before we do. But the question is more complex: how to think, what to think, why to think, what is “to think”? No one can stop or control your thought process or your thinking. You can think anything you want. But that doesn’t seem to be the point. The thinking process has to be directed into a certain approach. That does not mean that your thinking process should be in accord with certain dogma, philosophy, or concepts. Instead, one has to know the thinker itself. So we are back to square one, the thinker itself: who or what thinks and what is the thought process?…
At this point the only genuine ground we have is back to square one. If you cut all kinds of roots and fascinations, all kinds of entertainment, regarding it as a very subtle form of conmanship, what do you have? You might say nothing. But it’s not quite nothing–it’s back to square one. The point is that your genuine existence and expressions should not be colored by any form of artificiality. However subtle, however magnificent, however beautiful or holy it may be, it still discolors your existence. So if you have a sense of ultimate cynicism, you are back to square one. If you see through any trips that are laid on you, or anyone trying to influence you, if you see through how you yourself are influencing somebody else’s ideas or borrowing ideas and concepts from somebody else–then you are back to square one.
Rabjam Rinpoche traveled to the United States twice with his grandfather, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, where they visited Trungpa Rinpoche and his community of students. Here are a few of his memories from those visits.
What Trungpa Rinpoche Accomplished
Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche reflects on Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's life and teachings
The Enlightenment of the Buddha
These three talks on the enlightenment of the Buddha were given at Karme Choling in December 1975.
How I Met Rinpoche
Part One of a Conversation with Ani Pema Chödrön.Training of an American Buddhist Nun. The following conversation between Pema Chödrön and Walter Fordham took place in Halifax on 10 December 2003.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s Cremation Ceremony
Thirty years ago today, May 26, 1987, hundreds of the Vidyadhara's students gathered in the upper meadow of Karme Chöling for their teacher's cremation. This slideshow presentation of Ray Ellis's...
The Samadhi of the Guru
This is a 2007 recording of Susan Edwards reading her piece, The Samadhi of the Guru, on KGNU Radio in Boulder with music by Thomas Lenk.
In the Shadow of the Purkhang
As I turned onto the Karme Choling road in May 1987 for the cremation, my mind slipped back to the first time I set foot there.
Conversation with Patty Livingston
Marty talks with Dr. Patty Livingston about her work in anesthesiology and pain management, as well as her ongoing work in Rwanda training anesthesiologists.
Vana Jakic recalls Trungpa Rinpoche
Vana Jakic talks about her interactions with Trungpa Rinpoche in England in the 1960s.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Quick Charcoal
I met Rinpoche in 1971, becoming a student of his soon after, and for life. During the course of it, he assigned to me an eclectic array of different tasks and challenges. One of these was to make portrait sketches of him as he ...
The Day My Car Died
When my guru lay dying, I was in Boulder and he was in Halifax, but I had never been closer to him. Every breath he took was another moment...
The Do-Gooders
I lived at Tail of the Tiger from November 1971 until the spring of 1972 when Rinpoche asked me, along with Ken and Helen Green and their small son Mithra,...
At Waterways Duck Farm
Trungpa stayed with a spiritualist healer called Robert Copley on his duck farm in ST Ives Huntingdon, U.K. in, or around 1962, where I met him. He described his...
Glimpses of Tail of the Tiger 1970
Jonathan first heard of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1970 when his mother, Nancy Eric, showed him a brochure she had picked up about Tail of the Tiger. Jonathan read...
On Rinpoche and Roshi
In this episode, Henry Schaeffer and Sam Bercholz cover a lot of ground in 18 minutes, including Rinpoche throwing his mala over a fence in Oakland, Roshi blessing ...
An Interview with Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche
This interview was recorded at Pema Osel in Vershire, Vermont on August 9, 2010, during Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche's tour of North Americ
GLIMPSES OF ALAYA
A Discussion with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the NTC
The Nalanda Translation Committee,
Kalapa Court in Boulder, Colorado,
Circa 1980.
Left to right: Nelson Dudley, Scott Wellenbach, Lodro Dorje, Chögyam Trungpa, Larry Mermelstein,...
Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche in Vermont
Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche is traveling with an exhibition of sacred relics and artifacts that belonged to HH Dilgo Khyentse. Here are a series of photographs from the exhibit.
Khyentse Yangsi...
Thirty Years After… Please post and read tributes here
On this, the thirtieth anniversary of Trungpa Rinpoche's parinirvana, please offer poems, stories and tributes
His Final Home
To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Chögyam Trungpa's parinirvana, the Chögyam Trungpa Legacy Project mounted an extraordinary exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax.
Rechungpa’s Repentance
While Rechungpa was gone, he became entranced by the beautiful wild asses in the region—and Milarepa took the opportunity to burn all the books Rechungpa had brought back with him from India. When Rechungpa realized what was happening ...