Chogyam Trungpa

Chögyam Trungpa (before 1959)

Chögyam Trungpa ( Wylie : Chos rgyam Drung pa ; February 28, 1939 - April 4, 1987) was a lineage holder and Tertön of the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism , as well as the Shambhala transmission established by him . He was from the XVI. Gyalwa Karmapa as XI. Trungpa Tulku recognized and received a traditional education from childhood, as was customary for the highest abbot of the Surmang monasteries. In North America he founded the organization Vajradhatu with numerous meditation centers, Shambhala training and Naropa University.

Life

Chögyam Trungpa was born in 1939 in what was then the Tibetan province of Kham (today's Qinghai province ) as the child of a nomad family. He was recognized by the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje as the eleventh Trungpa- Tulku and enthroned as the highest abbot of the Surmang monasteries and governor of the Surmang district. Chögyam Trungpa was the lineage holder of the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism . After his recognition as a tulku, he received extensive training in the theory and practice of Buddhist teachings and was ordained as a novice monk in 1948. In 1958, at the age of 18, he received full monk ordination and, at the end of his training, the titles Kybodön (graduation) and Khenpo (master of learning). The following year, after the 1959 uprising , he fled across the Himalayas to India on foot . Here the 14th Dalai Lama , Tendzin Gyatsho , very soon made him the spiritual advisor of the Young Lamas Home School in Dalhousie in southern India. Chögyam Trungpa held this office from 1959 to 1963, when he received a Spoulding Scholarship to study in Great Britain , which allowed him to study comparative religion , philosophy and the arts at the University of Oxford from 1963 to 1967 .

He began to work as a teacher in England. Together with Akong Rinpoche , he founded the meditation center named after Samye-Ling in Dumfriesshire in Scotland in 1967 . In 1969 he gave up his monastic vows after a car accident. He married the English Diana Judith Pybus (Lady Diana Mukpo; also: Sakyong Wangmo ) and, following the invitation of many of his students, moved with her to the United States of America .

In 1974 Trungpa Rinpoche founded the Naropa Institute in Boulder (Colorado) , the only state-recognized university based on Buddhist principles, and began teaching Shambhala in 1976 . In 1986 he established his headquarters in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia , where he died of a heart attack a short time later , already suffering from health problems due to years of heavy alcohol consumption .

student

At the end of 1976, Trungpa Rinpoche made the Italian-American Thomas Rich, who was named Ösel Tenzin by him, his deputy . With him, the first “Westerner” became a lineage holder of the Kagyu tradition and probably the Vajrayana tradition in general. After being infected with HIV , Ösel Tenzin died in 1990 of complications from AIDS .

The Shambhala organization founded by Trungpa Rinpoche is now headed by his son Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche , who continues to teach.

The most famous students of Rinpoche are, among others, Allen Ginsberg , Pema Chödrön , Francisco Varela and Samuel Bercholz. Allen Ginsberg , one of the most famous writers and poets in the USA, was a teacher at Naropa University until his death in 1997 . Pema Chödrön is the author and editor of several books on meditation and lifestyle that are known and appreciated far beyond Buddhist circles. Samuel Berchholz is the founder and co-owner of Shambhala Publishing. He participated in many major translations and publications at Naropa University. In Europe one of his most famous students is Han de Wit , author of books on Buddhism and psychology, and others. a. "Contemplative Psychology" and "The Hidden Flower".

accusations

Chögyam Trungpa has been criticized for giving up his ordination as a monk and afterwards leading a fairly permissive worldly life. Although he also taught a secular form of spiritual practice in his teaching on Shambhala, he had never questioned the monastic tradition of Buddhism. In addition, he founded a. a. in Canada in 1984 the monastery Gampo Abbey, which is now run by Thrangu Rinpoche and Pema Chödrön .

Works

1970 I come from Tibet. My life in the Buddhist monk world and the flight over the Himalayas. Walter, Olten
1972 Active meditation. Tibetan wisdom. Walter, Olten (many wide. Ed.) ISBN 3-530-88801-X ; New translation 2006 Windpferd, Aitrang
1975 Spiritual materialism. Aurum, Freiburg; udT cutting through spiritual materialism . Theseus, Küsnacht 1989 ISBN 3-859-36025-6 ; Berlin 1996 ISBN 3-896-20100-X
1976 with Herbert V. Guenther: Tantra in the light of reality. Aurum, Freiburg
1976 with Francesca Fremantle (ed.): The Tibetan Book of the Dead . Diederichs, Munich (Diederichs yellow series - DG 6 Tibet; many wide. Ed.) ISBN 3424005061 ; Hugendubel, Munich 2002 ISBN 3-720-52311-X
1978 Beyond hope and fear. Octopus, Vienna
1978 The fairy tale of freedom and the path of meditation. Aurum Freiburg; edit New edition udT The myth of freedom and the path of meditation. Theseus, Küsnacht 1989 ISBN 3-859-36029-9 ; Berlin 1996 ISBN 3-896-20099-2 and 2006 Rowohlt, Reinbek
1979 The game of illusion. Irisiana Verlag, Haldenwang ISBN 3-921417-24-4
1980 Mudra - gestures of wisdom. Insights and poems by a Tibetan master. Zero, Alps; 1990² Windpferd, Aitrang ISBN 3-893-85062-7
1982 Drink fire, breathe earth. The magic of tantra. Diederichs, Cologne; 1989 Rowohlt, Reinbek (rororo transformation 8532) ISBN 3-499-18532-6
1986 The book of the meditative life . OWBarth, Bern and Scherz 1988², 1989³; 1995 Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg ISBN 3-499-18723-X
1993 The heart of the Buddha. Barth, Bern
1995 The island of the NOW in the flow of time. Life, Death, and Other Bardo Experiences in Buddhism. Krüger, Frankfurt; ud shortened. Subtitle Bardo Experiences in Buddhism. from 1998 Fischer, Frankfurt (Spirit Fischer 13823) ISBN 3-596-13823-X
2000 education of the heart . Buddhist mind training as a way to love and compassion. Arbor, Freiamt, 2004 ISBN 3-924-19563-3
2002 Worldly enlightenment. The wisdom of Tibet for the West. Arbor, Freiamt ISBN 3-924-19554-4
2004 The mandala in us. The Buddhist view of internal order. Diederichs, Munich ISBN 3-720-52535-X
2004 Great Eastern Sun. The wisdom of Shambhala. Arbor Freiamt ISBN 3-936-85502-1
2006 Mindfulness, Meditation & Psychotherapy. Introduction to Buddhist Psychology. Arbor, Freiamt
2012 The book of the meditative life. Shambhala and the path of the warrior within. Knaur, Munich, ISBN 978-3-426-87575-9 . (American original edition: Shambhala. The Sacred Path of the Warrior. Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston 1984)
2012 crazy wisdom. Life without hope and fear. Windpferd, Oberstdorf 2012, ISBN 978-3-86410-028-4 . (With a biography of him, contact addresses and register)
- The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa . Shambhala Publications, Boston / London 2003-2004, ISBN 1-590-30025-4

literature

Jeremy Hayward: Warrior-King of Shambhala: Remembering Chögyam Trungpa . Wisdom Publications, 2007, ISBN 0-86171-546-2
Diana Mukpo, J. Dragon Thunder: My Life with Chögyam Trungpa . Shambhala, 2006, ISBN 1-590-30256-7