Sunday, April 24, 2011

The passing of Lopon Peter Lieberson

Lopon Peter Lieberson
This past week was marked by the death after a 5-year battle with cancer of modern classical composer Peter Lieberson. He was also was one of my dharma teachers, and a great example as a practitioner and as an artist. You would never know by the un-pretentious way he carried himself how much of a 'big deal' he was in the modern classical world.  Officially, as one of  Khandro Rinpoche's senior students, he was "Lopon Peter" - but you would would never know that either by the un-pretentious way he carried himself.  I only got to 'talk shop' about music and the creative process with him a little bit, which I of course regret now.  The best thing I suppose I could do now is let this be a reminder of 'The Second Reminder' that he taught about at the behest of Khandro Rinpoche.  Anything else I say wouldn't really be so eloquent, so I'll let the New York Times obituary and the write-up from Waylon Lewis's "Elephant Journal" do the rest of the talking.


Peter Lieberson, Composer Inspired by Buddhism, Dies at 64
That foreign yet visceral language we call music. [Peter Lieberson]

Talk on Guru Yoga - Lopon Andre, Lotus Garden, February 2011

I am -finally- getting some of my notes together and on-line since I have been asked to by a few people.  This one is a talk from the Ngondro ('ordinary' and  extraordinary preliminaries) program I attended at Lotus Garden in February.  I've discussed the practice of guru yoga in my own modest way before and presented my notes of the great Drikungpa Khenchen Rinpoche talking about guru yoga, but Lopon Andre Papantonio covered this topic in a much more complete (and lineage-approved :)) way.
As usual, any mistakes, errors, or corruptions are all my fault.
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