East
Meets Western Canada
(This
interview appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press on July 27,2002)
Gerry
Kopelow
“My
mother has no idea what I do for a living”, says Achariya (Meditation
Master) Doug Duncan, “I try to explain, and she says `They
pay you to do this?” Swathed in the maroon robes of the Karma
Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, Duncan is one of a very
few Westerners engaged full-time in bringing a 2500 year old wisdom
tradition to North Americans. Having spent thirty years in intensive
study and contemplative practice he now travels the world - Japan,
Egypt, and Equador, of late - as an itinerant teacher/monk. To his
students in Japan he is known as Sensei (Teacher) Doug. He does
not charge for instruction, but relies entirely on unsolicited donations
to cover expenses. If no one feeds him, he does not eat.
“To
most people Buddhism and meditation is a complete waste of time,”
declares Duncan. This is news to the group of fourteen serious-looking
people who have gathered together for a five day intensive meditation
retreat at St.Benedict’s Monastery, just
north of Winnipeg. “Then why are we here?”, one of the
participants asks. “Well, it’s a lot more fun than going
off to work today, isn’t it?”, he replies.
Sensei
Doug’s wry, ironic humour is a purposeful foil to his
clear and intense instructional talks, just what you might expect
from a Regina native who has seen the world. “When I was six
years old I was picked up on the highway outside of Regina
by the RCMP,” Duncan recalls. “Even at that age I was
determined to get a wider view.” He has studied with famous
spiritual teachers in Burma, Thailand, and Nepal, though his root
(primary) teacher is the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche, one of the
very first Westerners recognized as a master by the Dalai Lama.
The
Rinpoche (Tibetan for `Precious One’) is a Toronto native who
travelled to Burma in 1949 to learn from a Burmese master, Sayadaw
U Thile Wunta. (The Sayadaw, now 94, was in Winnipeg 18 months ago
to oversee the construction of the traditional Stupa
at the St.Norbert Arts and Cultural Centre. Namgyal Rinpoche is
expected to visit Winnipeg during the first week of October.)
Duncan
says he first encountered Rinpoche in dreams and during meditation,
months before they met in person in 1974. “I knew immediately
this was for real. I studied with him for almost twenty years, until
I was more or less fully cooked....with my own students, and my
own responsibilities”. Asked what the students he meets are
seeking, Duncan declares simply, “Relief”. And what does
he offer them? “Method.”
Although
he is fully conversant with Sufism, Kabbalah, and the Western Mysteries,
he relies heavily on Buddhist philosophy and practices when working
with his many North American students.
“Unlike most religions, which are fundamentally goal oriented,
Buddhism is process-based,” Duncan says. “Buddhist practices,
being technical in nature, are compatible with all faith-based spiritual
systems.”
To
some observers, contemplative undertakings such as meditation seem
self involved and remote. Not so, says Sensei Doug, “The meditator
is in school, and the ultimate lesson is compassion. Just as you
would not pluck a ten-year-old out of the classroom
and force him into a factory, we need to nurture those who study
how to live and how to love.” Asked if recent horrible events
in New York and the Middle East signal an escalating battle between
the forces of light and dark, Duncan quickly says no:
“If there is such a war, it is completely one-sided. The Universe,
at its core, is absolute love, absolute compassion.”
