We first met the Lama in 1968 in Marin County with Vajrabodhi (Neville-Pemchekov-Warwick). The Lama had established an American branch of the Arya Maitreya Mandala in San Francisco and I and my second wife, Kathleen Harris, were one of his first U.S. students. Kathleen became an associate of Warwick and worked for him for ten years.
The Lama initiated us into the Yogacara sect, along with a suitable mantra for each of us. Later the Lama moved to Mill Valley due to ill health after spending decades in India. In 1980 the Lama came to Mill Valley for treatment and I helped care for him and his wife Li Gotami. He remained there until his death in 1985 at the age of 87. [image: Inline image 3] A short note on the Lama: Govinda spent the next thirty years in India and Tibet, studying, exploring, writing and painting. Govinda founded the Arya Maitreya Mandala in Darjeeling in 1933, according to Festscraft. In 1947 India became independent and Govinda immediate took citizenship. He also married the Indian painter and photographer Li Gotami. They studied and were initiated into the Kagyupta lineage by Ajo Rinpoche. Together with his wife, Govinda made his second pilgrimage to Tibet in order to study the art and architecture of monasteries of Rinchen Zangpo in Western Tibet. They spent some time on Mt. Kailash. On their way back to India, near the border with Tibet, Lama Govinda and Li Gotami were initiated by a Nyingma lama "in the most advanced methods of Tantric Sadhana and Yoga practices" during which "all the psychic centres (cakras) were employed and activated." Govinda expressly states that these initiations and experiences are the basis of his magnum opus, The Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism as related in his book 'The Way of the White Clouds. The Lama's book 'Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism' appeared in 1957, and English and French translations followed very shortly. It was this work that effectively established Govinda's reputation as an authority on Tibetan Buddhism. Festcraft says: "Lama Govinda was a part of a spiritual tradition that is essentially independent of established forms. So, although he may know Tibetan and be recognized as a lama by a 'real' Tibetan lama, he is in reality a siddha. His disciples, in fact, go further. They refer to him as a householder Bodhisattva. And they also say: "Working through the dimensions of consciousness, step by step-unfolding the potential powers of creative thought, feeling and intuition as an artist, scientist and explorer, painter and poet, mystic and initiate, as student and teacher - he has become for us the master, the guru, the lama." According to Rawlinson, "It may well be that the Lamas spiritual path is rather like one of those off-shoots that are so common on charts of the evolution of species: an experiment. But there is nothing to be ashamed of in that; without such experiments, there wouldn't be any spiritual life life at all." There is a very good description of Lama Govinda in 'Prisoners of Shangri-la', by Donal S. Lopez. Works cited: 'Festscraft' Kaser Devi Ashram Pub., 1973 p. 20 'The Way of the White Clouds' by Lama Govinda p. 269 'Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism' by Lama Govinda p. 272 [image: Inline image 2] Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anagarika_Govinda http://www.arya-maitreya-mandala.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_G._Pemchekov_Warwick Other titles of interest: 'Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West' by Donald S. Lopez Jr. 'Enlightened Masters' by Andrew Rawlinson, Ph.D. 'A Thousand Journeys' by Ken Winkler
