Brief report from Boulder

The 17th Gyalwa Karmapa has come and gone, and not seeing other dispatches, I offer this. He first arrived last Saturday around 2pm, straight from the airport, at the Shambhala Center, which looked pretty sparkling. He first blessed a children's audience, later saying he wished he had more time to play with them, and then went up to the shrine room where a packed house of invited guests celebrated an opening tea and rice ceremony. Sakyong Mipham welcomed the Karmapa, who said how happy he was to be in this very empowered shrine room, and in America, which has always had a resonance for him since he first heard of it when he was eight years old.

Quickly he was off to Naropa University for a quite verbal audience I'm told, dinner, and another reception at the St Julien hotel. Sunday was a celebration. Talks were at 10 and 2, and then there was a mixed sangha audience at 7. A flurry of emails went back and forth regarding too many or not enough tickets. Macky auditorium was packed for every event. It was hot, probably the warmest day of the year so far, apparently quite a contrast from wet New York.

Pema Chodron introduced the morning talk, Lady Diana the afternoon, both extremely moving, and so graceful. Diana remembered Trungpa Rinpoche not coming home or sleeping for days before the first Karmapa visit except for a catnap in his office, inspecting every last bit of satin that adorned the walls and teaching his students by example how to express devotion. Ponlop Rinpoche introduced the evening sangha audience with much self-deprecating humor, downplaying his tireless work to host the Karmapa, joking that he was merely the 'manager' of this grand tour. There was a sense of many Kagyu sanghas having worked together, well.

HHK spoke again of his strong connection to America, which gave us pause over these days to contemplate that his predecessor had died in Zion, Illinois. One talk was about the environment. He said that without minding the external environment and keeping it healthy, one would have much difficulty maintaining a healthy internal environment. He told a humorous story of being asked at age eight, 'you're the Karmapa, can't you stop the (relatively mild) earthquakes that shake underground almost every night?' Being eight, he wondered if the earthquakes were caused by large turtles moving around underground. So he addressed the turtles one day, declaring 'if you stop moving around so much I'll feed you milk. If you don't stop, things will be very difficult for you!' He fed them milk, and they stopped, for some years, only to begin again around the time he was making plans to leave for India. He also spoke of how he felt somewhat frustrated about his restricted movement in India, but his desire to be with us in the West combined with our aspiration to be with him created movement in the situation, allowing him to be here.

I wish I could remember more. Probably someone else does. After the audience there was a Tibetan community audience in the shrine room. The schedule was intense. Those in Seattle are in for a treat. The Karmapa is twenty two years old, but his maturity is timeless. His physical gestures are beautiful to watch, his sense of humor, and playful interaction with his interpreter, audience and the space are very alive. He speaks dharma with an ease and freshness and solidity that is intoxicating, and the hangover is wonderful. Now several days later there's another flurry of emails between those lucky enough to serve the Karmapa and his entourage, about how we all loved being with each other in that space so much that now we can't help but love one another. Such a brief affair, hopefully not a weekend fling but only the beginning of a long love affair with the teacher of teachers, guru of gurus.

Respectfully, Chris Randol