Chögyam Trungpa's Birthday - Tibetans use a lunar calendar. In Born in Tibet, Rinpoche says that he was born on the first full moon after Losar. Losar, or New Year's Day, is always on the new moon. So Rinpoche was born about two weeks after Losar/Shambhala Day. If you'd like to mark your calendars, his lunar birthday falls on March 8th this year. He would be turning 72. Four weeks later, on April 4th, we will marking the 25th anniversary of his parivirvana.
Enter the Dragon
By Walter Fordh
Posted 22 February 2012
Chögyam Trungpa was born in the year of the Iron Dragon, which began on February 8, 1940, when Tibet was still Tibet, a feudal society isolated from the world. Beyond its snow capped peaks, World War Two was brewing, the buddhadharma was barely known, and most of Chögyam Trungpa's western students were not yet born. Here's what one astrologer says about those born in the year of the Iron Dragon.
Truthful but extreme, courageous but unyielding, Iron Dragons have a strength similar to the Fire Dragon. Iron Dragons succeed through determination. They are mighty and respect people who stand up to them. In troubled times, these Dragons make great allies, but become ferocious challengers. Iron Dragons can often calm others through their forceful personalities. They seek action, and things are never better than when they are defending a thought or belief about which they have complete faith. Iron Dragons like to lead, and have an effect that makes others want to follow them. Yet even if they attract no support they will fight alone.
Today is Shambhala Day/Losar 2012—the year of the Water Dragon, the sixth dragon year since Chögyam Trungpa's birth. This got me thinking about dragon years. Have they been significant in some way during and since Chögyam Trungpa's life? Here's a very subjective look back at dragon years 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, and 2012.
By 1952, the year of the Water Dragon, Chögyam Trungpa had already revealed a number of terma teachings, composed several sadhanas, impressed and intimidated his tutors, and met his root guru Sechen Kongtrul. But to my knowledge, we don't know anything specifically about his 12th year. Perhaps there was some foreshadowing of the dark days that would soon follow for the Tibetan people. Meanwhile, many of his future students were young children living in 1950s American families, a world far from Tibet in every way imaginable.
Posted 22 February 2012
Chögyam Trungpa was born in the year of the Iron Dragon, which began on February 8, 1940, when Tibet was still Tibet, a feudal society isolated from the world. Beyond its snow capped peaks, World War Two was brewing, the buddhadharma was barely known, and most of Chögyam Trungpa's western students were not yet born. Here's what one astrologer says about those born in the year of the Iron Dragon.
Truthful but extreme, courageous but unyielding, Iron Dragons have a strength similar to the Fire Dragon. Iron Dragons succeed through determination. They are mighty and respect people who stand up to them. In troubled times, these Dragons make great allies, but become ferocious challengers. Iron Dragons can often calm others through their forceful personalities. They seek action, and things are never better than when they are defending a thought or belief about which they have complete faith. Iron Dragons like to lead, and have an effect that makes others want to follow them. Yet even if they attract no support they will fight alone.
Today is Shambhala Day/Losar 2012—the year of the Water Dragon, the sixth dragon year since Chögyam Trungpa's birth. This got me thinking about dragon years. Have they been significant in some way during and since Chögyam Trungpa's life? Here's a very subjective look back at dragon years 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, and 2012.
By 1952, the year of the Water Dragon, Chögyam Trungpa had already revealed a number of terma teachings, composed several sadhanas, impressed and intimidated his tutors, and met his root guru Sechen Kongtrul. But to my knowledge, we don't know anything specifically about his 12th year. Perhaps there was some foreshadowing of the dark days that would soon follow for the Tibetan people. Meanwhile, many of his future students were young children living in 1950s American families, a world far from Tibet in every way imaginable.
By 1964, the year of the Wood Dragon, much had changed. Rinpoche had finished his training and grown to prominence as an accomplished and highly regarded lama. He had led a ragtag group of refugees across seemingly endless mountain ranges, left the reclusive land of snow, and entered the wide world: first India, then England. 1964 was his first full year in the West. Did he and Akong mark their first Losar in England in some way? This dragon year would be spent immersed in western culture, thought and language at Oxford. Meanwhile, many of his future students were entering high school, listening to the Beatles and Dylan, and beginning to hear the distant beat of a different drummer.
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