It wasn't until a week or two ago that I realized that it fell to me to introduce Jeffrey. Who, in one sense, needs no introduction. You have seen who he is through the work of his students and all the stories that you have heard.

And I thought, "What should I do? What could I possibly do. I think I need, at least, an eight piece string ensemble."

But that wasn't possible to invite an orchestar up here. And, I, uh, thinking again about this great teacher of dependent arising as I was reflecting on, you know, what on earth would I say.

I could talk about how when once in Cambridge, I had parakeets in my room and they would fly around and one suddenly fell to the ground and seemed to be dead. And I just went [sudden intake of breath] and shrieked and Jeffrey heard me. I didn't actually call him, but he heard me.

And he walked into my room and said, "What happened?" And I said, "The bird is just lying completely lifeless on the ground."

And Jeffrey walked over, and I don't know what he did, but a few minutes later, the bird was fine and flying around. So, you know, the terror of Jeffrey? [laughter] The respect for Jeffrey? Uh...

"That's enough!" [laughter] [applause]

This is from Tibet. I'm going to put it on you. Should I do it here or [inaudible]?

Is this yours?

As has been noted, we're in the Rotunda, and they will come and physically remove us in two minutes. [laughter]

We will indicate no disrespect and whatever ferocity I have will mean nothing to those people.

Uh, I want to talk a little bit about legacy. This is a term that has bothered me. Uh, in 1996, while I was His Holiness' translator, I interpreted into English from 1979 - 89, I was brought out of retirement in 1996 to do something for him.

And in the course of that we were in, um, Indiana, and he was interviewed by a reporter from the New York Times, who went around to see a lot of great people and to ask them, "How would you like to be remembered in 50 years?"

And, I was called in to be there while this interview was taking place.

And, um, His Holiness just said, "That's against my vows." Really cryptic answer. To be concerned about what people will think about me in fifty years! And she'd gone around to all these great people, they gotten all these articles about how they want to be remembered in fifty years. [laughter]

He said, "That's against my vows!"

And so, she had to get this article. So, she kept asking him.

She figured if I keep asking, eventually he'll say something. Wear him down. Nooooo! He kept repeating this, "Against my vows!"

And I was sort of wondering, "What vows?" To be concerned about yourself? To be concerned about your own fame.

And then I was thinking about what would really matter in fifty years is the state of how people were.

And anyway, she kept asking, asking, and asking, he kept saying the same thing. He finally turned to her after she asked one more time, and he said, "Now, I really think you're silly," [laughter]

Now that was...that could be a great article.

So, I've been bothered by this term "legacy" that's so famous, you know, it's..it really became popular during the end of Bill Clinton's administration, which were reporters were saying, "He's concerned about HIS legacy!"

So, they didn't say, "He's concerned about the future." They didn't say, "He's concerned about posterity," which is what the people who built this place--how they used to talk.

His legacy! As if you own it. The whole thing. The Dalai Lama at some point said, "Like, hey look! You can't control what people are going to think about you! Some people may say, 'He's the guy who lost Tibet!'" [laughter]

"Other people may say, 'He's the fella who did this and that!' I can't do anything about that. It's useless to think about those things!" And that was really a lesson for me.

So, I don't give a damn about my legacy. [laughter] But I do give a damn, many damns, about the future, about posterity. And, uh, whether anything is tied to me or not--who cares!

Do you think I'm going to care? I've been there. I almost died in '91. Last stage of death for me was in this golden light, the name Paul Jeffrey Hopkins came out, and I realized, "I almost don't know if Jeffrey is the most important part of that."

And I guess that's what kept me--I don't know, that thought allowed me to come back, whatever. The doctors said they didn't do a thing for me.

Well, actually it was, it was a mantra that I'd been..I'd...Ok, I'll tell the story. [laughter]

I thought--it's only golden light. I didn't have a body, it wasn't Charlottesville, there wasn't any of that crap around. And I thought, "I'm in trouble!" [laughter]

And that caused intant memory of a mantra that Ling Rinpoche had taught me. He said, "You're going to get in trouble some day, and here's the mantra to get you out of it."

And I never practiced the mantra. Never! It came to me at that time, and that's what I did. And that's why I'm here.

But anyway [laughter] The point of telling the story is, you don't even remember your name. Who gives a shit what your legacy is? Well, I'm talking to myself here. [laughter]

But tremendous care about the, about people, the future, how people are and, and, and, I mean, indeed, at this time of life, a lot of...I didn't realize I was in this time of life, but people ask me, "How'd you do so much?"

And I have to think, "How did I do so much?" And, I don't know, well, here I'm free associating, but as a junior in prep school, I read some Marx, we were given some Marx to read right in class.

And I got tremendously absorbed by Karl Marx' concern for people. And I got totally wrapped up in this. If you refer to the Mind Generation of Jeffrey Hopkins, it came from the word of Karl Marx.

Not saying I might like...well, there's a whole lot of things about him I do like.

His Holiness' nickname for me is "Marx." I never told him this story.

So, it's not very...this social concern that so many of us have in that era is what drives it. And, if you don't do what you can do, you're failing that image that you originally had.

And for which you so bitterly complain about those people who have no such concern, but if you're going to be at all consistent, you got to do what you can. Can't do anymore than you can, you don't have to worry if you can't do anymore than you can.

So, then, as people have pointed out here, this wasn't--the Virginia program, this, that, and so forth--this wasn't the job of one person. There were all these individual people who saw value in it, who really saw value in it.

Now, I may have paid Anne [Klein] a little bit of money for typing, but if somebody in the future, "Well, she must have done it so she could get some money," Forget it.

Except for Dan Cozort [laughter] sorry, there isn't anyone who came here calculating that [laughter] that this would be a good way to live. I've warned people, "The only job you can look for and do is bagging groceries at the A & P." Well, the A & P isn't even down the road anymore.

Well, it so happened that everyone who wanted an academic job got an academic job. What? What a surprise to all of us.

So, there's some motivation--which was his motivation too--to learn something, to do something that moved them and so many people joined in this, uh project, because they saw value in it.

In this very room, when Emperor Hirohito was to be honored, I think with a meal, I don't...and he was late. He was up at Monticello. He was late! The dean [of Arts and Sciences], Ray Nelson, was there, and he and I were, you know, friends.

So, I said, " Do you mind if I talk some business?" And I said it would be a good idea to do a Nobel Peace Laureates conference.

I gave two or three sentences on it, and he immediately said, "Yes! Let's do it!"

All sorts of people did these things, over and over and over again.

My original letter seeking employment here was written to David Harnett. David Harnett was chair of the [Religious Studies] department. He went through all sorts of shenanigans to bring about my being hired.

Dean after dean, I got to know them all, except now present dean--good time to retire. And they love joining in! Why, one day, Shu Kelly wanted to refuse the measly amount of money that I was asking for. He had his back of against the wall, and he said, "You know, Jeffrey, when I sit down across from you. I want to give you everything you ask for." And I said, "Well?" [laughter]

And that was the one time when I didn't get what I was asking for.

Now, as people have said this developed community, and when I came out, um, it was a period of considerable tension and so forth in my life. And one of the books that, that I read, I, I think it was titled "Faggots" by Larry Kramer, I think he must have written it on pot.

Particularly poorly written, I think, in terms of expression. But it's some really interesting things there. The book, fairly near the beginning of the book there's a fella, I think his name is Leon Perverse....Purvis.

You can sort of see that, you know, pot-filled mind...Perverse Pervert, you know, and of course this queer kid is born in a family whose name is "Pervert".... "Purvis!"

So, anyway, he's living in, poor ol' Leon Purvis is living in New Jersey--who'd want to be queer and in New Jersey? That was accepted as fact.

So, he decides, "I'm going to go to Manhattan! That distant land!" And he writes a letter to his parents--he can't tell them, right?

So, he writes a letter to his parents, and he begins it with "Dear Mr. and Mrs. Purvis," and that's because his parents didn't know him! It was a great line!

I could've done that to my parents. To them. It's a way to get back--you didn't let me live! Oh my parents had already passed away when I came out.

But, you know, Dear Mr. and Mrs.--what a line! It's like, "You people that I've lived with so closely, you do not know me!"

And that was my feeling about my own family. But with regard to the graduate students with whom I have read, with regard to publishers at Snow Lion and Wisdom who are here today, with regard to Hannah Robinson, representing herself and her husband, my mentor at the University of Wisconsin, but with regard to these graduate students with whom I have worked on texts as--Guy [Newland] was it?--talked about the intimacy of it--these people knew me.

They didn't know I was queer, but they knew me. Just about everybody else, they didn't know me; they were in the category of "Mr. and Mrs Purvis."

So, community, yes. Margot Odahowski--who teaches a course in meditation here at the graduate business school, commerce school--wrote in an email, "I don't know if I can be there, but for somebody who established community, it's most appropriate that the community is gathered."

Wow! I never would have thought of that! And it's true!

Well now, let me finish this by saying...with all of the people who have become interested, seen value, and worked, I would suggest that there are so many of you in academia that if you ever get a chance to hire a second person, you need to hire someone like David Germano.

I never suggested to him what he should teach at the University of Virginia, as I did not also tell Karen Lang and Paul Groner. We...none of us have ever, I believe--unless I don't remember--conversation about what you should teach.

But David one day said to me, "Jeffrey, I guess I should do everything you don't do." And that's huge! And I thought to myself, "Whew!" [laughter]

You see it is people like that who's let me do what I want to do! Well not only was...well I said, "uh, I guess, I'll..." [laughter]

Not only that, but he, he's not a wallflower. He's the kind of person who, you know, you get a language program, "Well, gee let's see what more could be done with that? What more could be done with this or that?" And so forth.

So, look to him for the qualities of that second person that all of you are going to hire in your program.

Last spring, uh, there were a couple celebrations of my return. David, I could tell, thought, "That's not enough! That's not! No! That's not done right!"

And he has literally carried this right down to, you know, being the person who received my weekly email that said, "Oh! What about inviting so-and-so? What about inviting so-and-so?" And he never answered back to me saying, "You know, just shut up. Get them all on one piece of paper and send them to so-and-so. Do this or that."

So, somebody as Steven Weinberger said the other day, "He is tremendously capable of multi-tasking." And so, at the various stages in my life and career, there's been such people who have made my life possible.

Then, final sentence, I....I guess I have to say AM retiring, since it's May 24th when it takes place, at which time I can get my gold parking pass and I can park wherever I want to! [laughter]

But I would point out to you that I am retiring from teaching at the University of Virginia in order to spend more time writing books and they have given me a year of research leave, which was this past year, and I managed to do some in the last year! I got so much more done, and I just wish, well maybe so.

But when you're at the peak of you career, you don't know if it is going to go like that for a while, or it's going to go like that, or it's going to go like that. [laughter]

So, anyway, I retired at absolutely the right time, which was confirmed for me yesterday and today. I can still understand what you say [laughter]

And you realize that I can understand what you say, the bullshit has been kept--I wouldn't even say to a minimum. I haven't heard bullshit. Even today, you got to hear about what a horrible person I am. [laughter]

And let me tell you, that reputation carried me for many years. I didn't even have to be tough! And people come to my office shaking and thinking, "Uh! He's tough! I don't know what to do with him!"

Until Susan Kraft! When she was leaving, she said to me, "You used to be tough!" [laughter] "I'm leaving!" [laughter]

Bye. [applause]