The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa Collected Works: Volume Two (4 page)

None of Chögyam Trungpa’s lectures on Maitri Space Awareness have yet been published. However, Volume Two of
The Collected Works
includes “Space Therapy and the Maitri Community,” an article written in 1974 but apparently never published. An excellent overview of this approach, as originally conceived, is provided by Marvin Casper in his article “Space Therapy and the Maitri Project,” which was published in the
Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
in 1974. It is reprinted in the appendix to Volume Two. After 1978, although the Maitri therapeutic community faded away, Maitri Space Awareness practice was integrated into the clinical psychology program at Naropa Institute. Since Rinpoche’s death, Maitri Space Awareness has also been developed into a series of workshops for connecting with one’s innate wisdom energies.

Overall, Chögyam Trungpa found that there was a great deal of interest in bringing together insights from Buddhism with the Western psychological disciplines. When Naropa Institute opened in 1974, contemplative psychology was one of the areas of study from the beginning. As Mrs. Lief reports:

. . . a master’s degree in Buddhist and Western psychology was developed as a method of training clinical psychologists, with the hope that in the future, such training would be put to use in a variety of models, such as the therapeutic community. Dr. Ed Podvoll was a pivotal figure in the development of this program. This program, which later was known as the Department of Contemplative Psychotherapy, combined Maitri Space Awareness Training, meditation practice, the study of Buddhist and Western psychology, and internships in therapeutic settings. The department published several issues of the
Journal of Contemplative Psychology
.
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. . . Today, Naropa has a set of Maitri rooms, and Maitri Space Awareness practice is offered not only in the psychology programs there but in the arts and in education as well.

Many eminent psychologists taught at Naropa at one time or another, including Gregory Bateson, R. D. Laing, and Maxwell Jones, who taught at Naropa Canada—an offshoot in the 1980s.

Chögyam Trungpa’s involvement with and influence on psychology and psychotherapy go considerably beyond what is discussed here. From 1977 to 1990, Edward Podvoll, M.D. (Lama Mingyur), was the director of the Contemplative Psychology Program at Naropa (for more information, see his excellent book on Buddhism and psychotherapy, originally published as
The Seduction of Madness
, soon to be reissued in an expanded edition under the title
Recovering Sanity
). Trungpa Rinpoche and Ed Podvoll had a rich and multifaceted relationship and collaboration, and Dr. Podvoll contributed to the editing of a number of the articles on psychology authored by Chögyam Trungpa and included in Volume Two. Chögyam Trungpa’s writings on psychology will be published in a forthcoming book,
Mind, Meditation, and Psychology
, with additional information on the psychology program at Naropa and Chögyam Trungpa’s involvement with Western psychology.

Dr. Podvoll and a number of his Naropa students initiated Windhorse, an intensive one-on-one residential program for psychotic individuals. In addition to the Windhorse program in Boulder, there are now groups in Northampton, Massachusetts; Vienna; and Zurich. In an e-mail about various developments in Buddhist psychology, Dr. Podvoll told me the history of the article “The Meeting of Buddhist and Western Psychology,” which appears in Volume Two: “The article developed by our asking [Trungpa Rinpoche] questions, and his responses were then transcribed and edited down to an article for the
Naropa Psychology Journal
. While I was leaving his office after this interview, he said to me, ‘I think we have a revolution on our hands—you should think of it like that.’”

Dr. Podvoll also reported: “About a year after the passing of Trungpa Rinpoche, Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche [the third] hosted a conference at Columbia University on Buddhism and Psychotherapy. He told all of us presenters that ‘This would be a much different conference if Trungpa Rinpoche were with us, but we must keep on going with what he began.’”

Indeed, it appears that many practitioners of psychotherapy are continuing to join together the insights and practice of Buddhist meditation with their training in Western psychology. As Dr. Podvoll reports, “This ‘movement’ of psychotherapists of all kinds who are now willing to be educated in Buddhist mind-training is something of a cultural explosion. I know of about five groups in Germany alone, all working with different dharma teachers, as well as a couple in Austria, also in the Netherlands, and now it is happening in two groups in France, and so on.”

Yet Chögyam Trungpa also had misgivings about Buddhism and the sitting practice of meditation being coopted or re-visioned as therapy. In “Is Meditation Therapy?” based on a 1974 talk, he makes it clear that there are important distinctions between the two disciplines: “Meditation is not therapy. It goes beyond therapy, because therapy involves conforming to some particular area of relative reference. The practice of meditation is the experience of totality.”

However, Rinpoche did not dismiss the idea of a therapeutic approach that would bring together Buddhist and Western understandings. In “Becoming a Full Human Being,” he argues for a definition of health based on buddha nature and suggests a therapeutic model in which spontaneity and humanness are extended to others, based on the natural human capacity for warmth and caring. In “The Meeting of Buddhist and Western Psychology,” he goes further. He talks about incorporating the Buddhist tradition of abhidharma into Western psychology, by exploring in detail how the mind evolves and functions. He argues once again for a definition of health based on innate goodness and concludes that what is missing in Western psychology, from the viewpoint of the Buddhist psychological tradition, is “the primacy of immediate experience,” which, he says, could revolutionize Western psychology.

The importance in a therapeutic context of an uplifted physical environment, as well as a psychological environment of openness and warmth, is the subject of “Creating an Environment of Sanity,” originally published in the
Naropa Journal of Psychology
. Trungpa Rinpoche talks at greater length about these themes in “Intrinsic Health: A Conversation with Health Professionals,” which was published by the
Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
. “From a Workshop on Psychotherapy” presents a dialogue with health professionals and therapists at the first session of Naropa, originally published in
Loka 2
in 1975.

“Space Therapy and the Maitri Community” (mentioned previously in the discussion of the history of Maitri and Space Awareness) is the next offering in Volume Two. Trungpa Rinpoche discusses the development of ego and neurosis in terms of the five skandhas and the five buddha families, and he then gives some background on the development of the Maitri community, paying homage to Suzuki Roshi and thanking him for instigating this idea. This article was written very early on in the Maitri experience—before the Maitri staff had concluded that working with highly neurotic and psychotic individuals was beyond their abilities. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating account by the founder of Maitri Space Awareness. This is the first time this article has ever been published.

The final article in the “psychological” grouping, “Relating with Death,” is based on a talk from a seminar on the
Tibetan Book of the Dead
given in 1971. Working with death and dying is a topic of great importance to the community of health workers. However, the audience for this article goes far beyond those with a professional interest. Rinpoche gave this talk when one of his students was gravely ill. He was in Vermont and was about to fly to Colorado to be with her. She died soon after their meeting. The poignancy of that situation is perhaps part of what made this such a compelling talk. “Relating with Death” is a very immediate discussion of being with a dying person and how to be helpful to him or her.
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The next group of articles is based on Trungpa Rinpoche’s participation in the Christian-Buddhist Meditation conferences held at Naropa in the 1980s. Four excerpts are from
Speaking of Silence: Christians and Buddhists on the Contemplative Way
, edited by Susan Szpakowski. The fifth was a dialogue titled “Comparing the Heart” with the Right Reverend Thomas Keating, a Trappist abbot now living in Snowmass, Colorado. It appeared originally in the
Naropa Magazine
, also edited by Mrs. Szpakowski. These articles show us how a contemplative approach to meditation and mind is shared by practitioners in both the Buddhist and Christian traditions and how the similarities and differences between the traditions can stimulate authentic communication.

Trungpa Rinpoche greatly admired the Christian contemplative tradition. He immersed himself in the study of Christianity at Oxford University in the 1960s, and he never lost his respect for the depth and majesty of that spiritual tradition. While at Oxford, he wanted to take Holy Communion in the Church of England, in order to experience the inner spirituality of Christianity. However, since he wasn’t a candidate for conversion, it was not possible. He was genuinely disappointed.

When Rinpoche traveled to Asia in 1968, he met Father Thomas Merton, shortly before Merton’s untimely death. The meeting had a great effect on Rinpoche. In the dedication to
Speaking of Silence
, both Chögyam Trungpa’s comments on his encounter with Merton and Merton’s own reflections on their meeting in the
Asian Journal
are quoted. In a sense, their meeting may have been the spark that years later led Chögyam Trungpa to inaugurate the Christian-Buddhist dialogues at Naropa. Rinpoche commented:

Father Merton’s visit to Southeast Asia took place when I was in Calcutta. . . . I had the feeling that I was meeting an old friend, a genuine friend. In fact, we planned to work on a book containing selections from the sacred writings of Christianity and Buddhism. We planned to meet either in Great Britain or in North America. He was the first genuine person I met from the West. After meeting Thomas Merton, I visited several monasteries in Great Britain, and at some of them I was asked to give talks on meditation, which I did. . . . I was very impressed and moved by the contemplative aspect of Christianity, and by the monasteries themselves. Their lifestyle and the way they conducted themselves convinced me that the only way to join the Christian tradition and the Buddhist tradition together is by means of bringing together Christian contemplative practice with Buddhist meditative practice.
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Merton’s own commentary shows an equally great appreciation on his side:

Chögyam Trungpa is a completely marvellous person. Young, natural, without front or artifice, deep, awake, wise. I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of each other. . . . I’ve had the idea of editing a collection of pieces by various Buddhists on meditation etc., with an introduction of my own. . . . I must talk to Chögyam Trungpa about this today.
¹⁵

In 1977, I was privy to a discussion between Rinpoche and a Catholic priest that took place, oddly enough, at a Japanese teppan restaurant, where you sit around a central grill while the chef stir-fries your meal and then presents it to you. Since one of these grilling “islands” holds eight to ten people, you often sit with other diners who are not in your party. This particular evening, Rinpoche was with three or four companions. After we sat down, we were joined by two other diners, a Catholic priest and a relative of his. Rinpoche was seated right next to the priest. When he noticed that the gentleman next to him was a Catholic cleric, he couldn’t resist telling him stories about meeting Thomas Merton in India and about studying with Jesuits at Oxford. He wanted to know how the priest felt about Latin being dropped from the Catholic Mass (Rinpoche didn’t approve), and the two of them ended up talking about the meaning of the Holy Ghost, which Rinpoche thought represented the true mystical aspect of Catholicism, which he feared was being lost. The enthusiasm that he showed that evening is similar to the quality that comes across in “Comparing the Heart,” the discussion with Father Keating. Rinpoche must have been delighted to host an interfaith dialogue at Naropa about contemplative practice. It shows in these five articles. The editing captures the atmosphere of the talks, notably in “Natural Dharma,” where thunderclaps and lightning help to make Rinpoche’s points for him.

The next piece, “Farming,” was originally published by Shambhala Publications in
Maitreya Three: Gardening
. Each of the six volumes in the
Maitreya
series, which were published over a number of years, took a theme and brought together articles related to the topic. Chögyam Trungpa’s exposition of spiritual farming is quite a departure, but a delightful one, from his usual discussion of meditation and the Buddhist path. It turns out that spiritual farming is all about the
Heart Sutra
.
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“Work: Seeing Ordinary Things with Extraordinary Insight” talks about common attitudes encountered in working in the world and also addresses down-to-earth and juicy subjects such as relating to money. Another topical piece, “Sex,” is included here, reprinted from the
Shambhala Sun
. This article is based on a lecture given in 1970 as part of a seminar titled “Work, Sex, and Money,” from which both of these articles were drawn. In introducing the topic of sex, Trungpa Rinpoche says, “It’s not so much a question of sex. It’s more a question of love.” This article about love, passion, and communication is provocative, heartfelt, and also very practical.