A podcast about growing up in a Tibetan Buddhist cult in America. BACKGROUND: Una Morera was raised in the largest community of Buddhists in America, led by the enigmatic and outrageous Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, in Boulder, Colorado. Escaping Tibet in 1959, Trungpa Rinpoche made his way to America to teach the dharma and surround himself with Western students. Right after Una was born, her mother met Trungpa Rinpoche, and four years later, they would join his thriving community in Boulder, Colorado. Responsible for introducing meditation to the West, Trungpa Rinpoche was also responsible for his own brand of self-proclaimed crazy wisdom, which included drinking to excess, having sex with his students, and pushing the limits of conventionality. Growing up in this community, Una witnessed the birth of a secret society of dharma practitioners who, with Trungpa Rinpoche’s help, created a deadly environment of sexual predation, classism, and blind assent. Una learned the teachings of the dharma and the actions of dharma students were two very different things. This is a story about discovering who she really is after a lifetime of living and breathing a spiritual path based on ancient secrets and modern deceptions.
This is the EPILOGUE of UNCOVERAGE, wherein I ramble about the podcast and share my thoughts on various subjects and episodes, and reveal other bits of detritus from my mind.
In this final episode of UNCOVERAGE, Una is high up in the Colorado Rockies with Trungpa Rinpoche at a military program called Encampment where anything can happen.
Hello UNCOVERAGE podcast listeners!I wanted to let you all know about a special zoom chat I'm doing on January 15 at 2 pm EST.Please register at:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/uncoverage-unwrapped-tickets-227283048717As I bring this podcast to a close, I felt it was important to give listeners a chance to speak with me in person. Well, as in person as we can all be these days...So join me on January 15!Oh! And, it's free!
After moving to Karme Choling, the dharma center in Barnet, Vermont, Una's nightmare of being known as a Buddhist to strangers becomes a living reality at school. Unable and unwilling to make friends her own age, she experiences a series of adult relationships, some are good, others prove to be confusing. At the center of it all is Trungpa Rinpoche.
It's 1982 and Una's mother has had enough of Boulder. They pack up the car and move to a dharma center in Barnet, Vermont. On the way, they stop in New York City and stay at the Chelsea Hotel for a few days. On one of those afternoons, Una and her mother have lunch with her mother's family. Seeing her grandparents reminds Una of a trip she took to see them by herself, a few years earlier, to Fort Lauderdale.
Una attends a garden party for the teenagers with Trungpa Rinpoche at Kalapa Court, Trungpa Rinpoche's home. *This episode contains sexual abuse and may be upsetting or offensive. Please take care of yourself.
Una is hanging out in the basement at Dorje Dzong, the center, with a bunch of the other dharma kids. Tommy starts talking about hypocrites and Una wonders what he means. A few months later, Una's mother leaves town for seminary, a three-month program, with Trungpa Rinpoche.While her mother is gone Una decides to become a formal Buddhist, to take refuge. The process involves getting a new name, which forces Una to reflect on her past.
Una and her mother move into a big house on Mapleton Hill with Ann and her two kids. Just in time, too, as it's becoming increasingly difficult for her to reconcile the Buddhist world and the outside world.Una is invited to Kalapa Court, Trungpa Rinpoche's home, for High Tea. There's no saying what will happen to her once she walks through his front door, she may not come out the same little girl as she went in.
A few years have passed. Una wakes up early because it's the most important holiday of the year, Shambhala Day, and she's anxious. She wants to see Trungpa Rinpoche but she's worried that her mother won't wake up in time, that they'll have to sit in the coatroom. Every year, Trungpa Rinpoche gives the annual address, sharing his predictions for the coming year with the community, now called the sangha. Una wonders what Shambhala means and gets confused by all the different things people say about it.
Settling into life in Boulder, Colorado, Una runs wild with the other kids at Trungpa Rinpoche's dharma talks, setting fires, and making life-long friends. Noticing that meditation has become the center of her mother's life, she decides to try it, too.When school lets out for the summer, Una's mother decides it's time to meditate for a month and they go to a remote dharma center for the summer.
Trying to get settled in Boulder, Colorado after a tumultuous trip to Venezuela, Una learns what a new life means with her mother and Trungpa Rinpoche.When Una tags along with her mother to a personal audience with the great Tibetan meditation master himself, he has some special words for her that will forever change the course of her life.
**TRIGGER WARNING** This episode contains sexual abuse. Separating from her mother, Una goes to live with her mother's friend, Mara. They fly to Caracas, Venezuela where Una is introduced to Maria and her three sons. It's a trip Una will never forget.
Opening at the Strand Bookstore, in New York City, Una realizes how popular Trungpa Rinpoche continues to be. It gives her the impetus to tell her story. Traveling back to age two, when her memories in this life begin, Una and her mother visit her father in Puerto Rico, travel to New York, and end up in California, living in a 1955 Chevy. Una's mother finds Trungpa Rinpoche again and the two end up at Padma Jong, one of his new dharma centers in Mendocino County. When Trungpa Rinpoche forms Naropa Institute, Una and her mother travel to Boulder, Colorado for the first time, to sit at his feet and hear what he has to say.
Una Morera was raised in the largest community of Buddhists in America, led by the enigmatic and outrageous Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, in Boulder, Colorado. This is her story.
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