Visit of His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa to New York
19 May 2008 - Update on the Visit of His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa to
New York
This weekend, in a historic first visit to America, His Holiness the
Seventeenth Karmapa gave his first talks to western audiences in New York
City. A second account by Acharya Eric Spiegel, describing the atmosphere of
the visit and talks, follows.
“Saturday was the third day of His Holiness’ visit and the first day of
teachings. There were two talks after which His Holiness gave an evening
talk to the Tibetan community in New York. There were so many old friends
coming together and the atmosphere was of pure delight in the teachings and
in being together.
At the beginning of the morning’s teachings His Holiness seemed genuinely
awed by the audience; he said he hoped we would all take into consideration
that he had just flown around the world a couple of days ago and was totally
awed by addressing an entire ocean of people at once (well over 2,000). He
asked his translator what the title of the talk was (Awakening the Heart of
Enlightenment) and then seemed to swoon by the largeness of it.
His Holiness then gave two lovely talks on the view and practice of
developing and actualizing an enlightened (i.e., compassionate) view. It was
again very sweet, but also very clear, true dharma.
He described New York City perfectly: Everything is racing against
everything else — even the buildings seem to be striving to be taller than
the next ones. People speed around until they come to a complete halt and
when they can move again they speed until they have to stop again. And he
also recognized the tremendous richness in the city — that anything could
happen here.
During the two talks he spoke of befriending our kleshas, since fighting
them has never helped, and of the interdependence of self and other: “What
characterized the Buddha’s compassion was that what he felt about his
himself, he felt about other: whatever he felt about other he felt about
‘I’, and whatever he felt about ‘I’ he felt about other. We can, if we wish,
think of others as separate, or we can think of others as one with oneself.”
(Please understand that despite the quotes, this and the following are from
my notes, and most certainly not exact).
At the end of the morning talk he spoke about love, and his love of us,
concluding with “Many of you have not seen the Gyalwa Karmapa for several
decades, but I can assure you that those of you who made a connection with
the Gyalwa Karmapa have never been out of his mind.”
I would like to say one thing that have I found so very moving: At every
event a majority of the servers and of the people who create and hold the
container have been Shambhala sangha. In particular, the Dorje Kasung are
here in slim disguise (known as “Security” wearing new pins designed by the
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, the official host of this visit) yet they are so
completely the loyal Dorje Kasung, trained by and fulfilling their vows to
the lineage of Sakyongs. Seeing these Warriors manifest so perfectly in
protecting this mandala is truly inspiring. Also very present is Mr. Derek
Kolleeny, who has been serving visiting lamas for many years; during the
morning tea and rice offering his interplay with the Karmapa was just so
gentle and clean. There are many such people popping up everywhere,
manifesting the profound training that we have received through our
wonderful teachers without calling attention to themselves in any way.
I offer my personal thanks everyone who sent such kind messages after my
first posting. This is perhaps not as poetic, but I offer it as a gesture to
the larger sangha and hope that it will continue to inspire you on your
path.
Soaking in the rain of blessings of the lineages of Shambhala dharma,
Eric Spiegel
Ki Ki So So! Karmapa Khyen-no (Karmapa, hold me in mind)”
