Author Guide · Buddhism & Spirituality
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In April 1959 Chögyam Trungpa, a young Tibetan Buddhist teacher from the Nangchen region, set out to escape to India with a party that eventually numbered 300 refugees; in January 1960 they were flown to a refugee camp. Within ten years he had studied at Oxford, co-founded Samye Ling in Scotland, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West, and given up his monastic vows. In 1970 he moved to North America, where he founded Vajradhatu, the Naropa Institute in Boulder and the secular programme Shambhala Training. This guide covers his ten key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 key books · 1966–2010 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Chögyam Trungpa’s best-known books are Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973), The Myth of Freedom (1976) and Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (1984). Start with Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism; many of his books are edited talks, and many more appeared after his death in 1987.
Where to Start with Chögyam Trungpa
If you want his defining book
→ Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973) — the talks that named spiritual materialism.
If you want meditation without religion
→ Shambhala (1984) — the secular path of the warrior.
If you want to go further on the Buddhist path
→ The Myth of Freedom (1976).
If you want his own life story
→ Born in Tibet (1966) — the escape from Tibet in 1959.
10 Chögyam Trungpa Books, in Order
Born in Tibet
His first book: his own account of his early life and training in Tibet and of his escape to India in 1959–60, with a party that eventually numbered 300 refugees.
Meditation in Action
His second book and his first book of teachings, on meditation. It appeared in 1969, while he was still at Samye Ling in Scotland, the year before he moved to North America.
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
Edited from two series of lectures he gave in 1970 and 1971. Its subject is what he called spiritual materialism: self-deception on the spiritual path, in which spiritual practice becomes one more way of building up the ego.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
A translation of the Bardo Thödol made with the scholar Francesca Fremantle, with his commentary. The text guides the dead through the bardo, the intermediate state between death and rebirth.
The Myth of Freedom
A book of his Buddhist teachings published in 1976, three years after Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. This guide reads it as the next step after that book on the Buddhist line of his work.
Journey Without Goal
Edited from a seminar on Vajrayana, the tantric Buddhism of Tibet, that he gave at the Naropa Institute in Boulder in the summer of 1974, the institute’s first year.
First Thought Best Thought
A collection of 108 poems, most of them written after he arrived in the United States in 1970 and most originally written in English, with an introduction by his student Allen Ginsberg.
Shambhala
A book of the secular Shambhala teachings on warriorship that he began giving in 1976, the teachings behind Shambhala Training. It presents its path without Buddhist doctrine.
Crazy Wisdom
Published four years after his death, from two seminars he gave in 1972 on crazy wisdom, the awakened state of mind taught by Padmasambhava, the teacher who brought Buddhism to Tibet from India.
Smile at Fear
A posthumous book of his Shambhala teachings on fear and bravery, compiled and edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian. It returns to the spiritual warrior of Shambhala: someone who meets life with openness and fearlessness.
In What Order to Read Chögyam Trungpa
Nothing in Trungpa has to be read in sequence, but the books fall into two lines. The Buddhist line runs from Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism to The Myth of Freedom and then to the tantric teachings of Journey Without Goal and Crazy Wisdom, which assume the earlier books. The Shambhala line starts with Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior and continues in Smile at Fear; it is secular and needs no Buddhist background.
Because so much was published after 1987 from recordings, publication order is not the order in which he taught. Crazy Wisdom (1991) comes from 1972, earlier than The Myth of Freedom.
A reading path
1. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973)
2. The Myth of Freedom (1976)
3. Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (1984)
4. Journey Without Goal (1981)
5. Crazy Wisdom (1991)
Everything Else Chögyam Trungpa Published
Beyond the 10 key books: 9 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Books in his lifetime
5
5 books · 1972–1980
- 1972Mudra
- 1975The Dawn of Tantra
- 1975Glimpses of Abhidharma
- 1975Visual Dharma
- 1980The Rain of Wisdom
Published after his death
4
4 books · 1994–1999
- 1994The Art of Calligraphy
- 1996Dharma Art
- 1998Timely Rain
- 1999Great Eastern Sun
The years · 1939–1987
Quick facts about Chögyam Trungpa
- Known for
- Bringing Tibetan Buddhism to Western readers, and founding Naropa University and Shambhala Training.
- 1939
- Born in Nangchen, Tibet
- 1959
- Escapes from Tibet to India
- 1970
- Moves to North America
- 1984
- Shambhala
- 1987
- Dies in Halifax, Nova Scotia
- Born
- March 1939, Nangchen, Tibet; some sources give 1940
- Died
- 4 April 1987, Halifax, Nova Scotia
- Education
- Oxford University, 1963–1967, on a Spalding Fellowship
- Founded
- Samye Ling (1967, with Akong Rinpoche), Vajradhatu (1973), the Naropa Institute (1974), Shambhala Training
- Married
- Diana Pybus, in 1970
- Students
- Including Pema Chödrön, Allen Ginsberg and Joni Mitchell
The red mark is 1973: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, the book this guide recommends starting with.
How Chögyam Trungpa Writes: Talks Turned into Books
Many of Trungpa’s books began as talks. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism comes from two series of lectures in 1970–71, Crazy Wisdom from two seminars in 1972 and Journey Without Goal from a seminar at the Naropa Institute in 1974. His editors, among them Carolyn Rose Gimian, who edited his Collected Works and compiled Smile at Fear after his death, shaped that material into books, which often read like someone speaking to a room.
In Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism the target is self-deception in the spiritual search itself, the way spiritual practice can be used to build up the ego; in Shambhala he sets Buddhist doctrine aside and teaches a secular path of warriorship.
He was also a poet and calligrapher: First Thought Best Thought collects 108 poems, with an introduction by his student Allen Ginsberg, and his calligraphy appeared in The Art of Calligraphy (1994). For another of his students, see Pema Chödrön’s books.
Frequently asked questions about Chögyam Trungpa’s books
How many books has Chögyam Trungpa written?
This page covers nineteen books published under his name: ten key books and nine more in the list of other books, from Born in Tibet (1966) to books published after his death in 1987. The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa gathers his writings; it first appeared in eight volumes in 2003 and was later expanded to ten.
What are Chögyam Trungpa’s books in order?
Born in Tibet (1966), Meditation in Action (1969), Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973), The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1975, with Francesca Fremantle), The Myth of Freedom (1976), Journey Without Goal (1981), First Thought Best Thought (1983), Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (1984), Crazy Wisdom (1991) and Smile at Fear (2010).
Where should I start with Chögyam Trungpa?
With Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973), the talks that introduced his central idea. If you want meditation without Buddhist doctrine, start with Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (1984) instead.
What is Chögyam Trungpa’s most famous book?
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973). Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (1984) and The Myth of Freedom (1976) are close behind.
What is spiritual materialism?
Trungpa’s term, from Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973), for self-deception on the spiritual path: using spiritual practice to build up the ego instead of seeing through it.
Was Chögyam Trungpa controversial?
Yes. Many who knew him described him as an alcoholic, and his doctor reported that he had chronic liver disease related to his alcohol intake over many years. He had sexual relationships with a number of his female students. In 1975, during a Halloween party at a seminary in Snowmass, Colorado, his guards, on his orders, forced their way into the locked and barricaded room of the poet W. S. Merwin; Merwin and his partner Dana Naone were then stripped of their clothes against their will. Merwin later said he would not encourage anyone to become Trungpa’s student.
Was Pema Chödrön a student of Chögyam Trungpa?
Yes. Pema Chödrön is one of his best-known students. See her books in order.
Is Chögyam Trungpa still alive?
No. He died on 4 April 1987 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he had moved his home and the headquarters of Vajradhatu in 1986.
What did Chögyam Trungpa found?
Samye Ling in Scotland (1967, with Akong Rinpoche), the Buddhist organisation Vajradhatu (1973), the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, now Naropa University (1974), Shambhala Training and Gampo Abbey (1983).
Did Chögyam Trungpa translate The Tibetan Book of the Dead?
Yes, with Francesca Fremantle. Their translation, with his commentary, was published in 1975.
Footnotes
- Chögyam Trungpa — Wikipedia
- About Chögyam Trungpa — Shambhala Publications
- What Does It Mean To Embrace Who You Are? — Shambhala New York
- Facing Yourself — Lion’s Roar
- Shambhala (review) — Spirituality & Practice
- Meditation: The Path of the Buddha — The Chronicles of Chögyam Trungpa
- Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism — Wikipedia
- Journey Without Goal — The Chronicles of Chögyam Trungpa
- First Thought Best Thought — Shambhala Publications
- Smile at Fear — Shambhala Publications
- Crazy Wisdom (review) — Bernie Gourley
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The key to warriorship and the first principle of Shambhala vision is not being afraid of who you are.”
— Chögyam Trungpa, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (1984)
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