The Special Connection
with the XVIth Gyalwang Karmapa: 6

Rinpoché's Role in the 1977 visit to Europe of the Gyalwang Karmapa:
Part Three ... Reflections on Rinpoché's Qualities

Throughout the journey, Akong Rinpoché was the perfect example of all three levels of buddhadharma:

i) Very aware of the powerful karma that was being established day after day, for individuals, for dharma groups, for nations and for Europe as a whole, he worked tirelessly to help people receive the Karmapa in the best of ways. He had the Karmapa’s sangha treated with the proper respect and did much of the “gardening work” that would enable the seeds of blessings sown by the Karmapa to take root.

ii) As a bodhisattva, he set an example of selflessness and service, acting with strength yet humility and showing all the key qualities in practice, i.e. he was generous, immaculately-behaved, forbearing of all difficulties encountered without ever becoming angry or upset, extremely diligent night and day, always the image of meditative peace and lastly, very wise in his handling of the situations that occurred in this tour for which he was primarily responsible.

iii) He displayed a perfect respect for the Karmapa throughout, becoming a constant example of how a disciple respects and serves a guru. The Karmapa’s “job” was to be the teacher of all the tulkus and this often involved teasing them and making them do silly things, as a counterpart to the way in which they were all put on a pedestal in their own dharma-worlds. Akong Rinpoché had relatively long hair at the time—at one point more like an Afro haircut—and His Holiness would sometimes pull him around by the hair and call him Africa Lama. At the time, we all attributed this to Rinpoché’s hair but it turned out to be another of the Karmapa’s veiled predicitions, as Akong Rinpoché was later to bring the Kagyu dharma to Southern Africa, a connection that was yet to happen at the time of the tour.

Rinpoché also acted as the Karmapa’s main dharma protector, ensuring his safety throughout (there had been threats, among them bomb threats and personal threats). In one incident, a psychotic person broke into the Karmapa’s company, smoking a cigarette. It was frightening yet fearlessly Rinpoché tackled him, removed the cigarette and extinguished it by grinding it into his own hand and then escorted the person out of the room. The same man turned up again later, in Scotland, where it took five policemen and three police doctor’s injections to subdue him.
Akong Rinpoché was fearless and did not hesitate for one moment to put his own life on the line to protect His Holiness. The reader is left to imagine the tremendous responsibility and work involved in this tour. There were many different venues, with accommodation, food and logistics to be sorted out adequately each time. There were many meetings, including one with the Austrian president and others with highest-ranking officials such as archbishops. There were visa and other formalities to be dealt with when travelling from country to country, made more complicated by His Holiness travelling on a diplomatic passport and some of his entourage only having a Bhutanese travel document—a single sheet of rice paper. There were teachings and empowerments to organise and so on and so forth. Rinpoché’s team for this was a small one and he bore total responsibility. He succeeded brilliantly through his untiring diligence. Also, all the while he had to remain in contact with Samye Ling so that it be well prepared for His Holiness’s stay, almost at the end of the trip.

The following are some of the empowerments and teachings organised by Akong Rinpoché during the six months:

Dordogne, France ..... Vajra Crown, Manjushri Mawi Senge, Green Tara Red Chenrezik Antwerp, Belgium..... Vajra Crown, Chenrezik Manjushri (given by Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoché)
Brussels, Belgium ..... Milarepa, Karma Pakshi
Kiel, Germany ..... Chenrezik
Oslo, Norway ..... Amitabha (K16), Vajrasattva (JKR)
Stockholm, Sweden ..... Chenrezik, Gampopa, Green Tara
Copenhagen, Denmark .....Vajravarahi, Gampopa, Vajrasattva (lung only for Shamar text) Teachings on the Direct Path to Enlightenment (JKR)
Hamtoren (Vleuten), Holland ..... Chenrezik, Gyalwa Gyamtso, Karma Pakshi, Vajrasattva and Manjushri.
Germany (Frankfurt?) ..... Milarepa and Amitayus
Rikon, Switzerland ..... Guru Rinpoché
Dhagpo Kagyu Ling, France ..... Chakrasamvara and Mahakala
Brussels, Belgium ..... Vajrasattva, Tara, Karma Pakshi and Chenrezik
Samye Ling ..... Chakrasamvara, Vajravarahi, Mahakala & Vajrasattva

A major event in the tour was the consecration of the land at Dhagpo Kagyu Ling in early November, 1977. Under Rinpoché’s guidance, Katia Holmes had been promoting the new property of His Holiness and advertising the consecration event throughout the tour up to that point. Some five hundred people were expected and the logistics were correspondingly to scale. Akong Rinpoché could be seen everywhere, organising the raising of prayer flags, sorting out the large marquee that has been rented, going back and forth between the Chateau de Chaban, where the Karmapa and Jamgon Rinpoché were lodged and receiving people, and the new land, down the hill from the chateau ... and so on and so forth. Again, all went well.

The above, which is by no means exhaustive, gives an idea of the major transmission of Kagyu teachings that took place during this epic journey. It was history in the making and Akong Rinpoché played a very important role in it indeed. Decades later, after the break-away of the Shamarpa faction, Akong Rinpoché was to become the only Kagyu rinpoché with unbroken samaya who was resident in Europe to re-transmit these sacred empowerments, received so purely. It was because there was no one else, other than lamas visiting occasionally, that Rinpoché made it one of his main tasks to give empowerments in the last two decades of his life.

......continue to the next part of the story: Rinpoché's role in the 1977 visit of the Karmapa, Part 4