Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
 The founder of Shambhala, Chögyam
Trungpa Rinpoche (1939-1987) was the 11th descendent in the line of Trungpa tulkus, important teachers of the
Kagyu lineage, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism and renowned for its strong emphasis
on meditation practice. In addition to being a key teacher within the Kagyu lineage, Chögyam Trungpa
Rinpoche was also trained in the Nyingma tradition, the oldest of the four schools and was an adherent of the
rimay or "non-sectarian" 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.
Already installed as the head of the Surmang monasteries in eastern Tibet; when the Communist party took control in 1959, at the age of 20 Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche escaped his spiritual home. He and a small party of monks made the difficult journey over the Himalayas to India on horseback and on foot.
In 1963, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche moved to England to study comparative religion, philosophy, and fine arts under a Spaulding Fellowship at Oxford University. During this time, he also studied Japanese flower arranging and received an instructors degree from the Sogetsu school. In 1967, he moved to Scotland, where he founded the Samye Ling meditation centre, the first Tibetan Buddhist practice centre in the West. Shortly thereafter, a variety of experiences--including a car accident that left him partially paralyzed on the left side of his body--led Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche to the decision to give up his monastic vows and work as a lay teacher. In 1969, he published Meditation in Action, the first of fourteen books on the spiritual path published during his lifetime. The following year represented yet another turning point in Trungpa's life, when he married Diana Pybus and moved to the United States, where he established his first North American meditation centre, Tail of the Tiger (now known as Karmê-Chöling) in Barnet, Vermont.
North America
 The ancient teachings and practical instructions that Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche brought with him found an eager audience in the America of the 1970s, a decade during which he traveled nearly constantly throughout North America, published six books, established three meditation centres and a contemplative university (Naropa University). He became renowned for his unique ability to present the essence of the highest Buddhist teachings in a form readily understandable to Western students.
During this period, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche conducted six Vajradhatu Seminaries, three-month residential programs at which he presented a vast body of Buddhist teachings in an atmosphere of intensive meditation practice. The seminaries assisted in the important function of training his students to become teachers themselves. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche also invited other teachers, including His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa--head of the Kagyu lineage--to come to the West and offer teachings.
It was also during this period that Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche founded Vajradhatu (headquartered in Boulder, Colorado), the umbrella organization for the many centres that were springing up throughout the world under his direction. In 1976, he appointed Thomas Rich to be his Vajra Regent, a traditional position giving someone the responsibility of carrying on the teaching legacy left by a teacher. Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin was the first westerner to be acknowledged as a lineage holder in the Kagyu tradition.
Beyond Buddhism
Late in the 1970s, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche expressed his long-held desire to present the path of meditation
in secular terms. He developed a program called Shambhala Training, based on the legendary enlightened
kingdom of that name. During the 1980s, while continuing teaching tours, Vajradhatu Seminaries, and
book publication—and establishing a Buddhist monastery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada—Trungpa
increasingly turned his attention to the propagation of teachings that extended beyond the Buddhist
canon. These activities included not only Shambhala Training, which was attracting thousands of students,
but also Japanese archery, calligraphy, flower arranging, tea ceremony, health care, dance, theatre,
and psychotherapy, among others. In planting the seeds for these many activities, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
sought to bring, in his words, "art to everyday life." He founded the Nalanda Foundation in 1974 as
an umbrella organization for these activities.
 During the 1980s, the organization that Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche founded grew in size and offered meditation instruction and teaching programs at the more than 100 city-based centres (Dharmadhatus) spread throughout the world and at the several rural contemplative centres where intensive meditation and study programs were held. At these various centres, which formed a large and somewhat informal network, students were introduced to the possibility of integrating meditation practice and study into their everyday lives. Depending on their interests and inclinations, students engaged in any of the many contemplative activities that are now part of the Shambhala organization--from traditional meditation practice to flower arranging and dance.
In 1986, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche moved to Nova Scotia, where hundreds of his students had settled. It would prove to be the last of his many moves. Not long after, in April 1987, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's life came to an end. His passing was marked in an elaborate day-long ceremony, attracting more than 3,000 people, held on the Vermont land where he had first established a foothold in the West. Several years later, the Vajra Regent passed away as well. During the period following these deaths, the community and its leadership turned for guidance to one of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's most revered and only living teachers, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, then supreme head of the Nyingma lineage.
A New Era
 In 1990, at the urging of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's eldest son returned from a period of practice and study in Nepal to lead the community and direct the work Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche had begun. As the Shambhala lineage is passed from parent to child, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche had trained his eldest son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche (then known as the Sawang Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo), from childhood to take on this role. His first major directive was to bring the many activities of his father's students throughout the world under the umbrella of Shambhala International and to call each meditation centre under his direction a "Shambhala Meditation Centre" offering spiritual training, meditation instruction, and cultural activities under one roof.
In May 1995, with the organization in its twenty-fifth year, Shambhala Meditation Centres expanding throughout the world, and a well-established Nova Scotian community, the Sawang Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo was formally installed as Sakyong, leader of both the spiritual and secular aspects of Shambhala. At his enthronement as the Sakyong, he was also recognized by Penor Rinpoche--then supreme head of the Nyingma lineage--as the reincarnation of Ju Mipham, a revered nineteenth-century Tibetan meditation master and scholar. This ceremony marked an important milestone in the history of Shambhala International, confirming the role of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in carrying on what his father envisioned when he set foot on North American soil twenty five years earlier.
Legacy
The legacy of the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche remains vital today in the institutions he founded, the teachings he presented, and the dedicated practice of his students. It is also being preserved for the benefit of future generations in the following ways:
The Shambhala Mandala
 One of the greatest accomplishments of the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was the establishment of the Shambhala Mandala, a global basis for the transmission of the vision, teachings and practices he brought to the world. The teachings and transmissions passed on by the Vidyadhara are studied and explored in the expanding association of centres, groups and other entities he founded and which are now directed by his son and spiritual heir, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. In addition to centres and groups, now on five continents, the Shambhala Mandala includes a range of other programs and institutions which reach out into many areas that include education, health care, social work, organizational change and innovation, publishing, and a broad spectrum of the arts.
Naropa University
 Founding
by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1974, Naropa is the first of its kind as a Buddhist-inspired university
in North America that integrates ancient traditions of wisdom into the curriculum of modern education.
Since its inception, Naropa has been dedicated to contemplative education in which awareness of thought
processes, sense perceptions and emotions are integrated into the study of specific disciplines.
www.naropa.edu
Shambhala Archives
 The Shambhala Archives is dedicated to preserving original records pertaining to the life and teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and other prominent Tibetan Buddhist teachers. It is a repository and resource for transcripts and audio-visual collections of Buddhist teachings. Currently, an Audio Recover Project is underway that will remaster and preserve more than 1,500 recordings of talks the Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche for perpetuity.
www.shambhalashop.com/archives/
Shambhala Publications
 In The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa, Shambhala Publications brings together in eight volumes the writings of one of the first and most influential and inspirational Tibetan teachers to present Buddhism in the West. Organized by theme, the collection includes full-length books as well as articles, seminar transcripts, poems, plays, and interviews, many of which have never before been available in book form. From memoirs of his escape from Chinese-occupied Tibet to insightful discussions of psychology, mind, and meditation; from original verse and calligraphy to the esoteric lore of tantric Buddhism. The impressive range of Trungpa's vision, talents, and teachings is showcased in this landmark series.
Chögyam Trungpa at Shambhala Publications
Nalanda Translation Committee
Since 2001, the Nalanda Translation Committee has been dedicated to the preservation and translation of early writings by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's nephew, Karma Senge, spent fifteen years searching out and compiling the writings composed by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche before his escape from Tibet. The collection totals about 400 pages and spans diverse topics, including liturgies, songs, and practical advice.
www.shambhala.org/ntc/projects/collected_writings.htm
Rebuilding Surmang
 The Konchok Foundation is dedicated to preserving the unique spiritual tradition of Surmang Dutsitil, the home monastery of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in eastern Tibet. Initial efforts are being focused on supporting the education of the 12th Trungpa Tulku (the successor to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche at Surmang) and to rebuilding a shedra, or monastic college there. The medical needs of the local community are being addressed by a sister organization, the Surmang Foundation.
www.konchok.org
Rigden Abhisheka
The Shambhala teachings, first revealed by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1976, are being actively propagated through Shambhala Training and the teachings of his spiritual heir Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. Terma or "treasure" texts are dense kernels of wisdom that often require oral explanation and elaboration into a complete path of meditation. In the case of the Shambhala terma, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche arranged and bestowed the first Rigden Abhisheka in the summer of 2005 as a prerequisite to advanced practices related to the Shambhala teachings as originally revealed by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
www.shambhala.org/ntc/projects/early-terton.htm
 Great Stupa of Dharmakaya
Dramatically transforming the landscape of Shambhala Mountain Center, The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya is an expression of the aspiration for peace, harmony and equanimity for all beings. Since its consecration in 2001, the Great Stupa has attracted thousands of visitors a year from all over the world as the largest and most elaborate example of Buddhist sacred architecture in North America.
www.shambhala.org/stupa.php
Chronicles Project
The Chronicle Project is a repository for a rich array of stories, interviews, travelogs, and features regarding the founder of Shambhala, Chögyam Trungpa, and his legacy. Its goal is to tell the story of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's life in a detailed year-by-year account, to gather the oral history from those who knew him, and to preserve a record of his extraordinary legacy for future generations.
www.chronicleproject.com
Chögyam Trungpa Legacy Project
The Chögyam Trungpa Legacy Project is a newly founded project, dedicated to preserving and promoting the dharma legacy of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche through the preservation, propagation and publication of his dharma teachings. The Legacy Project also plans to initiate new projects and programming, to create a comprehensive virtual archive and learning community, and to create the financial base for current and future generations to support this mission. Through this process, the Legacy Project will enhance, enrich, and further inspire existing institutions and other manifestations of the Shambhala world that Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche created.
www.chogyamtrungpa.com
Chö - Dharma
Signed Chökyi Gyatso. Upper left: a seal of the Trungpa tülkus;
Lower right: Dharma seal
Ink on paper 1979, 16 x 11 in. (76 x 43 cm). Private collection, Ottawa
|
