This year marks the 65th anniversary of Trungpa Rinpoche’s heroic escape from Tibet in 1959. At just nineteen years old, he led a party on a long, treacherous journey in unbelievably harsh conditions under threat from the Chinese military, to freedom in India.
This Parinirvana, in honor of Trungpa Rinpoche’s awe-inspiring journey, the Library is releasing the seminar, “The True Meaning of Devotion” given at Karme Choling in 1973. In this seminar, Chögyam Trungpa offers a nuanced explanation of devotion as an expansive commitment to a teacher as well as to oneself.
Accompanying the release is a clip from a 1979 talk where Chögyam Trungpa recalls one of many near-death experiences during his escape:
“When I’ve just crossed the river, Brahmaputra, in Tibetan-Indian border, and we had to lie down on the ground, because the bullets bouncing all over the place by the Communist mortar and shells. You can hear these ‘ping’, ‘pong’ sound of bullets ricocheting all over the place. And my first thought is, ‘I will never give up, and I will go and teach.'”
Listen to “The True Meaning of Devotion” seminar and clip here: