Friday

In Loving Memory of Alice Haspray

From the Chronicles of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

By  The Chronicles – August 22, 2024

Alice Haspray, beloved wife of Richard, mother of Noah, grandmother of Oscar, and teacher of many of us, passed from this life on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at 5:45 PM in St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. Please hold Alice and her family in your heart and practice at this time.

Having fallen in love with Japanese Zen and begun sitting zazen in college in Minnesota, Alice met Suzuki Roshi in 1968 and moved to the San Francisco Zen Center with her husband Richard in 1970. One afternoon Trungpa Rinpoche came to see Suzuki Roshi. Seeing them sitting together surrounded by wisteria in Zen Center’s garden courtyard—she fell in love with Rinpoche. Rinpoche told her that as long as Roshi was alive there was no where else she should be. Following Roshi’s death in December 1971, Rinpoche instructed Richard and Alice to go to Tassajara (Roshi’s monastery in the Big Sur mountains) to receive more training in order to bring the essence of Roshi’s practice mind into the heart of Rocky Mountain Dharma Center where he wanted them to go next.

They moved to RMDC in 1973 and attended the second Vajradhatu Seminary in 1974. After leading many dathuns and when their son Noah was six months old, Rinpoche sent them to New York City, appointing Richard as one of his first Ambassadors. From the mountains of Colorado and a house with no indoor plumbing, Alice, Richard and six-month old Noah moved to Manhattan. Alice taught extensively there, including some of the earliest Shambhala Training levels. She also taught the Lineage and Devotion course at the 1979 Vajradhatu Seminary.

After completing Vajrayogini and Chakrasamvara practice, Alice dove into the Shambhala terma teachings. She has taught seven Warrior Assemblies—including three in Chile. She also taught many Shambhala Training programs in North America, Chile, Brazil, and Spain. Sakyong Mipham appointed her as a shastri in 2010, and at Pema Chodron’s request she served as shastri in residence at Gampo Abbey from 2013 to 2017, retiring as a shastri in 2019. She has been a student of the Japanese way of tea for many years, studying with John McGee Sensei and Alexandre Avdulov Sensei in the beautiful Yukoan tea space in Halifax. Alice and Richard live on two wild and beautiful acres on St Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia where she has continued to teach and explore the koan of the human condition.

Communications can be sent to Deborah Luscomb, [email protected].