Customer Reviews

The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation (Shambhala Dragon Editions)

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Chogyam Trungpa (1939-1987) brought Tibetan Buddhism to our country as the founder of the Boulder Shambhala Center and Naropa University. In the Foreward to this new edition of his book, Trungpa Rinpoche's student, Pema Chodron (WHEN THINGS FALL APART, THE PLACES THAT SCARE YOU) writes: "When I took to heart the teachings presented here, a curious change slowly began to take place. I became far more open to the pain of myself and others; far more open to laughing and crying; far more able to love and accept and see my interconnectedness with all beings. As the years go by, I gradually become more and more at home in the world with its inevitable ups and downs."

In his 179-page book, Trungpa teaches us how to know ourselves through meditation. "Meditation in the beginning is not an attempt to achieve happiness," he tells us, "nor is it an attempt to achieve mental calm or peace, though they could be by-products of meditation. Meditation should not be regarded as a vacation from irritation" (p. 46). While we may believe we are free to pursue our dreams, achieve our goals, and satisy our desires, Trungpa shows us how we are instead enslaved to our habitual patterns and negative emotions such as self-absorption (pp. 23-28), paranoia (pp. 28-29), passion (pp. 29-32), stupidity (pp. 32-35), povery (pp. 35-37) and anger (pp. 37-40). "We must be willing to be completely ordinary people," he observes, "which means accepting ourselves as we are without trying to become greater, purer, more spiritual, more insightful. If we can accept our imperfections as they are, quite ordinarily, then we can use them as part of the path. But if we try to get rid of our imperfections, then they will be enemies, obstacles on the road to our 'self-improvement'" (p. 44). And in this highly-recommended book, Trungpa teaches us how to cut through the barriers separating us from the rest of the world.

G. Merritt

Incisive teachings by one of the most influential Tibetan Buddhist teachers in the West. A central theme: giving up our hopes that meditation will bring us bliss or tranquility or make us better or wiser people or otherwise serve our ego's purposes, and realizing the liberation that is right here within our pain and confusion and neurosis.

Trungpa's "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" seems to be more widely known and more often recommended, but I like "The Myth of Freedom" even better, and I think it's a more suitable book for folks who are new to meditation. Also recommended: "The Wisdom of No Escape" by Trungpa's student Pema Chodron.

After reading his excellent book "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism", I was happy to find another one by this author.

While the first took a razor sharp sword of insight to the idols of delusion which surround us and appeal to our egos. This book takes a finer blade to the ways we fool ourselves into a life of dissatisfaction.

Trungpa uses clear language to explain the path to enlightenment, and the ways in which we sabotage ourselves. He lets us know that a clear view of reality is far more wonderful than our most wild and tempting fantasies of paradise.

If you are serious about meditation or spiritual development, this book is invaluable. Read it more than once, you will find new treasures in it as your perspective changes along the path.

Sweyn
Author of
The Rune Primer: A Down to Earth Guide to the Runes

For starters, this is not a book for reading only; instead, it is a companion to regular contemplative practice (albeit not necessarily one that is "Buddhist").

I was "forced" to read this book as a graduate student at The Naropa Institute (in the same way that all students are "forced" to read textbooks) and found that I got very little out of the book. While at times his presentation was incredibly lucid, at other times Trungpa's turns of phrase made little sense, leading our circle of student heretics to coin the descriptive phrase "Trungpa-babble." (Full-disclosure: One of the reasons that this book appeared so jargon-laden at the time I first read it probably had to do with the fact that my sitting practice was very new and so I had little experience with which to compare Trungpa's ideas.)

On re-reading this book as one of the titles on my guru's reading lists, I was impressed by how much of the same material that had once left me cold now applied directly to my life and practice. Trungpa definitely takes the "romance" out of spiritual practice and reveals it to be as mundane as going to work, eating dinner, or taking a bath. Like those other activities, though, meditation (in this context the basic practice of sitting with oneself and familiarizing oneself with the neurosis and clarity that make up the mind) is essential to a life fully lived.

It took me several false starts before I was able to read all of Chogyam Trungpa's "The Myth of Freedom". When I was finally able to get past the first 30 pages, the rest was a breeze. This is not to say that the beginning of the book is more difficult, but as a non-Buddhist, it took a while to catch the ideas that Trungpa presents. Once those first basic ideas were caught, even though most likely imperfectly, the rest of the book unfolded in a wonderful presentation of ideas that provoked a lot of thought and self-contemplation. Whether this is "true" Buddhism or not did not matter to me. The description on the back cover of the book was perfect: "... is the freedom to pursue [things that arise from negative elements] true freedom or just a myth?"

This is the sequel to "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism". Are you gay? Are you a crossdresser? Do you cheat on your taxes? Did you hit one of your children? The point of Trungpa's teaching seems to hammer agin and again at the main human condition. That we are afraid of being human. We are "embarassed" at being human. One woman was reported as having choked to death in a restuarant. Why? Because she was too embarrassed to cough! Through his behavior and his teachings, Trungpa kept hammering this message home at his students. "The Myth of Freedom" takes us from the beginning of the Hinayana Journey (in the Tibetan sense, not to put down Theravada Buddhism which is also called 'Hinayana') all the way to the Vajrayana teachings where there is direct transmission from the Spiritual Guide. Trungpa goes through the technicalities, but you must remember that these are lectures to his students. I shared the same block as Trungpa. He was giving a lecture in LA in December 1980. I was too embarrassed to go inside. I might stammer when I met him. I might "goof up" (as he called it). Maybe I would say something "stupid". I was embarrased. I was embarrassed until his teachings sank in. Then I began to loosen up. Unfortanately, I went back to my "cocoon", as he called it. I've read this book three times. You will love it! Just don't balk when you read other books on Tibetan Buddhism where there are very many rules. The message of Trungpa was "Stop being embarrased about yourself!". And he showed this example by indulging in the worst behavior imaginable. But, yes, you can sneeze in front of a group of people. You can leave your zipper down accidentally if you are a male. Or don't put on a bra if you are a female and then find that you clearly "see" through while you give a lecture! According to Trungpa, it this embarrassment which he referred to as "negative negativity". He pounces on this concept throughout this book and his others. Negativity is alright in itself. I get angry. But then I am embarrassed for BEING angry. So I gulp it down or explode. If we accept the basic negativity, feel it, then this is negativity. But if we shame ourselves for having it - then this manufactures even more anger or Negative Negativity. Which can eventually result in being a mass murderer. Everything is being projected outside on the world. You are not "eating your past" so to speak. This is the message of the book. BUY IY! And buy "Spiritual Materialism". Thannk you (mispelling intentional).

I disagree with the other person reviewing this book, this is a very traditional book, a no-nonsense approach to buddhist practice and against a "sugar and spice" spiritual materialism (fake spirituality). I've been practicing for 20 years and have been reading this book at different times all along; I still take enormous refreshment in this book. If you really want a direct look at genuine, basic buddhist practice read it. It is almost painfully honest.

Chogyam Trungpa says it as it is. Read this book and then give it as a gift to someone you love. There are many ways to awaken a "sleeping mind". Through the heart or through the intellect. This one challenges your intellect and asks you how honest you can be with yourself.

An online friend recommended that I read this book, so after a few months of procrastinating I did it. I read it once and I'm far from telling that I can fully appreciate and comment on its message. Not surprisingly, that friend recommended I read it more times, leaving a couple of months in between to digest it. However, I can say that even the superficial understanding I gained from one pass makes me say this is a great book.
It is a manual of Buddhism, but in its spiritual but not religious meaning - there are any rituals between the covers, only teachings on how we should behave, think, and most importantly, feel.
As Trungpa puts it, Buddhism is a religion different from others in that it doesn't promise heaven or other ransom at the end of the life, but instead it helps us to live our live the way it is, full of suffering. But why do we suffer? Because we are ignorant of the pure nature of things and ourselves, and we try to explain it, understand and define ourselves as an entity separated from the rest of the world: in short, because we create an ego. This word - ego - shows up very often in the book, and it can be said it is its central subject.
Trungpa presents the Buddhist teachings which explain how the ego is formed, starting from basic ignorance of primordial nature of things, and, adding layer over layer, up to intellect and consciousness. We suffer because of the basic ignorance, of the duality we created, but to successfully remove it we must first remove the upper layers. The first to be removed is the consciousness, in which our thoughts play the most important role, so the first thing to do is to observe thoughts (in a semi-controlled fashion) - and this is the purpose of meditation. Meditation is mostly useful at the beginning on the path of evolution (but that beginning could take decades or even lifetimes).
He goes to enumerate the six basic attitudes/major thoughts in the mind: pride, jealousy, desire, ignorance, greed and hatred, which the Buddhists say they belong (or make up) six realms: of gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts and hell respectively. In each non-enlightened being one of the six attitudes dominates over the rest, and Trungpa talks at length about each of them. Although he doesn't say it explicitly, probably for most humans desire for something is the most important component. As I side note, I had read about the six emotions and realms in another classic on Tibetan Buddhism (Sogyal Rinpoche's Tibetan book of the dead), and it was mentioned that human realm is the best for spiritual progress. Now that I read Trungpa's explanation I understand why Sogyal said that.
But the book is not over... it touches other aspects of Buddhist teachings and then presents the possible evolution of a soul - according to Buddhist ideals - on annihilating the ego, using masters (buddha), teachings (dharma) and community of fellow souls (sangha). Although these help, ultimately every soul is alone. Reading this part I understood why it is said that without a master, one can go into a spiritual deadend,,being self-pleased and getting into self-complacency, which only makes the ego stronger - the opposite of spiritual evolution (Trungpa names this spiritual materialism- which is the subject of another great book of his - one that I haven't read yet). In the beginning the master is more of a spiritual friend, he is friendly, but as a soul progresses, it realizes more and more what the master has been through, and friendship changes into devotion and respect, and the master himself demands more and more and is now brutally honest when a mistake happens.
The last section of the book touches the issue of tantra (which basically means enjoying life, and what most Westerners know - you know what I mean - is but a small part). Trungpa emphasizes that tantra shouldn't be attempted until ego has been mostly assimilated, that is until what he had talked up to that section have been lived, experimented, really understood and assimilated.
The message of the book is that there is no freedom as long as we run from ourselves, but only when we start to accept as we are, and, if we can, to change ourselves to be better. Meditation is a technique to do that, and initially will make us even more aware of our suffering. Freedom is a myth, and meditation is just a technique, a process to make us aware of this. We cannot find freedom from outside until we have focused on ourselves.

It took me several false starts before I was able to read all of Chogyam Trungpa's "The Myth of Freedom". When I was finally able to get past the first 30 pages, the rest was a breeze. This is not to say that the beginning of the book is more difficult, but as a non-Buddhist, it took a while to catch the ideas that Trungpa presents. Once those first basic ideas were caught, even though most likely imperfectly, the rest of the book unfolded in a wonderful presentation of ideas that provoked a lot of thought and self-contemplation. Whether this is "true" Buddhism or not did not matter to me. The description on the back cover of the book was perfect: "... is the freedom to pursue [things that arise from negative elements] true freedom or just a myth?"