Rain of Wisdom

by Chögyam Trungpa

English, Tibetan

Genres: Buddhism, Poetry, Philosophy

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (Tibetan: ཆོས་ རྒྱམ་ དྲུང་པ་ Wylie: Chos rgyam Drung pa; also known as Dorje Dradul of Mukpo, Surmang Trungpa, after his monastery, or Chökyi Gyatso, of which Chögyam is an abbreviation) was a Buddhist meditation master, scholar, teacher, poet, and artist. He was the 11th descendent in the line of Trungpa tulkus of the Kagyü school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was also trained in the Nyingma tradition, the oldest of the four schools, and was an adherent of the rimay or "non-sectarian" movement within Tibetan Buddhism, which aspired to bring together and make available all the valuable teachings of the different schools, free of sectarian rivalry.

Trungpa was a significant figure in the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism to the West, founding Naropa University and establishing the Shambhala Training method, a presentation of the Buddhadharma largely devoid of ethnic trappings. In 1963, he moved to England to study comparative religion, philosophy, and fine arts at Oxford University. During this time, he also studied Japanese flower arranging and received an instructors degree from the Sogetsu school of ikebana. In 1967, he moved to Scotland, where he founded the Samye Ling meditation centre.

Shortly thereafter, a variety of experiences—including a car accident that left him partially paralyzed on the left side of his body—led him to give up his monastic vows and work as a lay teacher. In 1969, he published Meditation in Action , the first of fourteen books on the spiritual path published during his lifetime. The following year he married Diana Pybus and moved to the United States, where he established his first North American meditation centre, Tail of the Tiger (now known as Karmê-Chöling) in Barnet, Vermont.

In 1986, he moved to Nova Scotia, Canada, where hundreds of his students had settled. That Autumn, after years of heavy alcohol use, he had a cardiac arrest, and he died of heart failure the following Spring. His legacy is carried on by his son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, under the banner of Shambhala International and the Nalanda Translation Committee.

Reviews

[Kitap Yakıcı · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some notes on the text from the excellent Afterword by the Nālandā Translation Committee:

The songs in The Rain of Wisdom are predominantly oriented toward the path of meditation. They are intensely experiential and tend to emphasize the quality of journeying on the Buddhist path. In them, the great meditators of the past describe their doubts and discoveries, their problems and successes, their visions for the future and conceptions of the past. Very few of the songs have the quality of retrospectives. Usually they are composed in the midst of a practice session and communicate the personal experiences of each lineage holder—the perceptions of a yogin at a particular moment on his path. They report teachings he just received, realizations he just achieved, and above all the welling up of devotion and gratitude to the guru who transmitted to him the experience of mahāmudrā. (p. 300)

The Rain of Wisdom was compiled by Mikyö Dorje, the eighth Karmapa, in the first half of the sixteenth century (c. 1542). At that time, it was meant to be the liturgy for a chanting service that would invoke the blessings of the entire Karma Kagyü lineage. With the same aim in mind, successive editions of the Kagyü Gurtso have added songs by holders of the Karma Kagyü lineage born after the time of Mikyö Dorje. In this way, the service itself has gradually lengthened until in modern times its complete form requires ans entire day to chant. (304)

The first half of The Rain of Wisdom is devoted to the lineage of the Karmapas, a major branch of the Kagyü order known as the Karma Kaṃtsang or the Karma Kagyü. After paying homage to this succession with songs and stories, the second section of the Gurtso begins. This is devoted to the root gurus of all sects of the Kagyü , the five original lineage holders: Tilopa, Nāropa, Marpa, Milarepa, and Gampopa. The third section is devoted to a miscellany of teachers who are not mentioned in the Karma Kagyü lineage supplication.

The last song in the Gurtso, appropriately enough, is a return to the life of Tüsum Khyenpa, the first Karmapa. This is the famous story of his expulsion from Gampopa's monastery for singing, dancing, and drinking at a vajra feast. This is followed by a dedication written by Tenpe Nyinche.

Here the Rumtek Kagyü Gurtso ends, but not the English edition. Following the traditions of disciples throughout the ages, we have appended translations of a colophon and songs by the director of the Nālandā Translation Committee, Vajrācārya the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa, Rincpoche. (305–6)