About the Course

Explore this recorded Shambhala Online course at your own pace.

In August 2011, the late Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche gave five talks under the title Vivid Awareness to the Vajrayana sangha at the Shambhala Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

The program loosely followed the content of his book Vivid Awareness. The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar, which was published in the same year. These teachings offer powerful guidance on how to work with strong emotions in overwhelming circumstances through the Buddhist meditation practices of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.

These instructions are exceptionally concise and easy to follow. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche received this distillation of the essential points of Mahamudra from the renowned master Khenpo Gangshar, and he credits them with saving his life. They could save your life too – giving you the tools to stabilize the mind even in the most terrifying and challenging of circumstances.

–Pema Chödrön

This online course features more than six hours of footage of the Halifax events. It shows all of Thrangu Rinpoche’s lectures, with translations by Khenpo David Karma Choepel.

There is no study guide included with the videos, but you may be inspired to study the book Vivid Awareness. The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar, which is an extensive and thorough version of the course teachings. The topics of the talks correspond with certain chapters in the book which are referenced in the online course material.

Khenpo Chonyi Rangdrol, the representative of Thrangu Rinpoche’s sangha, has kindly given permission for the use of these videos through the Shambhala Archives.

Prerequisites

Vajrayana Transmission. Vajrayana students who are not members of Shambhala, and who have received transmission, can register by sending a request and letter of confirmation of their status to Julia Persch at [email protected].

About the Teacher

Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (1933-2023) was an eminent teacher of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. As young men in Tibet, he and Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche received ordination together by the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa.

Many years later, Thrangu Rinpoche was appointed by the Dalai Lama to be the personal tutor for the Seventeenth Karmapa.

During his life, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche traveled extensively in Europe, the United States, Canada and Asia. He headed a three-year retreat center at Namo Buddha in Nepal, oversaw long retreats at Samye Ling in Scotland, and was abbot of Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, Canada. On June 4th, 2023, Rinpoche passed away at his monastery in Nepal.