Six Degrees of Contact with the Karmapa

By Michael Erlewine

[Here was very painful moment, which I will relate, and I learned a lot. And it turned out OK.]

It was 2008, and we had just gotten home from seeing the Karmapa on his first trip to KTD and his monastery, not to mention America. We were home, safe and sound. That ribbon of highway actually led back to where we live. How amazing!

We had stayed for an extra couple of days at the monastery because His Holiness was very tired and needed rest from his relentless schedule of travel and having audiences back-to-back almost all the time. Margaret and I were part of the local security team, so we spent many hours standing watch over the complex. The Karmapa also had professional watching over, everything from the Secret Service, his own guards, and the local police.

I hesitate to tell this next story for reasons that should be obvious once you read it, because it seemed to reflects poorly on little-old me, or at least did for a while, but then I tell myself that I should just tell it like it is, the good, the bad, and the whatever… It has to do with my meeting His Holiness the 17th Karmapa and our interaction. Yes, I said “interaction,” which was a total surprise to me.

We had been following His Holiness through his venues in Queens, NY and on up to his main seat in North America, Karma Triyana Monastery (KTD) in the mountains above Woodstock, NY. In many of the venues, we could not even (physically) see His Holiness, although he was somewhere in the room. We had to watch him on a large washed-out jumbo screen. And so on.

Then I we recount Margaret and my videoing a special event up on the Karmé Ling retreat property that His Holiness wanted to put together, but I did not tell everyone the whole story then because I was still putting it all together, making sense of it as you will now see. It begins at the Karmé Ling retreat center, where I was videoing a short film that needed doing with the Karmapa, when out-of-the-blue His Holiness asks if Margaret and I would like to have our picture taken with him. Of course, we would and did.

Margaret was right up and standing next to His Holiness, but I was fiddling with the camera and trying to show our friend Lama Karma how to use it. Finally, I joined His Holiness and Margaret. His Holiness then said something to me as I joined them like “here is the ‘bad’ man,” which of course caught my attention 100%. And then he said: “Maybe bad, maybe good.”

Well, those were not the words I would have expected or wanted to hear from the highest personage in our lineage. I had not expected to interact with him at all, for that matter. We were told not to. He had asked us for a photo.

Anyway, I was kind of struck dumb by the remark, ‘floored’ would be what I was, like down to the floor, at least mentally. Pictures were taken, not only of myself and Margaret with the Karmapa, but of my teacher the Ven. Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche and Lama Karma with him. I was part of a video crew and was selected to be with H.H. since I was pretty much a known quantity and considered ‘safe’.

In the meantime I was in a kind of mild shock. I will include the photo where you can see I was in kind of a shock. As His Holiness started to leave I stammered out something very unoriginal like “… I hope I am not a bad man.”

His Holiness turned, looked me dead in the eye and begin to make deep frowning faces at me, enlarging his eyes (which are big to begin with), and trying on different scowls or frowns. His head would pull back and then push forward. He would turn away and then suddenly turn around and move near me frowning. And then he vanished through the hanging-cloth on the door and was gone.

Some of my oldest dharma-friends, a couple of retreat lamas, were in the room as well, and also took it all in. Well, if you have read all the Zen stories of different would-be holy persons suddenly startled out of their equilibrium, imagine how I felt, and I am not even a lama or any kind of ordained person. My world just got turned upside down.

There I stood feeling very alone, almost as if I had been shunned. Later I asked my lama friends, and they really were not very encouraging, pointing out that perhaps I had to seriously look at myself, etc., as if I was not already doing this like: full-time. It was as if they crossed their fingers at me.

Let me just cut to the chase and say that, for me, it was a kind of rough night. The only person who did feel sorry for me was my wife Margaret, and she, of all people, probably could affirm whatever “bad” qualities I have. Anyway, you get the idea. But the story is not over.

The next interaction with His Holiness came when as part of a group of dharma folks who helped with security with the Karmapa, we got to have an audience with him and offer him a khata — the ubiquitous Tibetan white scarf.

When my turn in the line came, as I stood right before His Holiness and came up to offer a khata, he began all over again to make those scowling faces again, pulling his head way back, furrowing his bow, and making those deep frowning looks. But this time he ended all of that with a great wide smile as he handed me a little statue of Manjushri that he had blessed.

Well, that was some bit of a reprieve if the fog of the shock, like a condemned man might get from his executioners. I went away from that interaction feeling a little better but still reeling just a bit.

The next interaction came that evening, when suddenly His Holiness appeared in the dining room where some of us were chatting, surrounded by his professional security team. He walked by all of us, peered (or went) into the kitchen, and then came back out and walked back the way he came.

However, when he got to where I was standing, he stopped, turned to me, and once again eyeballed me and gave me a very penetrating look. Then he smiled and said something like “look sad” and walked away. He was not saying I looked sad, but rather telling me to look sad.

The next interaction came when I was standing security along a long hallway through which His Holiness and his security would pass. His Holiness was dressed for a brief night walk, wearing a hoodie with the drawstring tightly pulled so all I could see were his nose, mouth, and eyes. When he got to where I was in this narrow hallway, he again stopped, turned directly to me, pushed his head forward until all I saw were these great big eyes. He then reached out with his hand and tickled my short beard and chin, then he smiled and moved on. And the story goes on.

The next interaction came when His Holiness came down a stairwell on the way to consecrate a small shrine room dedicated to the dharma protectors. He was going to do the regular Mahakala ritual to kind of christen the room. This time I was guarding the doorway through which he had to pass. Before and behind were his security guards. As he went past me, he reached out with his left hand, grabbed my arm by the bicep and gave it a squeeze, and was gone.

By this time I was feeling much better about all of this, in particular since a couple old-timers (who knew His Holiness pretty well) told me that this kind of teasing was a sign that he liked me, at least well enough to stop and interact with me. So, that’s pretty much my story.

And the last time I saw His Holiness for that trip I was opening the outside door for him to exit when he left KTD, from which he was to emerge to the sound of the shrill music of the oboe-like Gyaling horns, with all the folks lined up there to see him enter one of the two black Chevy Surbubans that were waiting outside. As he passed through the doorway, he again looked me in the eyes and simply said “Goodbye!” And then he was gone for good, at least for this trip.

So, there you have my roller-coaster-ride contact with His Holiness the 17th Karmapa. Of course, in 1997 my family and I spent three days with the 17th Karmapa at his ancestral monastery Tsurpu at 15,000 feet in Tibet. And in 2011 when His Holliness returned for his second trip to KTD Monastery, and once again I was there to help out.

Here are two photo books I made of two visits of the 17th Karmapa to the U.S.

“Karmapa at KTD 2008”

https://www.startypes.com/pdf/e-books/KarmapaKTD_2008.pdf

“Karmapa at KTD 2011”

https://www.startypes.com/pdf/e-books/KarmapaKTD_2011.pdf

[Here is the photo that was taken by Lama Karma, perhaps with a video. I can’t remember. You can see me kind of in shock from what had just been said. LOL.]

EMAIL Michael@Erlewine.net Note: If you would like to have access to other free books, articles, and videos on these topics, here are the links: SpiritGrooves.net.

For a limited time, I am doing a few Zoom astrology readings. If interested, please email me with the subject “READINGS.”

As Bodhicitta is so precious,

May those without it now create it,

May those who have it not destroy it,

And may it ever grow and flourish.