About 10 days before Rinpoche's passing on April 4, 1987, Halifax harbour began filling up with ice from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The ice flowed southwest along the coast of Nova Scotia, and into Halifax Harbour where it was...
Historical Comments on The Sadhana of Mahamudra
There was tremendous corruption, confusion, lack of faith, and lack of practice in Tibet.
Old Dog Wags Its Tail
It was April in Halifax.
It was misty and cold.
There was black ice in the harbour.
It was misty and cold.
There was black ice in the harbour.
My Guru Was One Scary Son Of A Bitch
Sung at the Sadhana of Mahamudra feast in Halifax, 4 April 2009
On the 31st Parinirvana
But the weight of your hand has reached through time, touched my heart and made me Mukpo.
The Curse of Devotion
The curse of devotion is the ungraspable imprint of an empty heart
Writing Your Mind
Question: Could you say something about the role that poetry might play in the journey of the Buddhist practitioner?
Chögyam Trungpa: It’s a question of writing your own mind on a piece of paper. Through poetry, you could find your own state of mind. that’s precisely the concept of haiku: writing your mind. that’s how we try to work with poetics at Naropa Institute. People shouldn’t be too dilettantish or artistic, but they should write their own state of mind on a piece of paper. that’s why we say, “first thought best thought.” We have to be very careful that we don’t put too many cosmetics on our own thinking. Thoughts don’t need lipstick or powder.
Changling Rinpoche
Changling Rinpoche, a devoted student of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, is the current abbot of the Shechen Monastery Shedra (monastic university) in Nepal.
The Fibre Glass Buddha
Many people meeting the Vidyadhara for the first time may have felt awkward and out of place. Some may even have felt as deeply ambivalent about the situation and...
Loss
My mother moved to Boulder when I was a baby and became a student of Chögyam Trungpa. I loved "my Rimpoche" ever since I can remember, long before I...
Please Give Me Space
I'd like to share my story of a personal teaching that the Vidyadhara gave to me in the early 1970s. Its import has grown for me over these many...
Burn Self Deception
Burn Self Deception is Jim Lowrey's account of the day Trungpa Rinpoche got the Pygmies, and other community members, to stop smoking marijuana.
A Penny for Your Thoughts
During the 1984 Kalapa Assembly in Bedford Springs, the Vidyadhara requested that I visit with him. At one point during the visit there was a long silence. I asked...
Cooking Indian Food at Kalapa Court
The first time I cooked Indian food at Kalapa Court in Boulder was in the summer of 1978. I was absorbed searching for some ingredients in the corner cupboard...
The Impression Suzuki Roshi Made on 15-Year Old Me
At one of the high points in my life, at the tender age of 15, I met Suzuki Roshi at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California. My mother, Carol...
On Shambhala and the Samaya Connection
Not long ago I heard someone say that people who disagreed with decisions made by the Sakyong or Shambhala International were people who didn’t practice and therefore, we shouldn’t pay attention to them.
Letter to the 1980 Seminary
From the all-encompassing vajradhatu,
Indestructible nonthought beyond description,
From the vast dharmadhatu,
The unceasing play of energy and light,
The dharmakaya Vajradhara takes form
As the incomparable root guru, Chokyi Gyatso.
The five poisons and...
Pilgrimage to Delhi (New York)
Late in September 2016, fourteen aspirants, mostly “old” students of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, began wending their ways to Delhi (pronounced “Del-High”), New York. We came to receive the Chakrasamvara Abhisheka,...
The Court
Then, seemingly out of the blue and certainly not to my liking, Rinpoche announced on Christmas Day that he would like to invite my mother to dinner ...