I’ve been asked by the family of Lady Diana Mukpo to make some remarks today about her life story: who she was, what she did and what her connection is to all of us! It’s difficult to do this...

Ringu Tulku on the Sadhana of Mahamudra & the Four Dharma’s of Gampopa

Thank you to Ringu Tulku and his organization, Bodhicharya, for permission to post this talk.

The Passing of Lady Diana Mukpo

Dear Shambhala Sangha, Our community has experienced an incredible loss. We write with heavy hearts to share that Lady Diana Mukpo - wife and widow of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, mother, grandmother, accomplished equestrian, and steadfast protector of the Shambhala teachings and vision - passed away surrounded by family and close friends at her home in Florida on...

Journey to Taktsang 57 Years Ago

The Sadhana of Mahamudra was completed at Taktsang in Bhutan on September 6, 1968. Here, in his own words, is the story of traveling to Taktsang and receiving the sadhana.

Lack of Credentials

Excerpted from The Way of Basic Sanity, A Brief Overview of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's Perspective on Sutric Buddhism

Jonathan Barbieri on Meeting our Kagyu and Nyingma relatives for the first time

Jonathan Barbieri has taught Buddhist and Shambhala trainings extensively throughout North America for over 40 years. He served as a Shastri, a senior teacher, in the Shambhala lineage for several years. Jon has been engaged in several livelihood pursuits including 10 years in educational non-profits, consulting with cities and counties on workforce development, creating contemplative co-housing...

Tim Olmsted on Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Pema Chödrön and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

These Sons and Daughters of Noble Family lectures showcase the rich dharma heritage of our extended dharma family. They were originally presented live by Karme Choling and hosted by Julia Sagebien & Karme Choling Co-Directors JT Buck & Vegan Aharonian between April and October 2024. The Chronicles is now in the process of making all sixteen of these lectures available permanently here, adding a new episode to this page every few weeks.

It Was the Memory of His Kindness

I read something recently that recalled the evening I heard Chögyam Trungpa speak in Toronto in the autumn of 1971. My memories of that evening come back to me occasionally, and they surfaced again while I was reading Opening a Mountain: Koans of the Zen Masters. The book is a deeply contextualized collection of stories and...

Joni and Rinpoche

Here is Joni Mitchell in conversation with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden after receiving the Gershwin Prize. When asked what themes she might want to explore currently in her songwriting, Joni talked about her connection with Trungpa Rinpoche

Calligraphy Lesson

I loved Trungpa Rinpoche beyond words and admired him more than anyone I had ever met (I was also a little afraid of him).

Father Thomas Keating and Trungpa Rinpoche Talk About Egolessness

This conversation took place during Naropa’s 1983 Christian Buddhist Conference

Stories of Sechen Kongtrül, told by Tulku Urgyen

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche's Stories of Shechen Kongtrül, read by Larry Mermelstein.

Myth of Freedom and the Cosmic Joke with Ani Pema Chodron

In this talk, which is presented in three segments, Pema guides us through the beginning chapters of Trungpa Rinpoche's Myth of Freedom.

The Heart of Enlightened Action

Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche teaches on the mahayana at the Berkley Shambhala Center, August 2007. Here are talks One, Two, and Three of the five talk series.

Vajradhatu Seminary Lake Louise

A slideshow of Lake Louise from Charles Marrow

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s Cremation Ceremony

Thirty Eight Years Ago in Karme Choling's upper meadow

Why Now?

Tashi Colman's Review of The Sadhana of Mahamudra, a new title from Shambhala Publications

Announcement from the Mukpo Family

The Mukpo family would like to announce that after many years of living with cancer, Lady Diana has taken the decision to stop treatment and begin the dying process. She is currently with her family and friends resting at home and receiving care. We will continue to send updates as her end-of-life phase progresses. In the...

To Appreciate and Manifest Simplicity

If you have confidence in yourself and you develop some way of overcoming ego, then true compassion can be radiated to others. So the main point in working with people is to appreciate and manifest simplicity rather than trying to create new theories or categories of behavior. The more you appreciate simplicity, the more profound your understanding becomes. Simplicity begins to make much more sense than speculation.

— From “Becoming a Full Human Being” in The Sanity We Are Born With: A Buddhist Approach to Psychology, pages 142 to 143.

Poetry tributes to Trungpa Rinpoche

No fooling! Thirty-two years ago today, Rinpoche asked me to help him play an April Fool joke on the sangha. He thought a while and then asked me to call Vajradhatu...

Lady Diana Mukpo and Carolyn Rose Gimian

Lady Diana Mukpo and Carolyn Gimian talk about how the idea for a memoir first arose and how they worked together to make it happen.

Denault Blouin

"Fuck you." "Did he say, 'Fuck you'?" "Yeah. He just said it again." To whomever—was it Ginsberg?—on that long ten-tape "Tibetan Buddhism and American Karma" seminar (November, 1971) we were listening to...

On the Porch at Charlemont

Jean Claude's recollections of Trungpa Rinpoche   Charlemont is a town in northwestern Massachusetts. Rinpoche spent a lot of time in a farmhouse near Charlemont, mostly during a long retreat in...

A Kiss Is But A Kiss

In the summer of 1975 I went to Karme Chöling in Vermont for a seminar with Trungpa Rinpoche on “Meditation and Prayer in the Buddhadharma.” Someone suggested that I...

How To Speak the English Language

Elocution lessons with Trungpa Rinpoche Soon after arriving in India in 1960, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche began to study English with the help of Freda Bedi and later John Driver, both...

Birthmark

One day in the early 70s Rinpoche was sitting at his desk, and I pointed to his birthmark. He had a soft brown birthmark on his left forearm. I said something clueless like, “Is that a birthmark?”

An Oryoki Moment

It seems that Rinpoche wanted to know who the young lady was who knew all the chants by heart and ate so beautifully.

When Chögyam Trungpa met Jules Chender

Yuli Shenderoff was born in Russia in 1920 at a time of pogroms against the Jews. As a very small boy, he learned to lie when strangers came to...

Dharma in the West: Part Two

You cannot be a good leader if you have an agenda of your own

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche Retreat in Massachusetts

Between 20,000 and 75,000 years ago, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered what is now eastern Massachusetts in thousands of feet of ice and carved hills that remain today. In...

The Rinchen Terdzo

At some point during the 1970's, Trungpa Rinpoche received a complete set of the Rinchen Terdzo from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

The Gradual Path of Raising Buddhist Children

A Conversation with Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

Creating a Drala Culture

The Vidyadhara set about designing a world, not by introducing something foreign, but by literally turning our conventional world inside out, revealing essence.

Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche in Boulder

By Roland Cohen Boulder Colorado, Friday, August 13, 2010: Organized and hosted by Dzigar Kongtrul, Rinpoche and his sangha (Mangala Shri Bhuti), the ceremony was held at the old Boulder...