Inside the Shambhala Meditation Center

This is probably a double-mirror, I don't know, but apparently Chogyam Trungpa was in Sante Fe for a single week-end and never returned after 1978. He spent more time in bed up in Boulder, CO., than just about anywhere else, including Sante Fe. Chogyam Trungpa visited Austin, Texas on two occasions, at which time Trungpa founded the local Shambhala Training Center, and he never returned after that, according to Dewitte Lindsey, writing in "Tibet to Texas: A Grass Roots History of the Karma Kagya Buddhism in the Lonestar State", the subject of which is how Texas has inherited the jewels of a Tibetan diaspora.

Sure, there are people who met Trungpa in the early days when there were only few students around him to ask him some dumb questions, but's it's rare these days to be sitting next to a Tulku, much less a Rinpoche, enlightened or no - that's my point. I've read "Double Mirror" by Stephen T. Butterfield, at least twice, perhaps the definitive account of all Trungpa's exploits over the years. Butterfield was a member of Trungpa's 'inner circle' for over ten years and rose to the rank of a assistant to the Vajra Regent, Osel Tendzing, and he only met Trungpa once, face-to-face, in an airport, after a lecture up in Nova Scotia.

According to Allen Ginsburg's auto-biography, Ginsberg himself only met Trungpa one-on-one, twice, once in a gay bar in New York City, and the other time in Trungpa's apartment in Boulder, and neither time did they meditate together!

Hey! It is a Double Mirror.

"It was winter in the North Country - the guru, Trungpa, was gone - dead, owing to the effects of riotous living. His body had just been cremated after he had laid in state for 50 days. Many of his senior disciples now sat in rows, meditating, sitting on deep red cushions placed among the the highly decorated pillars of the meditation shrine hall. Up front sat the late Lama's Regent and the High Lamas visiting from Tibet. There was the empty throne, now occupied by a photograph of a youthful guru, with flowers arranged around a draped brocade robe.

I noticed the clicking of the mala beads during the tantric purification, reciting a thousand mantras while visualizing the Dzogchen Vajrasattva - the rows of silent meditators deep in their shamatha practice, with eyes half-closed. Back in Colorado they were constructing a giant stupa in the Rinpoche's honor..."

Work Cited:

"Double Mirror"
by Stephen T. Butterfield
A skeptical journey into Buddhist Tantra world of the Trungpa Tulku
North Atlantic Books, 1994
Paperback. In print. Illustrated. Reccomended.

Other titles of interest:

Tibet to Texas

Jamgon Kongtrul's The Torch of Certainty (Nges-don sgron-me) is a text of great importance to students of Buddhism because it deals with a set of basic meditative practices in current use by all Tibetan sects. These are the 'Four Foundation' or preliminary practices (sgron-'gro). Four authoritative Tibetan informants, including Tarthang Tulku, Chogyam Trungpa, Lama Govinda and Kalu Rinpoche, have certified to me the significance of this text.

Trungpa is a meditation master of the Kagyud sect, which holds the Bodhisatva Vajradhara (Dorje Chang) as it's Adi-Buddha. The human historical founder of the sect was Tilopa (988-1069), one of the most illustrious of the 84 Mahasiddhas. He is said to have recieved instructions directly from Vajradhara. Next come the Indian sage Naropa (1016-1100), Tilop's long-suffering disciple.

From Tilopa and Naropa originate the meditative practices with which the sect is identified: The Six Yogas of Naropa (Na-ro'i chos-drug) and Mahamudra (Phyag-rya-chen-po). The first two divisions of the sect originated with two Tibetan disciples of Naropa. Khyungo the yogin (1012-64) founded the Shangpa Kagud and Marpa the translator (1012-96) founded the Dagpo (Dwags-po) Kagyd.

Marpa was a layman whose thirst for learning drove him to undertake three costly and perilous journeys to India. Each time, he obtained important oral and written teachings. His momentous meeting with Naropa inspired his career as a major proponent of the Vajrayana in Tibet.

Marpa transmitted Naropa's instructions to several disciples. The most famous was Milarepa (1052-1135). Milarepa's best know disciple was Gampopa or Dagpo Lharje (1079-1153). In 'The Torch of Certainty' translated from the Tibetan by Judith Hanson, the subsects of the Karma Kagyud order are described as groups or divisions, four greater and eight lesser: "The Four Great Schools consist of:

(1) the Pakmo Kagyud,

(2) Tselpa Kagyud,

(3) Baram Kagyud,

(4) Karma Kagyud.

The Karma Kagud school was founded by Lama Dusum Khyenpa (1110-93) who founded Tsurphu Monestery, the first Karmapa" (4). According to Dewitte Lindsay, Chogyam Trungpa was born in a cattle shed, in a tiny community on a high plateau of northeastern Tibet. He was recognized, at the age of 18 months, to be the eleventh Trungpa Tulku by the Karmapa and was enthroned as head of the Surmang monesteries in the province of Kham. He was the first Lama to bring Karma Kagyud Buddhism to the West and to Texas. Trungpa was thus the disciple of the 16th Karmapa, Gyalawa Karmapa (1923-1981) and the Texas dissemination (79).

"Tibet to Texas: A Grass Roots History of the Karma Kagya Buddhism in the Lonestar State"
By Dewitte Lindsey
Sunbelt Eaken, Austin, Texas 2003

"The Torch of Certainty"
By Jamgon Kongtrul
Translated from the Tibetan by Judith Hanson
Forward by Chopyam Trungpa
Shambhala, Boston & London 2000

"The Life and Teaching of Naropa"
Translated from the original Tibetan
By Herbert V. Guenther
Shambhala, Boston & London, 1995