The Passing Of My Friend, Jack Convery

I met Jack in Vermont at Trungpa’s meditation

center, worked with him years later at Gampo 

Abbey in Nova Scotia, spent a few weeks with

him in Kyoto at his tea house/dojo, where he

taught chado, as a ranking teacher of the 

Urasenke tea school. Jack was a man of great

heart and authenticity. He was an embodiment 

of the Shambhala aesthetic of first thought, best

thought, natural basic goodness and clarity.

Ode For Jack

When I got to Kyoto, you honored me with a feast,

and the Maiko, apprentice geisha, who danced for

us in a way so that you could sense hundreds

of years embedded in the display, ancientness 

present in the moment, the tears and joys of a 

civilization condensed into movement that was

simple yet conveyed genuine vastness and wisdom.

It was your world I found myself in those days,

your Shambhala household of ordinary magic,

which it undeniably was, vivid, splendid and yet

mundane, as if every day could be heaven on earth.

That’s what I saw and knew when I was there, the

true meaning of being a warrior, not to conquer or

control, simply to be open and brave enough

to see things as they are and act accordingly with

kindness knowing we are all together in this 

floating world we share for an ephemeral spark

of time.