All of us experience obstacles as part of our journey, in life and on the spiritual path. In many cases, we think of them as purely something unpleasant to overcome, or as a mistake that needs correcting. Here, Chogyam Trungpa takes a radically different approach to such obstacles, teaching that unexpected chaos, confusion, and emotional upheavals can actually be used as fuel for the journey and energy that can transform confusion into sanity and wisdom. He illustrates this transformative principle through telling the lively history of the Trungpa tulkus (a lineage within the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism), of which he was the eleventh incarnation. Trungpa referred to his lineage as the "Mishap Lineage" because of the ups and downs and colorful lives that were typical of his predecessors, and true of his own life as well. The stories of the Trungpas are seen as a guide for the practitioner's journey and help us to understand how important lineage and community remain for us today.
Mishap Lineage: Transforming Confusion into Wisdom, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Shambhala, Paperback, 144 pp, $21.95

Trungpa was born in Eastern Tibet and recognized as an incarnation of the Trungpa line at an early date. He studied with, among others, one of the reincarnations of the Jamgyon Kongtrul who wrote the most famous commentary on the Seven Points. In 1959 he fled to India in the wake of the Communist takeover in Tibet, courageously leading many of his people to safety (this period is described in his book Born in Tibet.)

He came to England in the mid-sixties to study at Oxford, learned English, started to teach, and started one of the first Tibetan Buddhist centers in the West. He later dropped his monastic vows, married, and moved to America where he continued his teaching. He founded the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, a large and highly respected Buddhist university, as well as the Shambhala organization. The influence of both his teaching and his books on American Buddhism was and still is enormous.

	Contents: The Mishap Lineage: Transforming Confusion into Wisdom
	Editor's Preface	vii
	Ocean Waves of Devotion	xiii
1.	The Practicing Lineage	1
2.	Kagyu Lineage/Mishap Lineage	9
3.	Trung Ma-se and the Three Idiots	19
4.	Tent Culture	29
5.	The Fourth Trungpa	39
6.	Trungpas Five through Ten	47
7.	The Eleventh Trungpa	61
	Appendix: The Trungpa Tulkus	77
	Light of Blessings	95
	Editor's Afterword	97
	Editor's Acknowledgments	107
	Notes	109
	Glossary	119
	Resources	131
	About the Author	133
	Index	139