Chögyam Trungpa current suggested assesment |
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| Tradition | Tibetan Buddhist |
| Gurus | A number of reverred Tibetan Masters (see Wikipedia page for more |
| Category | Nondual |
| Psychology | emotionally distant, authoritarian, lack of self-mastery |
| Inspiration | Buddhist thoughtform/tradition, Intermediate zone |
| Disciples/Devotees | Many, including Pema Chödrön, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Diane di Prima, and Ösel Tendzin. |
| Critics including Ex-Devotees | Stephen T. Butterfield, The Double Mirror (Ex-Devotee); Georg Feuerstein,  Holy MadnessAmerican Buddha website (requires sign up, I haven't joined but only because i don't like signing up at things)
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| Abuses | Sexual - Moderate Financial - Mild or Moderate Emotional - Moderate Antagonism? - Need Information Cultism? - Need Information |
| Assesment | Brilliant and immensely influential but deeply flawed Ambigous Guru |
From Wikipedia:
Chögyam Trungpa (1940 - 1987) was a Buddhist meditation master, scholar, teacher, poet, artist, and a Trungpa tülku. He was a major figure in the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism to the West, founding Vajradhatu and Naropa University and establishing the Shambhala Training method. His controversial career is characterized as "crazy wisdom" by his Western followers. He died at the age of 47 of alcohol-related liver failure.
The original "crazy wizdom" adept in the West, alcoholic, and womaniser, Trungpa was a brilliant teacher, but also a classic ambigious / Intermediate Zone guru. Like other such gurus, he was totally lacking in self-control and was swallowed up by his own obsession for self-indulgence.
One of the chief popularises of Tibetan Buddhism to the secular world his teachings were based on a combination of Tibetan Buddhism, Zen, and Theravada, with an emphasise placed on practice, and all interpreted and presented in a language that Westerners can understand. For example he reinterprets (I think this is in Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism) the classic Buddhist cosmology as a morality story about this life; the gods are simply people are very well off n this life, beings in hell are those mich more unfortunate; heaven and hell is in this world, not some non-ohysical realm.
Trungpa introduced a whole lexicon of new words that became influentiual in the alternative and intehgral movement - spiritual materialism, crazy wisdom, idiot compassion. Some of these words have been seriously misinterpreted and abused.
The Double Mirror: A Skeptical Journey into Buddhist Tantra - an important insight into Tibetan Buddhism and assessment of Trungpa from somneone with first-hand experience |
As with most Intermediate Zone gurus, Trungpa attracted a whole following of passive people who used their leader's weaknesses as justification for their own dysfunctional neuroses. So whilst Trungpa warned of the hazards of 'idiot compassion', his own followers did not know how to apply that knowledge to their leader, or (in the words of a friend who is a critic of abusive gurus "they would all have told him he was an obnoxious self indulgent drunk who compounded the problem by being ungrateful to the open immigration policies of the democracy whose principles he despised, and ungrateful for its tax exempt policies which enabled him to accumulate wealth at such a rapid rate because the rest of us unenlightened peasants subsidized him by paying our taxes on time." (see Butterfield (The Double MIrror) review for more on these claims)
It may well be that, despite his obvious flaws, Chögyam Trungpa was a genuine decent and highly spiritual man. There is a nice vibe from his photo, he obviously had something genuine about him. Like so many Eastern teachers to the West, was simply not prepared for the temptations that come with the power and prestige of being a popular guru. As with all such ambigous, Intermediate zone figures, it is all too easy for the sceptic and critic to dismiss them out of hand, a task made easier when one considers the trial of human wrekage such people inevitably leave in their wake. To do so would be to take the easy way out, that of projection of the shadow, and thus avoid truly understanding what the Intermediate Zone is all about.
Yet, for all this, Buddhism is surely about walking the walk, not just talking the talk. So if even such a high ranking teacher as this goes astray, what does that say?
A nice photo of Trungpa, as featured on the cover of Chögyam Trungpa: His Life and Vision (a hagiographic biography)
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