The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Seven by Chögyam Trungpa Page B
Authors: Chögyam Trungpa
Tags: Tibetan Buddhism
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larger needs of a good human society. Art played, not a tangential, but an absolutely central role in that view.
Having fully incorporated the view of artistic disciplines as a way of awakening, Chögyam Trungpa turned to art as one of the tools in the warrior’s arsenal of wakefulness. Similarly, we turn from the consideration of Chögyam Trungpa as an artist in Volume Seven to his role as great warrior-king in Volume Eight, another extraordinary chapter in an altogether extraordinary life.
One may understand this last chapter of his life and teachings more easily if one keeps in mind, not only his dedication to truth and beauty, but also the sense of play and humor that is so evident throughout his artistic enterprises. Chögyam Trungpa was a man who saw lots to cheer you up in the phenomenal world. One can see how much joy he took in the making of movies, the writing of plays, the stroke of calligraphy, the heaven, earth, and man of arranging space. He joined joy and sadness in this dance of delight and was able to share with so many others the self-existing sense of humor he found in everyday life. As an artist, he loved the broad smile of reality. As a Shambhala warrior, he showed that this smile has teeth! To that experience we turn our attention in Volume Eight.
C AROLYN R OSE G IMIAN
December 15, 2002
Trident Mountain House
Tatamagouche Mountain,
Nova Scotia
1 . Chögyam Trungpa’s poems in The Rain of Wisdom, which appear in Volume Six, are examples of poetry in the traditional Tibetan style.
2 . Born in Tibet (1977), p. 87.
3 . In India, he made the acquaintance of Tendzin Rongae, a master thangka painter. Rinpoche became close friends with the entire Rongae family. It may be that his training as a painter came out of this association. One of Tendzin’s sons, Noedup Rongae, has produced many important thangkas that hang in shrine rooms throughout the Shambhala community.
4 . Interview with Ato Rinpoche by Carolyn Rose Gimian for the Shambhala Archives, circa 1991.
5 . Chögyam Trungpa described how he took the photograph of Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche: “I was able to acquire a box camera in Tibet, and I got film and chemicals to develop film from China, and I took this very photograph by myself. I asked him, ‘Can I take your photograph?’ He said, ‘You don’t need to do that,’ and I said, I insist,’ and he said, ‘In that case, let me dress up.’ So he got his best brocade gown, shawl, and robe, and he sat in the upstairs of his house on the flat roof, and he said, ‘All right. Ready. Do it.’ . . . I was nervous about whether it was going to come out properly or not. But fortunately it came out. I took this photograph—what year could it be?—it’s probably 1954 or something like that. A friend of mine, another tulku, another rinpoche, showed me how to develop the film. So I took this photograph, and I developed it and printed it in his monastery’s library, which is a rather dark place. We put cloth over the window, and we developed the film by trial and error, and the photograph came out all right.” ( Collected Vajra Assemblies, vol. 1, edited by Judith L. Lief and Sarah Coleman [Halifax: Vajradhatu Publications, 1990], p. 187.)
6 . This group of photographs is a good visual example of how Trungpa Rinpoche was working with what he later described as seeing and looking. See Dharma Art, “State of Mind,” for the discussion of this principle of dharma art.
7 . See Kalapa Ikebana Newsletter, Winter 1984, pp. 1–2.
8 . Great Eastern Sun (2001), pp. 152, 154.
9 . E-mail communication from Gina Etra Stick to Carolyn Rose Gimian, 2002.
10 . Written communication from Gina Etra Stick to Carolyn Rose Gimian, January 2002.
11 . I would like to thank Fabrice Midal for pointing out the importance of Chögyam Trungpa’s discussion of symbolism. He sent me a copy of remarks he made at a conference, entitled “Le symbolisme dans le bouddhisme
Having fully incorporated the view of artistic disciplines as a way of awakening, Chögyam Trungpa turned to art as one of the tools in the warrior’s arsenal of wakefulness. Similarly, we turn from the consideration of Chögyam Trungpa as an artist in Volume Seven to his role as great warrior-king in Volume Eight, another extraordinary chapter in an altogether extraordinary life.
One may understand this last chapter of his life and teachings more easily if one keeps in mind, not only his dedication to truth and beauty, but also the sense of play and humor that is so evident throughout his artistic enterprises. Chögyam Trungpa was a man who saw lots to cheer you up in the phenomenal world. One can see how much joy he took in the making of movies, the writing of plays, the stroke of calligraphy, the heaven, earth, and man of arranging space. He joined joy and sadness in this dance of delight and was able to share with so many others the self-existing sense of humor he found in everyday life. As an artist, he loved the broad smile of reality. As a Shambhala warrior, he showed that this smile has teeth! To that experience we turn our attention in Volume Eight.
C AROLYN R OSE G IMIAN
December 15, 2002
Trident Mountain House
Tatamagouche Mountain,
Nova Scotia
1 . Chögyam Trungpa’s poems in The Rain of Wisdom, which appear in Volume Six, are examples of poetry in the traditional Tibetan style.
2 . Born in Tibet (1977), p. 87.
3 . In India, he made the acquaintance of Tendzin Rongae, a master thangka painter. Rinpoche became close friends with the entire Rongae family. It may be that his training as a painter came out of this association. One of Tendzin’s sons, Noedup Rongae, has produced many important thangkas that hang in shrine rooms throughout the Shambhala community.
4 . Interview with Ato Rinpoche by Carolyn Rose Gimian for the Shambhala Archives, circa 1991.
5 . Chögyam Trungpa described how he took the photograph of Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche: “I was able to acquire a box camera in Tibet, and I got film and chemicals to develop film from China, and I took this very photograph by myself. I asked him, ‘Can I take your photograph?’ He said, ‘You don’t need to do that,’ and I said, I insist,’ and he said, ‘In that case, let me dress up.’ So he got his best brocade gown, shawl, and robe, and he sat in the upstairs of his house on the flat roof, and he said, ‘All right. Ready. Do it.’ . . . I was nervous about whether it was going to come out properly or not. But fortunately it came out. I took this photograph—what year could it be?—it’s probably 1954 or something like that. A friend of mine, another tulku, another rinpoche, showed me how to develop the film. So I took this photograph, and I developed it and printed it in his monastery’s library, which is a rather dark place. We put cloth over the window, and we developed the film by trial and error, and the photograph came out all right.” ( Collected Vajra Assemblies, vol. 1, edited by Judith L. Lief and Sarah Coleman [Halifax: Vajradhatu Publications, 1990], p. 187.)
6 . This group of photographs is a good visual example of how Trungpa Rinpoche was working with what he later described as seeing and looking. See Dharma Art, “State of Mind,” for the discussion of this principle of dharma art.
7 . See Kalapa Ikebana Newsletter, Winter 1984, pp. 1–2.
8 . Great Eastern Sun (2001), pp. 152, 154.
9 . E-mail communication from Gina Etra Stick to Carolyn Rose Gimian, 2002.
10 . Written communication from Gina Etra Stick to Carolyn Rose Gimian, January 2002.
11 . I would like to thank Fabrice Midal for pointing out the importance of Chögyam Trungpa’s discussion of symbolism. He sent me a copy of remarks he made at a conference, entitled “Le symbolisme dans le bouddhisme
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