In the words of Gelek Rimpoche:
We lost Allen [Ginsberg], but believe me, he died very well - extremely well. We would be very
lucky to go like he did. He was absolutely ready. It is interesting. It looked like he was always
thinking that he had another 10 years to live. Last year, after the summer retreat, I told Allen that
when someone is getting sick and they are told that they are going to die, then it is very difficult to
talk to them about it. So it is very important to talk to people about death when they are well. You
never know when you are going to go. You may have plans to live for another 10 years, but you
should always be prepared to go. Allen said that he was always scared of dying. He said, "If some-
body told me that I was going to die now, I don’t know how I would take it." [..]
When he finally got the news that he was terminally ill, he took it very well - better than me! It took
me two days to come to terms with it. I was in Mexico when I got the news from him. It sort of
spoiled my holiday - but he was very excited, thinking that now the time had come. And as things
started to function, his life started to become something like a celebration. The directions he was giv-
ing to his staff and his closer friends pointed in that direction. He was very excited and started to call
everybody, telling them that "Look, I have incurable cancer and I am going to go now!"
From that day on, for a week he was very excited and quickly made all the arrangements that he
wanted to make and although he accepted that he was going to die and would not continue, he
knew that he still had a lot of unpublished manuscripts of his poetry and there would have been
something like six more years to work on all of that and he now gave instructions what to do with
all this material. He also had tremendous numbers of photographs and gave instructions what to do
with these and then finally he was ready. Suddenly he then had a little stroke and congestive heart
failure. That was good. Congestive heart failure is the best way to go, because you don't have any
pain, you just fill up with water and that is it. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche always said that we all wish
to go easily and the easiest way was by maintaining the water in the body. And that’s what Allen
had. If you think about it, it was only that Friday that he was in a semi-coma and Saturday morning
at 2:39 am the death process started. We reached his place on Friday afternoon at about 5 pm and
when we walked into his room there were so many people! Some people were drinking tea, some
were eating, there was food on the table and people were coming and going and all these very fa-
mous people were there. It was really like a celebration. Nobody was crying, but they just went up
to him and looked at him and then went back and talked to each other. Some people were reading.
His cousin, who is a doctor, was there too. At first he forgot his stethoscope, so he had to go down
and get it, so that everybody knew that he was the doctor. Then he explained to everybody what
was happening to Allen and what happened before and why and what was going to happen next.
When there were no more questions, he went on to explain what the latest books were saying about
that condition. It was very interesting. Allen had a very open life and in the same way, a very open
death too. Everybody was there, going in and out - sort of a celebration, really.
From our point of view, the first thing we did when we arrived was to do the Lama Chöpa. We did
it very slowly and by the end of the practice I thought he was very close to going. [..]
Before 11:30 his head was still upright on the pillow and after 11:30 it was down
completely. That is a clear sign. Immediately after that, his temples became hollow and his com-
plexion became ashen. Then I said to the other people that he was dead and to call the doctor and to
do what had to be done and they took the body to the funeral home.
Afterwards, all these people came and talked to me and they had all these different theories about
why Allen had died. One of his cousins said it was because he worried so much about Peter Orlovsky.
Another person had the idea that with our prayers we were pushing Allen out of the life.
That’s why I thought I better explain a little bit what happened. There is no question that Allen was
concentrating on the mahamudra and Vajrayogini and that is how he went. It was a very successful
death. Of course, to us it is a great loss, no question about that, not just for us, but for society as a
whole. However, for him, he began his own celebration and it really was a celebration. And I
probably should not say that we are very happy, but on the other hand, we all have to die and you
could not have a better death than that. We all wish to continue but we cannot. I said to Allen when
he gave me the news, "We always think we could go on for some more years, but look at your life,
you are 70 years old and have made a tremendous contribution." Aura keeps telling me it was a 5
lifetimes contribution. I told Allen, "I don't think that in the 60s you thought you were going to live
that long." And he said, "No, definitely not. If I had thought so, I would have taken care of myself a
little better." Then I said, "You are 70 now and although it is not a very long life, like 115 or so, it is
also not a short life either. So it is okay."
In his last days, he called a lot of people and said good-bye to them. He definitely called Philip on
Sunday, thanking him and saying good-bye. Actually, Philip did not see him after that. Later, Allen
rang me and said, "Rinpoche, I wrote my own funeral poem, it looks quite good, shall I read it to
you?" But I did not want him to read it. Philip was there with me, so Allen talked to him and said,
"You listen to this!" and then he read his poem to him and of course it is his "Gone, gone" poem. At
the funeral it was supposed to be read out, but nobody knew it, except Philip. Luckily, he had lis-
tened to Allen and remembered it. So he recited it at the funeral. Everybody respected him, he was
very open and nice and made a tremendous contribution to society. So we should remember Allen
in that way. That is my suggestion.
Gone Gone Gone