his book Journey without Goal (1981) is based on a course he taught there. In 1976 he established the Shambhala Training program, a series of seminars that present a nonsectarian path of spiritual warriorship grounded in the practice of sitting meditation. His book Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (1984) gives an overview of the Shambhala teachings.
In 1976 Trungpa Rinpoche appointed Ösel Tendzin (Thomas F. Rich) as his Vajra Regent, or dharma heir. Ösel Tendzin worked closely with Trungpa Rinpoche in the administration of Vajradhatu and Shambhala Training. He taught extensively from 1976 until his death in 1990 and is the author of Buddha in the Palm of Your Hand.
Trungpa Rinpoche was also active in the field of translation. Working with Francesca Fremantle, he rendered a new translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which was published in 1975. Later he formed the Nalanda Translation Committee in order to translate texts and liturgies for his own students as well as to make important texts available publicly.
In 1979 Trungpa Rinpoche conducted a ceremony empowering his eldest son, Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo, as his successor in the Shambhala lineage. At that time he gave him the title of Sawang (“Earth Lord”).
Trungpa Rinpoche was also known for his interest in the arts and particularly for his insights into the relationship between contemplative discipline and the artistic process. Two books published since his death—The Art of Calligraphy (1994) and Dharma Art (1996) [a new edition appeared in 2008 under the title True Perception: The Path of Dharma Art]—present this aspect of his work. His own artwork included calligraphy, painting, flower arranging, poetry, playwriting, and environmental installations. In addition, at the Naropa Institute he created an educational atmosphere that attracted many leading artists and poets. The exploration of the creative process in light of contemplative training continues there as a provocative dialogue. Trungpa Rinpoche also published two books of poetry: Mudra (1972) and First Thought Best Thought (1983). In 1998 a retrospective compilation of his poetry, Timely Rain, was published.
Shortly before his death, in a meeting with Samuel Bercholz, the publisher of Shambhala Publications, Chögyam Trungpa expressed his interest in publishing 108 volumes of his teachings, to be called the Dharma Ocean Series. “Dharma Ocean” is the translation of Chögyam Trungpa’s Tibetan teaching name, Chökyi Gyatso. The Dharma Ocean Series was to consist primarily of material edited to allow readers to encounter this rich array of teachings simply and directly rather than in an overly systematized or condensed form. In 1991 the first posthumous volume in the series, Crazy Wisdom, was published, and another seven volumes followed in the ensuing years. Carolyn Gimian gathered many of these published materials, along with a great number of previously unpublished articles, into the eight-volume set, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa. Plans continue for many future volumes of his teachings to be published.
Trungpa Rinpoche’s published books represent only a fraction of the rich legacy of his teachings. During his seventeen years of teaching in North America, he crafted the structures necessary to provide his students with thorough, systematic training in the dharma. From introductory talks and courses to advanced group retreat practices, these programs emphasized a balance of study and practice, of intellect and intuition. Chögyam Trungpa by Fabrice Midal, a biography, details the many forms of training that Chögyam Trungpa developed. Dragon Thunder: My Life with Chögyam Trungpa is the story of Rinpoche’s life as told by Diana Mukpo. This also provides insight into the many forms that he crafted for Buddhism in North America.
In addition to his extensive teachings in the Buddhist tradition, Trungpa Rinpoche also placed great emphasis on the Shambhala teachings, which stress the importance of meditation in action, synchronizing mind and body, and training oneself to approach obstacles or challenges in everyday life with the courageous attitude of a warrior, without anger. The goal of creating an enlightened society is fundamental to the Shambhala teachings. According to the Shambhala approach, the realization of an enlightened society comes not purely through outer activity, such as community or political involvement, but from appreciation of the senses and the sacred dimension of day-to-day
life. A second volume of these teachings, entitled Great Eastern Sun, was published in 1999. The final volume of these teachings, Smile at Fear, appeared in 2009.
Chögyam Trungpa died in 1987, at the age of forty-seven. By the time of his death, he was known not only as Rinpoche (“Precious Jewel”) but also as Vajracharya (“Vajra Holder”) and as Vidyadhara (“Wisdom Holder”) for his role as a master of the vajrayana, or tantric teachings of Buddhism. As a holder of the Shambhala teachings, he had also received the titles of Dorje Dradül (“Indestructible Warrior”) and Sakyong (“Earth Protector”). He is survived by his wife, Diana Judith Mukpo, and five sons. His eldest son, the Sawang Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo, succeeds him as the spiritual head of Vajradhatu. Acknowledging the importance of the Shambhala teachings to his father’s work, the Sawang changed the name of the umbrella organization to Shambhala, with Vajradhatu remaining one of its major divisions. In 1995 the Sawang received the Shambhala title of Sakyong like his father before him, and was also confirmed as an incarnation of the great ecumenical teacher Mipham Rinpoche.
Trungpa Rinpoche is widely acknowledged as a pivotal figure in introducing the buddhadharma to the Western world. He joined his great appreciation for Western culture with his deep understanding of his own tradition. This led to a revolutionary approach to teaching the dharma, in which the most ancient and profound teachings were presented in a thoroughly contemporary way. Trungpa Rinpoche was known for his fearless proclamation of the dharma: free from hesitation, true to the purity of the tradition, and utterly fresh. May these teachings take root and flourish for the benefit of all sentient beings.