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THE BUDDHA FROM BROOKLYN -- EPILOGUE |
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In the winter of 1996, Dechen moved to the West Coast, where she still lives in a city that she does not wish to disclose. She calls her mother once a year, around Christmas, and works as a secretary. *** The Monk continues to teach and travel, and study with Khenpo Tsewang Gyatso. *** In the spring of 1997, Jetsunma announced to her students that she was moving permanently to Sedona,Arizona. Certain students--including Rene Larrabee, Sangye Dorje, Sherab Khandro, Alana Eigin, Atara Heiss, Alexandra Johnson, Ariana Kreitsmeyer, Sophia Windolph, David Somerville and his family--were asked to move there, too. They found houses and work in Sedona. The ordained among them were told by Jetsunma that they no longer needed to wear their robes except during Buddhist prayers and ceremonies. I visited them there in 1998. In October 1998. Jetsunma came to believe that certain Hopi prophesies, which predict that floods and famine and great earthquakes would nearly destroy the United States in April 1999 and again in November 1999, were true. She told her students that Washington, D,C,. would likely be under water at that time. After much preparation for self-sufficiency and survival, many of Jetsunma's remaining students in Poolesville joined her in Sedona--where they would be on high ground and survive catastrophes. A 150-acre farm was purchased outside Payson, Arizona, where her followers could live together, self-sufficiently if need be. She also announced plans to build a stupa and a new temple in West Sedona. In October 1999, Jetsunma turned fifty. In the year 2000 she plans to make a world tour and give a series of teachings. The temple in Poolesville still has an active and growing sangha. In 1998 the Jetsunma-appointed board of directors resigned following the publication of a critical article about KPC in Mirabella magazine by Will Blythe, and a new board of elected members replaced them. It was announced that the temple had been paid off. *** Karl Jones moved to Ireland after his separation from Jetsunma in 1996. He was reunited with her in the fall of 1997, then separated again from her in spring 1998, and reunited with her again later that year, only to be again separated in 1999. *** Sangye Dorje gave back his monk's robes in the summer of 1997, during a visit to Poolesville by Penor Rinpoche. He had never been a good monk, he told me, even though everybody thought he was. "You become ordained and hope to become a perfect monk someday, to grow into the robes. I could tell that wasn't happening to me." He wanted to get married someday, he told me, and have a family. *** Wib Middleton and Jane Perini were reunited in December 1996 with Jetsunma's blessing. They moved to Sedona, Arizona, in March 1999. *** Khenpo Tsewang Gyatso continues to travel, teach, and open new Palyul centers. Twice a year he comes to Poolesville and gives instruction to shedra students there. *** His Holiness Penor Rinpoche remains the throneholder of the Nyingma School and oversees and supports a monastery of eighteen hundred monks in southern India. He recognized the actor Steven Seagal as the reincarnation of a terton or treasure revealer named Chungdrag Dorje in 1997 and was met with a storm of complaints by Tibetan Buddhists around the world. In an interview with me in the summer of 1997, Rinpoche said that he would not be recognizing any more Americans as tulkus because of their "problem with pride." He also made a point of telling me that, in India, the Tibetan teachers feed and clothe and house their monks, not the other way around. He has established his own Palyul Retreat Center in the Catskills. He has hopes that this book will help Dharma in the West and be of benefit to all sentient beings. *** Gyaltrul Rinpoche remains in retreat in Half Moon Bay and was not available to verify the accounts of his conversations with Alana Elgin, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, Michael Burroughs, Richard Dykeman, or Aileen Williams. *** Andrea King's comedic screenplay based on the life of Jetsunma was written but never made into a film. *** Ladyworks Inc. stopped all operations and was $650,000 in debt the summer of 1997, according to Alana Elgin. The second infomercial was never aired. *** At the time of this
writing, Byron Pickett was still at work on his documentary about
Jetsunma's India pilgrimage. Kathy Coon continues to be a practicing Buddhist. Bonnie Taylor and Bob Denmark do not. *** Rick and Chris Finney became the proud parents of a third daughter in 1998 and named her themselves. Only Rick remains a practicing Tibetan Buddhist. *** Richard Dykeman, after ten years as a monk living in India, Oregon, and Northern California, gave back his robes in 1998 and is doing construction work in the Baltimore area. *** Sonam, the nun who left Ani Farms in the middle of the night, died of cancer in 1998. She was thirty-six. *** Catharine Anastasia moved to Sedona in October 1999. *** Rinchen remained in Poolesville and is making plans to do a three-year retreat at Penor Rinpoche's center in New York. *** Aileen remains in Poolesville and works at NBC. *** Michael Burroughs moved to Nepal in 1998 to be tutored privately by several tulkus. He has been identified as a lama in the lineage of Northern Treasures and a branch terton in several lifetimes. He agreed to be interviewed for this book in the hope of getting back in contact with Atira. *** The Migyur Dorje stupa was painted gold in February 1998 by Sherab Khandro, who is otherwise living in Sedona, Arizona, and supports herself as a painter. She remains a nun.
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