LOCALS TO LEAN ON. Lama Yeshe, a Buddhist monk who lives in Ridgeland, Wisconsin, brought local professor Asha Sen peace during a turbulent time in her life. (Submitted photo)

If death is the great equalizer, Then Covid-19 certainly forces us into a daily reckoning with mortality.   When someone you love dies, you grapple with new emotions – like anger, guilt, denial, and grief. In 2006, I lost my partner to leukemia; in 2007, my eldest brother to a stroke; in 2009, my mother to dementia; and in 2010, my father to tuberculosis. Although that period of grief feels like a blur to me now, I can still remember how it led to my meeting with Lama Tsultrim Yeshe of the Hay River KTC Meditation Center in Ridgeland, Wisconsin.

After my father’s death, I returned to Eau Claire to find myself completely unprepared for the harshness of winter. The dark skies and enforced solitude made me feel alone and vulnerable.  Bangalore – the city of my parents’ retirement – is close to Bylakuppe, the second largest Tibetan resettlement colony in India, and during my time in that city I got to know several Buddhist monks. That bleak winter, I missed the wisdom of their teachings and began to search the Internet for Tibetan Buddhist centers close to Eau Claire.

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As we all grapple with grief, may we also
find peace.

Much to my surprise, I located one in the village of Ridgeland, a mere hour away. After several misadventures on icy country roads, I stumbled upon the welcoming sight of multi-colored Tibetan prayer flags bravely fluttering in the wind. Lama Yeshe, dressed in the maroon and gold robes common to Tibetan monks, came out of the stone building to usher me into the warmth of a shrine room dedicated to the god Chenrezig, embodying compassion – not unlike the compassion Lama Yeshe showed to me. Entering his shrine room felt like coming home. As did my meeting with Lama Yeshe.

Unlike the Tibetan monks that I met in India, Lama Yeshe was not born into monkhood. Until his 40s, he was known as John Samuelson – a married man with a young son. But in November of 1985, he lost his close friend, the late UW-Stout professor Richard Treiber, who was tragically run over by a road grader just outside Menomonie. 

I didn’t have to explain my feelings of anger, grief, denial and guilt to Lama Yeshe; he had befriended them a long time ago. 

That tragic incident led to emotional turbulence that led to his divorce and to his participation in a three-year retreat organized by the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra monastery in Woodstock, New York, which culminated in John Samuelson becoming Lama Tsultrim Yeshe in 1996.

The following year, he started the Hay River KTC – an affiliate center to KTD, which serves all of west-central Wisconsin. The center offers meditation and teaching practices as well as commentaries on different Buddhist texts. As its mission states, it is an “open and harmonious place for people to make contact with the dharma.” 

If – like me – you feel the need for guidance and support during these precarious times, don’t think twice about choosing a beautiful fall day to drive out to the Ridgeland center. As we all grapple with grief, may we also find peace.

Asha Sen is a professor of English at UW-Eau Claire.