A weekend in NYC with Lou Reed, my mother, and His Holiness the 17th Karmapa

I flew in from Montreal this past weekend to meet my family in New York City for a series of talks by His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa. The Karmapa, or Ogyen Trinley Dorje, is a 22 year old Tibetan Buddhist teacher who is traveling around the U.S. for 18 days on a historic and long-awaited first-time trip out of Asia. Many North America practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism have been waiting for the Karmapa to visit North America since the 16th Karmapa passed away some 25 years ago.

Over the weekend, I went to two events: a talk at the Hammerstein Ballroom and a sangha (community) blessing at the Waldorf Astoria. At the first talk, fellow Jubu and former Velvet Underground guitarist, Lou Reed performed two songs to welcome the Karmapa to America. His performance was totally unpublicised and I was incredibly surprised and thrilled, even as I sat in my stiff conference chair, explaining to my mother who Lou Reed is.

For some beautiful photos of the Karmapa’s visit to NY, including one of Lou Reed, visit this Picasa Album slideshow.

Here’s a clip from a talk the Karmapa gave at a university in Dharamsala, India on “How to Deal with Everyday Distractions”. I think it’s useful for thinking about our need to work with distractions in our daily lives, and to work with them as we build culture through our art.

On the plane ride to NYC, I had the realization that flying is crappy. Like really really crappy. It’s incredibly terrible for the environment and it takes just as long or longer than most land transportation, once you figure in taxis to the airport, delays, and the whole big charade of security checks. People act crazy in airports and on planes. Flying is like a near-death experience in a 1950s swingers club. I think this makes people really weird out of fear and stress.

My flight to NYC was canceled due to technical problems. Before reboarding a new flight, an American couple from the first flight felt that it would be a lovely end to their holiday to berate the Air Canada staff who happened to have the unfortunate job of redirecting our frustration and airline tickets. By the time I finished eating a disgusting non-food dinner, the couple had returned from getting ridiculously hammered and tried to board the new flight, but were taken into custody for being scary idiots by two really tired French-Canadian airport security staff.

Anyway, driving and bussing and trains and rideshares are all much much sounder travel methods for short distances.

For more info on His Holiness’ trip to America, visit the Karmapa Visit website and for daily updates you can check the Karmapa Visit blog.