MEETING KARTHAR February 24, 2016 By Michael Erlewine ( [email protected] )

With my teacher Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche visiting the in and receiving much deserved praise, it gives me pause to once again realize how fortunate I have been to meet someone like Khenpo Rinpoche face-to-face in this life. And meeting Rinpoche was a life-changer for me. My wife and I have been with Rinpoche now for some 33 years, and he has never changed in how he treats everyone, always with kindness.

How fortunate to have come across someone like Khenpo Rinpoche in the sea of life in which I found myself, although it was anything but an accident. In fact, believe it or not, Rinpoche first came to us in a dream. Here is the story:

It was in the fall of 1983 when I received a phone call from my old friend James Coats of Ann Arbor. He just called to say that I might want to come to Ann Arbor and see this Tibetan rinpoche (we used to go “” hopping together). However, at the time I was a businessman, and busy at that. I thanked him, of course, for the invitation, but pointed out that this was a work day and that I no longer was meeting every new teacher that came to Ann Arbor. I wished him well and went about my work.

It was a couple of days later that I had the dream, very early in the morning, just before dawn. I dreamed I was driving to Ann Arbor to meet this radiant golden being, some kind of monk or … but resplendent, and then I woke up. I sat bolt upright in bed and tried to reach in my mind to recapture the dream, but too late. And as the dream vaporized, I suddenly felt a great sadness come over me, sadness that my life had become so work-oriented that magical moments or events of wonder no longer really interrupted my routine. All I could see was my life stretching on to a dead end.

The dream was better than life, and I regretted that this was the case. I woke up my wife Margaret, who, amazingly enough, had a similar dream. We looked at one another and I decided that there was no way I was going to work today. Instead, we would drive to Ann Arbor and meet this “golden” being from our dreams that my friend told me was visiting Ann Arbor. By this time, it must have been around 7 AM. I dialed my friend James in Ann Arbor, although I knew he was a late sleeper usually. I said we were coming to meet the Rinpoche. His answer was that we were too late. Rinpoche was leaving Ann Arbor for Columbus, Ohio at around 10 AM, and it is a three-hour drive to Ann Arbor.

My answer to that was that we coming anyway. I just could not rejoin my normal life after the dream. The rinpoche would either still be there or have gone. Margaret and I grabbed our kids and, literally, with toothbrushes in hand we jumped into the car and headed out. We bushed our teeth as we drove, and we drove as fast as we dared. When we finally got to Ann Arbor, James was down at the end of the long driveway, waiting to flag us in.

By luck, it turned out that the Rinpoche was still there. As we drove up the long driveway I spotted a young Tibetan man with long hair out in the yard. My heart fell, because this was not the golden man in my dreams! I soon found out that this was Rinpoche’s translator, Ngodup Burkhar, who became a dear friend of our family. So, there we were, Margaret, I, and the kids waiting for Rinpoche in the living room. And then he walked in.

And here was, indeed, the radiant being from my dreams, and in living person. We connected at once and, although the visit was brief, when Rinpoche left on his road trip, Margaret and I were already transported into a transcendent state. And we went around in that state for days afterward, being kinder to others than perhaps we had ever been. Of course, we took this as a good sign.

And from that day onward, we were students of Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche. Later, he became my Root Guru, and all that. My kids grew up around and within his influence, his . Of course, to me, he has been the perfect teacher. So, it becomes even more amazing when the Karmapa himself, singles our Rinpoche out as an “incomparable master… a powerful example of being learned, venerable, and good.” Indeed, that is just what he is!

We are so grateful for his presence in our lives.

[This photo is one of many that we took at our center, the Heart Center KTC, here in Big Rapids, Michigan. This photo was part of a book we did of Khenpo Rinpoche doing . Photo taken by Tom Erlewine. "" book project by Michael & Margaret Erlewine.]