Japhy’s first taste of Vajrayana weirdness, what weirds out so many people interested in Tibetan Buddhism, was in 1981.

“I had been meditating regularly, what I had hitherto thought made me a Buddhist, for a number of years.”

Buddhists meditate. Japhy meditated. Therefore Japhy was a Buddhist.

“It all made perfect sense. It was simple, obvious, no bullshit, and to the point.”

When Japhy moved to Chicago in 1981 he wanted to hook up with a situation that supported his practice at the time.

“I was looking for Zen Buddhists, preferably Soto, like my role model at the time, the poet Gary Snyder, the original Japhy.”

There were none to be found at the time.

It became obvious to Japhy at this point in his practice that there was more to being a Buddhist than sitting, and reading books.

“I had read Trungpa. It was a good read and fit with what I thought Buddhism should be.”

Japhy visited Trungpa’s Dharmadhatu over on Clark Street, just north of Belmont.

“It was very Zen like, except for the cultish adoration of Trungpa.”

Japhy went in knowing all the lurid details of what happened at the Snowmass Seminary, which disgusted him.

“I saw what I expected to see, a 1970’s alternative religious cult attempting to adapt to Ronald Reagan’s 1981 post-Counterculture America. I wasn’t disappointed.”

It goes without saying thatJaphy found Dharmadhatu to be a bit too wedded to their founders person for his understanding of how Buddhists should be.

“I was welcomed not as a Buddhist with a practice seeking a place to practice but as a potential recruit to their founder’s vision for an Enlightened Society.”

Japhy was told he would have to forget everything he knew of practice and Buddhism and enroll in Trungpa’s training program.

“That was my cue to get the hell out of Dodge.”

Japhy was a freshly minted Sociologists, straight out of Graduate School.

“This was a textbook cult recruitment scenario.”

Japhy later found a notice in the Chicago Reader, the local alternative newspaper, posted by a student of Khenpo Karthar.

“They lived over on Bosworth Avenue just north of Devon. I was living over at the corner of Glenwood and Farwell.”

It was what Japhy would call a wee stretch of the leg. He’s Irish on his mother’s side. He hoofed his way over to check them out.

“I ended up sitting every Wednesday and Sunday over the next six months with my future cohorts in a Rogers Park living room set up as a traditional Tibetan shrine.”

Japhy needed a place to practice. Sitting by himself at in his tiny apartment with his girlfriend wasn’t working for him.

“The shrine was a bit too busy for my monkey mind, but less so than my girlfriend.”

Japhy had never before sat with another person. It was really something to have another human being on a cushion next to him.

“I had thought I could meditate. I had just scratched the surface.”

Japhy’s first impulse was to grab a cushion and stake out a space by himself where he didn’t have to look at the shrine.

“Vajrayana weirdness, a distraction, superfluous, not meditation, of dubious value to what Buddhism should be in America.”

Going in, Japhy felt like a lot of Americans do of Vajrayana, the uninitiated.

“Up to that point in my thinking I equated the idea of initiation with cult recruitment, submission, a betrayal of everything I thought myself to be.”

For six months Japhy sat with his neighbors down the street.

“I knew they were students of Khenpo Karthar. I was there to sit though.”

On occasion they would have tea together after they sat.

“It was polite, sociable. They didn’t try to sign me up.”

When it came time for Khenpo Karthar to come to Chicago japhy was ready to take the plunge into the Vajrayana, Tantric Buddhism, of his own accord.

“Sitting with students of Khenpo Karthar twice a week for six months had whet my appetite for the Vajrayana.”

They obviously had something Japhy hadn’t gotten from reading and sitting by himself for all those years as the self taught loner Buddhist.

“When Khenpo Karthar instructed me to take refuge and receive the Green Tara empowerment, bang, bang, bang, I hit the ground running.”

Japhy entered the Vajrayana with eyes wide open.

“The key was my choice, going in, to suspend all disbelief inside the fold of Vajrayana initiate, its weirdness.”

Nodrup Tsering Burkhar, Khenpo Karthar’s wild eyed shaggy haired translator, poured Japhy a palm full of saffron water to purify his body speech and mind.

“As instructed I swashed it in my mouth, spit, rubbed my head, purifying my body, speech and mind.”

Japhy stepped from the hallway through the curtain and into the shrine room. In a blink of an eye he found himself in what could have been Tibet.

“To my thinking everything was as it would be if we were in Tibet, with Khenpo Karthar sitting on a throne, poised in the role of Tantric master. The vibe was everything I had imagined it would be.”

Japhy had taken acid in college. A lot.

“Orange Sunshine. Mushrooms. Sophomore year in college was one psychedelic fueled magical mystery tour.”

When Japhy took his seat in the sacred circle khenpo Karthar had conjured up and the empowerment began, he was transformed.

“I was feeling it. Big time.”

The rest is history.

“It isn’t for everyone.”

There are people that want the Vajrayana to not be weird.

“Sad people. Count me out.”

As far as Japhy is concerned, you can’t normalize, you can’t de-weird Vajrayana, nor should anyone be allowed to, unless they themselves are initiates, and preferably Vajra Masters.

“Reduced to writing, Vajrayana reads well. The Vajrayana is not reducible to writing though. It’s an oral tradition.”

Japhy’s Vajrayana requires his body, speech, and mind.

“In the fold, I’m inhabiting the sacred.”

This is the world of the Tantric initiate that Khenpo Karthar initiated Japhy into.

“Keep the Vajrayana weird.”

Japhy is cool with people not willing to take the plunge like he did, those that choose to not become Tantrikas.

“To each their own. Just keep your paws off mine.”

If it is your agenda to get the weirdness out of Vajrayana, count on Japhy to be against you.

“Tooth and nail. Just saying. We are going to have a problem.”

It comes down to boundaries. Japhy doesn’t think it too much to ask of people that they show a little respect.

“There’s a Tibetan proverb, when someone gives you water show some appreciation for the earth the water comes from.”

All are welcome to become initiates in Japhy’s tantric circle.

“Inside the fold though, this isn’t Whole Foods.”

Shoppers of something special, a Tibetan tchotchke for their meditation, beware Japhy stepping into you.

“Most people get this. Some don’t, sadly, so I go there, for those that think otherwise. It isn’t cool.”

That bring said, It’s time to wrap this up for the moment. Japhy has embarrassed himself enough for one day. Karmapa Chenno.