The Path Is the Goal

I'm not a Buddhist, not a meditation expert, I don't have an ".edu" at the end of my email address. I'm no specialist in anything. I critique this book as a complete and utter novice trying to figure out how to meditate when I thought "I'm not doing it right", or "I'm too conscious". This was the first book that finally explained in all in a way I could simply understand. Like the "just do it" slogan of Nike, I found this author's narrative clear where others had been obtuse. I'd read all sorts of books from my local library and bookstores. But it wasn't until I became engrossed in this little book with the peaceful cover and title that I understood. Am I a great or even a regular practitioner? No hardly I'm sure. But I feel much happier about the endeavor after reading Trungpa's book.

Naropa obtained enlightenment after his teacher, Tilopa, asked him to perform countless grueling tasks, many at the risk of death. One day, Tilopa smacked Naropa on the head with his sandal and that was it, enlightenment. Milarepa, after killing 12 people, was asked by his teacher, Marpa, to build a temple before he would receive the teachings. When he finished the temple, Marpa found it unsatisfactory and had him rebuild it. It went on and on and on, with Milarepa nearly dying and Marpa treating him brutally. But all along, Marpa loved him like a son. Because of the negativities Milarepa accumulated, this was his ngöndro, his púrification. Milarepa then went into 12 years of solitary retreat, eating barely nothing. The 84 mahasiddhas displayed outrageous behaviour in order to benefit beings. The Buddha himself, in a previous life, killed the captain of a boat. Compassion? You may not think so, unless you knew the captain was going to kill his entire crew. Buddhism will not make your life easier. It is not about having a safe place, but about being homeless. It is not about gathering about you the clothes of bliss, but about going naked. It is not a peaceful journey (until the later stages) but an ardous task. If you feel lonely, discouraged, depressed because of the teachings, it is not the teachings that have depressed you, but your ego which has chosen to respond to them. THAT is what you can work with. Remember, the working basis is this defiled mind. If we were already enlightened, we wouldn't feel depressed, or discouraged. Everything is workable. Please keep these things in mind. For the record, the Karma Kagyü tradition does not permit its fully ordained monastics to engage in alcohol abuse or sexual misconduct. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave up his vows as a monastic, TO GREAT DANGER TO HIMSELF, so he could better relate to his western students. Pema Chödron, the western nun who many describe as loving, compassionate, and ethically unsurpassed, was one of Trungpa's students and can best talk about his approach. I invite any and all to read this interview with her. http://www.buddhistinformation.com/no_right.htm

Another reviewer harshly criticized Chogyam Trungpa's lack of compassion with respect to the meditation practices and the non-dualism that they promote. While I would concur that the Rinpoche's style is very straightforward, I do not believe that is the result of a lack of compassion or any extra "harshness" on the his part.His writings are direct, and concise. I find that his writing style very much belies his primary language and the translation is almost exact, phrase-for-phrase. This often leads to difficult reading because the subject-verb-object relationships and sentence structures do not map well between Tibetan and English. Additionally, he spends much time discussing the failures of language with respect to non-dualism. The use of any language to describe concepts inherently opposed by language leads to several tricky sections where I was forced to rigorousely parse each section in order to understand his point. The rewards of better understanding and a much diminished ego were well worth the effort.All in all, this book is an excellent building block that doesn't treat meditation in the same feel-good, "New Age" style of so many other authors. It is definately built upon the underlying structures of Kagyu-style Buddhism. If Trungpa hurts your ego and makes "you" feel virtually non-existant... Well that's kind of the point of non-dualism in the first place.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche does not engage in "idiot compassion." This book will not gratify any of the desires of your ego. Instead it has (as the foreward says) an "iron hook" of compassion, which will attempt to cut away your ego & expose you to the hard lonely reality of practice. In his first exposition of the nature of meditation Rinpoche tells us to sit without pretensions, "like a disused coffee cup." He describes the feeling of spaciousness that comes from abandoning the ego as a reference point as "boring" & "suffocating." He does not give us any room to use meditation as an ego toy. I recommend this book highly to anyone who is seriously interested in the hard, confusing road of spirituality. After many years of meditation, feeling very confident & special, reading "The Path is the Goal" and "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" was a kick to the gut. When you're done having fun pretending to meditate, come to "The Path is the Goal" & be cut open by Chogyam Trungpa's absolute unwavering compassion.