How Jim became a student of Trungpa Rinpoche, in his own words: "So, I lived at the monastery [Gethsemani] sort of perched on the wall, not really a monk, but studying very hard under Merton's influence--and also reading a book called Meditation In Action by a Tibetan Buddhist I first heard of in Merton's dying-breath Bangkok talk, Chögyam Trungpa. Though Merton has stuck to my ribs, so to speak, to this day, the Catholic Church didn't. I became a Vajrayana Buddhist under the influence of Trungpa Rinpoche while still living at Gethsemani, and at some point basically fell out through the bottom of the Judeo-Christian universe, a combination of an ant falling through boundless centerless space, and Edvard Munch's The Scream, and landing in Trungpa's lap--like a scene out of Time Bandits. Trungpa pointed out he was not a babysitter, and why didn't I move over there few feet, create some space to have a relationship through. In any case, I have never looked back."