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On Chögyam Trungpa

On Chögyam Trungpa

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche is the quintessential spiritual guide. His teachingssteeped in ancient tradition and presented with relaxed fluency in western language and cultureare profound, accessible, and fresh. In addition to the buddhadharma, he offered the secular path of Shambhala, cultivating an appreciation of inherent bravery, dignity and goodness beyond cultural and religious bounds. Through his many books, Trungpa Rinpoche continues to be an incomparable source of wisdom and courage in the world. The Chronicles is an ongoing celebration of his profound teachings and life example.

Copyright Diana J. Mukpo. Used here by arrangement with Diana J. Mukpo and Shambhala Publications, Inc.
These teachings by Chögyam Trungpa are selected at random from Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week: the email service that brings Trungpa Rinpoche’s dharma to your inbox several times each week. For more information, or to add your name to the list, visit OceanofDharma.com.
Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week is edited and produced by Carolyn Rose Gimian. Thank you to Lady Diana Mukpo, Mrs. Gimian, and Shambhala Publications for making these teachings available on the Chronicles.

Teaching Is Learning

Teachers must be prepared to learn from pupils. That is very, very important. Otherwise there is really no progress on the part of the students, because in a sense one would be too keen and interested in the process of making the pupils receive the expansion of ones own ego and wanting to produce another you, rather than helping them to develop ability of their own. So teachers must be prepared to learn from their pupils; then there is a continual rapport. Exchanging takes place all the time; then as you teach, the pupils don’t get bored with you, because you develop as well. There is always something different, something new each moment, so the material never runs out. One could apply this even to technical studies and the way of teaching things. It could be mathematics or science or anything at all. If the teacher is prepared to learn from the pupil, then the pupil also becomes eager to give, so there is real love, and real communication takes place. That is the greatest generosity.

— From “Generosity,” in Meditation in Action, pages 60 to 61. Shambhala Library Edition.

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

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...

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.

Talk on Meditation

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

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.