When our work with Claudio Naranjo ended in 1974 our group moved in different directions. Several became followers of Swami Muktananda and invited Grace and me to check him out. I became the 1974 tour photographer and Grace and I traveled with him to Hawaii and Colorado, participating in introductory evenings and retreats. I spent a month in the tour ashram in Pasadena.

Baba was a traditional Indian guru, holding darshan twice daily and teaching a powerful mix of Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism. The latter was very world affirming, almost pantheistic in its call to see God in everything and everyone. Baba led Sanscrit chants several times a day and circle dances in which we chanted devotion to God while dancing for hours.

Grace felt the scene was like a Baptist church and finally chose Tibetan Buddhism as her path, feeling it was more like her childhood Catholic church (without the guilt). I followed her.

Tarthang Tulku

One of the teachers Claudio introduced to our SAT group was Tarthang Tulku, a master in the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Grace connected with him strongly and after SAT ended, she attended classes with him at the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley.

Nyingma web site

Pema Chödrön

Grace kept the Pocket Pema Chödrön near at hand for years. When the doctors diagnosed lung cancer and heart disease, we participated in a virtual retreat with Pema via dvds. Grace was attracted by her loving, matter-of-fact style of teaching and the fact that she was a mother raising kids in Berkeley at the same time Martha was a youngster. Pema started as a kindergarten teacher, then became a disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Like him, she explains complex concepts with telling everyday examples of the concepts in action.

Grace and I participated in three more online retreats with Pema, finding a strong foundation for meeting the challenges of cancer and heart disease with peaceful awareness. This built upon all that we had learned from earlier teachers.

Pema Chödrön web site

Sogyal Rinpoche

Grace and I met Sogyal Rinpoche in 1980 when we spotted a poster for a workshop he was conducting in Seattle. In beautiful calligraphy, it said: “When you breathe out  suddenly you don’t breathe in. It is finished.” Over a cup of sake, we invited him to present a workshop based upon his Tibetan Book of Living and Dying at Antioch Seattle, where Grace was a student.

This book became our major guide through the last year, helping Grace to prepare for death by living fully each day without denial.

Sogyal Rinpoche web site

Shortly after Grace died some friends held a birthday party for Vinny Capone, a street musician in Santa Rosa.

Vinny dedicated his concert to Grace, beginning and ending with Amazing Grace.

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