31 Jan 2012
7 min 24 sec
Video Overview
Creators:
Unknown
In an interview with Professor José Cabezon, Geshé Sopa describes the evolution of the Buddhist Centers he founded in Wisconsin.
- Wisconsin
- India
- Nepal
- Albuquerque
- Jose Cabezon: A little something on Deer Park, how Deer Park was founded, when it was founded, and
- Jose Cabezon: before you lived in Lake Mendota, then you know, this place here...
- Jose Cabezon: What year this was established, and a little bit of the history and also what your hopes are for the future.
- Geshe Sopa: Mmm, mmhmm, yes.
- Geshe Sopa: Well, since I was in the university, and many many students every year
- Geshe Sopa: became interested more and more
- Geshe Sopa: and I, my life also spent in Buddhist study,
- Geshe Sopa: I don't know much [about] anything else except this kind of study
- Geshe Sopa: so therefore, then,
- Geshe Sopa: in Madison, Lake Mendota, I stayed [at] Lake Mendota
- Geshe Sopa: Then I think the first time, [the] one who came was this John Newman
- Geshe Sopa: That hippie movement everywhere
- Geshe Sopa: and hippie time, and we had enough war
- Geshe Sopa: So many hippies [did] not go to war,
- Geshe Sopa: [they] go to India, Nepal, and live around, and together,
- Geshe Sopa: and that [they are] interested in spiritual
- Geshe Sopa: so then they finally... they realized they are
- Geshe Sopa: John Newman, these people, while in India...
- Geshe Sopa: because Lama Yeshe is my student
- Geshe Sopa: who is teaching, guru of...the hippie guru in Nepal.
- Geshe Sopa: So from him and many many together
- Geshe Sopa: "Oh, you have Geshe in Wisconsin, you should go there"
- Geshe Sopa: They don't know anything,
- Geshe Sopa: so therefore, finally they discovered when we go to America
- Geshe Sopa: where you go, and that is their thinking.
- Geshe Sopa: Finally, I was in Lake Mendota at that time.
- Geshe Sopa: John Newman came, with a back...
- Geshe Sopa: What do you call [it]?
- Jose Cabezon: Backpack.
- Geshe Sopa: Backpack! With a thin person and a shaved...[motions head]
- Geshe Sopa: and a dry [laughs] boy...
- Geshe Sopa: little boy comes.
- Geshe Sopa: So he... "why [did] you come here" and he says this and this
- Geshe Sopa: So then it started with that and also later,
- Geshe Sopa: many many...Roger Jackson, Beth Soloman[?], etc.
- Geshe Sopa: all these [people] slowly coming...Jim Dunne[? John Dunne?]
- Geshe Sopa: All many many...and slowly they moved their ones...
- Geshe Sopa: Finally, a circle of students around there, in that area.
- Geshe Sopa: So therefore, I teach there and
- Geshe Sopa: they want to, they come from time to time asking [me] to give teachings, etc.
- Geshe Sopa: But I do the university work also
- Geshe Sopa: And finally, they, all together...many, quite many people at some point
- Geshe Sopa: They asked me to establish some kind of center.
- Geshe Sopa: So they, then....
- Geshe Sopa: Elvin, Elvin Jones came to New Jersey with me all the time.
- Geshe Sopa: So he was also thinking,
- Geshe Sopa: and then we established [one] called Ganden Mahayana Center, right?
- Geshe Sopa: But I'm in Khamlung [Tulku]'s house that is [at] Lake Mendota.
- Geshe Sopa: So then we have only have teachings on Sunday.
- Geshe Sopa: Sunday teaching and some other times,
- Geshe Sopa: or night or something...
- Geshe Sopa: and then also ceremony, Buddhist, Buddhist, some holidays,
- Geshe Sopa: or some of the...some little puja or prayer, we do that.
- Geshe Sopa: Then also this Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa become famous at that time,
- Geshe Sopa: because [the] hippie movement [is] everywhere, every country, so therefore...
- Geshe Sopa: And they, one year, they want to come to the West, in America.
- Geshe Sopa: So they came to visit me and they stayed in the Lake Mendota area.
- Geshe Sopa: So then...that way,
- Geshe Sopa: they came several times,
- Geshe Sopa: and one time, I told [him], he was in Nepal...
- Geshe Sopa: I told [him] the next year you should come here and replace me,
- Geshe Sopa: you teach in the center.
- Geshe Sopa: So I had [been] invited by New Mexico
- Geshe Sopa: What do you call...Albuquerque...Albuquerque, right?
- Geshe Sopa: and university, there's a university there [that] asked me to come lecture for one semester
- Jose Cabezon: Charlene McDermott
- Geshe Sopa: Charlene McDermott and [undecipherable]
- Geshe Sopa: So I went, during that time, I purposefully, when this place was now empty
- Geshe Sopa: So the students, so many students, I had an idea
- Geshe Sopa: Lama Yeshe's students, so better for him to come [undecipherable]
- Geshe Sopa: He came, he stayed there during that time.
- Geshe Sopa: So that way...this is...those are the developments of there.
- Geshe Sopa: So they put quite a bit, the Lake Mendota area [undecipherable],
- Geshe Sopa: and then it became crowded.
- Geshe Sopa: The teachings were when you had all the cars there.
- Geshe Sopa: A little bit in the beginning I heard some neighbors complaining,
- Geshe Sopa: this house so many people coming, so many cars, something....
- Geshe Sopa: And then I told them [the students], "you park farther away and walk here."
- Geshe Sopa: "Don't park in these areas."
- Geshe Sopa: For a little while, I did [it] like this, then looking outside.
- Geshe Sopa: Then one time His Holiness [the] Dalai Lama came
- Geshe Sopa: And then in 1980...78 or 79,
- Geshe Sopa: then through the university I had the lecturer [position] teaching there, he was there.
Loading ... Collection:
Subcollection
- Religion in Tibet
- Monasteries
- Sera - Geshe Sopa Interview
- Sera Monastery
- Geshe Sopa Interview
Referenced Places
- Wisconsin
- India
- Nepal
- Albuquerque
Recording Location
- Wisconsin
Language
- English
Time Period:
Time:
2002
Interviewer:
Jose Cabezon
Contributing Interviewee:
Geshé Lhundub Sopa
Contributing Translator:
Eveline Yang
Publisher:
Tibetan and Himalayan Library
Data Entry:
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Shanti AV Id:
1425
thlib.org
1259
Versions:
Date Created:
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Encoding Scheme:
mpeg-4 visual
File Size:
30208 (KB)
Data Rate:
498 (kbps)
Frame Size:
360x272
Format Id:
Format Id:
1_db1ears6
Format Id Source:
Kaltura.com
Annotation:
LANGUAGE INFO Speech Type: Interview Situation Method: interviews MASTER TAPE INFO Master Tape Label: NDRP Master 1 Recorded: 1969-01-01