31 Jan 2012
5 min 28 sec
Video Overview
Creators:
Unknown
In an interview with Professor Jose Cabezon, Geshé Sopa discusses how the first Kalacakra initiation in the West came together in Madison Wisconsin in 1981.
- Wisconsin
- Geshe Sopa: After that time, then Waukesha University there, they invited him too.
- Geshe Sopa: Then I went with him in the car,
- Geshe Sopa: just driver and Dudjom Rinpoche [?]...in the back seat, no, the front,
- Geshe Sopa: and His Holiness and me, backseat,
- Geshe Sopa: whole two hours, talking, talking, talking.
- Geshe Sopa: Finally I said, is it possible here, Kalachakra?
- Geshe Sopa: That is the first time Kalachakra held.
- Geshe Sopa: And he was joking, laughing,
- Geshe Sopa: yeah, if you can, that's okay
- Geshe Sopa: So then I said, oh then, I want to prepare three years from now or something,
- Geshe Sopa: two years now or something,
- Geshe Sopa: and I want to prepare, is it okay?
- Geshe Sopa: He said, "hmm, yeah, okay."
- Geshe Sopa: And that is first time, so then I...Kalachakra,
- Geshe Sopa: so, Kalachakra initiation, Dalai Lama coming, and big initiation,
- Geshe Sopa: So first, where I should do?
- Geshe Sopa: Then I was looking at this, downtown this down there, what is that?
- Geshe Sopa: Coliseum. Coliseum first.
- Geshe Sopa: And then nearby there, hotel, what do you call, Sheraton.
- Geshe Sopa: Those two, prepare, of course lot of expenses, but anyway.
- Geshe Sopa: Then Ling Rinpoche, right? Dalai Lama's [indecipherable] he was that time there.
- Geshe Sopa: He wrote me, "Geshe la you want to that Kalachakra is the most, sacred, highest tantric thing.
- Geshe Sopa: Coliseum is, means is the public place,
- Geshe Sopa: all kinds of play there, and everything,
- Geshe Sopa: it is not be in, afterward it won't be any sacred.
- Geshe Sopa: Can you hold there any, some kind of place where you can keep in the future as sacred or something,
- Geshe Sopa: sacred place or something?"
- Geshe Sopa: Then, I beginning, oh that's right, if you have your own something,
- Geshe Sopa: monastery or some place, private place, that would be nice.
- Geshe Sopa: Then I was looking everywhere.
- Geshe Sopa: This, first Mazomanie area, we found one land, but almost bought there,
- Geshe Sopa: Mazomanie area,
- Geshe Sopa: and a town meeting they, they kind of stopped, or asked to go there,
- Geshe Sopa: oh, some kind of strange Buddhist group coming,
- Geshe Sopa: one of the meetings we have a box [indecipherable], a box turtle [?],
- Geshe Sopa: lot of turtles [?], all these Buddhists were killed, something
- Geshe Sopa: Anyway, strange idea, that is, that time,
- Geshe Sopa: foreign groups, not...only Indian, some of the, what are the other [indecipherable]
- Jose Cabezon: Hare Krishna.
- Geshe Sopa: Ah?
- Jose Cabezon: Hare Krishna.
- Geshe Sopa: Hare Krishna!
- Geshe Sopa: Hare Krishna is famous but the people don't like much.
- Geshe Sopa: And I think we, we think like...
- Geshe Sopa: they think we are that kind of same thing
- Geshe Sopa: So they... then in Dane County, there somebody who,
- Geshe Sopa: this area is, person who showed us to different places
- Geshe Sopa: This is showed, this place and also not expensive, it's good
- Geshe Sopa: And people here more, what do you call, open, rather than over there.
- Geshe Sopa: So then we tried to this one.
- Geshe Sopa: And that worked, okay.
- Geshe Sopa: So that time, then we moved there. And same, that same year, same time,
- Geshe Sopa: this temple back there [Kalachakra Temple], built.
- Geshe Sopa: John Davenport at that time, John Davenport is the very engineering,
- Geshe Sopa: He cleared this, all the wood area, and temple area, he himself engineering.
- Geshe Sopa: So, Jim...Jim Westbrook, etc. there are several students interested.
- Geshe Sopa: So we built then that way and we suddenly had that....
- Geshe Sopa: 1981
- Geshe Sopa: Then we had Kalachakra, first time in the West.
- Geshe Sopa: Never had Dalai Lama, Kalachakra in the West, first here.
- Geshe Sopa: And then, following later, California, then New York, then Switzerland
- Geshe Sopa: Then depend on everywhere, but this is the first time.
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Subcollection
- Religion in Tibet
- Monasteries
- Sera - Geshe Sopa Interview
- Sera Monastery
- Geshe Sopa Interview
Referenced Places
- Wisconsin
Recording Location
- Wisconsin
Language
- English
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:
1417
thlib.org
1271
Versions:
Date Created:
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Encoding Scheme:
mpeg-4 visual
File Size:
21913 (KB)
Data Rate:
487 (kbps)
Frame Size:
360x272
Format Id:
Format Id:
1_keb3tbl8
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