Book excerpt: Chögyam Trungpa was born in Tibet and strictly trained in the manner traditional for re-incarnations of great teachers. At the age of 19, he led 300 people over the Himalayas to India in a dramatic escape recounted in his autobiography Born in Tibet. Over the following 30 years, Trungpa became one of the foremost pioneers of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. He was also a highly controversial figure, considered by many to be one of the greatest Buddhist teachers ever to come to the west and viewed with suspicion by others. He taught in a style that went altogether beyond conventional ideas of what a "holy man" should be like, dressing in ordinary western clothes, drinking and taking sexual consorts. He taught in English with a direct and penetrating voice that drew to him many intelligent young students. These memoirs tell the story of the author, Jeremy Hayward, a close student and friend of Trungpa Rinpoche who became a senior teacher and administrator in the organizations Rinpoche established. This intimate chronological account opens with Hayward's first meeting with Trungpa Rinpoche in 1970 and progresses year by year until Rinpoche's death and beyond. Each chapter/year includes some discussion of the teachings that Rinpoche was presenting at that time as well as the context and atmosphere in which these teachings occurred and the evolution of the society and organizations which he inspired. The book should be of interest to all students of Buddhism as well as others interested in the evolution of Buddhism in the west, and possibly other seekers on the spiritual path.