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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche... (1939-1987)

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Chogyam Trungpa Photo ... Robert Del Tredici .....http://www.bobdeltredici.com/robert-del-tredici-com/trungpa/

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"In 1976, Chogyam Trungpa began giving a series of secular teachings, inspired by his vision (see terma) of the legendary Kingdom of Shambhala. Trungpa had actually started writing about Shambhala before his 1959 escape from Tibet to India, but most of those writings were lost during the escape.....In his view not only was individual enlightenment not mythical, but the Shambhala Kingdom, an enlightened society, could in fact be actualized. The practice of Shambhala vision is to use mindfulness/awareness meditation as a way to connect with one's basic goodness and confidence. It is presented as a path that "brings dignity, confidence, and wisdom to every facet of life." ....Shambhala vision is described as a nonreligious approach rooted in meditation and accessible to individuals of any, or no, religion. In Shambhala terms, it is possible, moment by moment, for individuals to establish enlightened society."

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"Look at the sun. The sun is shining. Nobody polishes the sun. The sun just shines. Look at the moon, the sky, the world at its best. Unfortunately, we human beings try to fit everything into conditionality. We try to make something out of nothing. We have messed everything up. That’s our problem. We have to go back to the sun and the moon, to dragons, tigers, lions, garudas (mythical birds). We can be like the blue sky, sweethearts, and the clouds so clean, so beautiful. We don’t have to try too hard to find ourselves. We haven’t really lost anything; we just have to tune in. The majesty of the world is always there." Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche...“Helping Others...Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala.

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"Shambhala vision applies to people of any faith, not just people who believe in Buddhism… the Shambhala vision does not distinguish a Buddhist from a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Moslem, a Hindu. That’s why we call it the Shambhala kingdom. A kingdom should have lots of spiritual disciplines in it. That’s why we are here."...Chögyam Trungpa (Great Eastern Sun, The Wisdom of Shambhala, p 133).

The Great Eastern Sun: Sharchen Nyima..."We have messed everything up. That’s our problem. We have to go back to the sun and the moon, to dragons, tigers, lions, garudas (mythical birds). We can be like the blue sky, sweethearts, and the clouds so clean, so beautiful. We don’t have to try too hard to find ourselves. We haven’t really lost anything; we just have to tune in." ….

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"Chogyam Trungpa sketched in the outlines of what a Shambhala culture means. “Shambhala is our way of life. The Shambhala principle is our way of life. Shambhala is the Central Asian kingdom that-developed in the countries of the Middle East, Russia, China, and Tibet altogether. The basic idea of Shambhala vision is that a sane society developed out of that culture, and we are trying to emulate that vision. That particular system broke down into the Taoist tradition and Bon tradition of Tibet, the Islamic tradition of the Middle East, and whatever tradition Russia might have. It has broken into various factions."

"...When we asked the Vidyadhara whether these (Shambhala Root) texts originated with Padmakara, the source of the vast majority of treasure teachings, at that time we didn’t know that other teachers also hid dharma as termas. So when Rinpoche replied that these texts were more likely from Gesar, we were understandably puzzled. But after a long pause Rinpoche added, “And of course Gesar was an emanation of Padmakara, so that should take care of things for you!” When we asked about what meaning Gesar had in terms of the Shambhala teachings, Rinpoche exclaimed: “Gesar is the vanguard of Shambhala.” (It should be noted that in other contexts, the Vidyadhara indicated that the Shambhala terma had originated with the Rigden kings, Shiwa Ökar, or Gesar of Ling.)"........http://nalandatranslation.org/projects/articles/gesar-supplication/

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"Trungpa Rinpoche’s Great Vision.....Many will remember Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s determination to gather the sacred relationships, wisdom, and living essences of the world’s authentic traditions, and to give them a home under the Shambhala banner. He had a vision of making living relationships with the sacred deities and traditions of this world, and inviting them to support us in creating an enlightened society. Before he came to the West, he had profound meetings with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, which resulted in the Christian-Buddhist (-Jewish) dialogs held at Naropa University. In his 1983 trip to Japan, he invited Amaterasu Omikami – the indigenous Japanese goddess of the Sun – to come live at the Kami Shrine at SMC. At the 1979 Kalapa Assembly, he was asked if there still might be Chinese dralas present, to which he replied, “There are lots of them, all of the emperors and all of the deities of Mount Wu Tai Shan. There are lots of them, absolutely lots of them…. I think they will be the first to agree with us, the first to come along and join us.” In 2007, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche made a pilgrimage to Wutai Shan, which is also seen as the abode of Manjushri. Trungpa Rinpoche also talked of his dream of going to Mount Sinai to ask the great Western deity Jehovah for his support in our efforts to create an enlightened society on this earth. And he once gave a talk to a gathering of a western secret society, where he talked to them about basic goodness and the importance of maintaining their traditions. In presenting the Shambhala teachings, he preserved many aspects of the indigenous tradition of Tibet, including the teachings on lungta, drala, werma, and wangtang.".....http://shambhalatimes.org/2009/03/02/opening-communication-with-other-authentic-traditions/

"Gentleness is the rule in the Shambhala kingdom. It is actually much more terrifying than kindness, to your surprise. When you are gentle, there's no room for hostility. We like being hostile; we want to be perked up and energized by our negativity. But in Shambhala, we never do that, and we shouldn't do that. However, with Shambhala vision, there is festivity and joyousness, because we are not totally in the dungeon of our neurosis. That cheerfulness is what we call the Great Eastern Sun. The model for the Great Eastern Sun is the sun that shines at ten o'clock in the morning. The sun is no longer the early morning sun, and it is no longer a teenage sun. The sun is about to be full, but it's not quite full. That ten o'clock sun is the Great Eastern Sun....."......http://chronicleproject.com/stories_117.html

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"The Shambhala Teachings most likely have Iranian origins."

"The reason that you don't understand the Shambhala Teachings is because you are Buddhists."

"One important difference between the Shambhala Tradition and the Buddhist Path is that Shambhalians work more closely with higher beings."

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"SEARCHING FOR SHAMBHALA......by James George.......The following is an early draft of Searching for Shambhala, an article that was later published in Search: Journey on the Inner Path. James George sent this draft to Chögyam Trunpa Rinpoche in 1976....http://www.chronicleproject.com...."To say that such a centre has existed does not mean that it still exists. Nor does it follow, even if it exists, that it could be located by satellite photography or tracked down by systematic ground expeditions. But so long as there is the remote possibility that such a place is real somewhere in our world, here and now, there will be those who will look for it. We can take Shambhala as the prototype of the object of this search..... in 1968, when we had the now well-known Tibetan teacher, Trungpa Rinpoche, staying with us. We had been asking him about the Tibetan tradition of Shambhala. To our astonishment he replied very quietly that, although he had never been there, he believed in its existence and could see it in his mirror whenever he went into deep meditation......"

"I am honoured and grateful that in the past I have been able to present the wisdom and dignity of human life within the context of the religious teachings of Buddhism. Now it gives me tremendous joy to present the principles of Shambhala warriorship and to show how we can conduct our lives as warriors with fearlessness and rejoicing, without destroying one another... I have been presenting a series of "Shambhala teachings" that use the image of the Shambhala kingdom to represent the ideal of secular enlightenment, that is, the possibility of uplifting our personal existence and that of others without the help of any religious outlook. For although the Shambhala tradition is founded on the sanity and gentleness of the Buddhist tradition, at the same time it has its own independent basis, which is directly cultivating who and what we are as human beings."....Trungpa (1984), pp 25-34..... "Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior". ISBN 0-87773-264-7......

"Bon, unlike the religious outgrowths of the Aryan culture, especially Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism in their quasi-popular forms, gives little heed to the pursuit of salvation through austerities. Bon philosophy speaks of Yeshen as being reflected in the interplay between heaven and earth."...(Chogyam Trungpa: The Heart of the Buddha"...1991..pg 222)....

"I have kept the name Mukpo as my family name, my identity, my pride." (Trungpa:1984..pg 94)......Tonpa Shenrab was born at the palace Barpo Sogye of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring. His father was Gyalbon Thodkar of the Mu clan ......

" the word La is similar in meaning to the word 'soul'. All human beings possess a la, consciousness (sem) and life (sok). The la is an entity which is part of one's being but is unintelligent. Therefore it can be stolen, confiscated, regained, as well as reinforced by spiritual power." (Trungpa: 1978..pg 227)....

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Gerald Red Elk......Rocky Mountain Dharma Center July, 1984......http://www.shamansdoor.com/?attachment_id=59

MASTER WARRIOR..."Those who have been fearless in their search and fearless in their proclamation belong to the lineage of master warriors, whatever their religion, philosophy, or creed...They are the fathers and mothers of Shambhala." (Trungpa: 1984..pg 179)...."The basic quality of the master warrior is that his presence evokes the experience of the cosmic mirror and the magic of perception in others." (Trungpa: 1984...pg 176)..."The master warrior has relaxed completely into the unconditional purity of the cosmic mirror." (Trungpa: 1984..pg 177)..."the birth of the master warrior takes place in the realm of the cosmic mirror. The master warrior is humble, extremely humble." ...(Trungpa: 1984..pg 176-178)

"We are working with iconography as a journey, rather than as entertainment or excitement or cultural fascination. We are talking about personal experience, how we actually see this world. There is a basic iconographic pattern in the universe, like the existence of the seasons and the elements, but how we react to that is individual.""....(Trungpa: Dharma Art.:1996...pg 94)

"The work of Shenrap still exists in Tibet in the form of 400 volumes, but it has undergone heavy Buddhist editing." ....The Tibetan texts "Ziji" (gZi brid) and "Zermig" (gZer mig)(Piercing Eye) Two biographies of Shenrab Miwo (Mibo)..... (Trungpa:Shen = divine,heavenly,ally..... Rap = Supreme One.... Miwo = Great Man)......(Chogyam Trungpa: 1978..pg 220)

Chogyam Trungpa...."NYIDA: The vegetarian diet of Shambhala. Nyi stands for yellow and green foods, primarily vegetables and fruits, and da for white foods such as milk, yogurt, cheese and tofu......enjoy as your provision only yogurt, milk, white butter, cheese, fresh vegetables, raw fish and white rice. You should refrain from garlic, onions, fat and other meats."

"My most favorite person in music, Mozart...sat in the sense that his mind became blank before he composed. Some kind of mind-less-ness in the Buddhist sense has to take place."..(Trungpa: 1996..pg 20)...

"Creating art is like meditating. You work with one technique for a long, long time, and finally the technique falls away."...(Trungpa: Dharma Art...1996..pg 115)...

INSPIRATION..."Has two parts, openness and clear vision (Sanskrit: shunyata and prajna). Both are based on the notion of original mind, traditionally known as Buddha mind, which is blank, non-territorial, non-competitive and open."..(Trungpa: 1996..100)...

FILM...."I would like to create a film in such a way that the audience has to take part in it. To do so, we would need to provide lots of space, speed, and richness."..(Trungpa: 1996..pg 116)...

DANCE...."If there is no aggression, that brings joy, openness, dance!"..(Trungpa: 1996..pg 52)...

"Poetry, linguistic expression, and music are identical as far as I am concerned."....(Trungpa: 1983..pg xx)

"I once went to hear the St Matthew Passion in Oxford. This was such a great discovery. Experiencing the tremendous heroism and spiritual passion in that atmosphere of sanctity, that I felt as though the occasion was my own private feast. From the beauty of the music I gained further appreciation of the Western legacy. My Tibetan friend panicked and thought I was in danger of being converted to Christianity."..(Trungpa: 1983..pg xx)

"Then there is Gita, the female bodhisattva of song." (Trungpa:1975..pg 20)

Robin Kornman (standing), Larry, and Jan Watson with the Vidyadhara in 1975 Photo by Robert Del Tredici....http://nalandatranslation.org/projects/articles/remembering-robin/

"According to Robin Kornman, “Trungpa Rinpoche began to reconstruct the original text after escaping Tibet, and it is this later work to which we refer. The first chapter describes the creation of the world by nine cosmic gods (shrid pa 'i lha) who appear in the form of native Tibetan dieties known as drala (Wylie: dgra bla), or war gods. These gods represent primal or originary aspects of the phenomenal world. For example, one of these lha stood for all kinds of light. Glancing in many directions, this diety created all of the lights existing in the world, including the sun, the moon, the light of the planets and stars, and the inward luminosity of consciousness itself. Another represented space and the sense of direction ... In Trungpa Rinpoche's epic these were directed by a ninth lha called Shiwa Okar ... a sort of absolute principle behind creation and the nature of reality. After these nine cosmic deities have created the world, [Shiwa Okar] goes to the things they have created and invests each one with an animistic spirit, a drala."….http://labelingthoughts.org/wiki/Shiwa_Okar

"There are many gods....They are always present everywhere.....the deities of the indigenous traditions of Western Europe and The Americas especially were dismantled, suppressed, undermined, abused, forgotten...followers were not even allowed to mention them.....but they still have not been able to destroy them, even with the desecration of the entire planet...the drala principle exists everywhere, always."..(Naropa Institute 1975.....Trungpa)

"The fundamental vastness of the world cannot be expressed directly in words, but in children's literature, very often it is possible to express that vastness in simplicity."...(Trungpa: 1984..pg 104)

"Another wonderful example of literature that evokes the sense of ordinary, or elemental magic is The Little Prince. The Fox tells the Prince what he calls 'my secret, a very simple secret' which is that 'it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye. Saint Exupery has a different vocabulary for describing the discovery of magic, or drala, but the experience is basically the same."...(Trungpa: 1984...pg 105)...

"NOW WE ARE SIX"...by A.A.MILNE
"In the poem 'Waiting at the Window' several hours are spent on a rainy day looking out the window, watching drops of water making patterns on the glass."..(Trungpa: 1984..pg 104)

"....you don't give in to things that indulge your reality. There is no special reality beyond reality. That is the Big No, as opposed to the regular no. You cannot destroy life. You cannot by any means, for any religious, spiritual, or metaphysical reasons, step on an ant or kill your mosquitoes at all. That is Buddhism. That is Shambhala. You have to respect everybody. You cannot make a random judgment on that at all. That is the rule of the king of Shambhala, and that is the Big No. You can't act on your desires alone. You have to contemplate the details of what needs to be removed and what needs to be cultivated...."....http://chronicleproject.com/stories_117.html

Trungpa, Chogyam...."Dharma Art"....1996
Trungpa..."The Pon Way of Life" in Himalayan Anthropology...1978 (Reprinted in "The Heart of the Buddha": 1991)
Trungpa...."Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism"...1973
Chogyam Trungpa..."Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior"...1984

Photo by Michael Wood

Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin....."At first, when Trungpa Rinpoche introduced the Shambhala teachings to his students, it was very unsettling for us. For centuries, Buddhists have been teaching their doctrine, which is very precise and orderly and follows a specific progression. The students who had become accustomed to the Buddhist teachings found the Shambhala teachings quite challenging. Because the Shambhala teachings have nothing to do with religion, and in some way nothing to do with doctrine, they are difficult to grasp in a conventional way. When Trungpa Rinpoche introduced the Shambhala teachings, they were like a sudden, brilliant flash of light. They had nothing to do with the past, and they did not project anything particular in the future. They had to do with now. To begin with, we were amazed and shocked that a whole body of teaching like this could exist, and that we had no knowledge of it. That shock was good for us, because we soon realized that we could not rest on our so-called knowledge or experience, but we had to open our minds to the very basic, ordinary truth of Shambhala.".. Talk One from Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, a seminar taught by the Vajra Regent in Vancouver, British Columbia, November 1987. ......On August 22, 1976, Chögyam Trungpa empowered Ösel Tendzin as his Vajra Regent and first Western lineage holder in the Tibetan Karma Kagyü and Nyingma lineages

Trungpa Rinpoche: "You see, all ancient traditions—such as the Egyptian, the Pon tradition of Tibet, the Shintoism of Japan, the Taoism of China, and others—all paid a great deal of attention to the process of growth. The process of growth means birth as well as coloring, blooming, decaying, turning into a seed, dropping on the ground, regenerating as another plant, and going through the cycle of the four seasons continuously. Because of that, because it is of the same nature, human life has been dealt with in exactly the same way. So much sacredness has been imposed on the idea of the birth and death process. I don't think it is so much an intellectual, philosophical, or religious phenomenon, but it is much more earthy—being one with the facts of life, with this growth process.....For instance, in Pon, the Tibetan pre-Buddhist tradition, they say the time of death and the time of birth should coincide. That brings a conclusion to that process of birth and death—which includes the climate, the time, the location, the direction the dying person is facing, the particular collection of parents and relatives, and how many people are gathered there, how many men, women, or children. That whole collection brings a total picture of complete conclusion. So they are very earthy people. It is quite different from how modern occultists work with the same thing. It is very earthy; nobody allows room for hallucinations or imagination. Everything is dealt with completely within the tradition and the actual experience of the moment......From that point of view, in all the traditional civilizations of many different cultures, the death experience is regarded as an important point. And on top of that, the Buddhist discovery was to see all those colors, directions, temperatures, and climates of the dying person as a psychological picture. So it is seen completely differently but in exactly the same way."......From seminar's in Allenspark, Colorado & Karme Choling.....1971.......http://www.beezone.com/Trungpa/transcendingmadness/transcendingmadness1.html

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Okar Research is an informal online review of published materials exploring the history, myths, legends, languages, geography, terms, practices, teachers and teachings of the ancient Central Asian 'Kingdom of Shambhala'.

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Click Here to view the Okar Research Index

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John Hopkins.....New Mexico
Email: okarresearch@gmail.com

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