Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche came into my life when I was living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His teachings have had a profound impact on how I view the world. I was fortunate to be able to hear and receive some of his teachings directly.

I Am Always Wrong!

The memory of a particular event comes to my mind often.

It was a practice of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche to bless pregnant women and their unborn child.
He had a unique smile and an amazing sense of humour.
As we knelt in front of him he pronounced “The child is a boy!”

Then he laughed and said, “I am always wrong!”.
My daughter was born a few months later in 1983. Hahaha.

The Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939-1987), a Buddhist meditation master, was the 11th descendent in the line of Trungpa tülkus, important teachers of the Kagyü lineage, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism and renowned for its strong emphasis on meditation practice. He was the supreme abbot of the Surmang monasteries, scholar, teacher, poet, artist, a terton, and originator of a radical re-presentation of Shambhala vision.

In addition to being a key teacher within the Kagyü lineage, Chögyam Trungpa was also trained in the Nyingma tradition, the oldest of the four schools and was an adherent of the ri-me (“non-sectarian”) ecumenical movement within Tibetan Buddhism, which aspired to bring together and make available all the valuable teachings of the different schools, free of sectarian rivalry. Throughout his life, he sought to bring the teachings he had received to the largest possible audience.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was recognized both by Tibetan Buddhists and by other spiritual practitioners and scholars as a leading teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a major figure in bring and spreading the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, using a presentation of the Buddhadharma largely devoid of ethnic trappings, to the West with the founding of Vajradhatu and Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado and establishing the Shambhala Training method.

As a terton (a discoverer of ancient texts) he contributed the translation of a large number of Tibetan texts. Many senior Tibetan Buddhist lamas regarded Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche as a mahasiddha who embodied the crazy wisdom tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.