From a Mountain In Tibet by Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche

Author:Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche [Rinpoche, Lama Yeshe Losal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241988961
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2020-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

9. Wild Days in the USA

I have never been a quick learner, either in school lessons or in life. Then again, very few of us are able to change our habits overnight, especially our habits of mind. It takes patience and repeated work to purify the mind’s preference for aversion from that which it finds unpleasant, attachment to that which it desires and ignorance of the true nature of reality. My vow to make my brother proud did not wipe away all my lifelong resentment. Neither did it turn me into a devoted practitioner of Buddhism, though it did create the necessary openness to the next turning point in my life.

In 1974, when I was thirty years old, we heard the news that His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa was coming to the West for the first time. Trungpa had invited him to the States. Akong asked the Karmapa to come to Samye Ling on his way back to India. He would be travelling with Sister Palmo, who had been my nemesis and my saviour when she was still Freda Bedi, as well as a group of monks and lamas. As soon as I found out about the visit I was determined that I would go with His Holiness the Karmapa to the States. My motivation was, on the one hand, quite straightforward and self-serving. Once again I needed to escape my life. I was bored, restless and fed up with chilly damp Scotland and living in Akong’s shadow. But, on the other hand, and more positively, I remember very clearly my sense that I could not miss this opportunity simply to be with His Holiness the Karmapa again. To serve him. He had been an exceptionally positive influence on me and I longed to be back in his presence. I was also very keen to see Trungpa. Opportunities (and valid excuses!) to travel were few; this was too good to miss.

So I put it to Akong that I would be useful to the Karmapa’s party. Aside from Sister Palmo none of them spoke good English. I had previously acted as translator to the Karmapa back in Rumtek and volunteered to do so again. This was agreed to be a good idea and I was added to the trip. I was jubilant.

The group was flying from Delhi to London and then on to New York, so they took a few days in London to rest. I travelled down and made an appointment to see His Holiness the Karmapa. When he saw me he simply smiled and nodded his head, as if he knew exactly what I had been up to and knew too that I was now, once again, within his sphere of influence.

There were fifteen monks in the group and most of them were quite elderly. They were used to the wild open spaces of Tibet and the chaos of Indian towns, but not to airports or Western hotels. They had already caused the Karmapa some worries by wandering in

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