Dragon Thunder: My Life with Chögyam Trungpa

434 Pages·2006·26.15 MB·English

by  Diana J. Mukpo

DRAGON
THUNDER
My Life with Cho'gyam Trungpa
J.
Diana Mukpo
with Carolyn Rose Gimian
Shambhala
Boston & London
2006
SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Horticultural Hall
300 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02II5
www.sharnbhala. com
© 2006 by Diana J. Mukpo and Carolyn R. Gimian
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
First Edition
Printed in the United States ofA merica
@This edition is printed on acid-free paper that meets
the American National Standards Institute 239.48 Standard.
Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc.,
and in Canada by Random House of Canada Ltd
Designed by Jeff Baker
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mukpo, Diana J.
Dragon thunder: my life with Chogyarn Trungpa/Diana]. Mukpo; with
Carolyn Rose Gimian.-1st ed.
p. em.
1SBN-13: 978-1-59030-256-9 (aJk. paper)
1SBN-10: 1-59030-256-7
r. Trungpa, Chogyarn, 1939-1987. 2. Lamas-Biography. 3. Mukpo, Diana J.
I. Gimian, Carolyn Rose. II. Title.
BQ990.R867M86 2006
294.3'923092-dc22
(B)
2006013421
To myfomily
Bringing together sun and moon,
Dragon thunder proclaims
Let us rejoice in the name of the Great Eastern Sun.
-CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, FROM THE UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT
"THE MEMOIRS OF SIR NYIMA SANGPO, W.O.D.S."
CONTENTS
About ChOgyam Trungpa and Diana Mukpo ix
Dragon Thunder r
Publisher's Afterword 407
Coauthor's Afterword and Acknowledgments 4II
Notes 415

ABOUT CHOGYAM TRUNGPA
AND DIANA MUKPO
C
hogyam Trungpa (1939-1987) is widely considered one of the
most important and influential Buddhist teachers of our time.
Born in Tibet, he was forced to flee to India in 1959, during the
Chinese invasion of his country. In 1963, he traveled to England to study
at Oxford University. While in England, he published Meditation inAction
(1969), a classic of twentieth-century spiritual literature that has intro
duced hundreds of thousands ofWesterners to Buddhism. Chogyam
Trungpa moved to the United States in 1970 and went on to publish
more than a dozen books on Buddhism and the spiritual path, including
two widely popular and highly influential works, Cutting Through Spiri
tual Materialism (1973) and Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior (1984).
In 1970, while still in Britain, Chogyam Trungpa married a young
English woman named Diana Pybus. In Dragon Thunder Diana shares the
intriguing and poignant story of their life together. Over the course of
their seventeen-year marriage, Chogyam Trungpa established medita
tion centers around the United States, Canada, and Europe. He also
founded Naropa, the first Buddhist-inspired university in North Amer
ica. In addition, he attracted students from around the world and became
ix
ABOUT CHOGYAM TRUNGPA AND DIANA MUKPO
friend and mentor to some of the leading artists of the day, including the
poet Allen Ginsberg. A bride at age sixteen, Diana's narrative is an un
usual coming-of-age story, as well as a rare glimpse into the personal life
of one of the most enigmatic Buddhist teachers to come to the West.
X