From the first seminar, called "The Battle of Ego" in Los Angeles, to filming his cremation on a cloudless but rainbow-filled day in Vermont, Chogyam Trungpa blew my mind. Being in his presence was like being suddenly aware of an oncoming truck -- it put every cell in your brain SMACK! -- into the present moment. And in that moment you could be outraged, moved to tears, or inspired ... usually all at once. It was 1971 and I had never met a Tibetan Buddhist high lama before (who had?).
He wore suits, spoke precise English and openly enjoyed women (in spite of being married). At the time, I was married with little kidlets and although I didn't practice it, open marriage wasn't such a shockingly big deal back in the 70s. To quote Pema Chodron, "Sexuality didn't bother people in those days, drinking didn't bother people, but put on a suit and tie? Forget about it." With Trungpa, nothing was hidden; it was up to each person to make their own judgments about the behavior of the teacher. So it took years of practice and study to understand that in Tibetan Buddhism, his outrageous "crazy wisdom teaching style" was just another tradition. Take it or leave it.
There was an urgency about him that was difficult to resist but exhausting to experience. In the film, I begin with phrases from a liturgy he wrote where he warned of the destructive power of the "... thick, black fog of materialism." This is set against a montage of images of contemporary wars, disease, pollution and economic frenzy. Trungpa's words from back in 1968 predicted the state of the world we're living in today. Yet he had complete confidence that humanity was basically good and could reverse the materialistic trend. He dedicated his life toward that goal.
As soon as Trungpa landed in the U.S. in 1970, he began to magnetize some of the country's prominent spiritual teachers and intellectuals -- including R.D. Laing, John Cage, Ram Dass, Anne Waldman, Gregory Bateson and Pema Chodron. Poet Allen Ginsberg considered Trungpa his guru; Catholic priest Thomas Merton wanted to write a book with him; music icon Joni Mitchell wrote a song about him called, "Refuge for the Road." Humor was always a vital part of his teaching -- "Enlightenment is better than Disneyland," he quipped, and he warned us of the dangers of the "Western spiritual supermarket."
In the five years plus of active filmmaking it's taken to make this film, the greatest challenge has been to not be seduced by putting Trungpa into the simplistic categories of sinner or saint. What inspired me was the daunting possibility of creating an experience for the audience to catch a glimpse of the unconditional brilliance of an enlightened mind, Tibetan Buddhist style.
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Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea Room
Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche ...
Crazy wisdom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
He left behind a wealth of teachings in English that we would not have any access to otherwise. He never minced his words about the centrality of independent inquiry and meditation to ones practise. He was clearly a deeply sensitive and enormously talented human being who suffered early the loss of his nation, confronting death and hardships most of us cannot conceive of. This may be why he drank a lot.
I wish he was still alive and I am grateful for what he left behind.
Zorba the Buddha
hmmm...smells like freedom
-Suzuki roshi
May you achieve your aims,
Jared
As bad as the Catholic Church was regarding the priest scandals, still the Church did not act as if such behavior was divinely inspired. In fact they regard such behavior as reprehensible. But Shambhala and CTR apologists keep trying to twist CTR's behavior into something laudable, something that we cannot judge. That is why I consider Shambhala and CTR apologists worse than the Catholic Church; they sow confusion in the Buddhist community.
If Pema Chodron understands that her teacher did not keep 'ethical norms' then the only conclusion is that she is an enabler of this behavior. That's too bad, because I think she has much to offer and that is being sabotaged by this kind of duplicity.
I disagree about the place of ethics in Buddhism. One third of the Buddhist canon is about nothing but ethics: the Vinaya. Countless Discourses are centered on ethics. Ethics is more significant than meditation. Why? To take one example, a one-pointed mind can be used for any purpose. You could be a better thief with a one-pointed mind. Meditative practice outside of the context of a secure ethical commitment may actually increase delusion and suffering in the world. The behavior of Zen Masters in Japan during WW II demonstrates this. Without a foundation in ethics there is no Dharma.
For those who have said that CTR's teaching did not represent traditional buddhist teaching I must say yes and no. It was a fearless presentation of the vajrayana but it didn't coddle people. His energy has been compared to a lightning bolt. There is an inherant danger when you come close to someone like that. It's not for everyone but for the time and place it was perfect. From acid and the spiritual supermarket to rinpoche, a logical step.
Trunpa rinpoche manifested in the manner of the great ancestoral teachers of his lineage.
Padmasambhava killed the ministers son and had consorts, manifested as Dorje Trolo and instigated just a touch of chaos, was utterly controvesial yet changed everything.
Tilopa made Naropa leap from a roof, fight a mob etc etc.
Marpa beat his wife and students.
To judge these teachers through your own bias is to miss the point entirely and to ask to be babied along your way.
-Dogen
This dialog is nothing more than people seeking to validate their own delusion.
Unless you were there, you have no idea what happened or why.
The activity of The Vidyadhara cannot be viewed through the lens of ordinary mind for it is beyond comprehension.
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That's the Catch-22 mindfark all the left-handed gurus like to use to justify the unjustifiable and excuse the inexcusable. You can't understand what I'm really doing, because I'm Chevy Chase and you're not.
It's the same pile of unethical and immoral dung, really - whether it comes from Trungpa, Adi Da, Rajneesh (Osho), Andrew Cohen and way too many others.
Caveat emptor!
http://www3.telus.net/public/sarlo/Ratings.htm
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Your view is wrong. You can do that as Hannibal Lechter.
The entire purpose of the Buddhist path is to become a Buddha.
We are all already Buddhas.
The sad truth is, Trungpa's out of control life had direct and terrible repercussions upon many people, including those who died from AIDS because Trungpa gave his #2 guy permission to keep having sex after he had been diagnosed as HIV positive.
The worst possible situation for any spiritual community, whether a Buddhist one, a Catholic one, or any other, is when there is a vast disparity between what the leaders say and what they actually do.
Being raised in a Buddhist household and community, I have little reference to the broader Judea-Christian concepts of good vs. evil, moral vs. immoral. He was who he was, he didn't try and hide it, even if his methods were sometimes, in certain instances, deemed as harsh or abusive. The women who were with him sexually, were with him willingly. There are many stories of great Buddhist masters being harsh or "abusive" to students in order to wake them up. Its easy to vilify him as a monster based on a few stories taken out of context and told third person. I can say from first hand experience that he was not a monster or a devil.
I say let his teachings, his writings and the tens of thousands of practitioners who remain in his sangha speak for themselves and stop putting the man's actions under some strange moral microscope. He never claimed to be anything but what he was... a brilliant, generous, kind man who brought so much to this world.
It doesn't take away from his brilliance as a scholar. But there are people with ruined lives that you seem to not want to know or care about. How Buddha-aware is that?
If I know anything of spiritual practice, and I know a very small amount, it is that we are here to foster a firm foundation from which human beings can love each other better, from a place of deep trust and clarity. I have known teachers in my life who have truly established this way of being and the legacy they leave is one of wholeness, not of confusion and distrust.
When a spiritual teacher claims to be something -- and the fact is that Trungpa did claim to be a spiritual master -- it is perfectly fair to hold them accountable, to look at their practice, to see if they live a life that's positive and worth emulating. There is nothing in Trungpa's life that I, as a person dedicated to living a better life, want to emulate. There is a lot that I specifically want