Dear Friends of the Chögyam Trungpa Institute,
Recently, with less than two weeks until the 2024 Presidential Election in the United States, I woke up in the wee hours of the morning, as we may euphemistically call the dead of night, thinking about the future of the Chögyam Trungpa Institute and the Chögyam Trungpa Digital Library—and thinking too about the future for each of us.
I think that “fretting” would be a better word than “thinking” here. To fret, according to the internet dictionary I consulted, means, firstly, to be worried or anxious. The second meaning given was to gradually wear away something by rubbing or gnawing, as in: “the bay’s black waves fret the seafront.” It seems that the waves of political angst are fretting away at us all!
In terms of the spiritual currents that affect my life these days, I encounter both ebb and flow. During my late-night musings, I was struck by the fragility of many institutions that in the past seemed so robust, so strong and concrete—actually concrete: bricks and mortar. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche established many organizations in the short time that he taught in North America and Europe, and he encouraged his community to acquire, build, renovate and enrich many properties and to use these as wisdom seats to practice and to propagate the dharma. When we speak of him as a founder, we are pointing in part to the actual concrete foundations that he established for dharma in America.
At the same time, he placed tremendous emphasis on the dharma itself, the teachings themselves, and he protected that aspect of his work. In the 1970s, when I first became an editor for his teachings within Vajradhatu, the umbrella organization he set up for his work, there were many times when money was short and employees’ payroll was delayed, sometimes for months. Rinpoche insisted that his editors continue to be paid during these periods. He said that he wanted to keep the presses going, and we literally had our own press in those days. He stressed that the dharma must always be available, regardless of the financial ups and downs. At these times of scarcity, we felt guilty about being paid, but it also instilled a positive sense of burden and responsibility.
Saving Rinpoche’s Voice
In today’s world, while books are still important, a key component of communication is digital. Our world is online, social, cellular, electronic, instantaneous. If you want to have impact, if you want to get across a message, if you want to be an “influencer,” you have to join the digital dance.
The Chögyam Trungpa Digital Library was launched online less than two years ago. Building on decades of work to archive and digitize the recorded teachings given by Chögyam Trungpa, the Digital Library is making those teachings available around the world. Towards the end of his life, Trungpa Rinpoche had asked his editors and his Board of Directors: “Please save my voice. Please save the tapes.” We thought it might take a few years to accomplish that. We began this work in the 1980s. It took decades.
In this world, at this time, “saving” Rinpoche’s voice, as he requested, must also entail sharing his voice with the world. Curation as well as access is key – so that people can know what is being shared and choose what they want to experience and attend to. Otherwise, it could be like a data dump in a court case: The prosecution gives the defense so many boxes and thousands of files that the defense can’t find the information they need to defend their client.
In this case, the client is humanity! This may sound inflated, but in fact, the audience for the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche is vast. He spoke to tens of thousands of people during his lifetime. Without exaggeration, millions of copies of his writings have been sold. His work has been published in more than 40 languages, with new translations appearing each year.
No Talk Left Behind
Over the last two decades, prior to the launch of the library, a smattering of his recorded teachings were made available online. In the last two years, since the launch of the Chögyam Trungpa Digital Library, close to 400 recordings have been published online. We are now planning to release the remaining 1200 recordings over the next three years. The library will then comprise all his talks to general audiences. And following that, we will begin to publish an additional 1,000 specialized recordings. Our stated goal: No Talk Left Behind!
The streaming of Rinpoche’s lectures, accompanied by high quality transcripts, is now reaching people in almost every state in the US and province in Canada, as well as countries throughout the world. The Library reaches people on every continent except Antarctica, and maybe someone there listens in as well!
When he asked his students to save his voice, clearly Trungpa Rinpoche was thinking about many generations beyond the one in which he lived. While we can’t predict the future, it seems imperative that we too look beyond our own lifetimes, to consider the impact of his work and the importance of providing direct access to what he taught. If we have that breadth and depth of vision, we can plant the seeds of tomorrow in our work today.
So, these days, when I find myself fretting, when I feel uncertainty and anxiety about what the future holds, this also highlights the sacredness and importance of the teachings we have received and can share in the future—if we care for them now. That is the goal of the Chögyam Trungpa Digital Library: to provide access to the unvarnished teachings, the uncensored voice of this great prophet of dharma. I invite you to support our work.
I and all the staff of the Chögyam Trungpa Institute thank you profoundly for all the support you provide, as well as for the power of your practice and your commitment.
Yours in the ocean of dharma,
Carolyn Gimian
Director