Chögyam Trungpa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Title | Tulku |
| Personal life | |
| Born | (1939-03-05)March 5, 1939 |
| Died | April 4, 1987(1987-04-04) (aged 48) Halifax,Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Cause of death | Heart attack[2] |
| Nationality | Tibetan |
| Partner | Konchok Peldron, Diana Judith Pybus (wife) |
| Children | 4, includingSakyong Mipham Rinpoche[1] |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Shambhala Training |
| Teachers | Jamgon Kongtrul of Sechen Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Khenpo Gangshar |
| Senior posting | |
| Predecessor | Chökyi Nyinche |
| Successor | Choseng Trungpa |
| Reincarnation | Trungpa Tulku |
| Website | http://www.shambhala.org/ |
Chögyam Trungpa (Wylie:Chos rgyam Drung pa; March 5, 1939 – April 4, 1987), formally named the11th Zurmang Trungpa, Chokyi Gyatso, was aTibetan Buddhist master and holder of bothKagyu andNyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He was recognized by both Tibetan Buddhists and other spiritual practitioners and scholars[3][4] as a preeminent teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a major figure in the dissemination ofBuddhism in the West,[5] foundingVajradhatu andNaropa University and establishing theShambhala Training method. The 11th of theTrungpa tülkus, he was atertön, supremeabbot of theSurmang monasteries, scholar, teacher, poet, artist, and originator ofShambhala Buddhist tradition.
Among Trungpa's contributions are the translation of numerousTibetan Buddhist texts,[6] the introduction of theVajrayana 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.[7] Some of his own methods and actions, particularly his heavy drinking, sexual predation, and his ordering of the sexual assault (forced stripping) of a student and his girlfriend, caused controversy during his lifetime and afterward.[8][9]
Born in theNangchen region ofTibet in March 1939, Chögyam Trungpa was eleventh in the line ofTrungpa tülkus, important figures in theKagyu lineage, one of the four main schools ofTibetan Buddhism. Among his three main teachers wereJamgon Kongtrul of Sechen, HHDilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, andKhenpo Gangshar.
The nameChögyam is a contraction ofChökyi Gyamtso (Tibetan:ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་མཚོ་,Wylie:Chos-kyi Rgya-mtsho), which means "Ocean ofDharma".Trungpa (Tibetan:དྲུང་པ་,Wylie:Drung-pa) means "attendant". He was deeply trained in the Kagyu tradition and received hiskhenpo degree at the same time asThrangu Rinpoche; they continued to be very close in later years. Chögyam Trungpa was also trained in theNyingma tradition, the oldest of the four schools, and was an adherent of theri-mé ("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,[10] 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 fromhis homeland.[11][12] Masked in his account inBorn in Tibet to protect those left behind,[13] the first, preparatory stage of his escape had begun a year earlier, when he fled his home monastery after its occupation by theChinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).[14] After spending the winter in hiding, he decided definitively to escape after learning thathis monastery had been destroyed.[15] Trungpa started withAkong Rinpoche and a small party ofBuddhist monastics, 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.[1] 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 theBrahmaputra River. Trungpa, the monastics and about 70 refugees managed to cross the river under heavy gunfire,[16] then, eating their leather belts and bags to survive, they climbed 19,000 feet over the Himalayas before reaching the safety of Pema Ko.[17] After reachingIndia, on January 24, 1960, the party was flown to arefugee camp.[18][19]
Between 2006 and 2010, independent Canadian and French researchers usingsatellite imagery tracked and confirmed Trungpa's escape route.[20] In 2012, five survivors of the escape inNepal,Scotland, and theUnited States confirmed details of the journey and supplied their personal accounts.[21] More recent analysis has shown the journey to be directly comparable to such sagas asShackleton'sImperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917.[22] In 2016 accumulated research and survivors' stories were published in a full retelling of the story,[23] and later in the year preliminary talks began on the funding and production of a movie.
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The16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, was known for seeing the future and made plans accordingly. In 1954, shortly after giving Trungpa themonastic 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.[24]
In exile in India, Trungpa began his study of English.Freda Bedi then initiated a project with[25] Trungpa and Akong Tulku called theYoung Lamas Home School inDalhousie, India. After seeking endorsement from the14th Dalai Lama, they were appointed its spiritual director and administrator respectively.[26]
In 1963, with the assistance of Bedi and other sympathetic Westerners, Trungpa received a grant from theSpalding Trust to spend time atOxford,[27] and was granted "common room" access toSt Antony's College, atOxford University.[28] Akong Rinpoche and another monk shared a flat with Trungpa.
In 1966, after the departure of the westernTheravadinmonkAnanda Bodhi, the Johnstone House Trust inScotland invited Trungpa and Akong to take over Ananda Bodhi'smeditation center, which in 1967 becameSamye Ling, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West. MusicianDavid Bowie[29] had been one of Ananda Bodhi's meditation students there.[1]
Shortly after his move to Scotland in 1966–67, a variety of experiences including his interactions with his Western students, a solitary retreat inBhutan, and a car accident that left him partially paralyzed on the left side of his body, led Trungpa to disrobe and return hismonastic vows in 1969, in order to work as a lay teacher.[30] He made that decision principally to mitigate students' becoming distracted by exotic cultures and dress and to undercut their preconceptions of how aguru should behave.[30] He drank, smoked, slept 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 upsmoking marijuana, claiming that the smoking was not of benefit to theirspiritual progress and that it exaggeratedneurosis. Students were often angered, unnerved and intimidated by him, but many remained fiercely loyal, committed, and devoted.
In January 1970, he married his student Diana Pybus, with whom he moved toNorth America. Akong stayed inScotland at Samye Ling. Trungpa landed inOntario, and made deeper connections intoNova Scotia. They soon moved to theUnited States at the invitation of several students, and traveled mostly toVermont,California, andColorado, where he was gaining renown for his ability to present Buddhism in a form readily understandable to Western students. He settled inBoulder, 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."[31]
Trungpa was one of the first teachers to introduceTibetan Buddhism and theVajrayana to the West.[32] As in Tibet, the schools of the Vajrayana Buddhism and their practices are the domain of everyone, including themonasticsangha, the vow-holdingsangha, and the laysangha. In the United States, Trungpa introduced the Vajrayana mostly to the laysangha.[33]
The presentation of these teachings gave rise to some criticism. According to Trungpa's former student Stephen Butterfield, "Trungpa told us that if we ever tried to leave the Vajrayana, we would suffer unbearable, subtle, continuous anguish, and disasters would pursue us like furies".[34] Other Vajrayana teachers also warn their students about the dangers of the path.[citation needed]
Butterfield said, "to be part of Trungpa's inner circle, you had to take a vow never to reveal or even discuss some of the things he did." But Butterfield also said, "This personal secrecy is common with gurus, especially in Vajrayana Buddhism",[35] and though he noted "disquieting resemblances" to cults, acknowledged that Trungpa's organization is not a cult: "a mere cult leaves you disgusted and disillusioned, wondering how you could have been a fool. I did not feel that charlatans had hoodwinked me into giving up my powers to enhance theirs. On the contrary, mine were unveiled."[36]
In 1973, Trungpa establishedVajradhatu, encompassing all his North American institutions, headquartered inBoulder, Colorado. Trungpa also founded more than 100 meditation centers throughout the world. Originally known as Dharmadhatus, these centers, now more than 150 in number, are known asShambhala Meditation Centers. He also founded retreat centers for intensive meditation practice, includingRocky Mountain Dharma Center inRed Feather Lakes, Colorado,Karmê Chöling inBarnet, Vermont, andGampo Abbey inCape Breton,Nova Scotia.
In 1974, Trungpa founded the Naropa Institute, which later becameNaropa University, inBoulder, Colorado. Naropa was the first accreditedBuddhist university in North America. Trungpa hiredAllen Ginsberg to teachpoetry andWilliam Burroughs to teachliterature.
Trungpa had a number of notable students, among whom werePema Chödrön,Allen Ginsberg,Peter Orlovsky,Anne Waldman,Diane di Prima,Peter Lieberson,John Steinbeck IV,José Argüelles,David Nichtern,Ken Wilber,David Deida,Francisco Varela, andJoni Mitchell, who portrayed Trungpa in the song "Refuge of the Roads" on her 1976 albumHejira.[37] Ginsberg, Waldman, and di Prima also taught at Naropa University, and in the 1980sMarianne Faithfull taught songwriting workshops.Lesser-known students Trungpa taught in England and the US include Alf Vial,Rigdzin Shikpo (né Michael Hookham), Jigme Rinzen (né P. Howard Useche), Karma Tendzin Dorje (né Mike Crowley), Ezequiel Hernandez Urdaneta (known as Keun-Tshen Goba after setting up his first meditation center in Venezuela), Miguel Otaola (akaDorje Khandro), Francisco Salas Roche, German financier Burkhard Brauch (akaChugai Keisho), andFrancesca Fremantle.Rigdzin Shikpo promulgated Trungpa's teachings from a primarilyNyingma rather than Kagyü point of view at the Longchen Foundation.[38][39]
In 1976, Trungpa began giving a series of secular teachings, some of which were gathered and presented as theShambhala Training,[40][41] inspired by his vision of thelegendary Kingdom ofShambhala. Trungpa actually started writing about Shambhala before his 1959 escape from Tibet toIndia, but most of those writings were lost during the escape.[42]
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'sbasic 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 assakyong (Tib. "earth protector") with his wife asqueen-consort orsakyong wangmo.
Shambhala vision is described as anon-religious approach rooted inmeditation 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 hisintention to propagate theKingdom of Shambala that provided the necessary inspiration to leave his homeland and make the arduous journey to India and the West.[43]
From the beginning of his time in the United States, Trungpa encouraged his students to integrate a contemplative approach into their everyday activities. In addition to making a variety of traditional contemplative practices available to the community, he incorporated his students' already existing interests (especially anything relating toJapanese culture), evolving specialized teachings on a meditative approach to these various disciplines. These includedkyūdō (Japanese archery),calligraphy,ikebana (flower arranging),Sadō (Japanese tea ceremony),dance,theater,film,poetry,photography,health care, andpsychotherapy. His aim was, in his own words, to bring "art to everyday life." He founded theNalanda Foundation in 1974 as an umbrella organization for these activities,[44] but changed its name toNaropa Institute.[1]
Trungpa visitedNova Scotia for the first time in 1977. In 1983 he establishedGampo Abbey, a Karma Kagyü monastery in Cape Breton. The following year, 1984–85, he observed a yearlong retreat atMill Village and in 1986 he moved his home and Vajradhatu's international headquarters toHalifax.
By then he was in failing health due to paralysis from the 1969 auto accident,diabetes,high blood pressure, and years ofheavy alcohol use. On September 28, 1986, he suffered cardiac arrest,[45] after which his condition deteriorated, requiringintensive care at the hospital, then at his home and finally, in mid-March 1987, back at the hospital, where he died on April 4, 1987.
In 2006 his wife, Diana Mukpo, wrote, "Although he had many of the classic health problems that develop from heavy drinking, it was in fact more likely the diabetes and high blood pressure that led to abnormal blood sugar levels and then thecardiac arrest". Trungpa's doctor Michael Levy concurred in his initial statement, and added that abacterial infection likely caused his death.[46][1] In a 2008 interview for theChronicles of Chogyam Trungpa, Levy changed his statement when asked again "What was he ill with? What did he die of?" He added that Trungpa also "had chronic liver disease related to his alcohol intake over many years."[47] One of Trungpa's nursing attendants reported that he suffered in his last months from classic symptoms of terminalalcoholism andcirrhosis,[48] yet continued drinking heavily. She added, "At the same time there was a power about him and an equanimity to his presence that was phenomenal, that I don't know how to explain."[49]
His body was packed in salt, laid in a wooden box, and conveyed to Karmê Chöling.[50] On 26 May 1987, more than 2,000 students and friends[51] and Tibetan Buddhist masters includingDilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the12th Tai Situ Rinpoche, the3rd Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and the 12th Tsurpu Gyeltsab, Drakpa Tenpa Yarpel Rinpoche, attended Trungpa's cremation ceremony[1] before hiskudung was interred in a stupa at Shambhala Mountain Center. Attendants at the ceremony at Karmê Chöling witnessed that the ceremony was accompanied by rainbows, circling eagles,[52][53] and a cloud in the shape of anAshe as symbolic ofenlightenment.[54] "Everyone who stayed long enough at Trungpa's cremation saw the rainbows", Butterfield said.[55]
Upon Trungpa's death, the leadership ofVajradhatu was first carried on by his American disciple, appointedVajra Regent, and Dharma heirÖsel Tendzin. Among Tendzin's controversial actions was his rejection of the recommendation of seniorKagyu lineage holder theTai Situpa to take over leadership of Vajradhatu in conjunction with Trungpa's half-brother, Damchu Tenphel, who resided inTibet. This was "regarded by members as a serious slight to lineage authorities and was construed as the Regent's attempt to secure his position of control".[56]
Also controversial was that Tendzin "took further action to buttress his centrality by denying students permission to seek teachings from other Kagyu Tibetan teachers, claiming that only he possessed the special transmission, materials and knowledge unique to the Trungpa lineage. Students were told that if they wanted to practice within the community, they would have to take spiritual instruction from the Regent."[57]
Other behavior was troubling as well. As one scholar who has studied the community noted, Tendzin was "bisexual and known to be very promiscuous" and "enjoyed seducing straight men" but the community "did not find [this behavior] particularly troublesome".[58] Not all his partners were unwilling; one scholar said "it became a mark of prestige for a man, gay or straight, to have sex with the Regent, just as it had been for a woman to have sex with [Trungpa] Rinpoche",[59] but at least one student reported that Tendzin had raped him.[60] As a former Vajradhatu member attested, "a chilling story had recently been reported by one of ... [the] teachers at the Buddhist private school [for the Vajradhatu community]. This straight, married male was pinned face-down across Rich's desk by the guards [theDorje Kasung] while Rich forcibly raped him."[61]
In 1989 it was revealed that Ösel Tendzin had contractedHIV and knowingly continued to have unprotected sex with his students, without informing them for nearly three years. Some of these students later died ofAIDS.[62][63] Others close to Tendzin, including Vajradhatu's board of directors, knew for two years that Tendzin was HIV-positive and sexually active but kept silent.[64] As one student reported at the time:
I was very distressed that he and his entourage had lied to us for so long, always saying he did not have AIDS. I was even more distressed over the stories of how the Regent used his position as a dharma teacher to induce "straight" students to have unprotected sex with him, while he claimed he had been tested for AIDS but the result was negative.[58]
Shambhala's leadership then passed on to Trungpa's eldest son and Shambhala heir,Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. In 2018, Buddhist Project Sunshine, an organization founded as asurvivors' network for former Shambhala Buddhist members,[65] reported multiple allegations ofsexual assault within the Shambhala community.[66][67][68] In response, and to allow time for the community to investigate these accusations, Sakyong Mipham temporarily stepped aside as leader, and the Shambhala governing council resigned and appointed an interim Board of Directors and a Process Team.[69][70][71] In response, Sakyong Mipham issued a letter to the community, saying:
some of these women have shared experiences of feeling harmed as a result of these relationships. I am now making a public apology. In addition, I would like you to know that over the years, I have apologized personally to people who have expressed feeling harmed by my conduct, including some of those who have recently shared their stories. I have also engaged in mediation and healing practices with those who have felt harmed. Thus I have been, and will continue to be, committed to healing these wounds.[72][73]
After the allegations of sexual misconduct, Naropa Institute removed Sakyong Mipham from its board in 2018.[74] In 2020,The Walrus published an investigative report detailing aculture of abuse dating to Shambhala's earliest days, with all three leaders of the organization, including Chögyam Trungpa, having been credibly accused of sexual misconduct andabuse of power.[75]
Major lineage holders of Trungpa's Tibetan Buddhist traditions and many other Buddhist teachers supported his work.
In 1974, Trungpa invited the16th Gyalwa Karmapa, head of theKarma Kagyu lineage, to come to the West and offer teachings. Based on this visit, the Karmapa proclaimed Trungpa one of the principalKagyu lineage holders in the West:
The ancient and renowned lineage of the Trungpas, since the greatsiddha Trungmase Chökyi Gyamtso Lodrö, possessor of only holy activity, has in every generation given rise to great beings. Awakened by the vision of these predecessors in the lineage, this my present lineage holder, Chökyi Gyamtso Trungpa Rinpoche, supreme incarnate being, has magnificently carried out the vajra holders' discipline in the land of America, bringing about the liberation of students and ripening them in thedharma. This wonderful truth is clearly manifest.
Accordingly, I empower Chögyam Trungpa Vajra Holder and Possessor of the Victory Banner of the Practice Lineage of the Karma Kagyu. Let this be recognized by all people of both elevated and ordinary station.[76]
In 1981, Trungpa and his students hosted the14th Dalai Lama in his visit to Boulder, Colorado. Of Trungpa, the Dalai Lama later wrote, "Exceptional as one of the first Tibetan lamas to become fully assimilated into Western culture, he made a powerful contribution to revealing the Tibetan approach to inner peace in the West."[77]
Trungpa also received support from one of his own main teachers,Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, head of theNyingma lineage. In addition to numeroussadhana and poems dedicated to Trungpa, Khyentse Rinpoche wrote a supplication after Trungpa's death specifically naming him amahasiddha.[78][79][80] Among the Tibetan Rinpoches to name Trungpa a mahasiddha arethe Sixteenth Karmapa,Thrangu Rinpoche,Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche andTai Situpa Rinpoche.[81]
TheDzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche said, "As taught in the Buddhist scriptures, there are nine qualities of a perfect master of buddhadharma. The Eleventh Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche possessed all nine of these."[82]
Suzuki Roshi, founder of theSan Francisco Zen Center andTassajara Zen Mountain Center, and another important exponent of Buddhism to western students, described Trungpa in the context of a talk about emptiness:
The way you can struggle with this is to be supported by something, something you don't know. As we are human beings, there must be that kind of feeling. You must feel it in this city or building or community. So whatever community it may be, it is necessary for it to have this kind of spiritual support.
That is why I respect Trungpa Rinpoche. He is supporting us. You may criticize him because he drinks alcohol like I drink water, but that is a minor problem. He trusts you completely. He knows that if he is always supporting you in a true sense you will not criticize him, whatever he does. And he doesn't mind whatever you say. That is not the point, you know. This kind of big spirit, without clinging to some special religion or form of practice, is necessary for human beings.[83]
Gehlek Rinpoche, who lived with Trungpa when they were young monks in India and later visited and taught with him in the U.S., remarked:
He was a great Tibetan yogi, a friend, and a master. The more I deal with Western Dharma students, the more I appreciate how he presented the dharma and the activities that he taught. Whenever I meet with difficulties, I begin to understand – sometimes before solving the problem, sometimes afterward – why Trungpa Rinpoche did some unconventional things. I do consider him to be the father of Tibetan Buddhism in the United States. In my opinion, he left very early – too early. His death was a great loss. Everything he did is significant.[84]
Diana Mukpo, his wife, stated:
First, Rinpoche always wanted feedback. He very, very much encouraged his students’ critical intelligence. One of the reasons that people were in his circle was that they were willing to be honest and direct with him. He definitely was not one of those teachers who asked for obedience and wanted their students not to think for themselves. He thrived, he lived, on the intelligence of his students. That is how he built his entire teaching situation.
From my perspective, I could always be pretty direct with him. Maybe I was not hesitant to do that because I really trusted the unconditional nature of our relationship. I felt there was really nothing to lose by being absolutely direct with him, and he appreciated that.[85]
[Trungpa] caused more trouble, and did more good, than anyone I'll ever know.
Trungpa's teaching style was often unconventional. He felt that "compassion is not so much being kind; it is being creative to wake a person up."[88] He did not encourage his students to imitate his own behavior, and was allegedly troubled by those who felt empowered by his example to do whatever they wanted and manipulate people.
Trungpa cultivated sexual relationships with a number of his female students[9] and reportedly had multiple "spiritual wives," some of whom were minors and some of whom described physical and emotional abuse from Trungpa.[89] Trungpa formally renounced his monastic vows in 1969.[90]
Trungpa was also known forsmoking tobacco andliberally using alcohol;[91] many who knew him characterized him as analcoholic.[92][93] He began drinking occasionally shortly after arriving in India.[94] Before coming to the United States, Trungpa drove a sports car into a joke shop in Gateshead in North-East England, May 1969.[95] While his companion was not seriously injured,[96] Trungpa was left partially paralyzed. Later, he described this event as a pivotal moment that inspired the course of his teachings. Some accounts ascribe the accident to drinking.[97][98] Others suggest he may have had astroke.[99][100] According to Trungpa himself, heblacked out.[101]
Trungpa often combined drinking with teaching.[102] In some instances Trungpa was too drunk to walk and had to be carried.[98] Also, according to his studentJohn Steinbeck IV and his wife, on a couple of occasions Trungpa's speech was unintelligible.[103] One woman reported serving him "big glasses ofgin first thing in the morning."[48]
The Steinbecks wroteThe Other Side of Eden, a sharply critical memoir of their lives with Trungpa in which they claim that, in addition toalcohol, he spent $40,000 a year oncocaine, and usedSeconal to come down from the cocaine. The Steinbecks said the cocaine use was kept secret from the wider Vajradhatu community.[104]
One well-known controversial incident occurred at the Halloween party at Snowmass Colorado Seminary in 1975. which the poetW. S. Merwin and his girlfriend, Hawaiian poet Dana Naone, attended.[105] At the party, after many, including Trungpa himself, had taken off their clothes, Merwin was asked to participate but refused. On Trungpa's orders, his Vajra Guard forced entry into the poet's locked and barricaded room; brought him and his girlfriend, Dana Naone, against their will, to the party; and stripped them of all their clothes, with onlookers ignoring Naone's pleas for help and for someone to call the police.[106] The next day Trungpa asked Merwin and Naone to remain at the Seminary as either students or guests. They agreed to stay for several more weeks to hear the Vajrayana teachings, with Trungpa's promise that "there would be no more incidents" and Merwin's that there would be "no guarantees of obedience, trust, or personal devotion to him."[107] They left immediately after the last talk. In a 1977 letter to members of a Naropa class investigating the incident, Merwin concluded,
My feelings about Trungpa have been mixed from the start. Admiration, throughout, for his remarkable gifts; and reservations, which developed into profound misgivings, concerning some of his uses of them. I imagine, at least, that I've learned some things from him (though maybe not all of them were the things I was "supposed" to learn) and some through him, and I'm grateful to him for those. I wouldn't encourage anyone to become a student of his. I wish him well.[108]
The incident became known to a wider public when Tom Clark published "The Great Naropa Poetry Wars". The Naropa Institute later askedEd Sanders and his class to conduct an internal investigation, resulting in a lengthy report.[109][110][111][112][113] AuthorJeffery Paine noted the outrage felt in particular by poets such asRobert Bly andKenneth Rexroth after this incident, who began calling Trungpa afascist.[114]
Eliot Weinberger commented on the incident in a critique aimed at Trungpa andAllen Ginsberg published inThe Nation on April 19, 1980. He complained that the fascination of some of the best minds of his generation with Trungpa's presentation of Tibetan Buddhism andTibetan theocracy created a dangerous exclusivity andelitism.[115]
Trungpa's choice of WesternerÖsel Tendzin as his dharma heir was controversial, as Tendzin was the first Western Tibetan Buddhist lineage holder and Vajra Regent. This was exacerbated by Tendzin's own behavior as lineage holder; while knowinglyHIV-positive, Tendzin was sexually involved with students, some of whom he raped, and one of whom became infected and died.[116]
1939: Born in theNangchen Kingdom,[1]Kham, Eastern Tibet. Enthroned as the Eleventh Trungpa Tulku, supremeabbot of theSurmang monasteries, and governor of Surmang District. Some put his birth in 1940.[117]
1944–1959: Studies traditional monastic disciplines, meditation, and philosophy, as well as calligraphy, thangka painting, and monastic dance.
1947: Ordained as agetsul (novice monk).
1958: Receives degrees of Kyorpön (recitation master) andKhenpo (equivalent to MPhil or PhD). Ordained as abhikshu (full monk).
1959–1960: Decides to escape from Tibet after hearing about the1959 Tibetan uprising inLhasa,[1] during which the14th Dalai Lama escaped toIndia as the 1959 Tibetan uprising failed to overthrow the occupation by theChinese government.
1960–1963: By appointment of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, serves as spiritual advisor to the Young Lamas' Home School inDalhousie, India.
1962: Fathers his first son,Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo, with Tibetan nun Konchok Peldron (1931–2019), who later joined Shambhala and was referred to as Lady Konchok Peldron.[1][118]
1963–1967: Attends Oxford University and resides at St. Anthony's College, supported by a Spalding Fellowship.[1] He studies comparative religion, philosophy, and fine arts. Receives instructor's degree of theSogetsu School ofikebana (Japanese flower arrangement).[119]
1966-1967: In Scotland, establishes together withAkong Rinpoche the monasterySamye Ling,[120] inDumfriesshire. Named after the first monastery in TibetSamye, Samye Ling becomes the first Tibetan monastery in the West.[1][119]
1968: By royal invitation, travels toBhutan and goes on solitary retreat atParo Taktsang.[1][119] Receivesterma text[121] while on retreat in the sacred cliffside monastery in Bhutan,[122] whereGuru Padmasambhava andYeshe Tsogyal also practiced.
1969: Becomes a Tibetan-born British subject, 10 February.[123] On May 5, injured in a car accident, leaving him partially paralyzed[124] on his left side. Accident reported inNewcastle Evening Chronicle, May 6. In October, returns his monastic vows and disrobes.[124] States that the dharma needs to be free of cultural trappings to take root.[119]
1970: On January 3, marries upper-class[1] 16-year-old Scottish student Diana Judith Pybus.[125] British media storm follows.
1970: Arrives in Canada before visiting Vermont, California, and Colorado. EstablishesTail of the Tiger, a Buddhist meditation and study center in Vermont, now namedKarmê Chöling. EstablishesKarma Dzong, a Buddhist community in Boulder, Colorado[126] (now known asBoulder Shambhala Center).[1]
1971: Begins teaching at University of Colorado. EstablishesRocky Mountain Dharma Center near Fort Collins, Colorado (now known asShambhala Mountain Center).
1972: Brings son Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo (the futureSakyong) to the U.S. from Britain. Initiates Maitri, a therapeutic program that works with different styles of mental conditions using principles of theFive Buddha Families. Conducts theMilarepa Film Workshop, a program that analyzes the aesthetics of film, onLookout Mountain, Colorado.
1973: EstablishedMudra Theater Group, which stages original plays and practices theater exercises, based onTibetancham dance.[127] IncorporatesVajradhatu, an international association of Buddhist meditation and study centers, later renamed asShambhala International. EstablishesDorje Khyung Dzong, a retreat facility in southern Colorado.[128] Conducts first annual Vajradhatu Seminary, a three-month advanced practice and study program for future Shambhala teachers.[1]
1974: Incorporates Nalanda Foundation, a nonprofit, nonsectarian educational organization to encourage and organize programs in the fields of education, psychology, and the arts. Hosts the first North American visit of the16th Gyalwa Karmapa, head of theKarma Kagyü lineage. Changes the name of Nalanda to theNaropa Institute, a contemplative studies and liberal arts college, now fully accredited asNaropa University. Forms the organization that will become the Dorje Kasung, a service group entrusted with the protection of Buddhist teachings and the welfare of the community.
1975: Forms the organization that will become the Shambhala Lodge, a group of students dedicated to fostering enlightened society. Establishes the Nalanda Translation Committee for the translation of Buddhist texts from Tibetan andSanskrit. EstablishesAshoka Credit Union.
1976: Hosts the first North American visit ofDilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, great master and scholar of theNyingma lineage. Hosts a visit of KyabjeDudjom Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma lineage. Empowers Thomas F. Rich as his dharma heir, known thereafter as Vajra RegentÖsel Tendzin. Establishes theKalapa Court in Boulder as his residence and a cultural center for the Vajradhatu community. Receives the first of several Shambhala terma texts. These comprise the literary source for the Shambhala teachings. EstablishesAlaya Preschool in Boulder.
1977: Bestows theVajrayogini abhisheka for the first time in the West for students who have completed the preliminaryngöndro practice. Establishes the celebration of Shambhala Day. Founds Shambhala Training to promote a secular approach to meditation practice and an appreciation ofbasic human goodness. VisitsNova Scotia for the first time.
1977-1978: Observes his first yearlong retreat in North America, atCharlemont, Massachusetts. Delivers his talk "Famous Last Words" on 24 January before departing.[129]
1978: Conducts the first annual Magyal Pomra Encampment, an advanced training program for members of the Dorje Kasung. Conducts the first annual Kalapa Assembly, an intensive training program for advanced Shambhala teachings and practices. Conducts the first Dharma Art seminar. Forms Amara, an association of health professionals. Forms theUpaya Council, a mediation council providing a forum for resolving disputes. Establishes the Midsummer's Day festival and Children's Day.
1979: Empowers his eldest son, Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo, as his successor and heir to theShambhala lineage. Founds the Shambhala School of Dressage, an equestrian school under the direction of his wife, Diana Mukpo. Founds Vidya Elementary School in Boulder.
1980–1983: Presents a series of environmental installations and flower arranging exhibitions at art galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, and Boulder.
1980: Forms Kalapa Cha to promote the practice of traditionalJapanese tea ceremony. With the Nalanda Translation Committee, completes the first English translation ofThe Rain of Wisdom.
1981: Hosts the visit of theFourteenth Dalai Lama to Boulder. Conducts the first annual Buddhist-Christian Conference in Boulder, exploring the common ground between Buddhist andChristian contemplative traditions. Forms Ryuko Kyūdōjō to promote the practice ofKyūdō under the direction ofShibata Kanjuro Sensei, bow maker to theEmperor of Japan. Directs a film,Discovering Elegance, using footage of his environmental installation and flower arranging exhibitions.
1982: Forms Kalapa Ikebana to promote the study and practice of Japanese flower arranging.
1983: EstablishesGampo Abbey, a Karma Kagyü monastery inCape Breton, Nova Scotia, for Western students wishing to enter into traditional monastic discipline. Creates a series of elocution exercises to promote precision and mindfulness of speech.
1984–1985: Observes a second yearlong retreat in North America, inMill Village, Nova Scotia.
1986: Moves his home and the international headquarters of Vajradhatu toHalifax,Nova Scotia.
1987: Dies in Halifax. His cremation ceremony was held on May 26 at Karmê Chöling. TheGreat Stupa of Dharmakaya atShambhala Mountain Center, near Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, houses hiskudung, or his bodily remains.
1989: The child recognized as his reincarnation or tulku,Chokyi Sengay, is born inDerge, Tibet; recognized two years later byTai Situ Rinpoche.
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