Looking Back: The Sparks of 1974
“The purpose of Naropa Institute is to bring together the dynamics of opposites, to unite extremes in viewpoints. When opposites rub against each other, there is a spark of energy. Our interest is to make Naropa Institute a place where intellectual activity will be combined with experience, to blend the two kinds of knowing—the intellectual with the intuitive. The split between East and West is the split between the mind and the heart.“—Naropa’s founder, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Archival photos of 1974 by John Barkin, Laura Blades, Roy Bonney, Blair Hansen, Liza Matthews, Andrea Craig Roth, Karen Roper, Alan Rabold, Hudson Shotwell, Robert Del Tredici.
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First Summer Session 1974
Photo by Hudson Shotwell. During initial planning, Trungpa and early faculty hoped to attract as many as 500 students to the first summer sessions. By summer, enrollment exploded to over 2,000 students—making a successful first launch of Naropa as an institution.
The Energetic Center
Photo by Karen Roper. Ram Dass and Naropa's founder Trungpa Rinpoche could not have been more different in their approaches to teaching and working with students. But they had deep personal affection and respect for one another.
Allen Ginsberg
Photo: Naropa Archives. Already a major luminary in American culture
and a student of Trungpa Rinpoche, Allen Ginsberg saw Naropa as a way "of teaching meditators about the golden mouth and educating poets about the golden mind."
The Summer Writing Program
Photo: Liza Matthews. The SWP was the birthplace of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, which was founded by Anne Waldman, Allen Ginsberg, and Diane di Prima.
Anne Waldman
Photo: Naropa Archives. After some playful banter, Waldman and Ginsberg agreed on
the name The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
"because Kerouac experienced the first noble truth of suffering and also because of his
praxis of nonstop spontaneity and tenderness of heart."
Barbara Dilley
Photo by Laura Blades. Beloved longtime faculty, Barbara Dilley, was key in the early founding of Naropa. Not only did she found the Dance/Movement Studies Program in 1974, she later went on to serve as Naropa’s president from 1985-93 and led the university to accreditation.
Barbara Bash
Photo: Naropa Archives. Barbara Bash was already a talented Western calligrapher when she arrived at Naropa. With Trungpa’s encouragement she started practicing and teaching big brush strokes and offered many memorable performance art pieces over the years at Naropa.
Experimental Musician John Cage
Poet Anne Waldman recalls, ”He did one of his pieces, 'Empty Words Part IV,’ based on the meditative journals of Thoreau. Cage had his back to the audience, and people couldn't handle it” and started throwing cushions. Cage turned to confront the audience and said, "I thought this was a meditative environment."
Practitioner/Scholars
Photo: Naropa Archives. Trungpa Rinpoche and Ram Dass welcomed Professor Herbert V Guenther to Naropa’s first summer.
An early example of how Naropa brought contemplative teachers and practitioners together with Buddhist academic luminaries.
Sharon Salzberg
Photo by Roy Bonney. Intrigued by Eastern Spirituality and recently returned from India, Sharon Salzberg taught Vipassana meditation that first summer.
Jack Kornfield
Photo: Naropa Archives. Another founding faculty member, the writer and teacher Jack Kornfield taught Vipassana meditation during Naropa's first summer session.
Lee Worley
Photo: Naropa Archives. Longtime faculty member and lineage holder in the practice of Mudra Space Awareness, Lee Worley taught theater during Naropa's first summer session. She went on to develop Naropa's Theater and Contemplative Education programs.
Gregory Bateson
Anthropologist, social scientist, and linguist Gregory Bateson. His theory of the creative potential of paradox fit the new Naropa Institute like a glove.
Jazz Musician Jerry Granelli
Photo: Naropa Archives. “The first time I went to hear Chogyam Trungpa speak, it was like the first time I heard Charlie Parker. I recognized what he was saying as truth." Jerry Granelli started the Creative Music Program at Naropa Institute with percussionist Colin Walcott.
