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Great Eastern Sun: The Shambhala Training Level V Talks

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Photo by Mary Lang
Chogyam Trungpa presenting Level V in Boston, Massachusetts in 1980

Great Eastern Sun: Shambhala Training Level V

Click here to jump to talk playlist and an audio clip

The purpose of Shambhala Training altogether is to help others, to save others, to cure others’ pain. That is the key point. We have so many confused people in the entire world, ladies and gentlemen. It is your duty, our duty, to help them. It depends on what particular profession you are engaged in. You might be involved with child care, fine arts, movie-making, raising plants in a nursery and gardening, or all kinds of other professions. The point here is to help others through your means, through your particular profession, whatever you might have. That is number one. 


Chögyam Trungpa, Shambhala Training Level V, “Talk 2: Helping Others”
The Shambhala Path of Warriorship

The Shambhala teachings given by Chögyam Trungpa in North America are turning fifty this year, 2026. Trungpa Rinpoche began presenting material on the Shambhala path of warriorship in 1976 at the Vajradhatu Seminary he conducted that year, as well as in other gatherings. (He had been intimately involved with the Shambhala tradition in Tibet, but he had said little about this during his time in the West, up until this point.) In the Autumn of 1976, he “received,” or connected in his mind with prophetic teachings that are the underpinnings of the Shambhala path. These included the emergence of a symbol of absolute warriorship, the Stroke of Ashe, as well as a text on the significance of that symbol, how to practice the warrior teachings connected with this, and how the wisdom of Shambhala can be embodied in a good human society.

The Birth of Shambhala Training
The Stroke of Ashe

Trungpa Rinpoche went into a long meditation retreat, beginning in early 1977. Before his departure, he worked with senior students to develop and launch a program to present the Shambhala teachings and the practice of meditation to a broad audience. The program was to have five levels, which introduced students through weekend programs to the intensive practice of meditation and presenting teachings on Shambhala themes. These themes included basic goodness, the Great Eastern Sun as a guiding vision for the warrior, the importance of cultivating gentleness and a tender heart, the problems of depression and anxiety in modern life and the tendency for human beings to build a cocoon or a refuge from these challenges, and finally—at Level V—the celebration of the continuing journey of warriorship and feeling ready and able to help others, as well as oneself, to build a good human life.

Chögyam Trungpa spent 1978, following his return from retreat, working intensely with his students to provide more grounding and depth in the Shambhala path of warriorship. He gave a number of public talks on the Shambhala teachings and also presented a seminar on the Warrior of Shambhala at Naropa University. Shambhala Training programs were offered by Trungpa Rinpoche’s students throughout urban centers in North America, and more than 1,000 participants came to these weekend programs. Additionally, Rinpoche worked to establish an administrative and teaching network for the presentation of Shambhala Training. He also asked his Vajra Regent, Ösel Tendzin, to present Level Four of Shambhala Training, and he asked the Regent’s wife, Lila Rich, to become the director of the Shambhala Training program. Clearly, he viewed the program as significant and brought in a lot of the “Big Guns” to help present the material. It also undoubtedly deepened the understanding and abilities of those he empowered as teachers and administrators of the program. By 1979, he had transformed Shambhala Training into a powerful but simple presentation of meditation that also presented a view of how to apply mindfulness and insight to everyday life. Towards the end of that year, he began presenting the final level of Shambhala Training, Level V. He was the sole instructor for Level V from 1979 through 1982, after which a group of senior students were authorized to present these teachings.

Photo of a sign advertising Shambhala Training at Naropa University sometime in the 1970s. (L to R) Judy Lief, Paul Hannon, and Bill McKeever. Image preserved and digitized by the Shambhala Archives (photographer unknown).
Open Sky/Primordial Stroke

Trungpa Rinpoche established the template for the Level V programs, offering a simple three-fold logic. He gave three talks as part of each weekend, and the logic for those talks was always Trust (Talk One), Renunciation (Talk Two) and Letting Go (Final Talk). That structure and those themes recur in every Level V, but he presented the material in diverse ways. As the Digital Library team has noted elsewhere, he never gave the same talk twice! The variation within the programs keeps the material fresh and always intriguing. Rinpoche gave the title “Open Sky/ Primordial Stroke” to Level V, and there is a mysterious primordial dot that pops up in many of the Level V talks he gave. This dot is a close relative of nowness and “first thought, best thought”—the fresh first thought that brings wakefulness to every moment.

Altogether, in his Level V teachings, Trungpa Rinpoche displays the brilliance of his intellect, as well as the depth of his understanding of human life and its complexities. He offers profoundly helpful advice. Yet, he also pours his heart out—giving us as much of poetry and unrequited love as logic and structured teachings. He is at times outrageously open, he is often playful and outright belly-laugh funny, and he touches on views of hierarchy and human society that challenge our assumptions.  

The Digital Library is releasing 18 talks that make up the core of the Level V presentations. (Four talks given in Vancouver, BC, are not available at this time.) Several public talks that he gave in connection with the Level V programs are also included. Notably, there are videos for the 1982 Level V given in Boulder, Colorado. These are the only Level V videos (the rest of the material is audio), and have never been released before. The quality of the black and white images and the sound needed a lot of remastering and careful attention. The result makes these talks watchable, but not as pristine as some other video in the Library.

A Vision of Enlightened Society

For this release, we spoke with Carolyn Gimian, one of Chögyam Trungpa’s senior editors and the editor of Great Eastern Sun: the Wisdom of Shambhala, which presents the Level V teachings. When asked about this body of material, she said, “At a time when many in America and throughout the world are calling for No Kings, it’s somewhat outrageous to encounter Chögyam Trungpa in these Level V talks, sharing images of royalty and a positive view of natural hierarchy. What people may miss is that he was lobbying for All Kings—that all human beings should be fully empowered and should celebrate their ability to help this world. He was suggesting that we are All Kings and All Queens, and he points to wisdom holders or teachers as those who might help us to awaken and realize this inherent power and dignity and ultimately create enlightened society. 

“Do we dare to consider the possibility of enlightened society? At this dark time, it’s difficult to fathom and may seem absurd. Yet for myself, I find that I can’t give up on the world nor do I want to. I hope that others will also find these Level V teachings relevant and compelling.” 

Shambhala Training is still being offered today in many locations throughout the world. It remains a potent way to jump into meditation practice, joining meditation with the challenges of modern life, and is especially provocative yet supportive during a very difficult time in the world.

Click here to watch the full talk: “Building Enlightened Society”

Shambhala Training Level V Playlist

Below is a playlist of the talks Trungpa Rinpoche gave at six different Shambhala Training Level V weekend programs. The location and date of the program is listed at the top. Although he covers the same major themes, each series is a unique presentation of the teachings.

Boulder, Colorado, November 1979

Boston, Massachusetts, March 1980

Boulder, Colorado, October 1980

Boulder, Colorado, January 1982 (Video)

New York City, New York, January 1982

Berkeley, California, april 1982

Shambhala Training Public Talks (1978-1985)