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Disturbing “facts” re Trungpa Rinpoche on Wikipedia.
Update: Mission Accomplished. The unsubstantiated allegations have been removed (for now). When and if there’s three on-the-record, corroborating, verifiable sources that state Trungpa Rinpoche did...those things...then, honoring Journalism Ethics 101, they have a place in his biography. Until then…their presence in his official Wikipedia biography, the most-clicked-upon top-in-google-rankings page defining who and what this great Buddhist teacher was has been amended by many of the people who knew him, and read this post over the past 32 hours. With thanks— ed.
Original post follows:
Horrifying rumors & slander re: Buddhist pioneer Chogyam Trungpa on Wikipedia. Surprised? Let’s correct it:
I know every rumor and fact there is to know about Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, the Buddhist meditation master who de-mystified and made accessible the seemingly esoteric teachings of Buddhadharma, and who was the teacher of my parents. I’ve reported on them here before, seeking to draw a clear, broad line between fact and myth. I believe in openness, showing the light of day on this stuff—as did Trungpa Rinpoche himself, who never hid anything, which is part of the reason he was so well-loved and that the many myths that have sprung up about him did not fester until after he’d died.
I just happened upon his Wikipedia page, and was shocked. I couldn’t even read all of it. It’s like hanging out in the most degraded cocoon of gossip you could imagine.
Wikipedia is often made fun of for not having its facts straight—still, it is the web’s number one source for information. Chogyam Trungpa’s page has some really horrible information regarding cocaine, etc that I’ve never even heard rumors about, though I grew up in his community and write about him frequently in the public sphere these day. I’d love to hear a confirmation from some senior students that this stuff isn’t true—and, assuming the stuff on this page…
Wikipedia Biography of Chogyam Trungpa Controversies
“…Two former students of Trungpa, John Steinbeck IV (son of novelist John Steinbeck) and his wife, wrote a sharply critical memoir of their lives with him in which they claim that, in addition to his addiction to alcohol…
[...it goes on to talk about drugs, and womanizing, in a harsh light and with many unsubstaniated facts and opinions, like his treatment of women as "chattel," something I've never heard. Since some of the most vitriolic, inflammatory entries have been amended or deleted (for now) as a result of this here post, I'm not going to repeat all the details here, as "repeating rumors makes them true."]
…is BS, any of you who want to help me correct the information on this page, which we all can do, please go to that page and edit it. Anyone can do so.
Incorrect source, offensive, or found a typo? Want to write?
um imho – do ya all wanna be right or do you want to be love? just sayin…
Via Judy:
I'm not sure that this post made it to Sangha-announce but here it is. Cheers, Judy.
I went to seminary with John but did not know him well. I recently spoke with someone who did know him well who says that Nancy's part of the book is filled with inaccuracies. She was the one who saw that it got published after John IV's death.
I don't intend to read the book and am not in a position to know the truth behind the stories, but I suggest that anyone who does know the truth, go to Amazon.com where one can buy the book and also write a review.
The book has received 9 reviews so far, most of them giving it 5 stars.
Submit your review if you are in a position to comment.
In the dharma, Judy
From the Beliefnet blog on same subject, which is being handled in a much more mature fashion:
Using CTR opportunistically is all that Waylon Lewis has ever done. Most of us in Boulder Buddhist circles find him to be a bit of a joke. His campaign against Wikipedia was a sad display of his egoism. As for CTR's addictions (alcohol, seconal, cocaine, and paraphilias), I'm glad to see this aired here. Greg Z has done a commendable job. As for Waylon's hysterical reaction and severing of ties with this great blog, I say, "Don't let the door hit you on the *ss."
From the Beliefnet blog on same subject, which is being handled in a much more mature fashion:
Using CTR opportunistically is all that Waylon Lewis has ever done. Most of us in Boulder Buddhist circles find him to be a bit of a joke. His campaign against Wikipedia was a sad display of his egoism. As for CTR's addictions (alcohol, seconal, cocaine, and paraphilias), I'm glad to see this aired here. Greg Z has done a commendable job. As for Waylon's hysterical reaction and severing of ties with this great blog, I say, "Don't let the door hit you on the *ss."
From the Beliefnet blog on same subject, which is being handled in a much more mature fashion:
Using CTR opportunistically is all that Waylon Lewis has ever done. Most of us in Boulder Buddhist circles find him to be a bit of a joke. His campaign against Wikipedia was a sad display of his egoism. As for CTR's addictions (alcohol, seconal, cocaine, and paraphilias), I'm glad to see this aired here. Greg Z has done a commendable job. As for Waylon's hysterical reaction and severing of ties with this great blog, I say, "Don't let the door hit you on the *ss."
The fact that Waylon Lewis turns not the Buddha eye but the eye of denial toward serious illicit drug dependecy, sexual abuse, pedophilia, rape, and other ethical perversions will certainly do wonders for his political future.
The issue in question is not whether Trungpa Rinpoche tried cocaine. He never hid the fact that he experimented with the drugs which were popular amongst his students in the 1970s. As a kid, I remember sitting around the kitchen table with friends and family, as Rinpoche's wife told a touching and hilarious tale of Rinpoche trying LSD in their Montreal apartment, just after they arrived in North America. What is memorable about the story is that the primary reaction the drug elicited from Rinpoche was laughter. Doing such drugs was clearly not a preoccupation for him.
I wonder where John Steinbeck Junior arrived as the magic number of $40,000 a year. Wow! That's a BIG number. I met Steinbeck in Boulder in 1978 when I was a high school kid, and I remember him as a profoundly morose and somewhat lost alcoholic. Although a nice man, I question his recall and narrative skills from that time.
.Steinbeck was clean and sober before he did the research on VROT and VACT in 1987. If you want a mature dialogue, go over to Beliefnet (referenced above) and drop these ad hominem attacts. This isn't about who said what. It's about the need to keep secrets and suppress investigation with arrogance and censorship.
I believe the people most upset on this post do have to be taken seriously. They are holding some strong feelings based on personal experience, not hearsay. Feelings which suggest that what they witnessed has left them shaken and sorry they didn't speak up more, object, step in, resist.
The Vidyadhara’s actions, his teachings/empowerments and his personal outcomes are not each the same thing. One can talk about the merits of one and the harmful outcomes from another, and love him unreservedly as a teacher, friend and guide.
No one “embodies” enlightenment. Whatever life and body we’re handed to live through at this birth becomes a second-by-second gamble with fun, distasteful, indifferent, tricky and, rarely and sometimes, “enlightening” outcomes… if we are paying very close attention to life as it passes, as few of us are. That is perhaps why one of the nicknames for the Kagyu is the “mishap lineage,” is it not?
I personally feel that Rinpoche was a bit disappointed in us. We could have given him more of a fight…. continued at – http://mishaplineage.wordpress.com
Jigme, I thought your post sounded pretty self serving, and when I looked at your messy "small meditation center", I saw why. Your connection with CTR is a large part of your advertisement for yourself. Not exactly an impartial observer. You condescendingly fall into the trap of "blame the victim". Blame the student for not confronting CTR about his behavior. That shows how little you knew about the scene for the short time you were in it. Have you not read the Wikipedia entry about the threats of eternal damnation to Vajra Hell if you didn't trust CTR completely? A student either went along or got the cultish shunning. You either kept silent or you were scorned, by CTR and his coterie, which meant you'd never get to Seminary , never pass Go. You'd always be considered "fringe", "weird" and, as so often has happened on this blog–told that you're missing the point. It was like a made man breaking with a Don. Speaking up meant you had to leave. They made it really nasty, as in a spiritual level of swimming with the fishes. That is cult behavior.
Kalu Rinpoche defended CTR's womanizing because he was holding a woman student hostage over their long-term affair. In her own words, she described how he threatened her with ostracism if she ever revealed the truth. She was only able to speak the truth after his death. It was hopeless to go to any Kargyu lineage holder about CTR's behavior. They were too naive and didn't want to break their rice bowl, which is filled by donations from people who believe in their purity. Bad press? Suppress. In their book, the Steinbecks wrote about the Dalai Lama's advice to them regarding CTR's behavior. While he didn't defend it, he, too, blamed the students for their lack of discrimination. Yes, they were at fault for swallowing that fearful Samaya vow, but how much of it was Stockholm Syndrome—emulation and adoration of the CTR as oppressor? When the Steinbecks reported the Dalai Lama's admonition back to the sangha, they were told "Oh, the Dalai Lama. He doesn't know anything about Crazy Wisdom."
One of the most telling condemnations of CTR's legacy is the way his incarnation is being withheld from the Shambhala sangha by the Kargyu leaders. You'd think they'd let him embrace his former students, right? I have heard they don't want him anywhere near the community, for fear of being tainted.
Your premise that CTR had no responsibility to control Rich's behavior is false. When CTR saw Rich was screwing up, he chastised him soundly, but not over the rape of a straight man. By the time Rich confessed his AIDS to CTR, the latter was in late stage alcoholic dementia. Hence, the statement that if Rich practiced, he would not transmit it. Again, you blame the victims for not practicing safe sex but you don't fault CTR for his magical thinking. Rick Fields always wondered what hold Rich had on CTR….perhaps a sexual liason?
Your musings do more harm than good, Jigme. Further pollution in a stream that is earnestly trying to put an end to confusion.
Reading recommendations: 1: The Double Mirror, by Stephen T. Butterfield. This is a brave, honest and intimate memoir. 2: The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power, by Joel Kramer & Diana Alstad. This is more generic in that it's not specifically about CTR and Vajradhatu, but there is a huge value in thinking about patterns of human behavior that show up repeatedly in many different religious organizations of all different traditions. Even if we are students of The One And Only CTR, we are still human, and so was he, and we can recognize ourselves in these pages.
I was around on the fringes, learned to love "Choggie," consider him my root guru. But still I was shaken by the suggestion he had a multi-K coke habit. That seems so out of line with everything I knew– including all the bad stuff– that it's easier and more rational for me to think of it as malicious rumor. Several writers have written here confirming the cocaine story and listing other, even more nasty things about the "inner court" Having lived as a wayward youth through the 70s, I understand how easy it is for things to get out of hand, so I suppose it's all plausible…. I have a hard time, though, with the hatred with which these statements are made. These writers must have been seriously hurt by people in the sangha– and again, I totally understand that, having been wounded myself– but uttering damaging statements our of a desire to cause pain isn't truthful; it's aggressive.
I find myself questioning the motivation of these writers. I also think it would be a great shame if someone couldn't find access to the wisdom in Trungpas' teachings because of some unsubstantiated rumors, or some people's quest for revenge after so many years of feeling abandoned and hurt.
I've read some pretty ugly things in this thread; at this point I can only take the course of reason and regard them as internet rumors, until someone can substantiate them. I refuse to condemn a mahasidda– for that I have first-person evidence–on the basis of some angry rants.
And a deep bow to Waylon– here is a golden opportunity to practice fearless and gentle.
Yep, that's my guru!
Didn't encounter anything too new in the controversies section of Wiki, except the $40k/year on coke seems a little exaggerated. And on aside, remember they're just controversies; what counts is the connection we carry with him.
Wow…I have to say, I'm feeling rather disillusioned with the Shambhala lineage after learning about Chogyam Trungpa's checkered history. I have been a casual student of the Shambhala lineage for a while now, and feel a bit duped by the hypocrisy of CTR's writings. Didn't he write the book on Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism? Well, it seems that he was living the exact life that he himself denounced.
I entered the Shambhala community about 10 years ago. At that time, I asked myself the same questions as Davee noted above . . . what does the founder's behavior say about this path? In truth, I continue to ask myself this question, but remain part of the Shambhala sangha because I have experienced many dedicated members of sangha to be examples of exceptional human beings and I strive to follow their example. I guess you could say that I have a baby and bath water approach to Shambhala. While I am committed to my meditation community, I remain skeptical about SOME of the actions of CTR. As Buddhists, we train to be capable of holding objectively divergent ideas/beliefs. The child in me wants someone to give me a credible explanation for CTR's behavior that is consistent with Buddhism, and particularly as it relates to his treatment of women. However, I know that no explanation will emerge. I don't know if I could ever adopt Tenzin Plamo's indifference towards CTR's behavior as was cited in the book, A Cave in the Snow. However, if I limit myself only to spiritual approaches that are without sexism, I would be left with little. Thus, baby and bathwater. ______
(Just entering this so I can subscribe to any future comments.)
too much talk, too little information. What is the problem with Trunpga and cocaine, or women? He was a man, for god's sake. A Mahasiddha, but a man! No dharma is affected, just listen to him.
[...] I didn’t like this at all, trust the English to put a damper on things. Good old Wikipedia was a little more life-affirming: “the quality of being modest, reverential, even politely [...]
Would Trungpa care? I guess not. Then why would you? What is it that you devote your energy to? Memories of your own thoughts about thougts of athers about Trungpa??
Maybe there might be something better here and now.
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I am supposed to take the refuge vow this weekend-this is the first time I have heard any of these allegations and I am horrified! I dont know what to do now…I was so ready and excited to take the vow and follow this path, but I dont know if I can follow the teachings of someone who lived such a hypocritical life.