Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

KALU RINPOCHÉ
At the turn of the twentieth century, in 1901, a Pan-American
Exhibition was held in Buffalo, New York. One of the exhibits
was an outdoor display of electric lights. It is said that people were captivated
and in tears. They were looking at unbelievable, unexpected magic
and at the future, which had just taken on a new dimension. That is how
many people felt on meeting Kalu Rinpoché (1905–1989). And, yes, some
of them cried. For many of us, in disparate countries and cultures throughout
the world, meeting Rinpoché did in fact deeply change the course of
our lives.
For all his impact, Rinpoché was not an imposing presence. He caused
barely a ripple when he entered a room. He was a quiet and very private
person, as we might expect from a person who spent most of his life in
retreat, either as a student or a teacher.
As extraordinary as Kalu Rinpoché seemed to us, he was in part a product
of his background as surely as the magic of electric light depends on
the convergence of many causes and conditions.
Rinpoché’s father was a reincarnate lama and disciple of Jamgon
Kongtrul. He attended Jamgon Kongtrul’s first three-year retreat at Tsadra,
alongside a future Shangpa lineage holder, Tashi Özer (1836–1910). The
picture Rinpoché painted of his father makes me think of Chögyam
Trungpa Rinpoché—a realized master with an impressive daily intake of
alcohol and with a number of children by a variety of women. I used to
cringe when people came to Kalu Rinpoché to complain about Trungpa
Rinpoché’s behavior. Although their lifestyles were dissimilar, Rinpoché
loved his father and was devoted to him as a realized master; he had learned
at a young age to look beyond the guise of conventional or unconventional
conduct.
Kalu Rinpoché was a reincarnation of Jamgon Kongtrul but was twice
saved from enthronement and all the leaden responsibilities it entailed in
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