Khyentse Foundation Gives Special Grant to Root Text Project

The Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project has just received word that the Khyentse Foundation is giving $5,000 towards the completion of the Root Text Project, to compile and edit the advanced teachings given by the Vidyadhara, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, at the Vajradhatu Seminaries. These teachings are being edited by Acharya Judith Lief into three volumes that will be published by Shambhala Publications in 2012, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Parinirvana, or passing, of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The series will be entitled THE PROFOUND TREASURY OF THE OCEAN OF DHARMA.

The Legacy Project is just about to launch a year-end fundraising campaign to raise the $12,000 in editorial support still needed to complete this momentous project. Previously, we had anticipated needing $20,000, but this donation from the Foundation, along with a generous $2,500 gift from a private donor, has almost reduced the amount needed in half!

The Khyentse Foundation is dedicated to promoting the Buddha’s teachings for the benefit of all through an effective system of patronage. The Foundation brings visionary thinking to the preservation and expansion of Buddhist education and practice across all lineages and traditions.

Established in 2001 by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Khyentse Foundation and its many patrons have already funded a chair of Buddhist studies at UC Berkeley, pledged more than US$ 2 million to digitize the entire Tibetan Buddhist scriptural tradition, and established endowments to fund monastic colleges in India and Tibet and a worldwide scholarship program, while supporting numerous other groundbreaking initiatives.

Other current projects include an academic survey of Buddhist higher education systems throughout the world and the incubation of the Buddhist Literary Heritage Project, a 100-year effort to translate the vast teachings of the Buddha into modern languages.

The Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project is very grateful to the Khyentse Foundation for their support of the Root Text Project.

Launching Our Website/Smiling at Fear

The Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project was established in 2006. Four years later, we finally have a functioning website. Go to chogyamtrungpa.com to see the new design. Part of the impetus for completing this, at long last, was that the Legacy Project was invited to be featured in connection with Pema Chodron's program SMILE AT FEAR. Pema will be presenting teachings in California on Oct 15 to 17, based on the book by that name, which was published just a year ago. I edited the material from Chogyam Trungpa's lectures on Shambhala vision and working with fear. The book has been doing extremely well.

Pema and I conferred around the time that the book was published. She generously offered to teach from SMILE AT FEAR at Omega Institute in 2009 and in northern California in October 2010. She invited me to present the meditation at both programs, a great learning opportunity for me.

Somewhat beyond anyone's expectations, the California program sold out -- with 3,000 people enrolled to attend! Wow! Now Shambhala Publications is offering a webcast of the seminar -- and in connection with that, The Legacy Project is featured on Shambhala's website in various places.

A great opportunity for us. The only problem was that we didn't have a decent website two weeks ago -- so we had to move quickly, with major help from a board member, Walter Fordham, who designed the site and got it up and running.

Let us know what you think!

Monday Nights with Chogyam Trungpa Offers Sanity to End 2009

The Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project, working together with the Shambhala Archives and the Halifax Shambhala Center, offers a Monday Night Class from September through June in Halifax, Nova Scotia, featuring the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The class has often focused on the DVDs of Trungpa Rinpoche teaching in the 1970s and 80s. Now, going into its fourth year, we have been experimenting with other formats. This fall we decided to offer a class on the book The Sanity We Are Born With: A Buddhist Approach to Psychology, a compilation of writings on mind, meditation and psychology that was put together in 2006 from Rinpoche’s writings.

The Sanity Class, as we came to refer to it, was facilitated by a group of more than a dozen psychotherapists and health professionals who are practitioners in the Halifax Shambhala Community, many of whom have a connection with Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Some of the presenters taught there and helped to develop the psychology curriculum; others were trained there. Other presenters have made a connection with Trungpa Rinpoche’s teachings in other diverse ways. Each week one or more of the facilitators presented material on a topic from the book, also bringing in their experience with this material in their own work.

The headlines for the six weeks were:

Week One: Meditation and the View of Basic Sanity
Week Two: Mindfulness and Awareness
Week Three: Ego and the Six Realms
Week Four: The Five Buddha Families and Maitri
Week Five: Creating an Environment of Sanity
Week Six : The End of the Journey and Open Discussion

Each week between 45 and 65 people attended the class. Between 25 and 30 people were completely new to the Shambhala Center. Many were mental health professionals with an interest in Buddhist psychology. We are still reviewing the evaluations from the course, but in general, people were appreciative and inspired. One of the outcomes will be a syllabus to be used by other Shambhala Centers with an interest in presenting this material.

For further information, please contact Carolyn Gimian at cgimian@suchns.com. I can put you in touch with some of the facilitators or the coordinator of the class.

First Thought Photos Conclude Year Three of MNC

First Thought Great Thought


At the Monday Night Class in Halifax this past Monday, May 25, 2009,Andy and Wendy
Karr presented Part One of FIRST THOUGHT BEST THOUGHT: Photographs by
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. One hundred of the documentary and dharma
art slides of the Vidyadhara, Chogyam Trungpa's work were shown with introduction and
commentary by the Karrs, as well as audience participation. Andy gave
a brief introduction to dharma art and contemplative photography;
Wendy spoke about the scope of the Vidyadhara's photographic work and
read poetry to accompany some of the slides. However, there was a lot
of space and silence, so that the audience could fall into --
appreciate -- these extraordinary ordinary images.


The Vidyadhara's "subjects" in the photos included a very regal tiger
in Bhutan, taken from so close that one audience member asked whether
the tiger had been photoshopped into the slide. A tiny green frog in
closeup and a spider in her web were equally arresting. The eyes and
brows of a beautiful young woman (who will soon turn 60), a portrait
of one of Rinpoche's students who recently turned 70 (you know who
you are), and other "humanoids" were delightful. But nature stole the
show with grass, water, sky, rock, mountain, tree dignity. Early
slides from the 1960s, of the Young Lamas' Home School in Dalhousie
and from the Vidyadhara's trip to Taksang in Bhutan, were also included.


June first, Part Two of the slideshow will focus on the Five Buddha
Families in Trungpa Rinpoche's photography. Applying the buddha
families was one of the approaches to photography that Rinpoche
himself used. A completely fresh set of images will be shown.


Andy and Wendy have scanned and created a database for more than
1,500 slides of the Vidyadhara's work, using a film scanner
generously on loan from Michael Wood. Their work is being done under
the auspices of the Shambhala Archives and with financial assistance
from the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project.


Due to technical problems encountered with the scans, approximately
300 images will need to be rescanned in the next few months. Then, if
there is sufficient funding, the Archives would like to complete the
scanning of the black and white and color prints of the Vidyadhara's
work held in the Archives. This is approximately another five hundred
images. Many of these photographs were generously donated to the
Archives five years ago by Lady Diana Mukpo.


Scanning the photos is just the first step in the process of making
this material available. The Archives will post some of the images
on its website, and we are also in discussions about making a limited
group of prints available.


For interested groups, Andy and Wendy may be available to take this
show "on the road." They are senior students of Chogyam Trungpa
Rinpoche and are dharma artists as well. Andy has been a photographer
for many years, and is currently working on a book with Michael Wood
about contemplative photography, to be published by Shambhala
Publications. Wendy is both a student and a teacher of ikebana, whose
arrangements have been included in a number of shows and
installations. They bring love and sensitivity
to their work on the Vidyadhara's photographs, gently illuminating
and bringing out the emotional depth of the images. For further
information, please contact Carolyn Gimian, cgimian@suchns.com, or
Andy Karr, akarr@shambhalasun.com.


This work on the photographs of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche is a prelude
to the digital copying and preservation of the more than 60,000
photographs in the Shambhala Archives. If we are able to secure
funding and with the participation and approval of the photographers
whose work is represented in the Archives, we hope to launch this
huge endeavor within the next twelve to twenty-four months.


This wonderful feast of photographs concludes year three of the Monday Night Class. The MNC is sponsored by the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project, with support from the Shambhala Archives and the Halifax Shambhala Centre. The class is a kind of laboratory for curriculum related to the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa.

Year End Letter

November 27, 2008

Dear Friends of the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project,

We are expecting more than 500 students to gather together in Halifax, Nova Scotia this weekend for Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche's program presenting teachings related to TRANSCENDING MADNESS by Chogyam Trungpa. It seems to be a good time to review what the Legacy Project has been doing and planning. The future direction of the Legacy Project depends on the wishes of everyone who participates. The seminar this weekend is, among other things, a reflection of these intentions and desires. Our current projects include:

FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR EDITORIAL PROJECTS:

* We are helping to raise funds for the Root Text Project (based on the Seminary Transcripts) and other forthcoming books by Chogyam Trungpa. We hope to support many future projects.
* In the future, we would like to start a fund for training young editors, so that they are well schooled in the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa and also prepared as editors of his dharma teachings, through apprenticeships and other means. This model could also be applied to other apprenticeships.

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND CURRICULUM:

* The program this weekend on Transcending Madness is in part the result of the efforts of the Legacy Project to invite lineage teachers to present the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa in our community and within their own. We hope there will be many more such programs throughout North America.
* Currently the Legacy Project is working with Nalandabodhi, at the request of the Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, to develop a course on the Essential Chogyam Trungpa for their centres.
* In 2007, the Nalanda Translation Committee invited the Legacy Project to be a co-sponsor of Karma Senge Rinpoche's presentation of the terma teachings of the Vidyadhara. We helped to select material for a booklet published in connection with the Avalokiteshvara Abhisheka presented in three locations in Canada and also co-sponsored a follow-up course in Halifax on the dzogchen teachings of the Vidyadhara in relationship to the Avalokiteshvara practice. We look forward to being involved in future visits of Karma Senge Rinpoche throughout North America.
* The Legacy Project has asked Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche if we may help in the future presentation of the Sadhana of Mahamudra and related teachings to other Buddhist sanghas, something he has expressed an interest in undertaking.
* The Monday Night Class in Halifax presents teachings of Chogyam Trungpa, via audio/video presentations, discussion groups, workshops and other formats. The class also serves as a 'laboratory' for the development of curricula and syllabi. The Legacy Project is working with the Shambhala Archives and Kalapa Recordings on curriculum development and the digital remastering of the material used in the Monday Night Class. A number of digitally remastered DVD sets have come out of this collaboration.

VIRTUAL ARCHIVES AND DIGITAL REMASTERING

The Legacy Project initiated discussions among the Shambhala Archives, the Chronicles of CTR and other parties interested in the development of an online archive of the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. We hope to be an important agent for the implementation of this project. Individual sangha members and centres throughout North America and Europe have expressed enthusiasm for seeing this project go forward.

SUPPORT FOR TARGETED PROJECTS WITHING THE SHAMBHALA ARCHIVES

* An important feature of the Legacy Project is to target projects within the Archives, such as the virtual archives, and to help fund and provide volunteers and staff for various initiatives. Currently, we are working on several projects and helping to fund them. Funds donated to the Legacy Project are providing support for work on the collection of the Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa's personal and spiritual belongings from the Labrang, in preparation for its appraisal and donation to Shambhala.
* At the moment, we are working with the Archives and generous volunteers, photographers Michael Woods and Andy Karr, on the digital remastering and preservation of more than 1,000 of the dharma art photographs of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

OUR LONG-TERM ASPIRATIONS
* These include the establishment of a library and museum to showcase and preserve the Vidyadhara's work. At the moment, we need to establish a good foundation from which we can build. Please join us. We need your ideas, your donations, and your passion to help support the legacy of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, which belongs to all of us and to many more sentient beings.

The Advisory Board of the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project


Helen Bonzi, Walter Fordham, Carolyn Gimian, Wendy Karr, Judith Lief,

Thomas Hast, Larry Mermelstein, Miriam Tarcov, Sara Bercholz, David Rome


* * * * * * * * * * * *

A Recent Message from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, November 2008, (via David Brown): Rinpoche continues to support the concept and purposes of the Legacy Project and the commitment it represents to preserving and making available the teachings of the Vidyadhara. He appreciates the role of the Legacy Project in co-sponsoring last year's visit by Karma Senge Rinpoche, the audio-video classes being offered in Halifax, and the generous support the project has given to other activities.

****************************

Donations to the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project can be made out to the CT Legacy Project and sent to:

CT Legacy Project
PO Box 33035
Halifax, NS
Canada B3L 4T6


In the USA:

CT Legacy Project
c/o Ashoka Credit Union
525 Canyon Boulevard
Boulder, Colorado
80302 USA

Monday Night Class in Halifax Concludes Year Two

Last night, fifty of us gathered in the main shrine room of the
Halifax Shambhala Center to watch the final two talks of Journey
without Goal, the tantra seminar given by the Vidyadhara, the
Venerable Chogyam Trungpa, in 1974, the first summer of Naropa. As
the talk wound to an end, the group sat very still, transfixed it
seemed by the images captured in black and white more than 1/3rd of a
century ago. At the end of the tape, the screen became grainy and the
Vidyadhara's voice somewhat gravelly, and there was a sense that this
intimate portal into a time past was beginning to break up. Yes no
one wanted to leave the space. When the tape ended, there was almost
an audible sigh emitting from the Haligonian group of students, old and new.

At the same time, this "time capsule" was an up to date hard hitting
series of dharma talks, mind blowing and appropriate for these times,
in fact, in their intensity and the personal flavor of the teachings
being transmitted. Hearing the tantric concepts of nadi, prana and
bindu described as a radar system (bindu) mounted on a wheel (prana)
travelling along the railroad tracks of nadi was at once bizarre,
humorous, and illuminating. Even THIS was about our experience.

The Vidyadhara wondered aloud if it was dangerous to put this
information into people's hands. Would they use it to manipulate
their world in an egoistic sense? Could they truly appreciate the
value of doing nothing?

This original seminar was the basis for one of Chogyam Trungpa's many
books: JOURNEY WITHOUT GOAL: THE TANTRIC WISDOM OF THE BUDDHA. The
seminar replaying this material in Halifax -- which ran Monday nights
from March 2008 until last night -- was a testing ground for the
material, before distributing it to others. The lectures are still
being digitally remastered and copied to DVDs, while a study guide is
being written as we progress. Here, we watched old-fashioned VHS
tapes, which are of remarkably good quality. The new DVDs should be
available by Fall of 2008.

The Monday Night Class in Halifax began in the Winter/Spring of 2007.
We have now studied three seminars by Chogyam Trungpa from 1974: The
Tibetan Buddhist Path; Meditation: The Way of the Buddha; and Journey
without Goal. Additionally, during January and February of 2008,
about 100 Vajrayana students gathered every Monday for 6 weeks to
practice the newly transmitted terma from the Vidyadhara: the
Avalokiteshvara sadhana conferred by Karma Senge Rinpoche last year.
We paired the practice of the sadhana with reading, contemplation and
exposition of some of Trungpa Rinpoche's dzogchen teachings.

Starting in September 2008, the Monday Night Class will show DVDs of
a Dharma Art seminar by Chogyam Trungpa, alternating with workshops
taught by some of his senior students. Object arrangement, ikebana,
mudra theatre, and other aspects of artistic practice and process
will be explored.

Next winter, Vajrayana students will be invited to view and
contemplate videos of the EVAM seminary taught by Trungpa Rinpoche,
the basis for parts of GLIMPSES OF SPACE. And next spring, we will
offer some of the talks from the Wisdom and Skilful Means series
originally taught in Northern California in 1976.

The Monday Night Class is organized by the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy
Project to benefit the Shambhala Archives, the Halifax Shambhala
Center, and the Legacy Project itself. In the future, as the acting
director of the Legacy Project, I'd like to help other centers to
include more of this kind of programming. If you have questions or
need help with a class, you can contact me at cgimian@suchns.com. I
may be able to refer you to one of the people helping with the class
or offer you some support myself. Similar programs are being offered
in a number of other locations, including New York, Boulder, and
Margaree, Nova Scotia!

Another Boy without a Name Contribution

The Boy Without a Name continuation:


"Do you find food on your own" said the boy. He realized he was
terribly hungry and he felt,sadly, that with this up-tight sap,
perhaps he'd made enough of a fool of himself already.


Bah Humbug to you to then said the boy, and he headed down the road
toward the mountain.


The boy was terrified as he knew he could not find food alone. Terror
turned to panic as he contemplated participating in the production
system of the adults. He knew that somehow he had to sing them a song
that would help thm loosen their grip on their petty schemes.


Oh, what about his nice pleasent travels to the peak of the mountain.
He got an anxious feeling that the two tasks must be done if either of
them were to be done.


He thought about his song.


All the adults were afraid to stand still. That's as good as a start
as he could come up with after a long perplexing thought. If they
could do that, they could enjoy all kinds of things. What were they
so affraid of?


they wanted to take and own things from the hills, forests and meadows
around the mountain. Was that it?


If so he would have to try his best to give them what they wanted.