Shambhala Training

Shambhala Training is a secular approach to meditation and a new religious movement developed by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his students. It is based on what Trungpa calls Shambhala Vision, which sees enlightened society as not purely mythical, but as realizable by people of all faiths through practices of mindfulness/awareness, non-aggression, and sacred outlook.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche arrived in North America in 1970, and began teaching Western students from within the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. These students formed a growing spiritual community, which incorporated as Vajradhatu (now Shambhala International) in 1973.

Beginning in 1976, Trungpa Rinpoche presented a series of teachings known as the "Shambhala teachings" to the community. These teachings presented the principle of basic goodness, and a secular rather than religious approach to enlightenment.

In 1977, Trungpa Rinpoche first trained senior students to teach Shambhala Training, a series of weekend meditation programs offered widely throughout the community, and in 1978, Trungpa Rinpoche conducted the first annual Kalapa Assembly, an intensive training program for advanced Shambhala teachings and practices.

In 1984, Trungpa Rinpoche published the book Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, which gives a detailed presentation of the core Shambhala teachings.

In 1987, Trungpa died of illnesses related to his long-term alcohol abuse. He was 47 years old. After Trungpa's death, Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin became spiritual head of Vajradhatu until around 1989. Tendzin died in 1990 at the age of 48 from AIDS-related complications. Both Trungpa and Tendzin had sexual relationships with many of their students, with Tendzin passing along the HIV virus to at least one student who later died of the disease. This history led to a period of instability and conflict within the organization, until Trungpa Rinpoche's eldest son, Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo, became spiritual and executive head of the Vajradhatu community.

In 1995, Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo was endorsed by Penor Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma lineage, as the reincarnation of Ju Mipham, and enthroned as Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

Beginning in 2000, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche moved to enclose the previously secular teachings of Shambhala within the container of a new lineage known as Shambhala Buddhism. In the following years, the Shambhala and Buddhist curricula were merged, and Shambhala versions of practices such as Ngöndro were developed.