Dragon Thunder by Gimian Carolyn Rose & Mukpo Diana J

Author:Gimian, Carolyn Rose & Mukpo, Diana J. [Gimian, Carolyn Rose]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Published: 2010-10-05T03:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

In the Summer of 1976, Gesar and I returned to Boulder to visit Rinpoche, who had just moved into town from Boulder Heights. Later that year, we would move into our new home on Mapleton Hill. While the new house was being renovated, Rinpoche was living in a rental at the corner of Seventh Street and Aurora, in an area of Boulder called “the Hill.” The house had been owned by Scott Carpenter, who made the second manned spaceflight orbiting the earth in 1962. He named his spacecraft Aurora 7—based on the address of his house in Boulder. Rinpoche referred to the house as Aurora 7 in several poems that he wrote that summer.

Rinpoche had asked one of his students, John Perks, to help him put together a household at Aurora 7 modeled, somewhat loosely, on an English court or perhaps the house of an English lord. John himself was English, and he had been a footman and a bar boy in England, so he had a background in English service. More than that, however, he had a great flair for the theatrical and for large, somewhat ostentatious undertakings. He had also worked in several alternative schools in America and taught experiential education at Naropa Institute in 1974 and 1975. John was a colorful character and the perfect person to help Rinpoche create the Kalapa Court. For the next five years, John was intimately involved in Rinpoche’s life and in the life of our family. He was immensely helpful and loyal. However, in the 1980s, around the time that His Holiness the Karmapa passed away, John found it difficult to continue working with Rinpoche at the Court. Problems developed, and finally Rinpoche had to ask John to stop teaching and doing certain other things, which had gotten out of hand, and Johnnie moved away from Boulder and psychologically distanced himself from us.

In this era, however, he was very much in tune with what Rinpoche wanted to do. Together they were creating an uplifted household atmosphere where many of Rinpoche’s students could have direct contact with him by being involved in various areas of our domestic life. John became Rinpoche’s butler and the head of his household. Now that I was not planning to live in Boulder year-round, Rinpoche had the freedom to expand the household and to invite more and more people in. He didn’t have to worry as much about my reaction to all of that, and frankly, for short periods of time, I found it quite bearable, enjoyable, and often entertaining. It was theater and pageantry, and I could also see that it was good training in mindfulness and devotion for Rinpoche’s students.

The Court approach was certainly influenced by the success of the households that were organized for His Holiness the Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and other major Tibetan teachers. Rinpoche’s students loved having this kind of intimate contact with a teacher’s everyday life, and it was quite natural to begin to extend that model to Rinpoche. He

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