An episode in California and special circumstances leading to meeting the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa in Britain
Both Kalu Rinpoche and Sister Palmo travelled to the West between 1971 and 1973 and prepared the ground for the first journey of the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. In this video, Samten de Wet narrates how Sister Palmo touched him and as a result he travelled to Europe in 1974, had profound experiences at the Black Crown Ceremony in Cambridge and finally took the monastic vows. And it's about Karmapa's clairvoyance. As the video also talks about LSD, here is an account of a meeting between the most famous poets of the beat generation and the 16th Karmapa:
(From Radiant Compassion, Vol. 1)
Trungpa wanted Buddhism to inspire the performing arts, music and psychotherapy. As well as the previously mentioned poet Allen Ginsberg, Karmapa’s students included musicians such as the well-known jazz musician Don Cherry.[1] Padma Jong, Vajradhatu's artist and retreat community in rural Dos Rios, California, which organized the largest Black Crown Ceremony in California in San Francisco, was more like a hippie commune than a Dharma center. It was a place of encounter between the Dharma and new forms of artistic expression. Here Karmapa met Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure, all of them among the most important North American poets of that time. He opened the discussion by saying: “We are all equal as I am a poet as well!”[2] To begin, they took turns reciting poems. Finally, the conversation turned to the topic of LSD.[3] Sheila Fugard remembers the meeting:
'Allen Ginsberg addresses the Karmapa: “Does His Holiness recall my visit to Rumtek some years ago? Then I had asked you whether the taking of LSD was a valid spiritual path.”
The Karmapa smiles, shakes his head, and replies, through an interpreter:
“The use of drugs creates an artificial sense of higher consciousness. Only the practice of Mahāmudrā achieves mind in its natural state, a complete openness.”'[4]
Nevertheless, the use of LSD sometimes seemed to bring about a certain openness that could trigger an old connection to Karmapa, for example when seeing a photograph of him. Even more surprising: Karmapa knew about it and explained that this was not the right way to contact him, as Samten de Wet recounts in this interview.
[1] Don Cherry played with John Coltrane on his first free jazz recordings, for example.
[2] Interview with Dr. Andrea Loseries-Leick, 2013.
[3] Trungpa had called the LSD experiences as “Super- Saṃsāra.”
[4] Fugard: Lady of Realisation op. cit.., p. 39.
Both Kalu Rinpoche and Sister Palmo travelled to the West between 1971 and 1973 and prepared the ground for the first journey of the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. In this video, Samten de Wet narrates how Sister Palmo touched him and as a result he travelled to Europe in 1974, had profound experiences at the Black Crown Ceremony in Cambridge and finally took the monastic vows. And it's about Karmapa's clairvoyance. As the video also talks about LSD, here is an account of a meeting between the most famous poets of the beat generation and the 16th Karmapa:
(From Radiant Compassion, Vol. 1)
Trungpa wanted Buddhism to inspire the performing arts, music and psychotherapy. As well as the previously mentioned poet Allen Ginsberg, Karmapa’s students included musicians such as the well-known jazz musician Don Cherry.[1] Padma Jong, Vajradhatu's artist and retreat community in rural Dos Rios, California, which organized the largest Black Crown Ceremony in California in San Francisco, was more like a hippie commune than a Dharma center. It was a place of encounter between the Dharma and new forms of artistic expression. Here Karmapa met Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure, all of them among the most important North American poets of that time. He opened the discussion by saying: “We are all equal as I am a poet as well!”[2] To begin, they took turns reciting poems. Finally, the conversation turned to the topic of LSD.[3] Sheila Fugard remembers the meeting:
'Allen Ginsberg addresses the Karmapa: “Does His Holiness recall my visit to Rumtek some years ago? Then I had asked you whether the taking of LSD was a valid spiritual path.”
The Karmapa smiles, shakes his head, and replies, through an interpreter:
“The use of drugs creates an artificial sense of higher consciousness. Only the practice of Mahāmudrā achieves mind in its natural state, a complete openness.”'[4]
Nevertheless, the use of LSD sometimes seemed to bring about a certain openness that could trigger an old connection to Karmapa, for example when seeing a photograph of him. Even more surprising: Karmapa knew about it and explained that this was not the right way to contact him, as Samten de Wet recounts in this interview.
[1] Don Cherry played with John Coltrane on his first free jazz recordings, for example.
[2] Interview with Dr. Andrea Loseries-Leick, 2013.
[3] Trungpa had called the LSD experiences as “Super- Saṃsāra.”
[4] Fugard: Lady of Realisation op. cit.., p. 39.
