Trungpa's sexuality has been one of the sources of controversy, as he cultivated relations with a number of his female students. Tenzin Palmo, who met him in 1962 while he was still at Oxford, did not become one of his consorts, refusing his advances because he had presented himself as "a pure monk." But Palmo stated that had she known Trungpa had been having sexual relations with women since he was 13, she would not have declined.[67] Trungpa formally renounced his monastic vows in 1969.[68]
Trungpa was also known for smoking tobacco and liberally using alcohol;[69] many who knew him characterized him as an alcoholic.[70][71] He began drinking occasionally shortly after arriving in India.[72] Before coming to the US, Trungpa drove a sports car into a joke shop in Dumfries, Scotland.[73] While his companion was not seriously injured,[74] Trungpa was left partially paralyzed. Later, he described this event as a pivotal moment that inspired the course of his teachings. Some accounts ascribe the accident to drinking.[75][76] Others suggest he may have had a stroke.[77][78] According to Trungpa himself, he blacked out
In some instances Trungpa was too drunk to walk and had to be carried.[76] Also, according to his student John Steinbeck IV and his wife, on a couple of occasions Trungpa's speech was unintelligible.[81] One woman reported serving him "big glasses of gin first thing in the morning."[42]
The Steinbecks wrote The Other Side of Eden, a sharply critical memoir of their lives with Trungpa in which they claim that, in addition to alcohol, he spent $40,000 a year on cocaine, and used Seconal to come down from the cocaine. The Steinbecks said the cocaine use was kept secret from the wider Vajradhatu community.
