New Release! The Lion’s Roar
Two Seminars on the Nine Yana Path
As we approach the winter solstice and Children’s Day, the Digital Library is pleased to announce the release of two illuminating seminars on the nine-yana path. “Yana” is Sanskrit for “vehicle,” in the sense that each yana is a mode of transport on the Buddhist path with specific teachings and meditation practices. In these two seminars, both given in 1973, Chögyam Trungpa presented this path (two foundational yanas, one mahayana, and six tantric yanas) from a uniquely experiential perspective. In his words, “The journey of the three-yana principle, which is divided into nine yanas, is a process of rediscovering oneself clearer, clearer, and clearer.”
The first of these seminars was taught in San Francisco and marked the first time Chögyam Trungpa presented the complete vajrayana (aka tantric) path to his American students. He gave a second seminar on the nine yanas later that same year in Boulder, Colorado, soon after the first Vajradhatu Seminary retreat (a three-month meditation and study program to prepare students for the advanced vajrayana path). These two historic seminars (in San Francisco and Boulder) represent a defining time, not only in Chögyam Trungpa’s life’s work and his students’ spiritual trajectory, but also for Buddhism in the West, altogether.
The second seminar–given at the original location of Karma Dzong, the Boulder meditation center, at 1111 Pearl St.–was captured on video. However, because the video quality was so poor, the tapes had been unwatchable in the decades since. But now, fifty-two years later, they have been remastered and almost all the talks are available to watch for the very first time!
Learn more and access the recordings
Both seminars, The Nine Yanas I and II, were the basis for Chögyam Trungpa’s book The Lion’s Roar: An Introduction to Tantra. In his foreword, editor Sherab Kohn attests to the power of these teachings: “… the complete teachings of buddhadharma are presented fresh and raw, with their odor intact, as personal experience. They are the mighty roaring of a great lion of dharma.”
Read the full article, watch a clip, and hear the recordings!
“At the beginning [of the nine-yana path], there is a vague idea that something is not quite right, something is wrong with oneself. Things are highly questionable. One begins to look into the question and relate with the pain, chaos, and confusion at the hinayana level. Then, at a certain stage, such questions—and even certain answers that you might get out of that search—creates further hunger, further curiosity. The teachings begin to seep into our heart more and more, and the bodhisattva path of intense dedication to the path takes place. In this case, intense dedication to the path also means compassion, a loving attitude to oneself as well as to others. … And as we go on, not only that, but you rediscover an entirely brand new world of tantra. An enormous surprise takes place. Then you also begin to realize the magical aspect of the universe, which includes yourself as well as everything. That you rediscover the redness, blueness, or whiteness, of the colors. You rediscover the meaning of passion and aggression, and its vividness, its liveliness, and also its transcendental quality at the same time. So rediscovering a new world is the vajrayana path.”
Chögyam Trungpa, from The Nine Yanas II seminar, Talk 6: “Alpha Pure”
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