Lesson 1
Finding The New Lama
In this episode, we will hear how the incarnation of the 10th Trungpa Lama was found and recognised to be enthroned. The little baby boy was found in the cold Kham mountains high up on a 16,000-foot plateau in Tibet. He clearly recognized that the people and objects that were closely related to his previous incarnation, and expressed his deep familiarity with the Buddhist teachings through his natural behaviour.
The boy who became a major figure in Tibetan Buddhism left beautiful teachings of the shamata meditation. In this episode, we will learn about inner and outer posture in meditation.
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Lesson 2
The Lion's Throne
Today's episode is about how the little boy was further tested and enthroned. Soon after the monks found the little boy on a 16,000-foot plateau in the cold Kham Mountains, the incarnation of Trungpa Tulpur, he and his mother were taken from their home in the highlands and led to the monastery.
There, he was put through a series of tests, to be sure he was the incarnation of the deceased 10th Lama.
Besides the historical background of the high lama's teachings, I will give you information from his lectures. Today, we will learn why appreciation is the foundation of meditation practice.
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Lesson 3
Dark Ages
In today's episode, you will hear how Tzögjam was brought up and educated in the Surmang Monastery until he left it when he was 16 years old. We will also learn how to deal with our thoughts in mediation.
Tzögjam says: "Don’t try to escape your thoughts, but also don’t stick to them, don’t nourish them.
Thoughts are like little waves on a pond. They come and go. One follows the other and you say to yourself that there’s not much to them."
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Lesson 4
The High Lama
When Tzögjam Trungpa Rinposhe left the high valley of his home monastery behind him in a violent storm, he felt that he would not see his mother and loved ones again. The storm protected him from being discovered by the communist occupiers who were determined to destroy all monastic, spiritual, and religious life in Tibet. From that day on, he went into hiding in the last remaining monasteries, farmhouses, nomadic camps, and caves.
Today, we will learn how to bring a reliable regularity to your daily practice.
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Lesson 5
Valley Of Mystery
Tzögjam Trungpa Rinpoche had turned 19 and was on the run. In the early days of 1959, it began to snow heavily while Rinpoche and three fellows took shelter in a cave high above the Valley of Mystery, as it is actually called. His epic flight from his homeland Tibet began.0
Meditation, says Tzögjam, is both training and taming. We don't immediately come to peace or sort out our problems in one swift strike. It is more like taming a wild horse or plowing up hard, rocky ground. We will learn more about this training and taming in this episode.
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Lesson 6
A Dear Friend: Yonten
Rinpoche and his small group had set up camp high up in a mountain cave near a village, but the hideout was no longer a secret as more and more monks and laypeople came to ask for blessings and personal advice. The weather was now improving and the valley below where they were hiding began to blossom. We will hear about the next stage of his journey.
The Shamatha Meditation that he teaches can best be described as a mindfulness exercise, which is also a method of sharpening the mind. Often the sheer pace and demands of our lives have a numbing effect. We will learn how we can sharpen our minds with meditation.
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Lesson 7
The Five Mothers
Further along the way, Rinpoche came to a lake surrounded by mountains known as the Five Mothers, considered sacred in the ancient Bon tradition of Tibet. There, Rinpoche was faced with the moment he had known was coming, and which he had possibly feared in silence: he would take off the robes of a lama to conceal his identity.
From early childhood, Rinpoche had worn only one garment, his robes. In their delightful mix of saffron, maroon, and gold brocade, the robes had a powerful but simple splendor, the colors full of meaning and symbolism that reached back 2,500 years to the time of the Buddha.
In meditation, Rinposhe recommends paying attention to the out-breath. The out-breath, he says, is like a whetstone used to sharpen the mind's knife. We will learn and practice this in today’s episode.
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Lesson 8
Kino Monastery
Trungpa Rinpoche had planned to escape with just four companions. With this small group, even leaving as late as they did in April 1959, he could have made a relatively swift and straightforward escape. But even before they started, the party had doubled in size and then kept on growing as ever more people asked to join.
He never turned anyone down, yet each new person and animal added to the difficulties and complications: slowing them down, forcing them into detours and onto routes they would not have chosen, sapping away their chances of survival and freedom.
In today’s episode, we will learn about the simplicity of meditation. The breath expresses that you are alive. You are alive, so you breathe. And the technique is derived directly from this: You pay attention to the breath. You do not use mindfulness of the breath to distract yourself, but use it to make things simple.
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Lesson 9
Sharkong La
We will continue to follow Rinpoche’s flight through the rough wilderness of the Himalayan mountains and hear about his teachings on gentleness. Meditation gives us insight into the depth of our hearts. We discover that we are actually gentle, kind, and soft.
We really need this gentleness throughout our lives. When it is given, we can be good to ourselves and open in our dealings with others.
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Lesson 10
Langsto Kha
Modern brain research is making it increasingly clear that the purpose and therapeutic value of meditation can also be scientifically proven. Maybe the discovery of meditation by science will have the effect of overcoming overly sugarcoated notions of meditation. Tzögjam Trungpa would certainly have welcomed this.
In his account, meditation is a rather sober thing, a down-to-earth and realistic approach based on a very clear observation of things as they actually are and without any sentimentality. That is why his explanations of the practice are so clear and easy to understand. But he also liked to talk about magic and the spell to reference the incredible power and beauty of reality. And he found that there is no better guiding principle for us than the connection of mind and intuition.
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Lesson 11
Exhausted In Nupkong La
Tzögjam Trungpa led the long procession of refugees from the 18,000-foot plateau over a series of low mountains towards the Nupkong La. After a strenuous climb over the pass, they reached the river valley beyond. The group was exhausted, physically and mentally.
Today’s teaching: Mindfulness is about uncovering the kindness and goodness that exists from within. It may take many penetrations, and it may be a painful process until we can clear our skies and see the sun properly, but it can be done.
Our way to repeat it starts with appreciating ourselves: We are kind and gentle with ourselves, we befriend ourselves. The more we then trust ourselves, the better friends we have become with ourselves, the more we can live this gentleness and kindness outwardly.
This is how we overcome the basic obstacles in our lives. Breakthroughs do not come because of battles.
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Lesson 12
The Hard Way
Rinposhe and his large group of travelers are exhausted. Coming down from a terribly steep pass, they all need a break. But that's not the main problem. They are stuck. They have gone off the main road and taken a diversion because there were too many refugees on the main road and no grass for the many yaks, mules, and horses.
Surrounded by huge mountains, they don't know the best way forward and the Chinese are eager to hunt Rinpoche down. Rinposhe decides that he needs to withdraw for a while, go into retreat.
Today’s teaching: Compassion possesses wisdom, a kind of primal intelligence. This intelligence is the discovery of primordial trust in ourselves. We do not have to logically derive this trust. It is already there, and in a way, it has no beginning. It is the wisdom eye that we have by nature.
We will learn how to tap onto that energy.
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Lesson 13
A Steep Descent
The refugee group had come to a standstill and Rinpoche had to make radical decisions. Moving on was only possible if they left all the animals, yaks and mules, behind and went on with only what they could carry.
As the danger grew and the prospects darkened further, hopes and fears were stirred, and yet the most radiant human qualities shone through in Rinpoche's leadership and in the extraordinary courage and resilience of the refugees in the face of daunting challenges, qualities associated with the kindness of heart and compassion.
Rinpoche had been writing and teaching all his life, even when he was on his escape. So let me share some more of his deep knowledge. Compassion, he says, is not logical. It's wide, open, and big-paced. A compassionate person does not necessarily know whether he feels with you or you with him, simply because compassion creates a general atmosphere of generosity. It is full of joy, spontaneous smiles.
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Lesson 14
Heading Towards Brahmaputtra
The refugee group had come down the dizzying ladder to Rigong Kha, magnificently situated on a triangular fold of land some 1,500 feet above the Yigong River, enclosed on the east and west by mountains that rose to meet in the snow-capped peaks many thousands of feet above. To the south, just across the river, was the Tsophu Valley, which spread southwards before disappearing upwards into the glistening heights.
Meditation is often said to be about taming and training the mind, but what do we actually mean by 'mind'? When we try to define mind or consciousness, philosophical, psychological, and spiritual terms and ideas immediately come to mind, but these can be rather obstructive to the practice of meditation. To find out in a direct way what meditation is and what happens when we meditate, we might better ask: "Who is meditating?"
This quickly brings us to the core elements of our conception of mind. For understanding what happens in meditation, the core or basic question is, "Who am I?" This is an amazing approach to answer this question.
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Lesson 15
Lost
Early on the morning of 16 September, the group, now consisting of about 180 people, packed up their food and remaining possessions and set off for the Tsophu Pass. The weather was good, with only light snowfall. And the climb was not nearly as steep as they had feared. The snow, which turned to ice towards the ridge, made walking far less difficult than they had thought.
Meditation is a way in which we learn to be here. Such a specific, concrete and personal practice makes us joyful. You could call this joy selfless because it does not glorify anyone, neither your own person nor others. You simply appreciate with a joyful heart that you have found genuine access to yourself.
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Lesson 16
Wilderness
As they climbed higher and higher, the snow on the mountains reflected the setting sun and looked like it was made of gold. They feared that if they continued they would come to even higher altitudes, so they made camp for the night. The frost was severe, there were no streams and the only water came from melted snow. Added to this, they could only make limited fires, partly for fear of being seen and partly because it was difficult to find wood.
Let’s hear another one of Rinpoches teachings: "For dealing with obstacles on the path of mindfulness, feedback from the outside is not always helpful. Often you are better off with inner feedback on the basis of your struggle with obstacles."
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Lesson 17
Lower Kongpo
Although Rinpoche had frequently asked the members of this large travel group that they must inform him about any particular difficulties, he had been given no warning of an emergency, until some of them came to tell him that they had run out of food. They were actually beginning to boil the leather of their yak skin bags.
Let’s hear some more of Rinpoches teaching: "Our experience after meditation can be blurred by ups and downs. Sometimes, we are full of enthusiasm and it feels like we are making tremendous progress. Sometimes, we think we are falling behind and everything is going wrong. Finally, there are neutral phases when nothing happens and no ups or downs are noticeable. Such signs of progress or regression are simply temporary states that occur in meditation just as they do in everyday life.
But you can't fail in meditation practice, you would have to turn away from your mind, and you can't do that."
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Lesson 18
Crossing Brahmaputtra
As darkness fell, they made their way down to the river. They loaded the people into the boats, and although they only crossed a narrow stretch of river, paddling as hard as they could, it seemed to take an eternity to get the small, heavily laden coracles across. But the boats proved strong and waterproof.
To describe how we develop mindfulness and awareness, we can use the expression "touch and go." Touch means that you are in contact, you touch the experience of your sheer, real existence, and then you let go of the experience again. This approach applies to the perception of the breath in meditation as well as to your perception in everyday situations.
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Lesson 19
Crossing The Himalaya
The diminished group, now 17 people, went on their hardest and most difficult climb across the Himalayan mountain range, fighting fiercely through high snow and storm.
Today, I would like to give a short digression on meditation while walking, which has been handed down by Rinpoche. Up to now, we have dealt exclusively with meditation while sitting. However, we can also practice meditation while walking. When you are sitting, there is not much you can do, but when you get up and walk, you have the opportunity to express your presence and come out of yourself a little.
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Lesson 20
Epilogue
My own fascination for this story, as an alpinist and nature enthusiast, is the love for being outside. My observation in Tibet was that Tibetans of all types seem to have a nomadic streak in them and are never happier than when moving, on pony back or on foot through an unpeopled countryside in close communion with untamed nature.
Rapid travel would be no travel, as far as this quality of experience is concerned. Here again, one sees how a certain kind of life helps to foster the habit of inward recollection as well as that sense of kinship with animals, birds, and trees which is so deeply rooted in the Tibetan soul.
Today, at the end of this course, I would like to take up once again one of Rinpoche's explanations of tenderness, which I have also experienced myself. Meditation gives us insight into the depth of our hearts. We discover that we are actually gentle, kind, and soft. We actually need this tenderness throughout our lives. When it is given, we can be good to ourselves and open in dealing with others.
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