Eulogy for Robin

My memorial to Robin is based on my latest experience of him which was listening to a series of five talks he delivered in Milwaukee in a seminar called "Creating an Enlightened Society". Robin is/was exemplary because he was willing to take full ownership of the gifts we were given collectively, nurture them, and further them as his own. It is in establishing the meaning of Ownership, how to be a proper recipient of the teachings, that I think is Robin's greatest gift to us. Honesty How many times did we hear Robin get up during Rinpoche's teachings and express doubt, raise difficult questions, and keep pressing when he wasn't satisfied with the answer. This grinding and sometimes embarrassing process is the process of properly receiving. The teacher's honesty meeting the student's honesty. Robin describes the process of Kagyu Ngondro, five years worth, as developing faith. He was adamant that only through this process was he able to ripen doubt and develop faith in his guru. In so doing, he demonstrated how we learn to trust ourselves completely. Nurturing Once he received, Robin worked very hard to further the transplantation of the dharma in the west. He took personal responsibility for it. He used his gifts as a scholar, a translator and generous person toward that aim. His style of teaching was more like partaking in a great meal where you couldn't stop talking about the food. Of course, what is interesting other than the delicious and penetrating flavor of the truth? In so doing, he demonstrated how we hold the teachings and pass them on. Being a citizen Robin was not a cultist. Nor did he narrowly define himself. Integrating the eastern and western wisdom lineages was a passion of his, and I think a line of inquiry, that if we pursue it, can set a course for the evolution of Shambhala. He loved he Greek philosophers and did his own spade work to find meeting points in their contemplative path and the Buddha-dharma. He was clearly taken with the idea that the west has to revive the ideal of the renaissance courtier, the well trained and cultured person as a model for living. He held the view that the enlightenment culture of the west was eroded with industrialization, but could be revived. He articulated the Shambhala teachings using both western and eastern paradigms to show that they can be equally at home in both. In so doing, he demonstrated how we can work to heal the wounds of our world. Enjoying Life To know Robin was to laugh with him. Or eat, or shop. I remember him at the Kalapa Assembly, participating in a full bore Shambhala Wedding. He was dressed as a Japanese nobleman in clothes borrowed from Shibata Sensei, hair oiled, clearly delighting in the whole affair. He wrote me "Oh how I loved that outfit Shibata Sensei dressed me in. Those were the only clothes I've ever worn that felt completely and utterly right." In living, he demonstrated how we can make the most of being human. Bob Gailey, August 2, 2007, Halifax, Nova Scotia