Two Michaels And A Lemont

Three gentlemen, two Michaels and

a Lamont interviewed me recently for

a biography they are working on of Keith

Dowman, renown translator and teacher

of radical Dzogchen. Keith and I have 

gotten to know each other over the last 

few years, and they wanted to know how 

he became my teacher and friend.

I'm old now, and, like most older people,

getting more set in my ways. Getting 

even a corner of my house presentable 

for guests is somewhat a challenge. 

I'd never been interviewed before by 

strangers and been expected to tell them 

intimate details of my life...which was a

rather ticklish blind date. I'm notorious to

myself for making bad first impressions, 

so, after the interview, I had no idea how

it had gone. I felt like I had bonded with 

them from my side because I was open 

with them, but had no sense of how they

felt about it. I knew they were there solely

to get information, not to become friends, 

but the experience left me feeling a bit

whorish. 

Don't get me wrong, they were perfectly

nice gentlemen. One of the Michaels had

been a student of Tibetan Buddhism for

many years, and knew many of the people

I had known from Chogyam Trungpa's

sangha, as well as the poets and writers

that had been around at that time...so here

was a long lost brother, in a way, that I had

never met before. Maybe it was romantic

nostalgia I was feeling for a magical time

that was past and that I would never see

again.