As we begin to settle in for winter holidays, the Digital Library is delighted to announce the release of two seminars on mindfulness. In these talks, Chögyam Trungpa explores how to understand and work with the mind, presenting a framework for meditation known as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
The Four Foundations are a traditional set of teachings, and can be traced back thousands of years to the Buddha himself. Trungpa Rinpoche developed his own experiential approach to the framework that is artfully presented throughout these talks. Given back to back in the summer of 1974, these seminars are potent and accessible — a great exploration for anyone interested in mindfulness meditation.
The first seminar, The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, was given at Rocky Mountain Dharma Center in Colorado (now Drala Mountain Center). Over the course of six talks, Trungpa Rinpoche gave his unique presentation of the four foundations, also teaching on the nature of mind and vipashyana (insight) meditation.
Shortly after this seminar ended, Chögyam Trungpa flew across the country and immediately began the second seminar, Techniques of Mindfulness, at his Vermont retreat center, Karmê Chöling. He again gave teachings on the nature of mind and the four foundations, as well as maintaining mindfulness off the cushion and how to approach teaching others.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness seminar (originally titled “Training the Mind”) appears in Chögyam Trungpa’s wonderfully accessible book Mindfulness in Action (Shambhala Publications, 2015). Most of the material from the Techniques of Mindfulness seminar is included in The Path of Individual Liberation (Volume One of The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, Shambhala Publications, 2014), but the last two talks have never been published!
Follow the link to read more and access this playlist of talks:
Learn more and access the recordings
“The practice of meditation is not a borrowed idea from some eccentric yogi who had a fixation to meditate all the time. The practice of meditation is the total experience of any living being who has the instinct to live, survive. We are including the whole big world into this world. So practicing and developing mindfulness is not regarded as an activity of the minority; it’s a worldwide approach to tuning into life. It’s not tuning into life in order to live longer particularly, but you’re seeing the sense of survival that is taking place at this very moment. You are here, you are living, and let it be that way. That is mindfulness. It is a sense of strength, the sense of pulsation of your heart, and your breath. Everything is happening at this very moment at once. Let mindfulness work with it. Let every beat of your heart be mindfulness itself.”
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, from Techniques of Mindfulness, Talk 3: “Mindfulness of Life”
If you are inspired by these teachings and the work we do at the Chögyam Trungpa Digital Library, please consider offering your support! Every donation brings us closer to our mission of preserving and releasing every single one of Trungpa Rinpoche’s recorded talks.