Chögyam Trungpa

Chogyam Trungpa (pronounced Tschögyam Trungpa, Chokyi Gyatso 11th Zurmang Trungpa, Tib: chos kyi for mang drung pa rgya mtsho; * 1939 in Qinghai, † April 4, 1987 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) was a Buddhist meditation master, meditation teacher and artist. He founded the world, especially in Europe, Canada and the U.S., many meditation centers and named after Naropa Naropa University.

Life

Chogyam Trungpa was recognized by the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Dorje Rigpe the eleventh Trungpa Tulku. He was enthroned as the supreme abbot of Surmang monasteries and governor of Surmang district. Chogyam Trungpa was lineage holder of the Kagyu and Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. After his recognition as a Tulku, he received extensive training in the theory and practice of the Buddhist teachings and was ordained in 1948 as a novice monk. In 1958 he got at the age of 18 years, a full monastic ordination and the completion of his training, the title Kyörpön ( graduation ) and Khenpo (Master of the scholarship ). The following year, after the 1959 uprising, he fled across the Himalayas on foot to India. Here he transferred to the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatsho, very soon the Office of the spiritual advisor to the Young Lamas Home School in Dalhousie in South India. Chogyam Trungpa was holding office from 1959 to 1963, until he received a Spoulding scholarship to study in the UK, which allowed him to study from 1963 to 1967 at the University of Oxford, comparative religion, philosophy and art.

Even in England, he began to work as a teacher. Together with Akong Rinpoche he founded in 1967, named after Samye Ling meditation center in Dumfriesshire in Scotland. In 1969, he was following a car accident on his monastic vows. He married an Englishwoman Diana Judith Pybus (Lady Diana Mukpo, also: Sakyong Wangmo ) and moved with her following the invitation of many of his students in the United States of America.

In 1974, Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder (Colorado), the Naropa Institute, the basis for the only independent university based on Buddhist principles, and began his Shambhala Training convey from 1976. In 1986, he established - already in poor health by years of heavy drinking - his headquarters in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, where he died a short time later of a heart attack.

Student

His deputy made ​​Trungpa Rinpoche end in 1976, the Italian-American Thomas Rich, who was given the name Tenzin Osel from him. With him the first " Westerner " to a lineage holder of the Kagyu tradition and probably the Vajrayanatradition ever was. After HIV infection Tenzin Osel died in 1990 of complications from AIDS.

Founded by Trungpa Rinpoche Shambhala organization is now led by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche to his son, who is continuing his teaching.

The most famous student of Rinpoche are among other Allen Ginsberg, Pema Chodron, Francisco Varela and Samuel Bercholz. Allen Ginsberg, one of the most famous writers and poets in the United States until his death in 1997 was a teacher at the Naropa University. Pema Choedron is the author and editor of several books on meditation and life, which are widely known and appreciated on Buddhist circles. Samuel Berchholz is the founder and co-owner of Shambhala publisher. He participated in Naropa University in many important translations and publications. In Europe, one of his most famous pupil Han de Wit, author of books on Buddhism and psychology, including " Contemplative Psychology " and " The hidden flower".

Allegations

Chogyam Trungpa was criticized because he took his ordination as a monk and then led a fairly permissive, secular life. Although he also taught a secular form of spiritual practice in his teaching of Shambhala, he nevertheless had never questioned the monastic tradition of Buddhism in question. In addition, he founded, inter alia, in Canada in 1984, the monastery Gampo Abbey, which is now run by Pema Chodron Rinpoche and Tranghu.

Works