Meditation in Action

Meditation in Action was Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's first book of Dharma teachings published in English. It is based on talks he gave in Britain in the late Sixties, before he came to America.

Already present are major themes of Trungpa Rinpoche's teaching throughout the rest of his life: the importance of personal experience via meditation practice, going beyond the initial excitement about entering a spiritual path, nowness, and de-centralizing one's meditation—expanding outwards as opposed to concentrating inwards. There is a wealth of practical advice about how to approach being a practitioner, as useful and fresh to the beginning or experienced meditator now as it was when it was first published.

Topics include teacher-student transmission and the six paramitas, but perhaps the most crucial chapter in the book is 'The Manure of Experience and the Field of Bodhi.' Here Trungpa Rinpoche distils his characteristic (and provocative) Tantric approach to Hinayana discipline. “Samsara is the Vehicle for Nirvana.” Each person's particular collection of negativity, confused emotions, and conceptual clutter is not something to be pushed away or ‘transcended’ through endless struggle. Rather, the smelly, unhygienic mess of our own minds is the compost that, properly applied, allows the seed of realization to sprout.

See Meditation in Action at amazon.com
See Meditation in Action at amazon.co.uk