Dharma Study Group Kalamazoo

04/04/2026

Today, April 4, 2026, marks the observance of the parinirvana of the Vidyadhara, the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who passed in 1987. Students and sangha worldwide will be celebrating the life and teachings, the love and friendship, of this remarkable teacher and great siddha. One observance which is available for anyone to participate him, even those who just want to learn about his teachings and life, will be on Zoom, with the students of Trungpa Rinpoche and his Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin. These online gatherings will take place at 10 a.m. to 12:30 pm as well as 5:30-7 pm Mountain Time. Note the time zone. Note the time zone. Some details and links are available at the website (scroll down a bit, on the right)

Born in the United States, Ösel Tendzin was confirmed as the first-generation Westerner to hold the lineages of the Karma Kagyü and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. 

03/13/2026

Dear friends,
Next week we'll begin a class on the 4 foundations of Mindfulness, the shamatha-vipashyana teachings of Trungpa Rinpoche as presented in the "Training the Mind" Seminar, Rocky Mountain Dharma Center 1974. Contact me at [email protected] if you're interested. The video here includes a bit on the Kagyu lineage songs, Milarepa, and an introduction to the mindfulness class.

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12/09/2025

This is a section from the “Open Way” chapter of the book *Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism*. Any student of Trungpa Rinpoche would want to read this book, and most have read it more than once. This particular chapter, the first of two chapters in the book which explicitly addresses the bodhisatva path and the 6 paramitas, should of course be read and discussed in its entirety. I don’t like memes or excerpts, but this particular chunk has been an inspiration to me since 1977 when I first encountered it as a young person in 1977. “For I was young and foolish then / I’m old and foolish now.” [Not Trungpa Rinpoche] I don’t believe Trungpa Rinpoche ever discussed the subject of compassion, obviously central to the mahayana Buddhist teachings, without also discussing genuine communication, which is a necessary aspect of compassion. "If your love is moving with the same speed and drive as other people’s hatred, then something appears to be wrong. It would seem to be the same as calling darkness light." From the “Open Way” chapter:

“...the main theme of the open way is that we must begin to abandon the basic struggle of ego. To be completely open, to have that kind of absolute trust in yourself, is the real meaning of compassion and love. There have been so many speeches about love and peace and tranquility in the world. But how do we really bring love into being? Christ said, ‘Love thy neighbor,’ but how do we love? How do we do it? How are we going to radiate our love to the whole of humanity, to the whole world? ‘Because we must, and that’s the truth!’ ‘If you don’t love, you are condemned, evil; you are doing a disservice to humanity.’ ‘If you love, you are on the path, you are on the right track.’ But how?

Many people get very romantic about love, in fact get high on it, at the very word. But then there will be a gap, a period when we are not high on love. Something else takes place which is embarrassing, a private matter. We tend to seal it off; it is ‘private parts,’ shameful, not part of our divinity. Let’s not think about that. Let’s simply ignite another love explosion and on and on we go, trying to ignore those parts of our being we reject, trying to be virtuous, loving, kind.

Perhaps this will put off a lot of people, but I am afraid love is not really the experience of beauty and romantic joy alone. Love is associated with ugliness and pain and aggression, as well as with the beauty of the world; it is not the recreation of heaven. Love or compassion, the open path, is associated with ‘what is.’ In order to develop love – universal love, cosmic love, whatever you would like to call it – one must accept the whole situation of life as it is, both the light and the dark, the good and the bad. One must open oneself to life, communicate with it.

Perhaps you are fighting to develop love and peace, struggling to achieve them: ‘We are going to make it, we are going to spend thousands of dollars in order to broadcast the doctrine of love everywhere, we are going to proclaim love.’ Okay, proclaim it, do it, spend your money, but what about the speed and aggression behind what you are doing? Why do you have to push us into the acceptance of your love? Why is there such speed and force involved? If your love is moving with the same speed and drive as other people’s hatred, then something appears to be wrong. It would seem to be the same as calling darkness light. There is so much ambition involved, taking the form of proselytizing. It is not an open situation of communication with things as they are.

The ultimate implication of the words ‘peace on earth’ is to remove altogether the ideas of peace and war and to open yourself equally and completely to the positive and negative aspects of the world. It is like seeing the world from an aerial point of view: there is light, there is dark; both are accepted. You are not trying to defend the light against the dark.”

12/03/2025

I was going to watch this, but became concerned about my existence, don't know why, so I carelessly scrolled by. But now that I'm getting around to this, I can see why the hesitation. It all seems so contrived and flimsy. I need to eat something. Maybe I should sit with this. As if there's anything else to sit with. We'll see. The good news is insulting. Gotta slow down to relate to things moving that fast. Velocity itself is in question. The bad news is the good news. Trungpa Rinpoche's heart lives on in various places.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin and Ngakma Nor’dzin talk on the subject of the Five Skandhas. This talk was part of the ‘Monday Meditations’ session at Aro Ling Cardiff, Octo...

11/13/2025

We've initiated a Friday class, meeting 1-2:45 pm EST. All are welcome. We'll be starting with teachings on meditation practice by Trungpa Rinpoche, then at some point morphing into focusing on the Shambhala teachings. This is new, so how we proceed is still forming. If you're interested, please contact me. If you're interested and new to Trungpa Rinpoche's approach to sitting meditation, please contact me ASAP. (Robert, [email protected])

10/26/2025

The Shambhala Teachings section of our Dharma Study Group Kalamazoo website has been updated. It includes a list of resources for studying the Shambhala teachings, including books and web-links to teachings related to the different levels of study. These resources provide a basis for the study of the Shambhala teachings by Dharma Study Group Kalamazoo.

dropbox link for all the text on this page, following: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8hdip2qrataxraoh1vzqb/Shambhala-Teachings-website-20251026-revised.pdf?rlkey=ml65x8i5aqv3p426ax9wn9ir9&st=j8rx9f4o&dl=0 Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Shambhala teachings Between 1970 when he first moved to North...

10/17/2025

This is a talk by myself from a recent Dharma Study Group Kalamazoo class, a summary of the talk portion of a talk given in 1983 by Trungpa Rinpoche, the opening talk of the psychology symposium at The Naropa Institute. A link to the talk itself on the Chogyam Trungpa Digital Library will be provided in the first comment.

This 18-minute summary, probably almost as long as the talk itself, highlights the ground-path-fruition logic of the talk, which pretty much corresponds to the ground-path-fruition logic of Shambhala Training Level 1. Since the original talk was given to an audience of psychologists, a mostly secular context, It fits well with anyone wanting to study the Shambhala teachings, although the words "Shambhala" or "Shambhala Training" do not come up in the talk by Trungpa Rinpoche.

The talk title on the Naropa digital website, "Genuine Relationship" refers mostly to a section of the questions and answers to this talk, which will be addressed here in subsequent facebook posts. In particular, the notion of what it means to genuinely be of help to another person is a major theme in part of the q & a, so stay tuned if you're interested in such.

In fact, the questions and answers to this talk are golden, addressing a range of themes, and there will be several posts here reviewing some of these.

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09/16/2025

This is a further excerpt from the questions and answers of talk 8 of the 1971 Abhidharma Seminar, "Auspicious Coincidence". This abhidharma seminar happened soon before the first *Tibetan Book of the Dead* seminar, which we studied previously. The discussion here is related to the meaning of the tathagatas in that subsequent seminar and connects awareness practice to the vision of the tathagatas and to the process of making choices in everyday life. The connection between "acknowledging and letting go" and "making a choice" may not seem obvious at first, following the train of thought of the first questioner, but Trungpa Rinpoche brings these together towards the end of this. This is remarkably true and useful postmeditation instruction for life and death.

Q7 (F): Rinpoche, when you were talking about acknowledging and letting go, was that instruction only related to sitting meditation or does that include practice in everyday life?

CTR: Well, I would say it's both, both situations.

Q7: Sometimes, when conflict arises, I feel that I have a choice in that situation and that I can *decide* things. But now I wonder whether I can actually make a choice or not.

CTR: There is nothing wrong with the idea of making a choice. However, the choice is there already, within the situation. Because two aspects of a situation are happening at the same time, it is possible for you to make a relationship with either of those alternatives. The way to work with this situation of choice is to not proceed based on what seems comfortable to you, but to go ahead according to straightforwardness. In other words, if there are two choices, one will be straight ahead, right in front of you, and the other one will be slightly off-center. Or there may be ten or twelve hundred choices, but one of these will be straight ahead, waiting for you on the road. The rest of them are waiting on the side, as sidetracks. Because this journey of going straight ahead is more scary, more frightening, therefore the other choices seem more attractive, like being attracted to restaurants when you're driving on the road, or like drive-in movies. [laughs.]

Q8 (F) : I think that there is usually an appropriate or an inappropriate response to a particular situation, and I think, as you said earlier, the inappropriate choice is based on some *misunderstanding* within the person about themselves. I think that it's a matter of recognition, to *recognize* this, what actually *is* in the situation.

CTR: Exactly, yes. It has to be straightforward, sort of common sense based on basic sanity, transcendental common sense.

Q8: Since I was a musician, I think of this in terms of pitch, that one almost learns to recognize a wrong resonance in one's hearing or response. [CTR laughs] Something without words.

CTR: There could be a misunderstanding here. Generally, I've been saying that if you go along with the present situation, then the future will be quite clear. That could be misunderstood by thinking that everything is marked out for you ahead of time, like when people talk about divine guidance. The notion is that everything is prepared for you ahead of time, so you could immediately find your place that way, as in the saying "The swan is in the lake and the vulture is in the graveyard." They each have their own place. But that doesn't happen. Relating with the present moment is quite painful much of the time. Although there is a straightforward road, a straight road, it could be quite a painful one, not in accord with what feels good at all.
It is like the bardo experience presented in *The Tibetan Book of the Dead*. You have the glaring bright light coming at you along with the images of a collection of tathagatas peering at you, and off to the side there is a less glaring, less irritating, light. The less glaring light seems more beautiful because it's less glaring, only a reflection of the tathagatas. Or, maybe it's not a collection of tathagatas, but your parents sitting straight ahead of you, or your friends, along with particular things that you want inviting you and being presented to you.
So, there are two choices. Should we go with the irritating one or should we just turn off onto a sidetrack? This is very very profound symbolism that applies to everyday life as well. This doesn't have to be the after-death experience alone. Which choices are the most enlightening or *stimulating*, rather, life situations that we might open to and investigate, look into and make a commitment. Without such a choice, there would be no *leap*. There would be no letting go at all. Because of choice, therefore, there is leap, and letting go happens.
It seems that nothing is going to be particularly comforting or blissful or easy. But on the other hand, it *could* be inspiring. That much could be said.

09/15/2025

Post #6 from the questions and answers section of talk 8, "Auspicious Coincidence", from the 1971 Abhidharma seminar by Trungpa Rinpoche. Some basic public postmeditation instructions related to "disowning":

Q4 (M) Rinpoche, would you please say a little bit more about this situation when one is sitting? Bodily discomforts arise, and then one is taken up by feelings of discomfort and boredom. But then one sees through this commentary, that it's all just a way of clinging to the situation. But then one clings to *this* commentary. and at that point it seems that nothing there is *free*.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche: Um-hm. Well, somehow, the commentary itself, and trying to make something out of it, in itself becomes self-destructive, a source of confusion. An analogy in the scriptures is that such ideas are like silkworms, with their own webs. As one fights to survive, one churns out more and more silk.
The whole point is that, when bodily pain or pleasure begins to develop, it's a simple situation. Just perceive it, and then just leave it. One doesn't have to put that through a process of any kind at all. Situations are unique in themselves. Therefore, just go along with them, let them happen.

Q4: What you mean by "go along with"?

CTR: It's a question of *acceptance*. Even if the acceptance of that situation is a confusing one, the point is to just accept the situation as given and not try to make it into something else, into an educational process, at all. In other words, just see it, perceive it, and then sort of abandon it. You see, if you experience something, and then dis*own* it, disown that particular experience, you provide space between that knowledge and yourself. *That* is the mending process. The process of disowning is like the process of yeast fermenting. By disowning, you then begin to learn and feel properly.

Q4: Does it matter if the disowning process, in the beginning, is only a form of commentary, or is that inevitable?

CTR: Well, you can't start out absolutely and completely perfect. That doesn't matter. Just perceive and experience and disown it. It doesn't matter how and what. That seems to be the problem that we always face, that you want to make sure that everything is right before you start out. But somehow, you can't have that insurance. One really has to take a chance and accept the rugged quality of the situation. It could be a commentary-type situation, with constant analysis involved, but even that analysis is just a process of learning. Just leave it that way. Don't try to make the whole learning processes into a commentary, a solid recorded process to play back later. If you do that, you'll be playing it back in a different situation, so it automatically will be out of date.

Q4: Somehow, in the moment when the commentary is happening, there is so much clinging to that commentary.

CTR: Yeah. It's the clinging. Commentary without value is okay. Just chatter is okay. Let it be that way. We shouldn't interfere with that energy that is going through.

09/13/2025

Post #5 from the questions and answers section of talk 8, "Auspicious Coincidence", from the 1971 Abhidharma seminar by Trungpa Rinpoche:

Q3 (M): Could you speak a little more about the commitment you were talking about? Particularly how to distinguish between that and the ego's commitment to extend itself.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche: Well, some of the ego's commitment to extend itself has no direction. It's not a flowing situation, but just trying to maintain its own house. I mean, there's no journey involved at all, it's a purely maintenance sort of mentality. In the case of the commitment that we've been talking about, this one is a moving one, a journey, such that every situation contains a drama of its own kind.

Q3: In other words, not familiar?

CTR: It needn't be familiar. The person might sit down and meditate, and feel that nothing is happening, feeling extremely agitated. There's a pain in their back and a pain in their neck, and flies are around; extremely agitated. Yet at the same time, the person feels that nothing is happening. [Laughter.] Every moment has individuality in it, once you're already in it, and you go along with the patterns and textures of the environment as you go through them. This is quite different from ego's commitment of trying to maintain itself as a solid thing. In terms of path, this is a moving one, You are faced with constant dramatic situations.

Q3: But there's no direction other than each situation.

CTR: Well, that is a much more solid and definite direction then having a blueprint or map to go along with. This is a real one, a real situation. Pain will be *real* pain and pleasure will be *real* pleasure and confusion will be *real* confusion. Every situation is a true situation, a precise situation, and that is the guidance, that is the pattern that you go along with. If you look back or if you look ahead, whatever it may be, all the situations where we think we are making a journey take place purely by living in the present moment. There's no destiny involved at all. The present situation is destiny, destination, as well as being the path.

Q3: But you spoke of the predestination sort of only extending to the present moment, and that if we can see the present moment we can sort of see the past pattern --

CTR: Um-hm

Q3: --like that seems to be what he was asking about before, with the patterns of someone's life.

CTR: That's right, yes.

Q3: But you're sort of saying, we can't move that into the future because the future is open.

CTR: The future is not there yet. That's why it's the future. Hm. You see, it's amazing how we can deceive ourselves, stretch ourselves over all sorts of territories, purely imaginary situations, as though the whole future is planned out ahead of time and the whole thing is being stretched right back or right forward. Everything is overcrowded, and we manage to raise ourselves into so much paranoia and panic. But if you really see the present situations as they are, it's quite simple.