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Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (1984) In this practical guide to enlightened living, Chögyam Trungpa offers an inspiring vision for our time, based on the figure of the sacred warrior. In ancient times, the warrior learned to master the challenges of life, both on and off the battlefield. He acquired a sense of personal freedom and power—not through violence or aggression, but through gentleness, courage, and self-knowledge. With this work the warrior’s path is opened to contemporary men and women in search of self-mastery and greater fulfillment. Interpreting the warrior’s journey in modern terms, Trungpa Rinpoche discusses such skills as synchronizing mind and body, overcoming habitual behaviors, relaxing within discipline, facing the world with openness and fearlessness, and finding the sacred dimension of everyday life. Above all, Trungpa shows that in discovering the basic goodness of human life, the warrior learns to radiate that goodness out into the world for the peace and sanity of others.
Selected Writings “Basic Goodness” (1991) is an edited version of the first public talk that Chögyam Trungpa gave on Shambhala warriorship. It exhorts us to pay attention to how we live each moment, so that it becomes the expression of warriorship.“Fully Human: Introduction to the Principles of Shambhala Vision” (1993) is based on the first talk of the long seminar at Naropa in the summer of 1979, given in tandem with the Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin. It gives a detailed explanation of both the Great Eastern Sun and setting-sun visions. “The Shambhala World” (1992) is from a public talk given in San Francisco in 1982 in which Chögyam Trungpa states his emphatic belief that nuclear holocaust is not going to take place. He predicts that human life will continue for at least one thousand years more and advises people, “I’m afraid that we’re going to have to lead lives which are very boring.” “Conquering Fear” (2002) is edited from a three-talk seminar to directors in the Shambhala Training program in 1979. It contains provocative material on how to work with real enemies in the world outside and also discusses the discipline of warriorship in terms of its ground, path, and fruition, and how, at every stage, the warrior is working with the interplay of fear and fearlessness, cowardice and bravery. The foreword to The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling (1981) is Chögyam Trungpa’s introduction to Alexandra David-Néel’s book, which presents epic stories of the great Tibetan warrior king. Gesar represents the ideal of fearless and gentle warriorship that can conquer the world. In his foreword, Trungpa Rinpoche presents the principles of warriorship that are reflected in Gesar’s life. “The Martial Arts and the Art of War” (previously unpublished article), written in England in the 1960s, is one of the earliest presentations of Chögyam Trungpa’s thinking on the place of warriorship in the Buddhist teachings. It connects the development of fearlessness and warriorship with overcoming ego, understanding nonviolence as the principle of the martial arts, and the application of that mentality in the Tibetan monastic discipline of debate. “Political Consciousness” (1999) is a translation of a fragment of a treatise on politics that Chögyam Trungpa began writing in Tibetan while on a month-long retreat in 1972. The manuscript was never completed. This excerpt shows how he was working to connect the worldly aspect of politics with spiritual awareness and development. “A Buddhist Approach to Politics: An Interview with Chögyam Trungpa” (1976) is an interview conducted in 1976 by the staff of the Shambhala Review of Books and Ideas, a little magazine produced by Shambhala Publications. Here, just months before the Shambhala teachings exploded onto the scene, Trungpa Rinpoche talks about the importance of taking more responsibility for what is happening in society. “Pragmatism and Practice: An Interview with Vajracharya the Venerable Trungpa Rinpoche” (1985) is one of the last interviews that Chögyam Trungpa ever gave, conducted on May 7, 1985. He talks about how the principles of Shambhala vision could pragmatically manifest in the various activities within the Buddhist community and more fundamentally in the world at large. “Natural Hierarchy” (1995)
“The Seven Treasures of the Universal Monarch” (previously unpublished manuscript), a small fragment composed at an unknown date, is a little gem describing the attributes of the world of the universal monarch. “Realizing Enlightened Society” (1992) is a three-part article based on talks given by Chögyam Trungpa in his last public seminar, in 1986. Here the unity of Buddhism and the Shambhala teachings is affirmed. They are not, he says, two distinct streams of thought but two sides of the same coin. |
