by Erika

7 October 2023

Die trane die rol oor jou Bokkie
Die trane die rol oor jou Bokkie
(The tears are flowing for your dearest Deer)

I have great memories of Rob singing this traditional song in Afrikaans!

Dear Rob, thank you for showing us a different way of being in the world.

Thank you for the privilege to say a few words about my mentor and buddy.

My journey with Rob was really a journey with his three books. Tranquil Mind in 1993, Diamond Mind in 1998, Living Dreaming Dying in 2002. These three books have been published in many languages all over the world and Shambhala in the US holds the licence.

Pilgrimages with Rob in 1997 to Tibet (Margaret and I were roommates) and to India in 2002, had the joyful purpose of meeting the young Karmapa. After that, Rob encouraged me to lead pilgrimages to some of the greatest living masters: HH the 17th Karmapa, Tai Situpa, Gyaltsab Rinpoche, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, Ringu Tulku, HH the Dalai Lama. Emaho!

Rob gave up the safe world of academia as head of criminology at the University of Cape Town in 1980, to wonder and wander into what was then a rather exotic world to the western mind: Tibetan Buddhism. Full circle: Rob established a master’s class for Mindfulness studies at the University of Aberdeen Scotland in 2010.

Rob and Erika in Kalk Bay, about 2000.

Although I worked with Rob largely through his written words and teachings, it was the being Rob that inspired me. His enticing smile, his razor-sharp wit, his formidable intellect. At home with paupers and kings. With Buddhists and Christians, traditional healers and those of no faith. The more formidable, the more Rob enjoyed the challenge.

Swimming upstream – how boring to drift with the current.
Braving the world = to dream the impossible dream.
Following your bliss . . .

What did I learn from Rob especially?
Life presents itself – if we care to notice.

Early on the morning of 30 September 2023, I noticed a delicate red poppy in my garden. The first to bloom since I tried to cultivate poppies. This particular red poppy had little droplets of water that resembled teardrops. A wee bit later the news came that Rob had passed away.

The symbolism of poppies resembles lotus flowers: “From the dirt and mud grew a beautiful red poppy” wrote the surgeon poet in Flanders Fields in the World War.
The Greek gods gave Demeter red poppies to help her sleep after the abduction of her daughter Persephone. Poppies sprang from her footsteps.

The dangerous, alluring beauty of the red poppy is a symbol of remembrance, from sleep to peace to death.

Dear Rob, thank you for showing us a different way of being in the world.

“The journey inward liberates, so that our total way of being in the world undergoes a transformation – to benefit all sentient beings.”

So let us all remember beloved Rob by this simple acronym:
Reach Out Beyond.

REACH
OUT
BEYOND