Chögyam Trungpa - The essential Chögyam Trungpa

The Essential

CHGYAM TRUNGPA

Edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian

SHAMBHALA

Boston & London

2010

SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.shambhala.com

1999 by Diana J. Mukpo

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Trungpa, Chgyam, 1939

The essential Chgyam Trungpa/edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian.1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2132-3

ISBN 1-57062-466-6

1. Spiritual lifeBuddhism. 2. Spiritual lifeTantric Buddhism. 3. Tantric BuddhismDoctrines. I. Gimian, Carolyn Rose. II. Title.

BQ4302.T782 1999 99-13945

294.3923dc21 CIP

EDITORS PREFACE

C HGYAM TRUNGPA was among the very first Tibetan Buddhist lamas to present the Buddhist teachings in English to Westerners and to publish those teachings in the English language. In 1966, Chgyam Trungpa published his account of his upbringing as a high lama in Tibet and recounted his daring escape over the Himalayas. Aptly enough, he entitled his first book Born in Tibet.

In the early 1970s, having spent a number of years in England (talks from these years were gathered together and published in Meditation in Action) and then having moved to North America, Chgyam Trungpa published the first collection of his talks in America. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism quickly garnered a substantial reputation on the American spiritual scene. It remains a classic today. Several other titles, including the popular Myth of Freedom, followed in the 1970s.

Then, in 1984, Trungpa Rinpoche published another title that broke new ground and captured the attention of a large readership. Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior presented meditation as the path to what Trungpa Rinpoche referred to as secular enlightenment. The last book published before his death in 1987, it is available today not only in English but in nine foreign editions. Altogether, between his arrival in England in 1963 and his death in Canada in 1987, thirteen books of his were published in trade editions. In addition to his dharma teachings, two books of poetry were published as well as a translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead with Francesca Fremantle and several other translations from the Tibetan, joint efforts of Trungpa Rinpoche and the Nalanda Translation Committee.

Remarkably, since his passing, two of his senior editors, Judith Lief and Sherab Chdzin, have edited almost a dozen additional books of Trungpa Rinpoches Buddhist teachings. Among these, Ms. Lief has also edited two books that show us Chgyam Trungpa as artist: The Art of Calligraphy: Joining Heaven and Earth and Dharma Art. Trungpa Rinpoches poetry has also been newly selected and presented in Timely Rain, edited by David I. Rome. And in addition to these trade editions, Vajradhatu Publications (the publishing arm of Chgyam Trungpas meditation centers) continues to publish limited editions of edited transcripts and special-interest titles. All of this may be just the beginning of the literary legacy that he leaves us, for there remain several thousand dharma talks that could be transcribed, edited, and published.

The Essential Chgyam Trungpa is drawn from his two dozen books published by Shambhala Publications over the last thirty years. A complete listing of these titles can be found at the back of this volume. While I reread and considered all of these books, not all are represented here. The Essential Chgyam Trungpa includes thirty-eight selections drawn from fifteen published sources, one unpublished poem, and a chapter from the forthcoming Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala. The present volume includes material on both the Buddhist and the Shambhala teachings. It includes a sprinkling of Chgyam Trungpas poems and several chapters on the theme of art but does not attempt to treat these aspects of his teaching comprehensively. The Shambhala teachings are presented first in this volume, although they were the later teachings given by Trungpa Rinpoche. Their accessibility and heartfelt nature made them seem the best introductory material for this book.

Although drawn from the diverse archive of Trungpa Rinpoches published work, this volume has been structured to be read as a coherent whole. Rather than picking a page here and a page there, I generally have chosen complete chapters from his books, to allow the flavor and flow of his teaching style to come through. The reader will no doubt notice differences in tone, language, and style from one chapter to the next. Nevertheless, there is a unifying thread that runs through the material and connects it, one hopes, in a compelling fashion.

That thread is the essence of the teachings. Chgyam Trungpa was a master in presenting that essential quality, free from the trappings of exotic culture. The word essence comes to us from the Latin esse, to be. If one were to summarize Trungpa Rinpoches teachings in a single word or phrase, surely being and how to be might be terms one would choose. It was his passion, and one might even say his mission, to present the essence of nowness, the essence of being, as it manifests in all activities of life. Thus, it seems singularly appropriate to speak of the essential Chgyam Trungpa and to give that title to this book.

Trungpa Rinpoche presented the essence of the Shambhala path as basic goodness: the human nature of genuine tenderness and bravery. Within the Buddhist path, he often taught in terms of a journey through the three yanashinayana, mahayana, and vajrayanathe three great vehicles or schools of Buddhism. That three-yana structure has been incorporated into this book. The essence of the hinayana, or the narrow path, is the realization of egolessness through the practice of meditation. In the mahayana, the open path, the inherent quality of human wakefulness, or ones buddha nature, is an essential element. And on the diamond path of vajrayana, the essence is vajra nature: the indestructibility of sanity and wisdom. Whatever the subject, Chgyam Trungpa spoke from the heart and addressed the heart of the matter. His teaching was multifaceted and multidimensional. He spoke at once to both beginning practitioners and seasoned meditators.

In reviewing his published work to make selections for this volume, I was particularly struck by the inclusive, or nondualistic, nature of his teaching. Whatever the experience of the practitioner, whatever human strengths and weaknesses one possesses, Trungpa Rinpoche always encouraged us to start with the raw materials and not to reject any part of ourselves. In that sense as well, he spoke to what is essential in human beings and pointed out how it can be found throughout our experience, throughout our lives, good and bad, happy and sad.

One cannot adequately introduce The Essential Chgyam Trungpa without noting the authors remarkable grasp of English. Chgyam Trungpa loved the English language. He studied it; he played with it; and in the 1970s, he employed it to pioneer the language of Buddhism in America. By this, I mean that he sought and found English words and phrases that would aptly convey the essence of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings in their new home: in the West and specifically in North America. He was a major force in the creation of a lexicon for the presentation of Buddhism in America, one that is used by virtually every teacher today. For example, while he certainly did not invent the word