The Path Is the Goal (Paperback)

I must agree with the initial "put out" reviewer whom felt there was a lack of compassion in Trungpa's style; while "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" was a great book, this one leaves a lot to be desired. To be frank: Trungpa was notoriously abusive and behaved in particularly disturbing ways when he got drunk. Now many people who love him are aware of this, and others simply are not. I will give you an example of how "not so compassionate" he became when drunk, which was often. Where he was "breaking down ego." Unlike most Buddhist sects, Trungpa's lineage was allowed to drink, have sex, and generally carry on like maniacs; which many schools in the 70's relaxed monastic rules, et cetera. My own lineage had done this as well, Kwan Um Zen. But Trungpa was later involved in a scandal for ordering two students to be stripped nude at a seminar, against their will. Frankly, I'd feel threatened by such a teaching, as well. I just would maybe like to see people acknowledge occasionally that Trungpa was kind of not practicing what he preached; and I must say I often find myself put off when I hear an author praise Trungpa or dedicate a book to him. It raises unbelievable doubt within me about their legitimacy to teach (and their entire outlook on teaching in general).

So look: this book can help people if they are aware of this vital information (that's everywhere on the web if you don't believe me) in their spiritual practice; retaining awareness that Chogyam Trungpa was a "flawed individual" much like the rest of us. Do I recommend this book? Not particularly. Do I not recommend this book? Not particularly. I'm pretty indifferent to it, because like him or not he had helped a lot of people. It depends on who you are.

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.

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.