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an ordinary but very sacred experience, one that really does not have much to do with embracing austerity per se. As Rinpoche concludes, “Simplicity is applicable to the situation of transcending neurotic mind by using domestic language. It becomes profound without pretense, and this naturally provokes the actual practice of meditation.”
    It seems fitting that Volume Five should end with these three articles celebrating the life of Milarepa. Although outwardly his was a life marked by the trappings of a secular existence, Chögyam Trungpa, like Milarepa, gave up everything familiar and cozy to bring the dharma of his lineage from Tibet to North America. He, like his forefathers, was rugged and direct, yet supremely sweet and gentle, and marked by an almost unbearable sadness, which became the expression of bliss. As he says in “The Dohā of Sadness,” one of his songs in The Rain of Wisdom:
     
You, my only father guru, have gone far away,
My vajra brothers and sisters have wandered to the ends of the earth.
Only I, Chögyam, the little child, am left.
Still, for the teachings of the profound and brilliant practice lineage,
I am willing to surrender my life in sadness.
    In many thangkas, Milarepa is shown holding his hand up to his right ear. It is often said that he is listening to himself singing his own songs of realization. But I wonder if he is not listening to hear who will pick up the song of dharma that Trungpa Rinpoche sang in the West. Who will carry forward that melody? The Kagyü gurus are waiting to hear that song sung completely in a foreign tongue, echoing the same wisdom they have guarded with their lives for so many, many years. Let us aspire to join them in their song!
     
C AROLYN R OSE G IMIAN
February 6, 2002
Trident Mountain House
Tatamagouche Mountain, Nova Scotia
    1 . Heruka is the Sanskrit term. Yidam is the Tibetan for a vajrayana deity.
    2 . Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Shambala Classics edition (2002), p. 18.
    3 . First Thought Best Thought (1983), p. 125.
    4 . The story of Chögyam Trungpa’s voyage out of Tibet is told in his autobiography, Born in Tibet, which appears in Volume One.
    5 . Born in Tibet (1976), p. 233.
    6 . The Rain of Wisdom (1980), afterword by the NTC, p. 304.
    7 . The translation committee has quite a large number of other members, and it is not feasible to name all of them here. However, in the acknowledgments to The Rain of Wisdom, a central translation committee for this project is identified, “consisting of Robin Kornman, John Rockwell, Jr., and Scott Wellenbach in collaboration with Lama Ugyen Shenpen, Loppön Lodrö Dorje Holm, and Larry Mermelstein [the Executive Director of the NTC].” In The Life of Marpa, the core group is identified as David Cox, Dana Dudley, John Rockwell, Jr., Ives Waldo, and Gerry Weiner, in collaboration with Loppön Lodrö Dorje and Larry Mermelstein—with much guidance from Trungpa Rinpoche and Lama Ugyen. These are just some of the members of the NTC who worked on these translations. The large membership of the translation group points out how quickly and to what extent Rinpoche was able to share the wealth of his tradition, including so many bright minds and dedicated students in his work.
    8 . Traditionally, when a terma text is written out, a special mark or sign is placed at the end of each line of text. The terma marks have been omitted from the excerpt from The Sadhana of Mahamudra that appears in Volume Five.
    9 . See the introduction to Volume One for Richard Arthure’s comments on the editing of Meditation in Action.
    10 . It was during the 1968 visit to Asia that Rinpoche met Thomas Merton, shortly before Merton’s untimely death.
    11 . Karma Pakshi (1203–1282) was the second Karmapa. He was invited to China by Prince Kublai Khan and by his rival and older brother, Mongka Khan. When His Holiness the sixteenth Karmapa made his second visit to the United States in 1976, Trungpa Rinpoche asked him to perform