by Kalu Rinpoche
December 22, 1988
https://media.s3bubble.com/embed/aprogressive/id/Ffar28632#
Kalu Rinpoche talk to the L.A. Dharmadhatu
Transcribed from the tape by Tara Carreon
[Translator] Good evening members of the sangha, friends. On behalf of the Dharmadhatu of Los Angeles, and Vajradhatu, I’d like to welcome everyone this evening, and particularly to express our gratitude to The Learned, Very Venerable Kalu Rinpoche for The Extraordinary Gift of his Presence with us here this evening. The Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, as I’m sure most of you know, is The Senior Meditation Master of the Kagyu Lineage, One Of The Greatest Yogis and Practitioners, Masters Of The Profound Path Of The Kagyu Lineage That The World Has Ever Known. Rinpoche Is Renowned For His Retreat Practice And Accomplishment, For His Wisdom, And For His Compassion. And It’s Quite Extraordinary That We Have The Auspicious Coincidence of The Embodiment Of Compassion With Us At A Time That It Is Most Appropriate For Us. So we’re very grateful to Rinpoche for being here and very grateful to auspicious coincidence for his being here, and we welcome you Rinpoche and request you to address us….
[Kalu Rinpoche] During my last trip to North America several years ago -- this was before the passing away of Trungpa Rinpoche -- I went to Boulder where I had been asked by Vajradhatu and Dharmadhatus to perform the initiation, the empowerment, of kalachakra, both for the benefit of peace and happiness in the world, and particularly for the benefit of the students of Trungpa Rinpoche. At that particular time, Trungpa Rinpoche was quite ill. And I performed this ceremony with the thought that I should be doing something to prolong his life if it was possible; if not, then simply to do something which would please him. And at that time, I was accompanied by most of the lamas here present tonight, and the translator at that time was Ken McCloud. And everything went very excellently in Boulder at that time. And at that time I made a very strong connection with various members of the Dharmadhatu organization, and our minds became as one from that time.
At this particular point in time, I have been extremely happy to be among you once again, and to see various members of the Dharmadhatu, and most particularly the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin. However, there seems to be some problems these days. And in spite of my great happiness at meeting all of you, and particularly the Vajra Regent once again, there are things which are making me a little sad.
The present situation is like this:
At one time there was a rabbit. And there was a great wind. And during this time, some trees were blown into the water, and made a very great sound. The rabbit became very afraid of this sound. He wasn’t used to hearing it, so he ran away. When he was running away, he ran into a couple of deer. And the deer said, “What are you running from?” And he said, “There’s something the matter here in the ocean. I’m running away from this sound ‘Jow.’” And the deer became very afraid, and they started running away with the rabbit.
Many animals gathered as the news spread that there was some terrible sound, “Jow,” which was coming from the ocean. And they all ran away. And eventually they came and met a lion. And this lion was completely fearless. And he said, “What are you running away from?” And they said, “Well, there’s this sound ‘Jow,’ at the ocean.” And he said, “I’m not afraid of this.” He had a tremendous amount of pride, and he had the rabbit lead him to the ocean where the sound had come from. And he stood up on the rocks to look over into the water to see where the sound had come from. And he made his body very, very high, and he looked down into the water, and he saw his own reflection. And he said, “Ah, this must be the particular thing that is making this particular noise. I’m very strong. I can defeat this particular enemy.” And he jumped in, and made the sound “Jow” once again, and died. And nothing came of all of his courage.
The present situation is like this. [LAUGHTER] I really feel the present situation is like this. At this particular point in time, as all of you already know, the Vajra Regent has contracted AIDS. And people worry very much about the fact that he might have passed this on to many people. As far as I’m concerned, the panic that people are feeling at this particular point is much like these animals running away from the sound “Jow, Jow, Jow.” As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing to this particular worry.
I’ve been aware of this situation for some time now; however, I’ve heard just recently that due to the activity of Ken McCloud, and one of the people at his center, that some of the information concerning the Vajra Regent has gone into the newspapers. My own feeling about this is that we in the dharma centers, be they the Vajradhatu, Dharmadhatu, or my own centers here, all of us are working to provide beings with peace of mind as well as happiness and comfort physically. This is the reason why we have dharma centers, in order to benefit others. Now persons who have AIDS have other very serious sicknesses they are suffering physically. And this sort of publicity which is blaming others for the difficulties that a person might have, is only adding unhappiness to the person’s physical suffering. They are suffering in their minds if they follow this type of news.
In America, you have a lot of people looking over the laws of the land, and taking care of the health of the citizens of this country. You have the President, you have the Supreme Court, you have everybody from the top to the bottom. You have hundreds of thousands of police, and other persons who are taking care of people’s situations, whether people are harming one another, or are benefiting one another. As far as I’m concerned it is not the work at all of the dharma centers to examine exactly what is happening in another center’s group. I have control myself only of my own organization. And if Ken McCloud and other persons within my own organization are being harmful to others, this is something which I can put a stop to. This is something which I will put a stop to. This sort of activity of putting things into newspapers and making publicity which is harmful to other people in various ways, is something which is against the principles of our religious organization. We don’t have an organization for this sort of purpose. The purpose of our organization is to be of benefit to others.
As little as we can say, as little as we can discuss with others about this subject, the better, simply because this is a tremendous cause of distraction within our meditation practices. This is of very little benefit to the minds of anybody.
There are agencies in the American government, no doubt, that take care of people who have AIDS. And they are able to make an examination of a person. And if a person has AIDS, this is something between them and government agencies. And they should simply ask, “What do I do now?” And if they don’t have AIDS, then that’s just fine.