Guru Viking Podcast

In this episode I am joined by Naomi Levine, author, under her birth name Norma Levine, of multiple books including ‘The Miraculous 16th Karmapa’, ‘A Quest For The Hidden Lands’, and ‘Chronicles of Love and Death: My Years With The Lost Spiritual King of Bhutan’. Naomi recalls why she dropped out of academia to pursue an alternative lifestyle, and through a series of life-changing encounters with Tibetan gurus such as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, 16th Karmapa, and Tai Situpa, converted to Buddhism and moved to India to pursue a life of yogic practice. Naomi describes her close discipleship under Tai Situpa, and recounts her initial meeting, and subsequent multi-year relationship, with the Shabdrung - a highly revered Bhutanese tulku said to possess potent magical abilities. Naomi also discusses the difficulty of differentiating between crazy wisdom and abusive behaviour, reflects her own naivety about what the practice of Vajrayana really entails, and describes the signs of enlightenment after the death of gre