Chögyam Trungpa
The following piece is part of an ongoing series introducing the Archive of Mystical Experiences (AME), a new project devoted to the study and documentation of ecstatic experiences across traditions and eras.
Chögyam Trungpa (1939–1987), formally named the 11th Zurmang Trungpa, Chokyi Gyatso, was a Tibetan Buddhist monk, poet, artist, and teacher whose impact on the transmission of Buddhism to the West is difficult to overestimate. Born in Tibet and recognized as the eleventh incarnation in the Trungpa tulku lineage, he fled the Chinese invasion in 1959, and eventually settled in the United States. There he became one of the most innovative and polarizing figures in the development of American Buddhism. Ordained in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, Trungpa disrobed and married after arriving in the West, going on to develop an accessible, everyday form of Buddhist practice known as the Shambhala tradition.
Trungpa is perhaps best known for founding Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado—the first accredited Buddhist-inspired university in the United States, and for training a generation of influential students, including Allen Ginsberg, Joni Mitchell, Joan Halifax, and Pema Chödrön. His teachings on mindfulness, ego, and the “crazy wisdom” tradition of Tibetan Buddhism have influenced not only spiritual seekers but also artists, psychologists, and educators. Although criticized for his unconventional behavior, including heavy substance use and personal relationships with students, Trungpa’s legacy remains essential to understanding the complexities of transmitting Asian religious traditions into the modern Western context.
The text that follows is Trungpa’s account of a vivid experience during a solitary retreat in Bhutan in 1968, at a site long associated with the Tantric master Padmasambhava. The experience catalyzed the spontaneous composition of The Sadhana of Mahamudra, a liturgical text still actively used within the Shambhala community. The impact of this experience was immediate and enduring. For Trungpa, it marked a turning point from inherited tradition to creative transmission. From that moment on, he began articulating a new path that unified the two streams of Vajrayana Buddhism (Mahamudra and Ati Yoga) and addressed the modern challenge of spiritual materialism.
Source
Chögyam Trungpa, Born in Tibet[1]
Of tremendous significance to my future activity were the ten days of this visit which I spent in retreat at Tagtsang [in 1968]. Tagtsang is the place in Bhutan where, over a thousand years ago, Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) first manifested himself in the wrathful form of Dorje Trollo and subjugated evil forces before entering Tibet. Since I had never been to central Tibet or seen the great holy places of Guru Rinpoche or of the Ka-gyii forefathers, this visit to Tagtsang was very moving for me. The place is spacious and awe-inspiring, and one can still feel the presence of Guru Rinpoche. During my retreat there I was able to reflect on my life and particularly on how to propagate the Dharma in the West. I invoked Guru Rinpoche and the Ka-gyi forefathers to provide vision for the future. For a few days nothing happened. Then there came a jolting experience of the need to develop more openness and greater energy. At the same time there arose a feeling of deep devotion to Karma Pakshi, the second Karmapa, and to Guru Rinpoche. I realized that in fact these two were one in the unified tradition of Mahamudra and Ati.
Filled with the vivid recognition of them and their oneness, I composed in two days the Sadhana of Mahamudra, of twenty-four pages. Its purpose was to bring together the two great traditions of the Vajrayana, as well as to exorcise the materialism which seemed to pervade spiritual disciplines in the modern world. The message that I had received from my supplication was that one must try to expose spiritual materialism and all its trappings, otherwise true spirituality could not develop. I began to realize that I would have to take daring steps in my life.
Chögyam Trungpa, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa[2]
One night—this is not a particularly extraordinary story—I got extremely drunk and frustrated. I looked out the window, and there was nothing but fireflies flying around. My cooks were snoring very loudly, and the statues in their little niches in my room were staring in their own way. The little butter lamps were burning; my bed was there, and my books were there. I felt such immense frustration that I actually yelled. I was extraordinarily drunk; it was a very intense, very personal experience. I was not yelling for help or for mommy or daddy; it was an internal yell, or shout. It created some kind of breakthrough, and also some understanding of alcohol at the same time. There is some kind of little click, a step that you can take between alcohol being possessed in your body or alcohol possessing your mind. Once your mind is clear, your body becomes uncomplicated. That was a particular point of realization, very quick, although I had no visions of any kind. Nothing extraordinary happened to me at all; the headlines of this sadhana just came up in my head, flashed in my mind. The whole headline flashed in my mind.
What was happening interested me a great deal. I felt that the experience might be some kind of leverage, some kind of handle or staircase through which I might be able to relate or communicate, by means of that particular discipline and message, which is said by nobody, but which was in my head. That message was very powerful and very important to me […] I began to write the sadhana on that day, and I completed almost the whole thing. I wrote just a few words the following day. So altogether it took me about six hours to write the whole thing. I didn’t have to think about what I was doing; the whole thing came out very fresh. After a while, the words began to churn in my mind and my hands began to ache. I tried to relax a little bit and rest my fingers. After that, I picked up my pen and just wrote spontaneously. That is how the sadhana was written.
Notes
[1] Chögyam Trungpa, Born in Tibet, 4th ed. (Shambhala, 2000), 253–54.
[2] Chögyam Trungpa, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa, vol. 10, Selected Writings, ed. Carolyn Rose Gimian (Shambhala, 2017), 458–60.
Bibliography
Fields, Rick. How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America. Shambhala, 1992.
Midal, Fabrice. Chögyam Trungpa: His Life and Vision. Shambhala, 2012.
Mukpo, Diana J. Dragon Thunder: My Life with Chögyam Trungpa. Shambhala, 2008.
Trungpa, Chögyam. Born in Tibet. 4th ed. Shambhala, 2000.
———. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics, 2002.
———. The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa, Volume 10: Selected Writings. Shambhala, 2017.
Naamleela F. Jones
Naamleela F. Jones is a historian of religions who teaches at Naropa University and Pacifica Graduate Institute. She received her PhD from Rice University, specializing in Gnosticism, esotericism, and mysticism, and the history of religions. Her research explores the intersections of Western esotericism, South Asian nondual traditions, and American metaphysical religion, with particular attention to how these cross-cultural transmissions continue to challenge conventional paradigms and shape the global, post-traditional landscape. Her work has appeared in Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies and the Journal of Indian Knowledge Systems.
