The Vajra Regent—an amazing and controversial early American Buddhist guru.

…was one of the first great Western or American Dharma heirs of the ancient, up-until-so-recently Eastern tradition of Buddhadharma. While, perhaps like Icarus, his path was a tragic one, he flew high, too. He was an amazing man and teacher, a man I consider myself fortunate to have known when I was a child.

“For more information on the Vajra Regent, and to access the full 42 minute video, “Ask the Vajra Regent,” as well as his many seminars, visit vrot.org.”

I took the Buddhist vows (Refuge) with the Regent when I was (too) young. He took me aside afterward and made sure I’d understood the talk (lecture). He was great with children, warm and present. He gave me a Tintin book I still have one morning at the Boulder Bookstore. He was a bold, brash, elegant calligrapher. Listening to his audio talks, he still blows my conceptual, fixed, rigid, stuck mind out of the water.

I mention him briefly (along with Willy Ryken, my Shambhala Sun Camp mentor) here.

With gratitude and sadness—

Enjoy: