Monks Drive SUVs Too
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There's the ringing phone in his robes, his blue SUV in the parking lot, and the Westernized elements of his routine: coffee in the morning and TV at night. There is success: the membership at his Edmonton meditation centre, Gaden Samten Ling, has increased from a dozen when he arrived in 2000 to over 70 today. People enjoy what the centre offers, he says. They like to sit down, meditate, and listen to lectures. Ask questions. He's able to offer a point of view that Westerners might not have.
Kushok Lobsang Dhamchöe has rights in Canada that he didn't have in India, where he grew up after fleeing Tibet as a child. Here he's allowed to travel without scrutiny, a privilege he uses to earn his living. He leads regular meditation sessions around Edmonton, in Sherwood Park, and in Red Deer. In India, he had a rigid routine at the monastery where he lived for almost 30 years. His room was only 8x10. Monks told him what he could do and couldn't do every day of his life.
He came here for Canadian freedom. There's no discipliners here, he says, no abbots, no teachers. I'm free! That's the best part. He laughs through his whole body. He still dreams of the monastery sometimes at night, of friends and teachers, fun and hard times. Then he wakes up and realizes he's still here. He laughs again.
Gaden Samten Ling has commissioned architectural drawings for a new Tibetan monastic-style temple in Edmonton. There are Chinese and Vietnamese temples here, he says, but there aren't any Tibetan ones. Not yet. This will be the first.
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Kushok Lobsang Dhamchoe
Kushok Lobsang Dhamchöe was a personal monk to the Dalai Lama when he lived in India. In December 2008, after 8 years in Edmonton, he became a Canadian citizen. For clothing, he owns 2 sets of robes and 2 sets of footwear: shoes for winter and sandals for summer.
