Kenneth Green: The Visit of His Holiness Was the Quantum Leap
Trungpa Rinpoche always pushed the boundaries with his students. What I thought when I first began studying with him was an opportunity to live out my 27 year old fantasy of living the life of a yogi in a mountain forest like the great yogi Milarepa . I actually said that to him shortly after we met (1972). He had something quite different in mind. He replied with a laugh in his voice “I don’t think so, not this time. We have a lot of work to do. We need to dedicate ourselves to help others, to create a world that will usher in an enlightened society. That's why we are here.” A year later Rinpoche created Vajradhatu, the not for profit organization which would be the vehicle for this vision.
Rinpoche appointed me as Director of Internal Affairs. My title was Nangsi Kalon, which literally translated, according to Rinpoche, as minister of the “inside of the universe.” We joked about that. Even funnier was the External Affairs office, which was “outside the universe” or more humorously “outer space.” The organization was more of a mandala than a “corporate entity.” He told me that I should understand and not forget that the center is the fringe and the fringe is the center. It felt like a huge flying saucer, a mother ship descended from the heavens, which we were invited to enter. It was a very sacred space both in its harmony and wakeful chaos, which there was plenty of, at times a charnel ground. The inspiration was a secular dharmic mandala; it was the vision of an enlightened society and as time progressed it was a model, a macrocosm of an enlightened kingdom, one that was based on the mythic/historic Kingdom of Shambhala. He drew inspiration from Tibet's Warrior King Gesar of Ling, Ancient India's King Ashoka, China's Emperor Yung-Lo, and Japan's Prince Shotoku. These were enlightened leaders of their time. He introduced the idea of natural hierarchy that arises from "the noble heart." Quite a brazen task given his students at that time were for the most part self absorbed hippies. Yet untethered from the establishment and passionately looking for inner and outer change we were more than open to embrace his advice and teachings and most importantly his blessings. And so an evolutionary force descended upon ‘Jurassic Park.’
The invitation and subsequent visit of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa was the quantum leap. We built the house and His Holiness turned on the electricity. Natural hierarchy, lineage and blessings were no longer a concept but a living reality. His Holiness empowered our world. It was as if a self-generating cosmic power plant was turned on. The center became fringe became center became fringe.
When Rinpoche died the mother ship went with him but the tangible stream of blessings from both him and His Holiness remains.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
STORIES
Werner Erhard and the est training
Werner Erhard, founder of the est training (a New Age human potential course), invited His Holiness to perform the black hat ceremony for his students. The event was held at the historic Masonic auditorium in San Francisco during His Holiness second visit. It was filled with no less than 3,000 est students along with a handful of Rinpoche’s students. Erhard came on stage with Rinpoche and gave a bizarre introduction mostly about him-self and how he personally found this great lama from the east and brought him to America (which was not true whatsoever). It was obvious at that point, for students of Trungpa, that Rinpoche was not pleased. He began showing signs of “black air” phenomena that only happened when he encountered extreme spiritual materialism. Rinpoche gave a brief dharma talk on meditation, lineage and respect. Then the real debacle happened when Erhard actually introduced His Holiness. It was reminiscent of the scene from King Kong, the 1933 film, where Kong chained and shackled is presented to a Broadway theater audience by the character Carl Denham a wildlife filmmaker: “Ladies and gentlemen I bring you Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World". Sure enough Erhard said, “ Ladies and Gentlemen I bring you His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmtapa.” It felt like a circus act. Trungpa looked furious. They both walk off stage and immediately Rinpoche returned and fiercely shouted out repeatedly “Everyone stop applauding, shut up, keep you shirts on, keep your shirts on, keep your shirts on.” He became a wrathful Mahakala on the spot. Everyone got very quiet. His Holiness with his monks came on and he “performed” the Black Crown ceremony. The space transformed from an auditorium filled with an unruly audience into a huge shrine room with receptive humans. Wherever His Holiness went on his US tour Trungpa was always close making sure he was treated properly, taming the savages, inspiring them to being decent open human beings. This particular event stands out as the most extreme.
This was in strong contrast to the Black Crown ceremony His Holiness performed at Fort Mason. Fort Mason was a former US army post in SF. The post included a huge warehouse surrounded on three sides by the SF Bay making for a beautiful setting. There must have been close if not more than 5,000 people. As custom, at the conclusion of the ceremony everyone attending received individual blessings by His Holiness. It took hours. What stands out in my mind was when His Holiness finished blessing the last attendant the local police, who were posted for security, asked if they also could receive blessings. They were tough street-wise Irish cops but when they went up to the throne they became so respectful and almost looked like little boys going to church. They must have been catholic because they took to the ritual easily. His Holiness who was clearly showing fatigue from the hours of blessings perked up and looked so joyous seeing them. He spent more time with them than anyone else. The cops looked giddy and happy. His Holiness once again lite up the world.
Before His Holiness visit lineage was a concept___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Before His Holiness came to America most of Rinpoche’s students didn’t understand lineage. Some of us were a bit more fortunate having spent time studying with other lineages that had gurus. I along with Tom Rich aka Narayana (who eventually became Osel Tendzin, the Vajra Regent of Trungpa) studied with Sri Swami Satchidanda who stressed the importance of devotion to the teacher and to the lineage. However, most of Rinpoche’s students were hippies with no exposure to lineage. The community then was fairly inelegant and somewhat barbaric but very smart and earnest. Before Karmapa’s visit most of Rinpoche’s students wouldn’t think twice at calling Rinpoche Chogie, putting their feet up in his direction. In preparation for the visit Rinpoche explained that HHKHis Holiness Karmapa as head of the lineage was very special, it was a royal visit, and that we needed to transform our world into a palace. For the most part this made very little sense. If we were English the royal reference would be familiar but not so in the unsophisticated USA. Nonetheless we were all very devoted to Rinpoche and did what he asked. It also was exciting and fun to spruce up our center. We repainted, even gold painted Prajñāpāramitā mantras on the wainscot around the meditation hall. He introduced us to designing and fabricating banners, building Tibetan thrones and even how to cook Tibetan soups (being a mahasiddha he had no problem cooking LOL). We rented a large fancy mansion which given its architecture we nicknamed the wedding cake house; draped the walls in satin. We shopped second hand stores in Denver for old chairs and furniture, which we then refurnished into what would pass for beautiful antiques. We hardly slept for many weeks on end including every detail one could imagine. He called upon old skills, new skills and skills yet to be; seamstresses to carpenters to cooks, to translators to gold-leafers, to silk screeners to graphic artists and on. One of the most dramatic transformations however was how we changed our dress and look with short haircuts, new suits, dresses, ties, shoes, a complete makeover. Rinpoche not only taught us proper etiquette western style but Tibetan etiquette as well including ceremonies and how to behave in the presence of a Buddha. No longer were we studying and practicing with an individual teacher but suddenly we were introduced and welcomed into a mandala that a lineage spanning centuries and we were readying to receive the king. The mandala was prepared for the Yidam.
Before His Holiness visit lineage was a concept, words in lineage chants and written stories. As sangha most of us were clueless to the actual reality of lineage we hadn’t yet experienced the sheer power of a living lineage. One person, even a mahasiddha like Rinpoche, does not make a lineage. When His Holiness arrived it was humbling to see how deferential Rinpoche was to him. His meek body language, seeing him hold His Holiness hands, putting his head on his lap and having tears of joy. (This was also the case when we hosted Rinpoche’s teacher the mahasiddha Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, but that’s a story for another time.)
An important point to this visit was that in contrast to all the preparations Rinpoche had us do, he also expressed some questions about His Holiness realization. He told us “I’m not all that sure if this Karmapa is fully realized … some tulkus don’t have the time or situation to catch up to the realization of their former life.” It wasn’t automatic. So when His Holiness first arrived landing at the JFK airport in NYC and was greeted by Rinpoche on the tarmac there were conflicting feelings. Well all that dissolved when they meet. From what he told us earlier multiple times, that it was “No big deal” (that despite all the monumental preparations) he joyfully announced “He is totally enlightened!” Suddenly it was a big deal.
Healing___________________________________________________________________________________________________
At the time of His Holiness first visit I had a very painful chronic condition called hives, an outbreak of swollen, pale red bumps and welts on the skin. They came and went and under stress it was stronger. They were beginning to come out during the preparation work. By the time His Holiness arrived it was full blown. Trungpa Rinpoche said you have to meet with Karmapa and ask him for help. We went together. Karmapa was in his private chambers with a couple of his attending monks. Trungpa explained the issue and Karmapa picked up his mala beads, closed his eyes and sub-vocally chanted. After what felt like a long few minutes he opened his eyes and spoke to Rinpoche who told me that I need to take off my clothes. I was wearing a suit and a tie. I clumsily and self consciously started to disrobe; the tie went off, and the shirt… His Holiness pointed to my pants, Rinpoche grinning said “off”, then even underpants went, everything, I was completely naked in front of His Holiness. Rinpoche was giggling. I was embarrassed and flustered. He did a short ritual and chanted mantras, burned some herbal mixture, then asked that I come very close to him and blew the smoke on my body, from the top of my head down to my feet and everything between. I quickly got dressed. In the meantime Rinpoche was laughing.. Rinpoche and Karmapa were talking in Tibetan looking at me smiling. When it was over we went out. Rinpoche asked, “How do you feel?” I said: “really high and good!” Within hours the hives were gone – just gone.
In Hopiland___________________________________________________________________________________________________
His Holiness had expressed his wish to visit the original native community. He specifically asked to meet the Hopi Indians. Arrangements were made for him to visit Hopiland in Arizona. I didn’t attend the trip but heard many wondrous accounts of him meeting with the Tribal leaders, performing a rain ceremony during a drought. Most striking stories were the synergy between His Holiness and the tribal elders. In particular, he asked to meet a specific medicine woman to further share stories of prophecy. Arrangements were made for him to meet with Grandmother Caroline. Grandmother was venerated as one of the most wise of the medicine women. Apparently the reports back of this meeting were profound. Some years later (around 1983), at Rinpoche’s suggestion, I, along with my wife at the time and our two children, went to Hopiland in search of the “legendary” medicine woman. Rinpoche asked me to enquire about the meeting between her and His Holiness. He always seemed to enjoy multiple versions of reality. (Rinpoche wasn’t with His Holiness Karmapa for that part of his trip).
We arrived at an auspicious time to witness the summer Home Dance Ceremony that celebrates the departure of the Kachinas from the village to their home in the San Francisco Mountains. More on this shortly. After numerous inquiries as to where we might find Grandmother Caroline we were finally given specific directions to her house on the Second/Middle mesa. This was revealed only after we mentioned our connection to His Holiness Karmapa. We found her house but she was not there. After some time an elderly small-framed unassuming woman showed up carrying grocery bags. We asked if she was Grandmother Caroline; she replied smiling “that’s me.” She asked, “What can I do for you?” We mentioned Karmapa’s name and was hoping we can talk about her meeting with him. She said: “Please come in.” She had a very simple house of clay and earth. She served us tea and when asked about what she and Karmapa talked about her reply was both lighthearted and yet profound. She asked if we ever watched the film “The Man Who Saw Tomorrow,” a 1981 documentary-style movie about the predictions of the 15th century French astrology Nostradamus narrated by Orson Welles. Coincidentally we just watched it before our trip. We asked why that? She went on saying His Holiness Karmapa wanted to know about the Hopi prophesies and if they were similar to the Tibetan’s. According to Grandmother Caroline they were “very very similar” and the prophesies of Nostradamus were basically the same. She explained that according to the Hopi cosmology we are nearing the end of the Fourth World, which will herald the start of the Fifth World. She mentioned the Home Dance, the one which we just saw, will signal the end of the current Fourth World when one of the dancer’s masks will fall off. No one knows which year but it most likely will happen in the not to distant future. She went on to explain that the signs are very strong. When she was a young girl she would harvest powerful medicine from the San Francisco Mountain range.[1] Now when she goes there only poisonous plants can be found. She told this to His Holiness Karmapa who then share the Tibetan prophesies which closely coincided. She said, “It was the same.”
When I returned to Boulder I told Rinpoche the story. He response was “Yes, I guess we all agree. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
[1] Southeast from Hopiland.
Trungpa Rinpoche always pushed the boundaries with his students. What I thought when I first began studying with him was an opportunity to live out my 27 year old fantasy of living the life of a yogi in a mountain forest like the great yogi Milarepa . I actually said that to him shortly after we met (1972). He had something quite different in mind. He replied with a laugh in his voice “I don’t think so, not this time. We have a lot of work to do. We need to dedicate ourselves to help others, to create a world that will usher in an enlightened society. That's why we are here.” A year later Rinpoche created Vajradhatu, the not for profit organization which would be the vehicle for this vision.
Rinpoche appointed me as Director of Internal Affairs. My title was Nangsi Kalon, which literally translated, according to Rinpoche, as minister of the “inside of the universe.” We joked about that. Even funnier was the External Affairs office, which was “outside the universe” or more humorously “outer space.” The organization was more of a mandala than a “corporate entity.” He told me that I should understand and not forget that the center is the fringe and the fringe is the center. It felt like a huge flying saucer, a mother ship descended from the heavens, which we were invited to enter. It was a very sacred space both in its harmony and wakeful chaos, which there was plenty of, at times a charnel ground. The inspiration was a secular dharmic mandala; it was the vision of an enlightened society and as time progressed it was a model, a macrocosm of an enlightened kingdom, one that was based on the mythic/historic Kingdom of Shambhala. He drew inspiration from Tibet's Warrior King Gesar of Ling, Ancient India's King Ashoka, China's Emperor Yung-Lo, and Japan's Prince Shotoku. These were enlightened leaders of their time. He introduced the idea of natural hierarchy that arises from "the noble heart." Quite a brazen task given his students at that time were for the most part self absorbed hippies. Yet untethered from the establishment and passionately looking for inner and outer change we were more than open to embrace his advice and teachings and most importantly his blessings. And so an evolutionary force descended upon ‘Jurassic Park.’
The invitation and subsequent visit of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa was the quantum leap. We built the house and His Holiness turned on the electricity. Natural hierarchy, lineage and blessings were no longer a concept but a living reality. His Holiness empowered our world. It was as if a self-generating cosmic power plant was turned on. The center became fringe became center became fringe.
When Rinpoche died the mother ship went with him but the tangible stream of blessings from both him and His Holiness remains.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
STORIES
Werner Erhard and the est training
Werner Erhard, founder of the est training (a New Age human potential course), invited His Holiness to perform the black hat ceremony for his students. The event was held at the historic Masonic auditorium in San Francisco during His Holiness second visit. It was filled with no less than 3,000 est students along with a handful of Rinpoche’s students. Erhard came on stage with Rinpoche and gave a bizarre introduction mostly about him-self and how he personally found this great lama from the east and brought him to America (which was not true whatsoever). It was obvious at that point, for students of Trungpa, that Rinpoche was not pleased. He began showing signs of “black air” phenomena that only happened when he encountered extreme spiritual materialism. Rinpoche gave a brief dharma talk on meditation, lineage and respect. Then the real debacle happened when Erhard actually introduced His Holiness. It was reminiscent of the scene from King Kong, the 1933 film, where Kong chained and shackled is presented to a Broadway theater audience by the character Carl Denham a wildlife filmmaker: “Ladies and gentlemen I bring you Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World". Sure enough Erhard said, “ Ladies and Gentlemen I bring you His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmtapa.” It felt like a circus act. Trungpa looked furious. They both walk off stage and immediately Rinpoche returned and fiercely shouted out repeatedly “Everyone stop applauding, shut up, keep you shirts on, keep your shirts on, keep your shirts on.” He became a wrathful Mahakala on the spot. Everyone got very quiet. His Holiness with his monks came on and he “performed” the Black Crown ceremony. The space transformed from an auditorium filled with an unruly audience into a huge shrine room with receptive humans. Wherever His Holiness went on his US tour Trungpa was always close making sure he was treated properly, taming the savages, inspiring them to being decent open human beings. This particular event stands out as the most extreme.
This was in strong contrast to the Black Crown ceremony His Holiness performed at Fort Mason. Fort Mason was a former US army post in SF. The post included a huge warehouse surrounded on three sides by the SF Bay making for a beautiful setting. There must have been close if not more than 5,000 people. As custom, at the conclusion of the ceremony everyone attending received individual blessings by His Holiness. It took hours. What stands out in my mind was when His Holiness finished blessing the last attendant the local police, who were posted for security, asked if they also could receive blessings. They were tough street-wise Irish cops but when they went up to the throne they became so respectful and almost looked like little boys going to church. They must have been catholic because they took to the ritual easily. His Holiness who was clearly showing fatigue from the hours of blessings perked up and looked so joyous seeing them. He spent more time with them than anyone else. The cops looked giddy and happy. His Holiness once again lite up the world.
Before His Holiness visit lineage was a concept___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Before His Holiness came to America most of Rinpoche’s students didn’t understand lineage. Some of us were a bit more fortunate having spent time studying with other lineages that had gurus. I along with Tom Rich aka Narayana (who eventually became Osel Tendzin, the Vajra Regent of Trungpa) studied with Sri Swami Satchidanda who stressed the importance of devotion to the teacher and to the lineage. However, most of Rinpoche’s students were hippies with no exposure to lineage. The community then was fairly inelegant and somewhat barbaric but very smart and earnest. Before Karmapa’s visit most of Rinpoche’s students wouldn’t think twice at calling Rinpoche Chogie, putting their feet up in his direction. In preparation for the visit Rinpoche explained that HHKHis Holiness Karmapa as head of the lineage was very special, it was a royal visit, and that we needed to transform our world into a palace. For the most part this made very little sense. If we were English the royal reference would be familiar but not so in the unsophisticated USA. Nonetheless we were all very devoted to Rinpoche and did what he asked. It also was exciting and fun to spruce up our center. We repainted, even gold painted Prajñāpāramitā mantras on the wainscot around the meditation hall. He introduced us to designing and fabricating banners, building Tibetan thrones and even how to cook Tibetan soups (being a mahasiddha he had no problem cooking LOL). We rented a large fancy mansion which given its architecture we nicknamed the wedding cake house; draped the walls in satin. We shopped second hand stores in Denver for old chairs and furniture, which we then refurnished into what would pass for beautiful antiques. We hardly slept for many weeks on end including every detail one could imagine. He called upon old skills, new skills and skills yet to be; seamstresses to carpenters to cooks, to translators to gold-leafers, to silk screeners to graphic artists and on. One of the most dramatic transformations however was how we changed our dress and look with short haircuts, new suits, dresses, ties, shoes, a complete makeover. Rinpoche not only taught us proper etiquette western style but Tibetan etiquette as well including ceremonies and how to behave in the presence of a Buddha. No longer were we studying and practicing with an individual teacher but suddenly we were introduced and welcomed into a mandala that a lineage spanning centuries and we were readying to receive the king. The mandala was prepared for the Yidam.
Before His Holiness visit lineage was a concept, words in lineage chants and written stories. As sangha most of us were clueless to the actual reality of lineage we hadn’t yet experienced the sheer power of a living lineage. One person, even a mahasiddha like Rinpoche, does not make a lineage. When His Holiness arrived it was humbling to see how deferential Rinpoche was to him. His meek body language, seeing him hold His Holiness hands, putting his head on his lap and having tears of joy. (This was also the case when we hosted Rinpoche’s teacher the mahasiddha Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, but that’s a story for another time.)
An important point to this visit was that in contrast to all the preparations Rinpoche had us do, he also expressed some questions about His Holiness realization. He told us “I’m not all that sure if this Karmapa is fully realized … some tulkus don’t have the time or situation to catch up to the realization of their former life.” It wasn’t automatic. So when His Holiness first arrived landing at the JFK airport in NYC and was greeted by Rinpoche on the tarmac there were conflicting feelings. Well all that dissolved when they meet. From what he told us earlier multiple times, that it was “No big deal” (that despite all the monumental preparations) he joyfully announced “He is totally enlightened!” Suddenly it was a big deal.
Healing___________________________________________________________________________________________________
At the time of His Holiness first visit I had a very painful chronic condition called hives, an outbreak of swollen, pale red bumps and welts on the skin. They came and went and under stress it was stronger. They were beginning to come out during the preparation work. By the time His Holiness arrived it was full blown. Trungpa Rinpoche said you have to meet with Karmapa and ask him for help. We went together. Karmapa was in his private chambers with a couple of his attending monks. Trungpa explained the issue and Karmapa picked up his mala beads, closed his eyes and sub-vocally chanted. After what felt like a long few minutes he opened his eyes and spoke to Rinpoche who told me that I need to take off my clothes. I was wearing a suit and a tie. I clumsily and self consciously started to disrobe; the tie went off, and the shirt… His Holiness pointed to my pants, Rinpoche grinning said “off”, then even underpants went, everything, I was completely naked in front of His Holiness. Rinpoche was giggling. I was embarrassed and flustered. He did a short ritual and chanted mantras, burned some herbal mixture, then asked that I come very close to him and blew the smoke on my body, from the top of my head down to my feet and everything between. I quickly got dressed. In the meantime Rinpoche was laughing.. Rinpoche and Karmapa were talking in Tibetan looking at me smiling. When it was over we went out. Rinpoche asked, “How do you feel?” I said: “really high and good!” Within hours the hives were gone – just gone.
In Hopiland___________________________________________________________________________________________________
His Holiness had expressed his wish to visit the original native community. He specifically asked to meet the Hopi Indians. Arrangements were made for him to visit Hopiland in Arizona. I didn’t attend the trip but heard many wondrous accounts of him meeting with the Tribal leaders, performing a rain ceremony during a drought. Most striking stories were the synergy between His Holiness and the tribal elders. In particular, he asked to meet a specific medicine woman to further share stories of prophecy. Arrangements were made for him to meet with Grandmother Caroline. Grandmother was venerated as one of the most wise of the medicine women. Apparently the reports back of this meeting were profound. Some years later (around 1983), at Rinpoche’s suggestion, I, along with my wife at the time and our two children, went to Hopiland in search of the “legendary” medicine woman. Rinpoche asked me to enquire about the meeting between her and His Holiness. He always seemed to enjoy multiple versions of reality. (Rinpoche wasn’t with His Holiness Karmapa for that part of his trip).
We arrived at an auspicious time to witness the summer Home Dance Ceremony that celebrates the departure of the Kachinas from the village to their home in the San Francisco Mountains. More on this shortly. After numerous inquiries as to where we might find Grandmother Caroline we were finally given specific directions to her house on the Second/Middle mesa. This was revealed only after we mentioned our connection to His Holiness Karmapa. We found her house but she was not there. After some time an elderly small-framed unassuming woman showed up carrying grocery bags. We asked if she was Grandmother Caroline; she replied smiling “that’s me.” She asked, “What can I do for you?” We mentioned Karmapa’s name and was hoping we can talk about her meeting with him. She said: “Please come in.” She had a very simple house of clay and earth. She served us tea and when asked about what she and Karmapa talked about her reply was both lighthearted and yet profound. She asked if we ever watched the film “The Man Who Saw Tomorrow,” a 1981 documentary-style movie about the predictions of the 15th century French astrology Nostradamus narrated by Orson Welles. Coincidentally we just watched it before our trip. We asked why that? She went on saying His Holiness Karmapa wanted to know about the Hopi prophesies and if they were similar to the Tibetan’s. According to Grandmother Caroline they were “very very similar” and the prophesies of Nostradamus were basically the same. She explained that according to the Hopi cosmology we are nearing the end of the Fourth World, which will herald the start of the Fifth World. She mentioned the Home Dance, the one which we just saw, will signal the end of the current Fourth World when one of the dancer’s masks will fall off. No one knows which year but it most likely will happen in the not to distant future. She went on to explain that the signs are very strong. When she was a young girl she would harvest powerful medicine from the San Francisco Mountain range.[1] Now when she goes there only poisonous plants can be found. She told this to His Holiness Karmapa who then share the Tibetan prophesies which closely coincided. She said, “It was the same.”
When I returned to Boulder I told Rinpoche the story. He response was “Yes, I guess we all agree. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
[1] Southeast from Hopiland.
