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Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

I Am Here MUKPO

During Ocean's Sadhana of Mahamudra feast on Parinirvana Day, 2022, master of ceremonies Barry Boyce led us through the story of this dramatic calligraphy executed by Trungpa Rinpoche in the 1980s.

Magic

This is the final talk of the Tibetan Buddhist Path, a 14-talk seminar from 1974

Meditation and the Fourth Moment

The experience of egoless insight and nowness, or the fourth moment

Doha of Sadness

I, Chögyam, your little son, remain in sadness

CASTLE OF EGO 

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who was a rainbow child. He lived in a vast desert and didn’t know where he came from and what his name was. He was all alone and had never met anybody else. He was totally happy and loved the sunrise, the sunset, the moon, and the stars.

Sutra

This is talk eight from Tibetan Buddhist Path seminary at Naropa, 1974

The Way of the Buddha in America

This is the talk played during the 2021 Parinirvana Day feast on Ocean

Visual Dharma Seminar

Audio recordings, Naropa 1979

1976 Seminary: Hinayana/Mahayana Talks

Here are the nineteen hinayana/mahayana talks of the 1976 Seminary. Join the Discussion Group  

The Star of Bethlehem

You begin to experience the dawn or glimmer of light, which in Western language is called the Star of Bethlehem

Cynicism and Warmth

Chogyam Trungpa rendered in charcoal by William Gilkerson

Basic Buddhism

This is a single talk given at Berkeley on May 18, 1971

A 1978 Talk to Sangha Children

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's Children's Day address, 1978. ​

50 Years Ago: First Teachings in North America

These three talks, given in NYC in early July 1970, were Trungpa Rinpoche's first recorded teachings in North America.

1978 Seminary: Hinayana/Mahayana Talks

During the coming weeks, we will be posting the hinayana/mahayana talks (19 talks in all) from the 1978 Vajradhatu seminary.

The Charnel Ground

This is Talk Three from the 1975 Sadhana of Mahamudra Seminar

Foreword to The Rain of Wisdom

...the older I get, the more of a Kagyü person I become. -CTR

The Question of Nirvana

A talk by Trungpa Rinpoche to his class at the University of Colorado on April 19, 1973.

Propagating the Dharma

A two-minute clip from Talk Five of the 1975 Seminary

Meditation and the Fourth Moment

You have past, present, and future, and then you have the fourth moment.

Auspicious Coincidence

These three talks were given at Karme Choling in 1980 during the tenth anniversary celebration of Trungpa Rinpoche's arrival in North America

The Question of Magic

As far as tantra is concerned, magic is working with the real world on a completely ordinary level. Magic is completely relevant to our world, our life and our path.

Rechungpa’s Repentance

Protective divinities, or protectors of the dharma, play a great and impor­tant role in the vajrayana teachings generally.

Disappointment

An Early Talk to the Community

Noble Heart

In the vajrayana Buddhist tradition, we talk about how we can discover wisdom behind our passions and delusions. If you simply cut out your passion or your desire, you can't work...

Open Way

This talk was given to students of Suzuki Roshi at the San Francisco Zen Center.

Historical Comments on The Sadhana of Mahamudra

There was tremendous corruption, confusion, lack of faith, and lack of practice in Tibet.

Vancouver Meditation Seminar: 1975

Three talks on meditation practice from February 1975

What Is Ngedön?

The opening address to the Ngedön School of Higher Learning at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, September 12, 1982

The Teacher

In relating with the teacher, your critical input and your surrendering work together at the same time.

Famous Last Words

Rinpoche 's parting words to the sangha before leaving for a year-long retreat in 1977

The Dathun Letter

In 1973 Chögyam Trungpa introduced a month-long period of meditation called dathün, which he recommended to all of his students.

Sense of Humor

This talk took place in Boulder, Colorado on April 1, 1971

Meeting the Guru

I expected something extraordinary to happen ... but nothing happened, and he was very pleased.

All right. Ready. Do it.

Trungpa Rinpoche on taking Jamgön Kongtrül's photograph

Self Deception

The original audio recording from 1971

Shambhala Day Address, Year of the Water Dog, 1982

The Chronicles would like to wish everyone a very cheerful Shambhala Day/Losar and the very best of the Earth Dog year ahead. Tashi Delek to us all!

The Perfect Love Poem

There is a beautiful snow peaked mountain / With peaceful clouds wrapped round her shoulders. / The surrounding air is filled with love and peace. / What is going to be is what is...

The Five Chakras and the Four Karmas

These two teachings, among the earliest the Vidyadhara gave in North America, provide a glimpse into the profound trust Chögyam Trungpa had in the possibility that genuine buddhadharma could be successfully transplanted into Western culture.

Work Sex Money: Seminar Three

Work, sex and money: these are the main things in our lives that we look to instinctively for satisfaction, and yet ...

Abhisheka

Talk nine from the Journey Without Goal seminar

The Enlightenment of the Buddha

These three talks on the enlightenment of the Buddha were given at Karme Choling in December 1975.

Natural Dharma

This talk was given during a thunderstorm at the Naropa University Christian Buddhist Conference in 1982

Ambition to Learn

This public talk took place in San Francisco on May 20, 1971

The Nature of Mind

A single talk, given in Berkeley, Ca. on May 11, 1971

Mahamudra II: Yogic Songs of Milarepa

The Shambhala Archives has released Mahamudra II (talk 9 from the The Yogic Songs of Milarepa seminar held at Naropa's in 1976) to mark the 30th anniversary of Trungpa Rinpoche's parinirvana.

Selected Devotional Poems of Chögyam Trungpa

For the hundreds of students who heard these readings, David Rome is the voice of Trungpa Rinpoche's poetry.

Year of the Earth Sheep: Shambahala Day 1979

In this address, Rinpoche talks very movingly about our individual responsibility to benefit everyone and anyone with whom we are connected.

The Question of Reality

In The Question of Reality, Trungpa Rinpoche examines the parallels between the path portrayed in Carlos Castaneda’s books on Don Juan and the path of Buddhist Tantra.

Tibetan Buddhism and American Karma

This talk was given during a "Dharma Festival" in Boston. Read Boston Dharmadhatu, the Early Days by Anna Taylor for a first hand account of this Festival and a flavor of early community of...

The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa

This eight-volume set is a feast of Trungpa Rinpoche's teachings. The set includes twenty-five books plus selected writings, transcripts, poems, plays, and interviews—many of which are available in book form for...

A Recollection of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha

A Tribute to Suzuki Roshi from Trungpa Rinpoche

Transcending Madness: The Experience of the Six Bardos, by Chögyam Trungpa

Trungpa Rinpoche gave two seminars on the bardo states and the six realms in 1971

True Command: The Teachings of the Dorje Kasung, Volume I, The Town Talks

The Dorje Kasung is a service organization that was formed by Trungpa Rinpoche to protect the teacher and the environment in which the teachings are presented. Most of Rinpoche's teachings on...

Glimpses of Mahayana

This little volume focuses on the attributes of buddha nature, the development of compassion, and the experience of being a practitioner on the bodhisattva path of selfless action to benefit others. Publishers:...

The Essential Chogyam Trungpa

This concise overview of Trungpa Rinpoche's teachings consists of forty selections from fourteen different books, articulating the secular path of the Shambhala warrior as well as the Buddhist path of meditation...

Glimpses of Space: The Feminine Principle and Evam

Two seminars on the tantric understanding of the feminine and masculine principles, what they are and how they work together in vajrayana Buddhist practice as the nondual experience of wisdom and...

Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala

This sequel and complement to Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior offers more heartfelt wisdom on Shambhala warriorship. Publishers: Shambhala Publications, 1999.

Timely Rain: Selected Poetry of Chögyam Trungpa

With a foreword by Allen Ginsberg, this collection of poems was organized thematically by editor David I. Rome to show the breadth of the poet's work. Core poems from Mudra and...

Dharma Art

Chögyam Trungpa was a calligrapher, painter, poet, designer, and photographer as well as a master of Buddhist meditation. Drawn from his many seminars and talks on the artistic process, this work...

The Path Is the Goal: A Basic Handbook of Buddhist Meditation

A simple and practical manual for the practice of meditation that evokes the author's penetrating insight and colorful language. Publishers: Shambhala Publications, 1995.

The Art of Calligraphy: Joining Heaven and Earth

Chögyam Trungpa's extensive love affair with brush and ink is showcased in this book, which also includes an introduction to dharma art and a discussion of the Eastern principles of heaven,...

Illusion’s Game: The Life and Teaching of Naropa

The great Indian teacher Naropa was a renowned master of the teachings of mahamudra, an advanced stage of realization in Tibetan Buddhism. This book presents Chögyam Trungpa's teachings on Naropa's life...

Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving Kindness

This volume presents fifty-nine slogans, or aphorisms related to meditation practice, which show a practical path to making friends with oneself and developing compassion for others, through the practice of sacrificing...

Glimpses of Shunyata

These four lectures on the principle of shunyata, or emptiness, are an experiential exploration of the ground, path, and fruition of realizing this basic principle of mahayana Buddhism Publishers: Vajradhatu Publications, 1993.

The Lion’s Roar: An Introduction to Tantra

An in-depth presentation of the nine yanas, or stages, of the path in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Particularly interesting are the chapters on visualization and the five buddha families. Publishers: Shambhala Publications,...

Transcending Madness: The Experience of the Six Bardos

The editor of this volume, Judith L. Lief, calls it "a practical guide to Buddhist psychology." The book is based on two early seminars on the intertwined ideas of bardo (or...

Orderly Chaos: The Mandala Principle

The mandala is often thought of as a Buddhist drawing representing tantric iconography. However, Chögyam Trungpa explores how both confusion and enlightenment are made up of patterns of orderly chaos that...

Crazy Wisdom

Two seminars from the 1970s were edited for this volume on the life and teachings of Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhava, the founder of Buddhism in Tibet. Publishers: Shambhala Publications, 1991.

The Heart of the Buddha

A collection of essays, talks, and seminars present the teachings of Buddhism as they relate to everyday life. Publishers: Shambhala Publications, 1991.

Secret Beyond Thought: The Five Chakras and the Four Karmas

Two talks from an early seminar on the principles of the chakras and the karmas, teachings from the Buddhist tantric tradition. Publishers: Kalapa Media (formerly Vajradhatu Publications), 1991.

Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

Chögyam Trungpa's classic work on the path of warriorship still offers timely advice. This book shows how an attitude of fearlessness and open heart provides the courage to meet the challenges...

Installing the Kangyur

The duration of this video is 22:39 The Kangyur, the complete library of the Buddha's teachings, was installed in the Karma Dzong main shrine room in Boulder on July 1, 1983. Here...

First Thought Best Thought: 108 Poems

This collection consists mainly of poetry written during Chögyam Trungpa's first ten years in North America, showing his command of the American idiom, his understanding of American culture, as well as...

The Life of Marpa the Translator

A renowned teacher of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition who combined scholarship and meditative realization, Marpa made three arduous journeys to India to collect the teachings of the Kagyü lineage and bring...

The Rain of Wisdom

An extraordinary collection of the poetry or songs of the teachers of the Kagyü lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, to which Chögyam Trungpa belonged. The text was translated by the Nâlandâ Translation...

Journey without Goal: The Tantric Wisdom of the Buddha

Based on an early seminar at the Naropa Institute, this guide to the tantric teachings of Buddhism is provocative and profound, emphasizing both the dangers and the wisdom of the vajrayana,...

Spookiness

A Halloween Message from Trungpa Rinpoche [Audio: 1 minute, 47 seconds]

THE BIG NO

OUR TOPIC IS DECENCY. Decency here is not in contrast to the indecency of, say, wearing two different-colored socks or not having your zipper done up. We are talking about decency as something more profound to be realized and understood.

Hazy Moon/Brilliant Sun of Enlightenment

This talk was given in Los Angeles on September 16, 1978.

Cheerful Shambhala Day 1978

Here is the first ever Shambhala Day address, nine minutes and 17 seconds. It took place just after dawn in the newly renovated third-floor shrine room of Dorje Dzong, now the Boulder Shambhala Center. The room was packed with many students and many young children; it was a joyful moment.

Shunyata

This talk on shunyata, was given at Naropa in the summer of 1976. This video was made possible by the work of the Shambhala Archives.

The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation

In short, pithy chapters that exemplify Chögyam Trungpa's hard-hitting and compelling teaching style, this book explores the meaning of freedom and genuine spirituality in the context of traveling the Buddhist path. Publishers:...

Glimpses of Abhidharma

An exploration of the five skandhas, or stages in the development of ego, based on an early seminar given by Chögyam Trungpa. The final chapter on auspicious coincidence is a penetrating...

Jamgön Kongtrül of Sechen

Chögyam Trungpa on Sechen Kongtrül During a recent Sun of Wisdom feast in Halifax, the gathered sadhakas listened to this recording of Trungpa Rinpoche talking about his guru (excerpted from Talk Five...

Jamgon Kongtrul Seminar

This seminar is offered at this time to mark the re-publication of The Sun of Wisdom, a guru sadhana composed by Chögyam Trungpa to his root guru, Jamgon Kongtrul of Shechen.

Training the Mind: The Four Foundations of Mindfulness

This six-talk series given at RMCD in 1974 examines the nature of mind training.

Journey Without Goal

This seminar on tantra was given by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche at Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) in the summer of 1974, the first year of Naropa. Chogyam Trungpa took an approach to Vajrayana Buddhism that is unique in its experiential flavor.

Mindfulness and Awareness

Trungpa Rinpoche begins by pointing out the necessity of beginning at the beginning. Otherwise it is like "building a castle on an ice block, or an apartment on an airplane."

Zen and Tantra I

Trungpa Rinpoche gave two seminars on Zen and Tantra, the first in January 1974 at Karme Chöling, and the second in February 1974, at the Harvard Divinity School. These talks have been edited into The Teacup and the Skullcup, with an introduction by Acharya David Schneider.

Zen and Tantra II

Trungpa Rinpoche gave two seminars on Zen and Tantra, the first in January 1974 at Karme Chöling, and the second in February 1974, at the Harvard Divinity School.

Life and Teachings of Marpa

This four-talk seminar took place in Barnet Vermont, September 1973

Message of Milarepa

Tail of the Tiger, July 1973

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

The first volume of Chögyam Trungpa's teaching in America is still fresh, outrageous, and up to date. It describes landmarks on the Buddhist path and focuses on the pitfalls of materialism...

Mudra

This collection of poems mostly written in the 1960s in England also includes two short translations of Buddhist texts and a commentary on the ox-herding pictures, well-known metaphors for the journey...

Community Talks

Here are a few of the community talks that Trungpa Rinpoche gave during the early years of his teaching in North America.

Talk on Meditation

Talk on Meditation given in Davis, California on May 10, 1971

Colorado University Talks, 1971

These are recordings of Trungpa Rinpoche's classes at Colorado University in Boulder in January/February 1971.

Practice of Meditation Seminar, 1971

These five talks where given at Karme Choling in January 1971.

Battle of Ego

These seven talks where given at Karme Choling in December 1970.

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

These six talks where given in Boulder, Colorado in December 1970er, Colorado in December 1970

Meditation and the Buddhist Path

These five talks where given at the Theosophical Society in Buffalo, New York, in October 1970

Work Sex Money: Seminar One

Work, sex and money: these are the main things in our lives that we look to instinctively for satisfaction, and yet, they almost never supply it

One Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa

This 13-talk seminar was held at Tail of the Tiger in August 1970, just one month after Chogyam Trungpa arrived in the United States.

Jewel Ornament of Liberation

These 17 talks on Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation are among the first talks given by Trungpa Rinpoche after his arrival in the United States in July 1970.

Looking into the world

  Looking into the world I see alone a chrysanthemum, Lonely loneliness, And death approaches. Abandoned by guru and friend, I stand like a lonely juniper Which grows among rocks, Hardened and tough. Loneliness is my habit— I grew up in...

Meditation in Action

Using the life of the Buddha as a starting point, this classic on meditation and the practice of compassion explores the six paramitas, or enlightened actions on the Buddhist path. Its...

Born in Tibet

Chögyam Trungpa's account of his upbringing and education as an incarnate lama in Tibet and the powerful story of his escape to India. An epilogue added in 1976 details Trungpa Rinpoche'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.