The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Eight (56 page)

When he was working on
Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior,
the author suggested that we give the manuscript to a number of different readers. He particularly wanted the book read by people untutored in Buddhism or in meditation. In that spirit, in addition to “expert” readers, I also found a number of “naive” people to read the manuscript of
Great Eastern Sun
. I found all the readers very helpful and thank them for offering their candid comments. Thanks to David Swick, Mitchell Levy, Polly Wellenbach, Laura Kurtzman, Johanna Smith, Sue Ozon, Charlotte Keen, Lori Hughes, John Rockwell, Jerry Granelli, and David Burkholder.

Special thanks are due to Mrs. Diana J. Mukpo and to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche for their contributions to this book. Also, my thanks to Diana Mukpo for her personal encouragement to me and for her continuing support for the editing and publication of her husband’s work. Heartfelt thanks to my husband, James Gimian, and my daughter, Jenny Gimian, for being generous and supportive, for giving time and space, friendship, and many smiles. To Jim, special thanks for reading and commenting on the early drafts of the book.

Finally, I would like to offer a song to the Dorje Dradül of Mukpo. Not being a songwriter, I’d like to offer up the words from Laura Smith’s heartrending ballad “Duine Air Call,” which is a Gaelic phrase, with many interpretations, that was translated for Laura by D. J. MacDonald of Skir Du, Cape Breton, to suggest a soul lost and wandering:

Duine Air Call Tell me where to now

I’ve heard that whisper I know you’re near

You’ve been coming and going since years ago

You know how to lead and you know how to follow

Duine Air Call Oh the tide is high

There’s a new moon waiting for her time to shine

They’ve had their moments and I’ve had mine

To lead or maybe follow

All of the distances between you and me

Between what is and what will be

All of the changes thinking empty may not fill

It makes me wonder if faith will ever be enough

To believe in things I cannot see

Shadows fall light as feathers on the harbour

Bouncing off the boat white and the battleship grey

Do I see the last light of a sun going down

Or do I see the first light of a brand-new day?

Shadows fall light as feathers on the harbour

Someone Somewhere I swear I hear a song

Sing out loud I am trying to find you Duine Air Call

Tell me you’ve just stepped out

And you won’t be gone for long

Tell me you just stepped out

And you won’t be gone No you won’t be gone

Tell me you won’t be gone for long
⁶

There is no way in this lifetime or any other to repay the debt of gratitude that I owe to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Dorje Dradül of Mukpo. I hope that the presentation of the present volume may be a small service to him and that it may rise above the many shortcomings of its editor to proclaim its wisdom. May it benefit beings. May the Great Eastern Sun be victorious.

D
ORJE
Y
UTRI,
C
AROLYN
R
OSE
G
IMIAN

May 5, 1998

Trident Mountain House

Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia

1
. See “Overcoming Physical Materialism,” “The King of Basic Goodness,” “Attaining the Higher Realms,” “The Big No,” “Helping Others,” and “The Mukpo Clan.”

2
. See “Mirrorlike Wisdom” and “The Mukpo Clan.”

3
. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a tradition of certain teachers uncovering or finding texts that were buried in the subconscious mind—or some might say, in space—by Padmasambhava. These teachings are considered to be “received” rather than composed.

4
. It was later renamed Karmê Chöling, or Dharma Place of Action, by His Holiness the sixteenth Karmapa.

5
. See note 3 of this afterword for an explanation of “received” texts.

6
. Laura Smith, from her album
B’tween the Earth and My Soul,
© 1994 Cornermuse Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by gracious permission of the artist.

Sources

T
HIS LIST OF
sources for prose and poetry includes dates and locations of the talks on which the chapters are based.

To Gesar of Ling

Composed July 4, 1975. Translated from the Tibetan by the author and David Rome.

Reprinted from
First Thought Best Thought: One Hundred and Eight Poems,
by Chögyam Trungpa, p. 87.

Prologue: The Kingdom, the Cocoon, the Great Eastern Sun

SOURCE:
Public talk, Boston, Massachusetts, March 27, 1980.

P
ART
O
NE:
P
ROFOUND

Primordial Stroke

1. A Dot in the Open Sky

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk One, Boulder, Colorado, November 16, 1979.

1111 Pearl Street: Off Beat

Composed June 1976.

Originally published in
First Thought Best Thought: One Hundred and Eight Poems,
by Chögyam Trungpa, p. 108. Reprinted here from
Timely Rain: Selected Poetry of Chögyam Trungpa,
p. 123.

2. Working with Early Morning Depression

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Two, Boulder, Colorado, November 17, 1979.

3. Overcoming Physical Materialism

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Three, Boulder, Colorado, November 18, 1979

The Primordial Dot

4. The Cosmic Sneeze

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk One, Boston, Massachusetts, March 28, 1980.

5. Discipline in the Four Seasons

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Two, Boston, Massachusetts, March 29, 1980.

6. Mirrorlike Wisdom

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Three, Boston, Massachusetts, March 30, 1980.

Good Morning within the Good Morning

Composed March 30, 1980.

Reprinted from
Warrior Songs,
by Chögyam Trungpa (Halifax, Nova Scotia: Trident Publications, 1991). Used by permission.

P
ART
T
WO:
B
RILLIANT

Sacred Existence: Joining Heaven and Earth

7. Sacredness: Natural Law and Order

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk One, Boulder, Colorado, October 30, 1980.

8. The King of Basic Goodness

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Two, Boulder, Colorado, October 31, 1980.

9. How to Cultivate the Great Eastern Sun

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Three, Boulder, Colorado, November 1, 1980.

P
ART
T
HREE:
J
UST

The Passion to Be

10. Blamelessness: How to Love Yourself

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk One, Boulder, Colorado, January 8, 1982.

Four Untitled Poems

From an unpublished Tibetan manuscript, January 8, 1982.

Translated by the Nālandā Translation Committee.

11. Attaining the Higher Realms

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Two, Boulder, Colorado, January 9, 1982.

12. The Big No

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Three, Boulder, Colorado, January 10, 1982.

How to Know No

Composed January 1, 1980.

Originally published in
First Thought Best Thought: One Hundred and Eight Poems,
by Chögyam Trungpa, pp. 167-68.

Fearless Relaxation

13. Aloneness and the Seven Virtues of the Higher Realms

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Two, New York City, January 23, 1982.

The Meek: Powerfully Nonchalant and Dangerously Self-Satisfying

Composed: May 13, 1983.

Originally published in
First Thought Best Thought: One Hundred and Eight Poems,
by Chögyam Trungpa. Reprinted from
Timely Rain: Selected Poetry of Chögyam Trungpa,
pp. 165-66.

14. The King of the Four Seasons

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Three, New York City, January 24, 1982.

Seasoning Life

Unpublished poem, composed May 9, 1983.

P
ART
F
OUR
: P
OWERFUL

The Warrior’s Cry

15. The Basic Gasp of Goodness

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk One, Berkeley, California, April 23, 1982.

16. Helping Others

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Two, Berkeley, California, April 24, 1982.

Sanity Is Joyful

Composed October 27, 1982.

Reprinted from
Warrior Songs,
by Chögyam Trungpa (Halifax, Nova Scotia: Trident Publications, 1991). Used by permission.

17. Transmission

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Three, Berkeley, California, April 25, 1982.

Battle Cry

Composed September 5, 1982.

Reprinted from
Warrior Songs,
by Chögyam Trungpa (Halifax, Nova Scotia: Trident Publications, 1991). Used by permission.

P
ART
F
IVE
: A
LL
-V
ICTORIOUS

The Warrior’s Smile

18. A Question of Heart

SOURCE:
Public talk, Vancouver, British Columbia, July 29, 1982.

19. The Mukpo Clan

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk One, Vancouver, British Columbia, July 30, 1982.

Auspicious Coincidence: Wealth and Vision

Composed February 24, 1980.

Reprinted from
Warrior Songs,
by Chögyam Trungpa (Halifax, Nova Scotia: Trident Publications, 1991). Used by permission.

Excerpt from a longer poem entitled “Haiku”

Composed April 25, 1980.

Reprinted from
Warrior Songs,
by Chögyam Trungpa (Halifax, Nova Scotia: Trident Publications, 1991). Used by permission.

20. Beyond Depression

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Two, Vancouver, British Columbia, July 31, 1982.

21. The Great Eastern Sun: The Dot in Space

SOURCE:
Level Five, Talk Three, Vancouver, British Columbia, August 1, 1982.

Anthem

Composed 1977.

Translated from the Tibetan by the author and others. Used by permission of the Nālandā Translation Committee.

Closing Dedication

E
XCERPT FROM
Lightning of Blessings: Supplication to the Imperial Warriors,
by Chögyam Trungpa.

Composed 1981.

Translated from the Tibetan by the Nālandā Translation Committee.

Author’s Notes

T
HIS SECTION INCLUDES
the author’s notes for the talks on which this book is based, translated from the author’s Tibetan note cards by the Nālandā Translation Committee, with special thanks to John Rockwell. Notes for the other sources could not be located.

P
RIMORDIAL
S
TROKE

1. A Dot in the Open Sky