Cherish Life

A message from the Karmapa

The older I get, the more I realize how rare it is to come into contact with true wisdom. Some would say that because of the unprecedented access to “information” technology affords and the largest amount of schools ever known that now dot Earths once wild landscape that ours is the most highly educated society of all time. Yet what kind of intelligence results in the destruction of precious watersheds? A strong military over clean air? What kind of respectable degree equates to a career built on the destruction of oceans, soil and mountaintops? On the backs of child slaves in cobalt mines and sweatshops throughout the global south?

As we have discussed aplenty, knowledge does not necessarily equate to wisdom. People in this degenerate age are yearning for truth. Drowning in a sea of misinformation and exhausted by a steady stream of fear-inducing “news”, people understandably seek some semblance of sanity. Desperate, many take what bits of hope they can from people like Tucker Carlson, George W. Bush, Russel Brand, RFK Jr., Kamala Harris, Joe Rogan, Snoop Dogg, anyone who can offer something other than empires violent scream. Tucker Carlson is willing to openly question the validity of vaccines so those who rightly question the need for vaccines suddenly view him as a savior of some kind, conveniently forgetting that he played such a major part in why the U.S. is now so sick and divided. George W. Bush paints pictures of the men he is responsible for killing. Many find it to be very endearing. Russel Brand seems to appeal to many of the fragile white men who, unable to come to terms with there past sins have suddenly turned to Jesus in a last ditch attempt to find grace. Kamala is great because she is a woman and isn’t Trump. Joe Rogan is well loved because he speaks his mind and loves to eat psychedelic mushrooms. RFK Jr., similar to Tucker Carlson, is anti-vax and loves kids. So desperate we are to not live in a world where blowing children up is ok, that we understandably cling to ones who say they want to protect children. I get it. I do. And damn, who cares about glorifying pimps and demeaning women when Snoop swaggers that cool at the Olympics. I mean, teachers are great and all, but come on, let’s get a playa for life out in front to represent! That’s whats up! USA! USA! USA!

In Tibet, the hero’s are not pop stars but well learned spiritual masters. Rare beings who have mastered the art not only of being human but of understanding the nature of all phenomena. Vajrayana Buddhism in particular places tremendous value on such teachers, often referring to them as “gurus” or “precious jewels”. It is not unheard of for one to set out early in life, leaving everything behind to find ones teacher, oftentimes traveling through impenetrable mountains in search of a solitary spiritual master. Yet once a teacher is found, one is not advised to immediately believe what the yogi says. It is recommended instead that one observes the daily practice of the supposed teacher for at least 7 years in order to safely determine whether or not the “master” is in fact a master or merely a charlatan.

The world we live in is but one of illusion (maya in sanskrit), things are seldom what they appear to be. Many see a tree and see but an inanimate object, a “resource”. The bird sees a home. The sage sees an ancestor. An atheist may see a large, empty marble, dome shaped building but his muslim brother sees a holy gateway to conversing with God. I look at an American football game and it brings me little but boredom. My father on the other hand relishes each play as if witnessing a sacred dance, allowing passionate emotion to arise, in it finding meaning. We see what we wish to see based on what we have been conditioned to see, what we have been allowed to see, and never is it really what it is.

Patience and wisdom is required of us in order to clearly know. Just because Kamala Harris isn’t Trump doesn’t mean she is invested in a world that looks all that different from his. Someone may say to our face they are “working tirelessly” to end a war and behind the smokescreen they may actively be sending arms to the very ones causing the genocide. We have to be discerning, we have to exercise intelligence and look deeply.

There are a small handful of real wisdom carriers I have met in this life. They are as rare as any precious stone. Beings who shine as bright as the sun and are able to remind us that what we think is reality is far from it, that life is much more mesmerizing, our capacity for brilliance far more vast than our simple views can even begin to suggest.

I first met the His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet when I was 18 years old. I was studying spanish in San Jose, Costa Rica and my homestay mother mentioned to me that a famous monk was coming to town. I had heard of him many times. In high school I went to the Tibetan Freedom concert, a festival put on by the hip hop group, The Beastie Boys to inform the masses about the unthinkable horrors that China was then (and still continues to do) inflicting on the “Land of Snows” where H.H. once reigned over as king in the capital city of Lhasa before he was forced into exile in 1959. I had read his book The Art of Happiness and it had a profound impact on me. It was my first taste of a worldview that was not white, evangelical christianity. It fascinated me, that I could be the master of my own reality, that I did not need to believe in a God or subscribe to any religion, but that there were very practical laws governing both the external world and the mysterious inner terrain of my mind and I could attain mastery of it with discipline. Well, needless to say, I went to the university in San Jose where he was speaking to hopefully meet him or at least catch a glimpse of him and hear him talk. Fortunately for me, those were the days before H.H. became a superstar. I did get to meet him and to put it mildly, I was forever changed.

People in India often speak of gurus as if they are gods. They speak of lights emanating from their foreheads and how they can elevate and perform miracles. Although I have been fortunate to meet many famous yogis in my lifetime, I have never experienced anything like what I did when I first gazed my eyes upon H.H. I was instantly transformed. His smile, his playfulness and once he spoke, his clear mastery of how to live well, had not only me but everyone in attendance utterly captivated. He performed no miracles. No golden orb floated above his head. Instead, he was the miracle. A simple human who was happy, entirely present and attentive to all of us, including the sky and land. He looked me in my eyes and didn’t need to say a word. I understood everything. To this day, I have never encountered anyone else who had such an ability. It was pure, it was subtle, it was real and profound.

After that day, I vowed to go find him in India, where he lives in exile. I arrived to his mountain home and decided to live near him as long as I could, to observe him, and study as much as I could about the worldview he was sharing, a view rooted in wisdom and compassion, not superstition, judgement and righteousness. I stayed in India for quite a while but eventually travelled elsewhere in order to attend his teachings in other locations around the world, for he use to travel internationally regularly. Once I even brought my dad with me to hear him teach in Ohio, USA! After roughly seven years of close observation it was clear to me that he was the real thing. His authenticity was as pure as a diamond. There were no flaws whatsoever, none. I had found the perfect teacher. Though ultimately I decided not to formally ask him, or any other “guru” for that matter to be my teacher, in my heart, he has always been my root guru.

One of the core teachings of Buddha was that all things are subject to change. Within the Upajjhatthana Sutta (“Subjects for Contemplation”) is found what is widely known today as the “Five Remembrances”, the core teachings of what many refer to as “Buddhism”, powerful insights first shared with me in Costa Rica, when I was first exploring the world on my own, away from my family, away from my country of origin, experiencing for the first time real poverty, real struggle, loneliness, exile, vastly different views, languages and ways of being. These views helped me then to make since of my experiences, my transition into adulthood, my initiation into the greater than white-American world and they form still the foundation of my daily prayers helping me see clearly, as a father, as an aging man, as a citizen of a world experiencing unprecedented transformations. In short, The Five Rememberances help to shed light on the ultimate nature of things.

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I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.

I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape having ill health.

I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.

All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

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I have been fortunate to meet several great beings in my life. Yet none so perfect as H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. Yet even he cannot escape the realities we all eventually must face. And as it is, my precious teacher now grows old.

Recently, on a stopover from a medical trip to New York, in Zürich, Switzerland, the Karmapa, the head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism paid a visit to H.H. and after his visit, he offered the public the following statement;

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A Message from the Karmapa

Recently, when I had the good fortune to once again see His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Zurich, Switzerland, and hear his nectar-like voice, I felt a mixture of joy and sadness. It was different than when I usually see him in videos or the like. Seeing his face in person, he seemed to have aged significantly, and even hearing him speak, his voice has grown weak. It was so different from how he used to be that I could hardly bear it. His Holiness has used all the strength of his body, speech, and mind for our sake, and when I saw him so physically frail, it was as if the feelings of sorrow and gratitude that filled me were competing with each other.

Given his physical condition and seeming exhaustion, I did not say much but expressed how there is nothing greater that he could do for Buddhism and sentient beings than to live long. I wrote down the other matters I wished to share with him and offered them to him. He spent ten minutes reading them carefully and then spoke about the predictions that he would live to the age of 110, about how his main wish was to go on pilgrimage to Wutai Shan in China, and the importance of preserving, protecting, and spreading the complete teachings of the Foundation vehicle, Mahayana, and tantra, which are like a unique jewel found only in Tibet.

In brief, to see his face and hear his voice gave me a feeling of how rare and precious he is unlike any I have felt before. Moreover, we must accomplish all his wishes for what he would like to accomplish in this lifetime soon; there is no time for delay or distraction.

The difficulties His Holiness has undergone for our sake are beyond comprehension. Considering his current age and physical condition, there is nothing more important for him to do than to rest and take care of his health. All of us, myself and others, must definitely be conscious and heedful of this.

In particular, if His Holiness could return to Tibet in this lifetime and once again set foot on its soil, that alone would fulfill the hopes of all Tibetans, both the living and the departed, and fulfill the guru’s wishes. Thus it is crucial for all of us Tibetan brothers and sisters to cooperate harmoniously in serving His Holiness to fulfill his wishes and, at the very least, to make aspirations and dedications day and night.

Regardless of the region we are from, the religion we follow, or the views or positions we hold, for the benefit of Tibet as a whole, we must do what is important and let go of what is minor—it is important not to mistake gold for brass or to reduce sandalwood to ash before selling it.

Most importantly, I urge everyone to keep in mind that we have such a lama and wish-fulfilling jewel as him and to rouse even greater dedication toward working for the dharma and the welfare of the Tibetan people.

Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje August 28, 2024

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My friends. Whether you are Christian, or Muslim, American or Lakota, whether you are a republican or a democrat, gay, straight, black, white or purple. Whether you are a zionist, a freedom fighter, a pizza delivery guy, a prostitute, a farmer, an influencer or a broker, the fact is, our time here is short. What we deem so important rarely, in the grand scheme of things is all that important at all. We tend to forget this. And in our passionate states of skewed obsessions, just as we do when we are suddenly temporarily attracted to someone who finally says something we have been yearning to hear thus we block out their many dangerous qualities, we seldom see widely enough to perceive the grander scope of things. Unable to look deeper, we invest in “age defying” skin cream, botox, Crispr technology, etc. We subscribe to all kinds of personality cults and political parties. We carry conviction about this idea or that. Yet in the end, only Prajñāpāramitā remains. Like our old friend Gilgamesh and soon, H.H. The Dalai Lama, we all eventually pass into the void. Maybe Heaven is on the other side of this mirage. Maybe Hell. No one can say for sure. Not even the Pope. All we can for sure say, is that this precious human life does not last forever. All things must change.

I have found it a bit overwhelming recently, as I barrel through my 40’s, to realize that if I don’t start embodying the teachings of the wise ones, than those teachings will likely die along with my teachers. There are far more people studying about Bitcoin these days than there are people learning about prajñāpāramitā . When I worked in academia, the majority of my students were studying to become doctors, lawyers, and businessmen not seed savers, organic farmers, or artists. Few of them had ever heard of Rabindranath Tagore, but they all knew who Kim Kardashian is. Many believe that A.I. will store all our information. Maybe, but again, knowledge is not wisdom. A.I. does not fair well with wisdom. Computers can spew of facts, but wisdom can only be lived and can only be transmitted experientially, sensually, ritually and mythologically.

Yet there is reason to rejoice! The Dalai Lama is in fact not dead yet! And as the Karmapa said in his letter, there is reason to believe he will still be with us for a few more decades. He is still alive! And so too are other great masters. Heck, you may know some! Most gurus are not famous, but hidden in plain sight. Maybe the guru is your mother, your father, the old tree in your back yard, the little patch of organic soil behind the barn, your strange neighbor who you have never said hello to. Well, now is the time to go talk to them, yes, the tree too. Learn all you can from them. Keep alive their wisdom. Honor their final requests. For just like seeds that are not planted, if we don’t keep their teachings well preserved and learn now, while they are still hear to guide us, how to properly pass these teachings along, they will likely be forgotten, lost forever to the sands of time.

In a world of increasingly monocultured, data-imprisioned everything, we need to be vigilant with our efforts to keep alive as many living traditions as we can. This does not mean that we merely study about them, attain a basic understanding of them to immortalize in nice memorials and museums. What this entails is that we commit to mature into beings able to grow the capacity to allowed wise teachings to fully metabolize within us so that we ourselves become, like H.H. has become, the actual manifestation, the physical, living, breathing human embodiment of Ultimate Truth.

We should aspire to do this. We owe it to our ancestors, our teachers and the Earth to not be lazy in this pursuit. Lest the hight of western civilization resemble but red, white and blue fireworks, Kid Rock, WWE wrestlers, and a presidential criminal who loves to “grab pussy”, who has openly suggested he would hook up with his own friggin’ daughter. Yikes.

It behooves us to seek out the wise ones. Just as we would search far and wide for water if we lived in a desert. And we must do so today. Imagine. If you were stranded in the Gobi Desert and knew water was scarce and hard to find, but you had none, would you procrastinate? No, you would set off looking for that which gives you life. Wisdom, in these dark times, is just as important as water. And we don’t have nearly as much time as we think we do. This life, this awe inspiring, precious human existence, is but a flash of lightning in the dark of night. It is a brilliant miracle, filled with unbelievable beauty, but it is brief. If, for the benefit of future beings, we wish to pass on the myriad views that are responsible for allowing us to know such beauty, it is our sacred responsibility then to not merely seek out but become the ones we admire. We must strive to become the compassionate master ourselves, in honor of the ones who taught us, for the benefit of beings we will never know. This is a very hard thing to do once the masters die. Therefore, my beloved kin, please heed the words of the Karmapa and do not wait. Lay your petty grievances aside and go to them now. Take courage, honor them well and embody what you have learned.

May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.
May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering.
May they never be disassociated from the supreme happiness which is without suffering.
May they remain in the boundless equanimity, free from both attachment to close ones and rejection of others.

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For more information about the idea of “guru”, I highly encourage reading The Guru Drinks Bourbon by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

“Devotion to one’s teacher is the lifeblood of the Vajrayana path. Because the guru can and will use whatever means it takes to wake us up, this relationship may require us to drop our most deeply held beliefs and expectations. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse addresses some of the most misunderstood aspects of this powerful relationship and gives practical advice on making the most of this precious opportunity for transformation. Through stories and classical examples, he shows how to walk the path with eyes wide open, with critical-thinking skills sharpened and equipped to analyse the guru, before taking the leap.”

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#mayallbeingsbehappyandfree