Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Shot Bio:

Chögyam Trungpa (1940–1987)—meditation master, teacher, and artist—founded Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, the first Buddhist-inspired university in North America; the Shambhala Training program; and an international association of meditation centers known as Shambhala International. He is the author of numerous books including:  Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, and The Myth of Freedom.

Long Bio:

Chögyam Trungpa Chos rgyam Drung pa; March 5, 1939 – April 4, 1987), formally named the 11th Zurmang Trungpa, Chokyi Gyatso, was a Tibetan Buddhist master and holder of both Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He was recognized by both Tibetan Buddhists and other spiritual practitioners and scholars as a preeminent teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a major figure in the dissemination of Buddism in the West founding Vajradhatu and Naropa University and establishing the  Shambhala Training  method. The 11th of the Trungpa Tulkus, he was a Terton,   supreme abbott of the Surmang monasteries,  scholar, teacher, poet, artist, and originator of  Shambhala Buddhist  Shambhala Buddhist tradition.

Among Trungpa's contributions are the translation of numerous Tibetwn Buddhist texts,  the introduction of the Vajrayana teachings to the West, and a presentation of Buddhism largely devoid of traditional trappings. Trungpa popularized the term "Crazy Wisdom" , referring to some spiritual masters' unconventional and flamboyant teaching methods.  Some of his own methods and actions caused controversy during his lifetime and afterward. 

Born in the  Nangchen region of Tibet in March 1939, Chögyam Trungpa was eleventh in the line of  Trungpa tulkus, important figures in the Kagyu  lineage, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism.  Among his three main teachers were Jamgon Kongtrul of Sechen,  HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,  and  Khenpo Gangshar..

The name Chögyam is a contraction of Chökyi Gyamtso : Chos-kyi Rgya-mtsho), which means "Ocean of  Dharma". Trungpa ( Drung-pa) means "attendant". He was deeply trained in the Kagyu tradition and received his khenpo  degree at the same time as Thrangu Rinpoche;  they continued to be very close in later years. Chögyam Trungpa was also trained in the Nyingma  tradition, the oldest of the four schools, and was an adherent of the Ri-me' ("nonsectarian") ecumenical movement within Tibetan Buddhism, which aspired to bring together and make available all the valuable teachings of the different schools, free of sectarian rivalry.

At the time of his escape from Tibet, Trungpa was head of the Surmang group of monasteries.

On April 23, 1959, the 20-year-old Trungpa set out on a nine-month escape from his homeland masked in his account in Born in Tibet to protect those left behind,the first, preparatory stage of his escape had begun a year earlier, when he fled his home monastery after its occupation by the Chinese People's Liberation Army  After spending the winter in hiding, he decided definitively to escape after learning that his monastery had been destroyed.  Trungpa started with Akong Rinpoche and a small party of  Buddhist monastcs, but as they traveled people asked to join until the party eventually numbered 300 refugees, from the elderly to mothers with babies. Even the Queen of Nangchen joined for a period. These additions greatly slowed and complicated the journey. Forced to abandon their animals, over half the journey was on foot as the refugees journeyed through an untracked mountain wilderness to avoid the PLA troops. Sometimes lost, sometimes traveling at night, after three months they reached the Brahmaputra River.  Trungpa, the monastics and about 70 refugees managed to cross the river under heavy gunfire,  then, eating their leather belts and bags to survive, they climbed 19,000 feet over the Himalayas before reaching the safety of Pema Ko.  After reaching India,   on January 24, 1960, the party was flown to a refugee camp. 

The 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje,  was known for seeing the future and made plans accordingly. In 1954, shortly after giving Trungpa the monastic vows,  the Karmapa turned to him and said, "In the future you will bring Dharma to the West". At the time, Trungpa wondered what he could be talking about

In exile in India, Trungpa began his study of English. Freda Bedi  then initiated a project with^[Trungpa and Akong Tulku called the Young Lamas Home School in Dalhousie, India. After seeking endorsement from the 14th Dalai Lama, they were appointed its spiritual director and administrator respectively

In 1963, with the assistance of Bedi and other sympathetic Westerners, Trungpa received a grant from the Spalding Trust  to spend time at Oxford.  and was granted "common room" access to St. Anthony's College at Oxford University.  Akong Rinpoche and another monk shared a flat with Trungpa.

In 1966, after the departure of the western Theravadin mon Anada Bodhi,  the Johnstone House Trust in Scotland  invited Trungpa and Akong to take over Ananda Bodhi's meditation  center, which in 1967 became Samye Ling,  the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West. 

Shortly after his move to Scotland in 1966–67, a variety of experiences including his interactions with his Western students, a solitary retreat in Bhutan,  and a car accident that left him partially paralyzed on the left side of his body, led Trungpa to disrobe and return his monastic vows  in 1969, in order to work as a lay teacher.  He made that decision principally to mitigate students' becoming distracted by exotic cultures and dress and to undercut their preconceptions of how a Guru should behave. He drank, smoked, became intimate with students, and often kept students waiting for hours before giving teachings. Much of his behavior has been construed as deliberately provocative and sparked controversy. In one account, he encouraged students to give up smoking marijuana claiming that the smoking was not of benefit to their spiritual progress  and that it exaggerated neurosis . Students were often challenged by him, but many remained fiercely loyal, committed, and devoted.

In January 1970, he married his student Diana Pybus, with whom he moved to North America  . Akong stayed in Scotland at Samye Ling. Trungpa landed in Ontario,  and made deeper connections into Nova Scotia . They soon moved to the United States  at the invitation of several students, and traveled mostly to  Vermont, California, and Colorado,  where he was gaining renown for his ability to present Buddhism in a form readily understandable to Western students. He settled in Boulder, Colorado,  and grew his sanghas of students. During this period, he conducted 13 Vajradhatu Seminaries, three-month residential programs at which he presented a vast body of Buddhist teachings in an atmosphere of intensive meditation practice. "The seminaries also had the important function of training his students to become teachers themselves."

Trungpa was one of the first teachers to introduce Tibetan Buddhism  and the Vajrayana  to the West.  As in Tibet, the schools of the Vajrayana Buddhism and their practices are the domain of everyone, including the monastic, sangha,  the vow-holding sangha, and the lay sangha. In the United States, Trungpa introduced the Vajrayana mostly to the lay sangha.

In 1976, Trungpa began giving a series of secular teachings, some of which were gathered and presented as the Shambhala Training inspired by his vision of the legnedary Kingdom of Shambhala.   Trungpa actually started writing about Shambhala before his 1959 escape from Tibet to India,  but most of those writings were lost during the escape.

In his view not only was individual enlightenment not mythical, but the Shambhala Kingdom, an enlightened society, could in fact be actualized. The practice of Shambhala vision is to use mindfulness/awareness meditation as a way to connect with one's 'Basic Goodness'  and confidence. It is presented as a path that "brings dignity, confidence, and wisdom to every facet of life." Trungpa proposed to lead the Kingdom as sakyong (Tib. "earth protector") with his wife as Queen-Consort  or sakyong wangmo.

Shambhala vision is described as a non-religious approach  rooted in meditation and accessible to individuals of any, or no, religion. In Shambhala terms, it is possible, moment by moment, for individuals to establish enlightened society. His book, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, provides a concise collection of the Shambhala views. According to Trungpa, it was his intention  to propagate the Kingdom of Shambhala  that provided the necessary inspiration to leave his homeland and make the arduous journey to India and the West.