Bardor Tulku Rinpoche - Beloved Teacher - (May 1, 1949 - April 1, 2021)

The Buddha. Thangka image from Rudrananda Ashram in Big Indian, NY.

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Photo by Lynn Marvet taken @ KTC, NYC (from my archive)

Ven. Bardor Tulku Rinpoche - Beloved Teacher

Rinpoche escaped the Chinese occupation of Tibet with his family in 1959. His entire family lost their lives during their journey over the Himalayas, unable to withstand the drastic climate of Assam. Rinpoche (and a young friend) made it to Darjeeling where HH The 16th Karmapa arranged for him to go to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim.  He came to the USA in the mid Seventies, initially settling in NYC. He would go on to oversee the construction of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in Woodstock, NY - which is where I met him in August 1991.  Rinpoche personally worked as a laborer on KTD's construction.  He is the third incarnation of Terchen Barway Dorje. In the beginning of the 21st Century, Rinpoche established the Raktrul Foundation and constructed his own center (Kunzang Palchen Ling) in Red Hook, NY just outside of Rhinebeck. It continues to be a valuable resource for Tibetan Buddhism in North America.  As a teacher,  Rinpoche was kind and extremely patient with me. His sense of humor often helped me transcend the heaviest of times, giving me space and allowing me to relax - something he always encouraged me to do. Today I celebrate his life and work. I invite you to join me. Be here now.

Beaver den - Merrimack River Floodplain Conservation area

 

 Spring arrives late in northern New England.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Record Store Day 2026, My Father's Furniture and What is a Masterpiece?

Here's the Stereo and Record Cabinet my father made for me in the Winter on 1973. It was originally created for a stereo receiver and turntable on the top, speakers on the sides and record albums in the middle and in the cabinet, for a couple decades, that was indeed the configuration I used, supplementing my vast record collection with wooden fruit crates.  He used a Frank Zappa album for the specs, Another Band From LA if memory serves me correctly (and it does). My dad loved making furniture - sketching things out in a ballpoint pen on yellow legal paper, coming up with measurements, then going to get the wood at the lumberyard. This piece, as were almost all of his pieces, was made in the dining room of our Apartment at 17 Nottingham Court in Montvale NJ. We lived there from 1971 until 1975. My Dad knew how much I loved music, it was actually his idea as a gift for me. What a guy! I remember him sawing the lumber with a manual saw, sanding it,  making grooves n' joints with his old pen knife, glueing them, nailing it all together. It has traveled with me far and wide. It is the only thing that has remained with me from my youth.  It now houses my huge CD collection. They are stacked two deep and my father's piece fits everything perfectly as though it was custom made for this evolution of media. It almost resembles a secular altar to both music and to my father. Thanks Dad!

The other day I stopped into my local record store Pitchfork in Concord (NH) during a walk around the city (city? haha!). You never know what will reveal itself to you there. Eno's Another Green World caught my attention. An old favorite more like an old friend. Eno meant the world to me in the early seventies, he was the soundtrack to my discovery of art.  I can remember getting this album on sale at Harmony Hut in Paramus Park Mall when it came out in late 1975.  Truly captivating. I consider it a masterpiece. Why? I believe a masterpiece is a work by an artist that contains where they have been, where they are in the present and where they are going in the future. I once saw a small 8" X 10" de Kooning work on paper at Xavier Fourcade Gallery in NYC. On that small piece of paper was de Kooning's entire life. It was then that I could fathom what a masterpiece was. Another Green World does the same thing. Eno's work gradually became something altogether different as time went on - ambient meditations and subtle sonic backgrounds that were even used in airports. 

(wait for it, it builds)

Go Visit a Record Store today!