An Experience I had in 1977 at "San Francisco Scottish Rite Masonic Center"

San Francisco Scottish Rite Masonic Center

I'm not a formal member of the mason's even though my father often wore a blue Sapphire ring with a diamond in the center to church.

However, in 1977 I was attending Summit University which was renting the College of the Nazerene Campus in Pasadena for this purpose. One day we heard that there was going to be a conference called "Become the Buddha" to be held at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in San Francisco. On my way home from a healing session with John Douglas my wife and I drove by this Masonic Center on the 19th street connector that it is on between 280 and the Golden Gate Bridge heading north on Highway 101 towards Novato where John Douglas was on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

My now 40 year old son was then 4 years old and also attended this conference with me. My parents also attended this conference. This was before I ever met a Tibetan Lama or went to India and Nepal or to Dharamshala which would be about 8 years after this experience.

Elizabeth Clare Prophet was putting on this conference. She is passed on now but then was in rare form and about 10 years older than me then. In 1977 I was 29 and in the process of getting a divorce and raising my 3 year old son by myself with the help of my mother and father sometimes. We boarded buses (my son, my mother and father and I that were full of students of Mrs. Prophet and rode to San Francisco for this conference there. 

This conference was likely one of the most unusual and powerful conferences with Mrs. Prophet that I ever attended. I kept having experiences where it was like going off into the void during the conference. Also, she introduced us to the Sanskrit Mantras for Tara, Om Mani Padme Hum for the Dalai Lama (Avaloketesvara) and a Padmasambhava Mantra. I think learning to do the Sanskrit version of these incredibly powerful mantras with Mrs. Prophet brought my Tibetan Buddhist initiations starting in 1980 (3 years later). So, looking back I see my spiritual trajectory very clearly to the present. However, then it was all a voyage of exploration, sometimes wonderful and sometimes terrible. But, my spirit demanded the path I took forward always. It was the only way I knew to stay alive to keep learning and following my heart to learn all that I could learn to become closer and closer to God and Enlightenment and to try to help mankind become more enlightened along the way.

My son was attending Montessori school while I finished at Summit university. He got whooping cough like I had and I felt very bad about this. So, I separated from the University to help take care of him and as soon as I did this and moved to San Diego he got well so I knew I did the right thing for him as a father. He was dealing with his mother not being there for him as well so my mother replaced his mother to some degree and I also had to learn to be a Mr. Mom as well. These times were sort of confusing for both me and him in some ways. However, in the long run it made me a much better person trying to be the best father I could to my son. By 1980 I remarried a lady with two kids from her first marriage as well who was my age in Mt. Shasta when I moved there with my son in 1979. My then new wife was interested in Native American Shamanism and Non-dualism which led to my first experience with a Tibetan Lama in Ashland, Oregon in 1980.