The 25th Anniversary of the parinirvana (death) of Chögyam Trungpa is April 4, 2012. Chögyam Trungpa met the founder of Shambhala Publications, Samuel Bercholz, in 1970, when Trungpa Rinpoche first came to America. Since that time, Shambhala Publications has published more than thirty books by Chögyam Trungpa. He was a charismatic figure and a pioneer in bringing the practicing lineages of Buddhism to the West. Today he remains an influential teacher for many students on the Buddhist path. Due to the extensive archive of his lectures and the ongoing work of his editors, new titles continue to appear almost every year.

To commemorate the 25th Anniversary, Shambhala Publications is giving away twenty-five books by Chögyam Trungpa—a book a day—for twenty-five days, beginning on April 4. We are also offering a 30 percent discount on all books by Chögyam Trungpa if you use code CTR25 at checkout through the end of April. Click here to see a description of all of his books published by Shambhala.

To enter the contest, please tell us in a comment how Chögyam Trungpa has influenced your path and what book of his you would like to win. The contest ends April 30.

Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chögyam Trungpa premiered almost a year ago at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. Johanna Demetrakas’s feature-length documentary has made its way across North America, playing to sold out audiences in New York; Boston; Los Angeles; Boulder; Vancouver; and Halifax, Nova Scotia, among other locations. Now, Crazy Wisdom is available to download from Alive Mind Cinema.

If you missed its festival and theatrical releases, you can still see the film on your own laptop. The more times I see it, the more I appreciate both the subject, Chögyam Trungpa, and the filmmaker, Johanna Demetrakas. Bravo to both of them for their fearless and uncompromising pursuit of wisdom!

This week Ocean of Dharma offers an opportunity for you to win a download of the film. What does crazy wisdom mean to you? Answer that question here for a chance to win one of four free downloads. To be selected by random draw on February 3. Congrats to Raquel (Surya Devi), Matt, Marc Otto, and Melissa Silva—you’ve each won a download of the movie! Thank you all for your thoughtful comments.

Steve Jobs read Chögyam Trungpa, according to Bianca Bosker in the Huffington Post article “The Steve Jobs Reading List: The Books and Artists That Made the Man.”

Bosker reports that, “during his freshman year at Reed College, Jobs befriended Daniel Kottke, who went on to work at Apple, and together they devoured books such as Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind  [and] Chögyam Trungpa’s Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism…”

What might have been the ideas in Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism that influenced this great technological genius of our era?

This week Ocean of Dharma suggests several quotes that might have affected Jobs’ view of creativity and intelligence. We’d love to hear what you think. Leave a comment with your thoughts on the connection between Buddhism and creative innovation. Or feel free to offer your favorite or most influential quotes from Cutting Through. In early November, we’ll pick five people to receive the Shambhala Library edition of the book.

Congrats to Angela Borges, Valerie Holmes, Jean Westby, Roland Cohen and Karolyn Hoover who have each won copy of the Shambhala Library edition of Cutting Through! Please come back soon for more giveaways and updates!

How do we work skillfully with rough times?

How do we transform our lives during times of upheaval and unpredictability?

How do we broaden our tolerance for uneasiness?

It seems that these questions are becoming increasingly relevant as our world faces a whole array of troubles: social, political, economic, and ecological. Now more than ever we are challenged to find the strength and bravery inherent in the human heart.

Pema Chödrön, beloved teacher and author of many books of dharma wisdom, will be teaching a retreat to help us find the tools we need to begin to answer those hard questions. The retreat, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change, will be broadcast via live stream from the Omega Institute on the weekend of October 28 to 30, and will be available for on-demand viewing until December 31. Learn more about the program here.

Because many of Pema’s teachings resonate strongly with the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa, Ocean of Dharma and Shambhala Publications are giving away a free ticket to the online retreat.

What does it mean to live beautifully in a time of uncertainty and change?

Please contemplate this question and share your thoughts in a comment below. On October 14, we’ll select one person to receive free access to the online retreat with Ani Pema, and four runners-up will receive a copy of Ocean of Dharma: The Everyday Wisdom of Chögyam Trungpa.

Congrats to Daz, Kathryn, Nadine, Nirmala, and Shala! Daz has won free access to the retreat, and the others have won a copy of Ocean of Dharma: The Everyday Wisdom of Chogyam Trungpa. Thank you all for your thoughtful comments. Please come back soon for more giveaways and updates!

Answer this question in a comment below and you could receive a free ticket to attend the Creating a Mindful Society conference in New York, September 30 and October 1st. I’m going to be there, learning about mindfulness, and I look forward to meeting the winner of this contest there as well. For information about the program, visit here.

Five runners-up will each receive a copy of The Mindfulness Revolution, a new anthology of writings on mindfulness and mindful living, so there’s no need to feel discouraged from entering if you can’t make it to New York.
As part of the program of talks, dialogue, practice, and breakout sessions, participants will:

• Learn from leading experts in the mindfulness field: keynote presentations will be by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), mindful leadership expert Janice Marturano, U.S. Congressman Tim Ryan, and renowned neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson
• Discover the benefits of mindfulness for your own life—and learn about the science that proves how it works
• Go deeper into areas of interest at breakout sessions of your choice
• Share experience and insight with fellow practitioners across many fields and benefit from theirs
• Learn about the exciting work now happening to change lives and create a mindful society
• Explore the future of the emerging mindfulness movement at the Mindfulness Town Hall
• Connect and network with others in the mindfulness community in a relaxed, contemplative atmosphere

Creating a Mindful Society will be held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on beautiful Central Park West in New York City. This landmark gathering of the mindfulness community is a partnership of the Center for Mindfulness, Omega Institute, and Mindful: Living with Awareness and Compassion.

If you are new to meditation, this is a great opportunity, and it’s also a wonderful situation for established practitioners to deepen their experience and share with a community of others committed to mindful living.

For your chance at a free ticket, tell us what you think a mindful society is. The winner of the contest will be chosen on September 14th at 5 pm.  Five runners-up will receive copies of The Mindfulness Revolution, a new anthology of writings on mindfulness and mindful living. So this is a contest for all!

Congrats to Sharon H., who is going to the Creating a Mindful Society conference! Also, congrats to Gregg, Simone, Susan, Chet, and Gavin. They each received a copy of The Mindfulness Revolution. Thank you all for your thoughtful comments! It is inspiring to know that mindful society is such a rich topic for contemplation.