What is the relationship of HSMG to the other Tibetan Buddhist and Zen Buddhist Meditation Groups I´ve read or heard about? Are the meditation practices the same?
This is difficult to answer without providing an historical overview of the development of Buddhism in Asia over a 2500-year period. In brief, our group´s founder was a Tibetan Buddhist, and many of the practices and teachings we study are Tibetan in origin. However, Trungpa, Rinpoche also incorporated elements of Zen Buddhism, which originated in China and Japan, in translating Buddhism for American Culture. There are a number of “core” teachings that all Buddhist Groups share. Differences between “groups” tend to be more “stylistic” in terms of how various teachings or meditation practices are presented and how they developed in their culture of origin. Buddhism was transplanted from India to Tibet, China, Burma, Thailand, Korea and Japan, and in each of these countries blended in different ways with the existing belief systems and cultural practices. Trungpa, Rinpoche taught in English and used Western metaphors and psychology as methods for making the dharma more accessible.
