Lineage Holders

of the

Crazy Heart Lineage

Hugh Curran

Hugh Curran was born in Ireland and presently resides in Surrey,ME. He has been a Zen practioner since the mid-sixties and assisted Philip Kapleau at Rochester Zen Center. Hugh presently teaches in the Peace Studies Program at the University of Maine and is an activist on homelessness and peace issues. He was empowered in September, 2004 on Caterpillar Hill overlooking Penobscot Bay in Maine.

Dr. Kidder Smith

Kidder Smith, for some years, taught Chinese History at Bowdoin College in Maine. He was the Director of the Asian Studies Department.

He is author of Li Bo Unkempt with Mike Zhei; Sun Tzu -the Art of War (with Denma, Shambhala, 2001);

Having Once Paused: Poems of Zen Master Ikkyu (1394-1481) with Sarah Messer, University of Michigan Press, 2015.

Julia Perks

Confessions of a confused mind:
Still feeling my way into the question of spirituality (and for that matter, life); attracted to Buddhism for its basic teachings and philosophy, with guidance to find one’s own path; attracted to the Celtic aspect as an interesting overlay of exploration with its dreamlike familiarity and perplexing strangeness—and the wonder of both.
This particular constellation of people and ideas challenges my desire for comfort and ordinariness (the latter of which has proven illusive to find, much less settle into) and poses an interesting question in considering how to live one’s life.
My daily practice is Jin Shin Jyutsu self help. It is a profound yet simple practice of holding fingers, shoulders, or other body points to balance energy. It is clear to me that in order to be of any help to others, I must first work on myself. Another current practice is trying to understand the drop of personality within the ocean of primordial energy in all its displays, and trying to gain awareness of both my negative and positive responses to that array.
I am inspired by the thought that one day I may develop enough clarity to express myself through the beauty of stained glass. And that I may learn enough Jin Shin Jyutsu self help to translate that benefit to others.

Brian Schwartz

Brian Schwartz is most grateful for experiencing the primordial friendships of Arthur and Gesar, Merlin and the Lotus Born. Brian was ordained as a lineage holder in 2005.

Brian has a Bachelors Degree from Marlboro College where he studied the western philosophical tradition, a Master's in Buddhist Studies from Naropa University, and was in the first graduating class of Marlboro College's Sustainable Business MBA program.

He currently is a gardener in Manhattan and hosts the monthly Jersey Moon Celtic Buddhist Circle at Neolyth in Montclair, New Jersey.

His interests include working with the three cauldrons as a inner yoga, honoring the elementals, celtic deity yoga, and working with the ogham

Ozay Rinpoche

Ozay Rinpoche and Ahiranta were recognized as lineage holders of Celtic Buddhism in September 2010, following a vision given to Ven. Seonaidh Perks.

Ozay Rinpoche is a well-known personage on the Internet where he works as an Ego Slaughterer. Before ‘slaughtering egos’ Ozay spent some time in prison where he started a vigorous discipline of Bible reading and meditation practice. This process allowed Ozay to escape his imprisonment --not from the cell he was in but from the imprisonment of the mind, reaching enlightenment in 1982. Ozay then gave this non-experience the words "I have completely realized my-self" .Ozay remembers many life-times and recognizes many people around him from those former lives. As Gurdjieff, he always wanted to come and stay in England but was refused entrance into the UK on many occasions. This unfulfilled desire manifested in this lifetime by Ozay being born in London around the corner from J.G.Bennett, a life long pupil of Gurdjieff.

While growing up in Wales Ozay's father died when Ozay was at the age of 18 months. During the first three years of his life, Ozay never spoke a single word, preferring to remain in silence. From his Welsh Celtic father and Spartan Greek Cypriot mother, Ozay inherited a strong determination and developed a deep love for the outdoors and physical endurance. He was not interested in being intellectually educated and he subsequently left school at a very young age.

Ozay Rinpoche and his wife Ahiranta divide their time between Sweden, England and Wales. They are building a retreat center in Sweden and they also have a piece of land in Wales on which a future spiritual center might be built. Ozay presently explains to others the process of escaping their inner captivity. Ozay Rinpoche's story is told in his first book, Freedom! Escaping the Prison of the Mind. website: www.ozayrinpoche.com

Ahiranta

Ahiranta was born into a Catholic family of 8 in a small Dutch village. Upon remembering her former life, she clearly experienced feelings of being born in the wrong place. She has memories that go back to a very young age and former life times. Around the age of 6 she had a vision in which she saw a man who cradled an ill Ahiranta in his strong arms, taking her with him. This vision became reality when Ahiranta met Ozay Rinpoche. He was the man she had seen in that vision so many years ago. Ahiranta and Ozay Rinpoche shared a mutual recognition of each other.. They had experienced many life times together in different roles: husband and wife, brother and sister, as friends and as enemies.

Ahiranta did her inner-work under the guidance of Ozay Rinpoche through the process of reasoning, self-observation, contemplation and meditation. Ahiranta shares her experiences and insights through the Internet and her writings.

Sister Griffon Shane

Currently, Sister Gryphon lives gently on 40 acres in the wilds of northern Maine and runs the Island Falls Animal Health Clinic. IFAHC is a holistic centered veterinary clinic that is dedicated to manifesting the Dharma through compassion and nongreed. Sister Gryphon refuses no one treatment for lack of ability to pay. Despite her busy schedule, she is always open to guiding others on the dharma path. Sister Gryphon has been chosen to be the Dharma Heir for the Celtic Buddhist lineage - the future Head of the Lineage. She may be reached at: skunkypuppy@protonmail.com or at 207-267-5505. The veterinary clinic number is 207-249-8646.

 

Sophie Perks

Sophie Octavia Pushpa Perks was born at the Kalapa Court in Boulder, Colorado, the residence of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche where her mother and father were servants. At her birth Trungpa recognized Sophie as an incarnation of G.I. Gurdjieff. In 2000, Sophie became a student of Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche and Jetsun Dechen Paldron. She worked for eleven years at the Santen Tse Retreat Center in Mussoorie, India, the Lotus Garden Retreat Center in Virginia, and traveled worldwide with her teachers. Sophie accomplished all the preliminary practices in both the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. She currently resides in New York City where she is a caregiver for private clients.

Tillie Perks

Tillie Perks holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s degree in Buddhist studies, with a focus on the English poetry of Chögyam Trungpa. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist traditions at McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec. Her research is focused on Buddhism in the modern era. She works for the Chögyam Trungpa Transcription Project, which aims to transcribe all of Chögyam Trungpa's recorded audio and video materials and she is presently serving as executive vice-chairperson for the Nalanda Foundation.  

Dorje Rinpoche

Ven. Lama Naomh Tomás {Tom O'Flaherty} -Dorje Rinpoche was empowered as a Lineage Holder in Celtic Buddhism on June 6, 2012. Lama Naomh Tomás was ordained in the Celtic Buddhist Crazy Heart monastic community by H.H. Yeshe Tungpa on June 26,2014. 

Dorje Rinpoche lives a life of simple service working with the dying, the dead and the damaged as well as his ego. 

From 2011-2018 he volunteered at Casa del Asilo, a government run homeless elder center on Isla Colon in Bocas Del Toro, Panama caring for the residents at the end of their lives and helping the compassionate community on the island of Isla Colon support Asilo.

Since 2016, for five months a year, he has taught Buddhism and mindfulness based recovery and now lives in the community at Riverbank House Recovery in Laconia New Hampshire as resident teacher, mentor and spiritual friend to fifty men in recovery.

He works with veterans with PTSD and provides spiritual care to clients of Central NH VNA and Hospice.

In the tradition of Arya Avalokitesvara and challenged by the teaching of H.H. Yeshe Tungpa to "do this work until you drop, do what has to be done from the heart of Avalo and to chicken in not chicken out,” Lama serves to be perfect so he may be perfect to serve.

In July, 2016 Lama Tomás was empowered as: The Monk of Fionn MacCumhaill.

He can be reached through his email; zenboi65@gmail.com 

and Dharma dribble at tommyotravels@blogspot.com…

By this merit may all attain omniscience. 

May it defeat the enemy, wrongdoing.

From the stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death;

From the ocean of samsara, may I free all beings!

Ty Phillips

Ty Phillips is the co-founder of The Tattooed Buddha. He is a dharma teacher, activist, writer, and photographer. He focuses most of his energy on interfaith dialogue and child welfare.

As a former city nightclub bouncer, he has started Death Metal Dharma as a teen outreach using both his appearance and past as a way to connect with hard to reach teens.

He can be reached at ty@thetattooedbuddha.com

http://thetattooedbuddha.com/

Eido Boru

{Sir Eido Boru passed away August 26, 2022}

Sir Eido Boru, a Soto Zen Buddhist Priest who is an Australian of Celtic Irish Ancestry, was empowered by the Venerable Seonaidh Perks as:

*A Celtic Buddhist Monk on the 1st November, 2012

*A Celtic Buddhist Lineage Holder on the 15th May, 2013

*The Bishop of Australia on the 1st July, 2014

Eido Boru was invested on 15 January, 2016 as a Knight

of the Tuatha De Danann by the Venerable Seonaidh Perks

On October 9, 2018 Seonaidh conferred Ven. Eido into the Order of the Celtic Buddist Monastics

His Irreverent Verse, Haikus and Astro Poetry are well known in Australia and the USA. His "Buddha Monks Blues" will be included in the forthcoming Celtic Buddhist Book.

Email: eido.mcintyre@gmail.com

Ken Ketchum

Intricate net of name and form

Shimmers

Immense in the deep space

Of awareness.

Here we are, on earth

For the time

Being.

I live like a hermit

But I swim in the pool

And learn from confidence

Ven. Ken Ketchum is Abbot of the Padmakara Hermitage in Norwich, Vermont

Gabriel Rosenstock

Born in 1949, Kilfinane, Co. Limerick, in postcolonial Ireland. Poet, playwright, haikuist, essayist, author/translator of over 180 books, mostly in Irish (Gaelic). Member Aosdána (Irish Academy of Arts & Letters). Taught haiku at the Schule für Dichtung (Poetry Academy), Vienna, and Hyderabad Literary Festival. Prolific translator into Irish of international poetry (among others Ko Un, Seamus Heaney, K. Satchidanandan, Rabindranath Tagore, Muhammad Iqbal, Peter Huchel, Dileep Jhaveri), plays (Beckett, Frisch, Yeats), songs (Bob Dylan, Kate Bush, Leonard Cohen, Bob Marley, Van Morrison, as well as Lieder and Blues), he also writes for children, in prose and verse. Represented in Best European Fiction 2012 (Dalkey Archive Press) and Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W. W. Norton & Co. 2013). Books Ireland, Summer 2012, says of his novel My Head is Missing: ‘This is a departure for Rosenstock but he is surefooted as he takes on the comic genre and writes a story full of engaging characters and a plot that keeps the reader turning the page.’
Where Light Begins is a selection of his haiku. The Invisible Light features haiku in Irish, English, Spanish and Japanese with work by American master photographer Ron Rosenstock. New and selected poems I OPEN MY POEM …(translated from the Irish) published in 2014 by PoetryWala, Mumbai, and in Ireland by CIC as Margadh na Míol in Valparaíso/ The Flea Market in Valparaíso. Other English-language titles include The Partisan and other stories ( Evertype), Haiku Enlightenment (Cambridge Scholars Publishing), The Naked Octopus, erotic haiku (Evertype), Uttering Her Name (Salmon), The Pleasantries of Krishnamurphy (Non-Duality Press), Haiku, the Gentle Art of Disappearing (Cambridge Scholars Publishing).

December 2014 saw the appearance of two gendai haiku volumes from Kindle, inspired by Che Guevara and Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche respectively:

http://roghaghabriel.blogspot.ie/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=gabriel+rosenstock

BLACK TULIP- haiku video translation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yyh8zyG8Lc&feature=youtu.be

Sir Ashley Playfair-Howes (Dharma Heir)

Ashley Playfair-Howes, aka Wangpo Tseknyi Lord Happy Life, was born in Williamstown, Mass. to an old Yankee seafaring family. He was later raised in London, England where he enjoyed the dubious distinction of attending the notorious, if not infamous, Harrow School, as had his distant relation, Sir Winston Churchill. Whilst at Naropa Institute's Theater Program in 1976, he became a student of the Vidyadhara. From then until 1998, he served in various capacities both in the Civilian Administration and the Kalapa Court. During this time he often enjoyed working and living with Lord Perks, the Kushap Kyi Khyap. The Venerable Seonaidh, a patient and wily hunter, a born-again (and again) trickster, a loyal mentor and friend to boot, has been stalking Ashley for decades and finally sprang his kindly trap this year, 2015. Both to fulfill the aspirations and instructions of his root guru who encouraged him to write books about Buddhadharma and teach co-emergent wisdom, and to please one of his most beloved students and friends, Ashley has now joyfully agreed to carry on the Venerable Seonaidh's emerging Celtic Buddhist Lineage in whatever way he can, especially in Cape Breton Island where he has been living since 1999.

He was invested into the Peerage as Sir Ashley Playfair-Howes, Baron of Bras D'Or, Commander, Lord of the Isles, at an investiture performed on May 3rd 2015, Vaishakha Day (Lord Buddha's Birthday) at Anadaire Center, Saxton's River, Vermont.

Lady Marina

We are delighted to announce the upcoming marriage of the Baron of Bras D’Or to his good Lady Marina from Mexico. A graduate in Fine Arts from Goddard in Vermont, she has been teaching and making ceramics for many years, both in prestigious institutions like Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende where they met, and in village communities up and down the country. Ever since the Baron met Marina, they have been inseparable and now live in a mountain valley on the outskirts of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca Mexico. Their house is on a small hilltop jutting out into the valley, and ringed with thick stone walls – quite baronial! But its hilltop location provides ‘espectacular’ views: to the North and East looking up the valley, majestic mountain ranges tower layer upon layer into the distance; to the South and West, where the sun sets gloriously over the ocean horizon, the view overlooks a surfer-beloved Pacific shore barely a mile away, rythmically pounding every night. Flora and fauna abound; birdsong greets them at dawn and serenades them at sunset with a constant chorus from unseen crickets 24/7, changing with the seasons. The Baron and the good Lady Marina are very happy here. He moved to Mexico for health reasons, needing somewhere warm to work through a bad case of long-undiagnosed chronic Lyme Disease, but he is so glad he did so and plans to live here until Kingdom come!

 Marina, like Yeshe Tungpa, comes from a family of seers on both sides. She doesn’t talk about it much, but suffice to say she summoned the Baron to her side using these timeless shamanic arts - just don’t tell the Baron!). Interestingly, she enjoys the protection of a red-haired Irish Giantess who provides aid in times of dire need, but also in artistic endeavours, her secondary specialty.

 Indeed Marina, already a professional ceramista, is now morphing into a gifted painter. Here is a picture of her latest hummingbird (oil on canvas):

 In Mexican lore, hummingbirds carry messages to the living from loved ones who have recently died. After she painted her first one, she got a call from an old friend who saw the picture on Facebook and ordered it on the spot. After his father had died a colibri (hummingbird) landed on the body laid out in the coffin for all to see, stayed a while and then flitted away. As she was painting this second one, someone else called with the exact same story. Mexico!

 The good Lady Marina has little notion of what Buddhism is – except that, like the Baron, she doesn’t like New Age hippy types much – and no idea at all what a Celtic Buddhist lineage might be – except that she dislikes spiritual groups having had her fill of them during earlier training years. But that makes her a perfect addition to the family, and no doubt her Giant Protectress, whose name shall remain Secret, has had something to do with nudging Johnny into making her the latest addition to this diverse and unfathomable lineage!