" Dharma Art" refers to creative works that spring from the awakened meditative state, characterizrd by directness, unselfconsciousness, and nonagression. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche shows that dharma art provides a vehicle to appreciate the nature of things as they are and express it without any struggle or desire toachieve. A work of dharma art brings out the goodness and dignity of the situation it refelects-dignity that comes from the artist's interest in the details of life and sense of appreciation for experience. At the same time, the author stresses the need for artists to study their craft, develop skill , and absorp knowledge and insight passed down by tradition. And, finally, he extends the principle of dharma art to everyday life, showing how any activity can provide an oppurtunity to relaxand open ourselves to the phenomenal world.
Chogyam Trungpa founded the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado; Shambala Training; and Vajradhatu, an international association of meditation centers. Among his many books are Shambala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior; Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, and Meditation in Action.

Dharma Art, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 144 Pages, $22.95

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.