The Special Connection
with the XVIth Gyalwang Karmapa: 5

Rinpoché's Role in the 1977 visit to Europe
of the Gyalwang Karmapa: Part Two ... The Actual Tour

The Karmapa party arrived in Paris on June 20th 1977. Akong Rinpoché was there to greet him and the Karmapa party was taken by the Kagyu coach to the Dordogne. In that initial visit, the Karmapa discussed further the future of the land, the legal steps that needed to be taken and the consecration ceremonies that he would lead later on in the trip. Akong Rinpoché coordinated the meetings between the Karmapa, the land donor Mr Benson and the solicitor M. Lebeau, with Katia acting as interpreter. During this visit, the Karmapa bestowed the Vajra Crown ceremony and empowerments of Manjushri, Green Tara and Red Chenrezik.

The next stop was Paris and Kagyu Dzong. The author and Katia were not yet part of the tour team. We had come mainly to help the Paris group organise itself as well as for the pleasure of seeing the Karmapa. The Paris visit was going well and, mainly through formal politeness, we asked if it would be alright to follow the group on to its next destination, in Belgium. To our surprise, Rinpoché said,

“I will ask His Holiness”.

This seemed a little over-the-top for a very ordinary request. Rinpoché then informed us—to our total amazement and joy—that we were to join the tour, the author as an organizer and secretary to His Holiness and Katia in order to promote the major property that had been donated by Mr Benson as the future seat of the Karmapa in Europe. This was one illustration, among many, of how Rinpoché acted in the presence of his guru: all he wanted was to be a pure and efficient element in the Karmapa mandala—a vehicle of the Karmapa’s will and not his own.

A similar incident occurred a little way into the tour. The Karmapa had asked Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso to leave aside his teaching duties in Rumtek and join the Europe tour to give formal dharma teachings, leaving His Holiness free to give Refuge, empowerments and bodhisattva vow. We had heard something of this khenpo, who had a formidable reputation for strictness (at the time). After his arrival and once we had organised ourselves to join the tour, we found ourselves in the bus, in the good company of the illustrious lamas and sangha of the party. It should be explained that, until that point, Akong Rinpoché had been seemingly unreasonably strict with us whenever we enquired about studying Tibetan dharma or language, insisting that all our spare time had to be spent meditating and practising, without other distractions. Although, during the period 1971-1977, he probably had not clearly foreseen the future that would happen for us (i.e. to become scholars and interpreters) after the six-month tour, he had doubtless intuited the need to take us as far as was humanly possible in our sitting meditation and Mahamudra practice so as to have, later, some valid practice experience to bring the words of the teachings to life. We will always be grateful for that period of strict, uncompromising training, even though it made less sense at the time, as he time after time poured a cold shower on any other investment of interest in something other than practise itself.

Thus, we asked if, now that we were going to be travelling with the monks and lamas for six months, it might not be the right time to exchange some English language for Tibetan language with the Tibetans on board. Once again, and somewhat to our surprise, Rinpoché said,

“I’ll ask His Holiness”.

The reply, from the top, was that rather than casually learn Tibetan from the others, we should take classes each day with Khenpo Tsultrim. This was to have far more repercussions than we imagined, for all of us (see dedicated page) and shaped Khenpo’s destiny, our own and that of many people. Whether the decision was entirely the Karmapa’s or whether Akong Rinpoché made suggestions that the Karmapa agreed to, we will never know.

The tour proceded through venues in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Denmark again, Holland again, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, many separate destinations in France, Belgium and the UK. Akong Rinpoché often went off in advance of the main party to make sure all was well prepared for the Karmapa and I often accompanied him. After some time, as the bus was rather slow, the Karmapa often took to travelling with Jamgon Rinpoché in a private car but sometimes travelled in the bus, which became also the home of various birds and small dogs given to him or bought by him. During the tour, Akong Rinpoché impressed upon everyone ,again and again, the importance of making everything for the Gyalwang Karmapa as pure, perfect and excellent as possible, because all karma to do with him was exceptionally powerful. This led to a very interesting incident in Denmark, where the person supposed to host the Karmapa for one night was a healer who used magnetised water.

Akong Rinpoché, arriving some hours in advance, found that the room and in particular the bed planned for the Karmapa was nowhere good enough and needed to be replaced by a new and larger one. The person concerned became very upset and defensive, refusing to change the bed and saying that it was “good enough for himself and if it was not good enough for the Karmapa then he did not want the Karmapa in his house”. Rinpoché, appalled, explained that in Tibet the Karmapas, in all their incarnations, had always stayed in great monasteries or a huge monastic camp and never in private homes; it was truly a great privilege to receive him and no cost or effort should be spared. It would be a great blessing for many lifetimes to come. However, as the person would not budge on his decision, Akong Rinpoché had no choice: he was obliged to cancel the Karmapa’s visit to that man's house. Within hours, arrangements were made to stay elsewhere, in a very makeshift way . The whole party was appalled at the man’s attitude and the karma he would make. "Instant karma" in fact then occurred for the water-magnetiser. The following week, out of the blue, a major newspaper made a mockery of him, with a cartoon showing him bottling water at the kitchen tap and putting dollars-sign labels on the bottle. He was effectively ruined.

......continue to the next part of the story: Rinpoché's role in the 1977 visit of the Karmapa, Part 3