DSG Coordinator Bio

Before I began with the formal study and practice of Buddhism and meditation, I had received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan (attended 1971 through 1974), with minors in the standard pre-med curriculum, poetry and literature, and hybrid classes related to religion, psychology, and literature. Somewhat exasperated by my psychological studies, I discovered the phenomenological psychology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, with the help of a teacher, and went on to study at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, receiving a Masters degree in General Phenomenological Psychology in 1976.

I became a student of Trungpa Rinpoche in 1977 when I first picked up the book Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. It took me 2 years to figure out that this was something I could actually do and that I was, in fact, a student, and that I cared about that more than other pursuits. From my perspective, Trungpa Rinpoche's writing included the best of phenomenological writings I had seen up to that time.

In March of 1979 I began practicing meditation and joining in with the short-lived but well-staffed Ann Arbor Michigan Dharma Study Group. I attended my first dharma program with Trungpa Rinpoche that summer of 1979, one of the Naropa Institute Psychology symposiums. That very talk is actually available on the Chogyam Trungpa Naropa Institute Digital Library website here: 1979-08-05: Naropa | Chogyam Trungpa Digital Library | Aviary (aviaryplatform.com).

A major study program for our group has been the Warrior of Shambhala seminar by Trungpa Rinpoche and his Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin, which happened right in the middle of that psychology symposium. This has been a core piece for our group's study of the Shambhala Training curriculum. I later moved to Boulder, Colorado in December 1979 to study Buddhism and the Shambhala teachings further, as well as to attend The Naropa Institute's M.A. program in Buddhist and Western Psychology. I graduated from the Naropa program in 1982 and subsequently joined the staff and faculty at Naropa as an administrator, meditation instructor, teaching assistant, and teacher.

Living in Boulder from 1980 through 1993, I was employed part-time as an administrative assistant for Vajradhatu Publications (1982-1984) during my early years as a recent graduate, bringing word processing to that office and helping with the production of a number of books and transcripts, including the book Shambhala, Sacred Path of the Warrior. I transcribed quite a number of talks by Trungpa Rinpoche and his Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin during that time and since then.

I was on the staff and faculty of The Naropa Institute M.A. and B.A. psychology programs from 1982 through 1989, assisting with various classes, most notably the class on Freud's Interpretation of Dreams. I would go on to conduct study groups on dreams, drawing on the Freud material as well as the work of Jung and James Hillman, especially Hillman's work The Dream and the Underworld. One class was called: The Interpretation of Dreams: Free-Association as a practice of non-fixed mind. Obviously, some influence from the meditation traditions there. In 1988 and 1989, I taught and co-taught a few classes for the M.A. and B.A. psychology programs at Naropa, and created a curriculum to supervise Masters students with their final writing projects related to their clinical work during their internships. As a member of the Board of Editors of The Naropa Institute Journal of Psychology, I worked with several writers on their contributions to that journal, and wrote an article on the supervision of health professionals.

From 1984 onwards, I served as a meditation instructor for Naropa students and Buddhist community members, usually about 20 students at a time. Within the Vajradhatu organization, I trained as a Buddhist teacher, Shambhala Training Assistant Director and Shambhala Training Director, and taught and assisted with a number of Buddhist and Shambhala classes for Vajradhatu after I left Naropa in 1989. This continued when I moved to Michigan in 1993, teaching Shambhala Training levels in Chicago, Louisville, and Columbus, Ohio, as well as in my new home-town Kalamazoo. I also co-taught a course on death and dying in Chicago.

In 1986, I wrote an article (along with the late Bonnie Rabin) on supervising health professionals from a contemplative perspective that has been and is still utilized by a number of professional groups, including, as far as I know, the Naropa Institute M.A. Contemplative Psychotherapy program. Originally published in 1987 in The Naropa Institute Journal of Psychology, this work was revised and published in 2008 and then re-revised and re-published in 2021 as a chapter in the book Brilliant Sanity: Buddhist Approaches to Psychotherapy. The chapter was titled: "A Discipline of Inquisitiveness: The Body-Speech-Mind approach to contemplative supervision." My main conscious sources for this work were the mindfulness-awareness teachings and teachings on education by Trungpa Rinpoche, the body-speech-mind rubric that can be found in vajrayana Buddhism, the descriptive approaches within phenomenological psychology, and Freud's technique of free association. If you are interested in a pdf of the supervision article, especially its most receint version, please write me from the contact portion of this website or directly at ngejungzoo@gmail.com

I have only recently come to realize that an extremely significant but uncredited influence related to that approach to supervision was teachings by The Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin given at Shambhala Training Level IV programs. Notes about the Shambhala Training program can be found in the Shambhala Training section of this website. Although there is a book on the Shambhala Training Level 5 teachings by Trungpa Rinpoche (Great Eastern Sun), talks from these Level 4 programs have never been published. They represent a unique expression of and furthering of Trungpa Rinpoche's teachings and had a great deal of influence on me as a student and teacher. This is also true of many other of the Regent's teachings on meditation, communication, and awareness in everyday life. I do hope that these see the light of day for a more general public. Much of his audio and transcripts can be found at the website https://www.vajraregent.org as well as the website https://www.vrot.org

After attending the 1983 Vajradhatu seminary, I did train as a meditation instructor in preparation for the 10-week "Maitri Program" for the Naropa Institute M.A. program in Buddhist and Western Psychology, which I staffed in 1984. This program and related teachings, which included intensive sitting practice as well as intensive training in the Maitri Space Awareness practice, have been a strong influence.

In Boulder, I also worked for the Mental Health Center of Boulder County on the adult treatment team as a psychotherapist (internship, 1981) the emergency services (crisis) team (post-graduate internship, 1982), and as a mental health worker in a halfway house for the chronically mentally ill (1983-1987). Also, during that period, I was employed as a housemate for Maitri Psychological Services and as a home care worker for an elderly client, working for the Buddhist-inspired agency Dana Home Care. From 1989-1992, having retired from Naropa, I became co-Director of Marpa House, an ex-fraternity house that had been repurposed for the use of the local Buddhist community as a place to host small dharma programs, visiting teachers, and 30+ residents of the Buddhist community.

Moving back to Michigan in 1993, I ran a small online bookstore and edited Buddhist teachings by the late Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, the 16th Karmapa's representative in the United States and director of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra (KTD). This was under the auspices of Michael Erlewine, who was responsible for the production of such publications during that period from 1993-1997 when I was in Big Rapids, Michigan. I also assisted the Ven. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche with the creation of a curriculum for the KTD Buddhist organization. I did significant editorial work on most of the talks in the book Excellent at the Beginning by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche (Wisdom Publications).

From 1997 to 2002, now living in Kalamazoo, I served as tutoring coordinator for Southwestern Michigan College in Dowagiac and developed a CRLA- (College Reading and Learning Association) approved curriculum for training tutors. In that capacity, I also presented workshops at conferences on aspects of the training, including one on the nature of learning and another on tutoring writing. I also, in 1998-2000, taught courses at Siena Heights University in Michigan, "Technology and the Human Condition" and "The Adult Learner". I was the director (teacher) for Shambhala Training programs in Chicago, Columbus, and Louisville, KY, as well as in Kalamazoo, founding Dharma Study Group Kalamazoo. DSG Kazoo dissolved as an in-person group in 2016 but has continued as an online teaching vehicle since 2018. Most of this website is devoted to the past and current offerings of DSG Kazoo and the teaching lineages of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

From 2001-2014, I digitized the audio-cassette collection of talks by Pema Chodron as Great Path Tapes and Books, writing promotional blurbs and selling those educational materials as CDs and MP3 audio, while also advising students and dharma groups on the use of these materials. I produced many of the audio files for the Sounds True products of Pema Chodron.

In earlier years, now and again, I published poems in Friction, Greenhouse, and Windhorse magazines. Recently, this year (2024), I finally published a book of poetry, Janitor of the Misplaced Now: Selected Poems 1971-2024, available at https://lulu.com as well as, I've been shown, at least one overpriced pirate-website.

A student of astrology since 1973, I studied with Michael Erlewine in Ann Arbor Michigan on and off between 1973 and 1979. Mr. Erlewine later went on to become a Buddhist student of Ven. Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche. In the early 70s, I was a student at the University of Michigan, with the exception of my year in Pittsburgh as a student at Duquesne University. After graduating from Duquesne in 1976, I returned to Ann Arbor to work and to volunteer as a crisis worker at a local agency, during which time I re-connected with Mr. Erlewine. I have continued to study and practice astrology since that time, doing occasional consultations.

In 2019, my astrological studies intensified when I encountered the "Astrology Podcast" on youtube hosted by Chris Brennan, Brennan's website by the same name, and his book Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune. In 2022, I entered Austin Coppock's study and practice curriculum, Fundamentals of Astrology, and am currently a student in year 3. Works and writings by Austin Coppock can be found at his beautiful website, www.austincoppock.com. Coppock is truly a fine teacher, yogin, and counselor, and in any case what I've learned from him, his teaching assistants, and fellow students has further shaped my understanding of astrology and approach to doing consultations. Here is a drop-box link to a description of my astrological work and the types of consultations I provide.

Dropbox link to Robert Walker - Astrological Consultations
https://shorturl.at/dc4AY

To be clear, meditation instruction is a separate thing and is provided free of charge.

If you have any questions about this, feel free to write me at robert.walker.mi@gmail.com. In fact, I'm happy to receive communications through this website or either of my email addresses about topics related to buddhadharma and the Shambhala teachings, as well as any other topic I have written about here.