Welcome to Shambhala
S01:E06

Welcome to Shambhala

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Episode description

A few years have passed. Una wakes up early because it’s the most important holiday of the year, Shambhala Day, and she’s anxious. She wants to see Trungpa Rinpoche but she’s worried that her mother won’t wake up in time, that they’ll have to sit in the coatroom. Every year, Trungpa Rinpoche gives the annual address, sharing his predictions for the coming year with the community, now called the sangha. Una wonders what Shambhala means and gets confused by all the different things people say about it.

BACKGROUND:

Una Morera was raised in the largest community of Buddhists in America, led by the enigmatic and outrageous Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, in Boulder, Colorado.

Escaping Tibet in 1959, Trungpa Rinpoche made his way to America to teach the dharma and surround himself with Western students.

Right after she was born, her mother met Trungpa Rinpoche, and four years later, her mother would join his thriving community in Boulder, Colorado.

Responsible for introducing meditation to the West, Trungpa Rinpoche was also responsible for his own brand of self-proclaimed crazy wisdom, which included drinking to excess, having sex with his students, and pushing the limits of conventionality.

Growing up in this community, Una witnessed the birth of a secret society of dharma practitioners who, with Trungpa Rinpoche’s help, created a deadly environment of sexual predation, classism, and blind assent.

Una learned the teachings of the dharma and the actions of dharma students were two very different things.

This is a story about discovering who she really is after a lifetime of living and breathing a spiritual path based on ancient secrets and modern deceptions.

No transcript available for this episode.