The passing of Jim Morris

Chronicles of CTR — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:55:00 +0000

Dear Friends,

One of our longtime dharma brothers, Jim Morris, passed away last Thursday at 5:40pm at the VA Hospital in Sacramento. Jim had suffered for many years from COPD, a disabling lung disease, and from a number of other ailments. For the last 48 hours of his life he was in a quiet private room, moved there from the ICU by the helpful VA staff. The environment was very peaceful and he continuously had sangha present.

Jim was born May 1, 1936 in Kentucky. We don't know much about his upbringing and early life, but his strong connection to the Vidyadhara happened in the mid 1970's in Santa Barbara, California. Jim was one of the early members of the Dharmadhatu there, and worked hard to help establish the center. I'm not sure which seminary he attended but I think it must have been in the early 1980's. Some years after the Vidyadhara's death, Jim made a connection to Acharya Dawa Chhodak Rinpoche, and became a student of his. Jim was in contact with him the day before he died, and after Jim passed away we contacted Lama Dawa and he performed the phowa practice. I've attached the email that Lama Dawa's sangha sent out --- and there is a picture of Jim in the message.

Jim was a life long bachelor (although I did hear from his niece that he was married for a couple of days once...). He was quite a character --- he worked in Hollywood on film crews in his early days, usually on "B" movies where the director would occasionally have Jim play a bit part when they were short handed. Later when he moved to Santa Barbara, he lived on his sailboat in the harbor and made a living repairing boats. After he left Santa Barbara he was involved in a number of businesses -- two that I know about were a metal powder coating business, and later a vending machine operation. He was always interested in technology and, at one point, built his own ultra lite airplane and learned to fly. Whenever we would visit him he would always have some new gadget to show us -- the latest being a home-built electric car. The last few years of his life Jim was passionate about playing guitar and singing -- every month or so we would get recordings he had made. !

Jim had a great sense of humor, was very curious about the world, generous, feisty, loved the arts, prickly, and occasionally stubborn.

If there are any old timers out there who remember the early days with Jim, I would love to hear from you. We will be doing a Sukhavati ceremony at the Davis Shambhala Center in the near future. If you are interested in attending, let me know and I will send you the date once it is firmed up.

Best,
Warner Keeley
Sebastopol, California

Tribute to James Morris

The passing of Jim Morris