Customer Reviews

Dragon Thunder: My Life with Chögyam Trungpa

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really wanted to like this book. I am a practicing Tibetan Buddhist of the Drikung Kagyu lineage, and I really wanted to come away from this book with a better understanding of Chogyam Trungpa. I wanted to be able to stop thinking of him as a womanizing drunk.

Unfortunately, this book didn't help me. The author spends a great deal of time explaining away Trungpa's behavior by stating that he just wasn't like other people and that the normal rules didn't apply to him. It felt like someone who is abused making excuses for her abuser. I didn't gain any clearer dharmic understanding of Trungpa's outrageous actions or his reasons for having affair after affair after affair, drinking to excess, or taking drugs.

Brilliant teacher he may have been, but from what I read in this book, he doesn't strike me as any sort of a dharmic role model or a spiritual friend on whom I could rely.

In addition to not feeling like I gained any sort of higher understanding of the main character, I feel that the book dragged on and on and on. It read at times like a list of dates and places, overly specific and uninteresting. The author seemed to be trying to account for every event in her and Trungpa's lives and explain how and why it showed Trungpa's brilliance. It got boring long before the book concluded.

I give this book three stars because some of it is very interesting, and it gives a decent account of how Shambhala Buddhism came to be, but it doesn't offer any sort of scintillating window into who Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was.

I found this book to be heartbreaking. I was initially interested since I have so admired and loved the work of Ani Pema Chodron who has impacted my life with such illumination over the years. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was her core teacher. I was not shocked by the drinking and "affectional" involvement with the students (there have never been reports of any students having felt used or coerced), rather by the excesses in hierarchy so common to cults of that era: how to separate the medium from the message? At least, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche offered great wisdom and enlightenment, and created a base of wisdom teachings from which many have prospered. But Diana Mukpo seems in the book almost wholly without insight, accepting that which comes her way without compunction or hesitation. Houses in Europe! Horses to own and ride! Being crowned queen with a tiara of diamonds. Receiving a title, and the subordination of footmen, butlers, chefs, chauffeurs and servants. Mink stoles and upset over her new shoes from Saks Fifth Avenue being ruined during a Buddhist Ceremony. She accepts all of this as though her due, when both finances and labour are provided by devotees of her husband (who did seem like a tireless worker in this tome) gratis. I do not see any difference between this group and the other cultish excesses of the time: the Rajneeshpurams, the followers of other charismatic leaders. I was grateful to the book for having brought out all of my "shenpa" with which to practise (I was "hooked" on nearly every page!), but it had me questioning everything? Am I right to follow Pema Chodron and Sakyong Mipham? Are these excesses sanctioned in Tibetan Buddhism? My disillusionment was extreme: I had thought of Tibetan Buddhism as enlightened and kind. Her passages about dressage were the most interesting to me, otherwise I found nearly no evolution in her person or character. Needing her husband to be right and godlike, I suppose, to justify the luxury in which they lived, the royalty they conferred upon themselves, and relating with little understanding towards those around her (her mother, for example) while incensed at any perceived mistreatment she received. I am trying to work with the energy of disillusionment as a path to wisdom with this book, but I found it heartbreaking, self-aggrandising, and painful in the extreme. If the blindness is mine, I would appreciate illumination or clarification from anyone who differs.....I can only think that perhaps Trungpa Rinpoche created a hierarchical royal setting to demonstrate the examples of the inherent royalty within us all. But even if this is so....how to justify its reification on the backs of the labour of others. I am really perplexed and confused....

"Enlightened Master"
"Egomaniac"
"Genius"
"Fraud"
"Compassionate"
"Cruel"

It is difficult to imagine one person attracting so many different sobriquets.

Yet Chögyam Trungpa gathered all of these and many more.

A recognized reincarnation of the Tenth Trungpa, he came to India after the Chinese invasion of Tibet and faced enormous hardships. He eventually came to Britain and met and married the sixteen-year-old Diana Probus, who took the name Diana Mukpo, and finally wrote this extraordinary memoir, almost twenty years after his death. They were married for a tumultuous period of seventeen years during which he established meditation centers throughout Europe and North America, attracted a large number of students and founded Naropa in Boulder, Colorado, the first Buddhist-inspired University in the United States.

Chögyam Trungpa was a key figure in the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, and apart from the testimony of his personal students, he has left a substantial body of written works, many of which are widely recognized to be spiritual masterpieces. He was always controversial and heavy alcohol abuse contributed to his early demise.

I never met Chögyam, but I well remember many of my Buddhist friends being scandalized by his behavior. Most of them had acquired an extraordinarily ascetic view of Buddhism that many still hold today. The idea that an Enlightened Master may smoke, drink and have sex is anathema. They have an idea of the way that a spiritual being should behave, and if he or she does not, well that simply proves that they are not enlightened! I have known so many people who never realized that this view of spirituality is a projection based on just one spiritual current. There are many others, and it is a sad reality that rather than practicing tolerance, many of the different spiritual schools and traditions really dislike each other.

This book paints an intimate portrait of a master of "crazy wisdom." It is particularly fascinating to see the juxtaposition of the early life of someone born into a life of privilege in England, with a man born in poverty half a world away. And what an unusual and complex man he was, with a colorful and powerful personality. Not only was he someone who transmitted teachings, he was also believed to be someone who found and uncovered lost poetic and philosophical treasures.

This is a very personal book, but it is not a rose-colored one. Diana was not only Rinpoche's wife she was also his student, and he did many things that must have been very hard on her. There was evidently a clash of cultures and even though she was very young when they got married, she was concerned about some of the questionable decisions that were being made. Though at the end of it all, she says that she has "no regrets." The book gives some extraordinary insights into the inner workings of Tibetan Buddhism during its early encounter with the West. Though not designed to be a book of teachings, it contains a great many acute observations about the Buddhist path.

This is a book that will be of interest not only to Buddhists, but also to anyone who would like to learn more about the development of meditation and spirituality in the West.



Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life

I was a close student of Trungpa Rinpoche for 16 years. I never closed a door in Diana's face; I did spend a bit of time caring for Taggie, yet even though I was "close in" to Rinpoche's family, I did not appreciate or have much empathy for Diana's challenges or for the fact that she was facing them at such a young age. Now at 60, having raised 4 children and being grandfather to 4, I humbly beg her forgiveness and bow to her strong Dharma Heart.
This book is a generous and bold revelation of life with a rare Great Being. It will help any spiritual seeker break out of their limited notions of spiritual life and practice.
The way in which Diana perservered in preserving and strenghtening her own spirit under extraordinary circumstances will be an inspiring example for any reader. It with help you develop a mature relationship to meet your own challenges on the path.

This is a captivating, deeply intimate account of Diana Mukpo's seventeen year marriage to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche written, thanks to the editor, in a restrained, objective reporting style that prevents this inscrutable story from becoming out-of-control fiction, (which it verged on anyway).


This book may be of greatest interest to students/former students of Chogyam Trungpa who experienced him and his broader organization, Vajradhatu, during his lifetime. His wife knew him most deeply, but neither she nor his closest students could ever pin him down, and that same principle applies to the reader: the accuracy and value of this book is relational to the perspectives of Ms. Mukpo and those of the reader, who (somewhat delightfully) is forced to construct his own conclusions.

Personally, for example, as a peripheral student still carrying twenty years of doubts and grudges, to my surprise I found this book clarifying and helpful for further practice. Then again, some cynics might find this account marred by the author's normal adolescent narcissism, never outgrown, and still coloring her memories and explanations of Rinpoche's behavior. Fortunately, readers free from this type of historical baggage will find plenty to ponder, such as the author's gut-checking attempt to raise her family, one of whom proves to be autistic, whilst playing a cacaphony of roles created by her husband. The reader quickly learns that nothing is easy, predictable or certain when married to the guru, except perhaps death.


An authoritative and objective third-person book about Chogyam Trungpa can never be written because he was aware of, but non-attached to habitual patterns unlike most prominent public figures. Well-intentioned attempts to "capture" him have proved to be critical literary failures. Prior to Diana Mukpo's book, the only first-person description of life with Rinpoche was John Perks' fine book "The Mahasiddha and his Idiot Servant". Now we have his wife's first-person account, independently written, different events, yet same flavor. This is a superb narrative about a near-impossible subject, firm and opiniated when necessary, and revealing just enough defensiveness to confirm the author's humanity. A good book by any measure.

This is an extraordinary, from the heart account of life with a Mahasiddha, written in the most intimate terms of a love affair that continues to this day. This book goes beyond the aspects of any religious dogma into the ordinariness of everyday love of a woman for a man. This book is completely inspiring. Just put yourself in the author's place to see how that feels. Dragon Thunder is a must read for anyone.

I wanted to give this one star but they won't post the lousy ones anymore.

I admit this definitely kept me turning the pages, except when the author droned on endlessly about her fascinating career riding horses, studying to ride horses, training to ride horses, etc. Then i skimmed.

I remember when Trungpa was quite the happening thing in colorado, had all these books in print, etc. It's funny to read this now that he's been gone for a while because basically the man was a head injury victim.

He was in a car wreck when he was in his twenties living in England and then he began acting so strangely it "scared" the other monks. He had the accident because he was an alchoholic and driving drunk.

He then hung up his monk's robe and married an underage girl. They fled to the usa to escape her outraged family and he went on to discover a gift for convincing people to donate huge amounts of money and believe whatever he said.

He built this whole constellation of buildings and organizations and basically got crazier and crazier. Eventually he was dressing as a king and had all the sycophants that worked for them (free of charge)call him "your highness" and his wife "your ladyship."

Personally, I've always leaned toward being called "Your Magnitude" but that's just me.

He wore uniforms that made him look like the mexican general santa anna and drank, drank, drank until he drank himself to death in his mid to late forties.

His hand-picked successor then knowingly gave several people in their buddhist community AIDS.

It's like walking into the mad hatter's tea party only the mad hatter is also the king. He was an insane person who talked about developing "basic sanity" a lot and had all these gullible sycophants around that aided and abetted.

Honestly, as looney as this is, it's kind of entertaining. What it really is is funny. IT's a black comedy. He even had a guy with a folding chair and another guy with an umbrella to keep the sun off of him follow him in case he wanted to sit down.

My only question is--what did these people think they were going to get from this guy? Did they really believe that anyone who had to be drunk all the time and dressed in uniforms and had his servants tell people he was a "tibetan prince", did they really believe that such a person was spiritually enlightened? Why?

Still, if you like bizarre you might find this amusing.

Dragon Thunder is an remarkable book on many counts. The book not only gives us a new understanding of the extraordinary life and work of Chögyam Trungpa, one of the great spiritual teachers of the 20th century, but it also shows, without equivocation, some of the many both serious and humorous complexities and paradoxes and challenges involved in the transmission of Buddhism to the West. Diana Mukpo's intimate revelations as wife, friend, and student of this remarkable teacher and human being are not only lovingly expressed, but, perhaps just as important, they are also balanced and sane. You don't have to be a Buddhist to appreciate this amazing book (I'm not); you just have to be willing to be taken beyond the framework of your habitual self-image and to open to the miracle and mystery of your own being. And even if you don't think you're really willing, get the book anyway. You will not be disappointed.

I very much agree with the previous two reviews. This is a wonderfuuly intimate and candid report of life with Trungpa. One hears about his outrageous teaching "methods" and starts to see in this book that while some of the "crazy" methods were based on the desire to awaken his students, it is very possible that others were just based on too much alcohol. So even though he was not perfect, one also sees how very difficult his life was and how much he had to change from Tibetan culture to American hippie culture to get his teaching about Buddhism across. One also admires her struggle to provide some stability to both their lives. This book along with the recently published biography of Trungpa provides an opportunity to see his overall teachings twenty years later.

Having grown up in the Shambhala community, many of the events and stories Diana talks about in her book were already known to me, but being able to read her direct, genuine account was a treat. Not only were the stories touching and significant, but reading the book was a pleasure. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in Bhuddism, feminism, or who just enjoys a touching, funny, remarkable story.