Jo Marie Galt, 71, died in Santa Cruz, US, on September 1, of cardiac arrest resulting from various contributing health factors.

By Elaine Jackson

Jody Galt with dog Dawa. Photo courtesy of Shasta Wallace.

Jo Marie Galt (Jody) was loved by her Dharma family at Vajrapani Institute where we met in the late seventies and early eighties. She is remembered as always being the first one to volunteer for the hard jobs with a smile and determination. She will be deeply missed.

Jody was born on March 31, 1951, in Missouri, but most of her childhood, which she described as really difficult, was spent in Spokane, Washington. She was fourteen when her mother took her own life. Then, at sixteen, Jody ran away from home making strong prayers for answers.

Traveling in Mexico, Jody met Jim Ezell, her first husband and father of her daughter, Alicia, who was born in May, 1970. After Jody and Jim separated, Jody settled in Selma, Oregon where, together with Andy Robbins, she built a log cabin. It was here that their son, Ben, was born in 1978.

Jody had prophetic dreams. She described one dream where a book fell from the sky with one word on the page: “Vipassana.” She had no idea what that meant but became curious, went to the library, and began to read Dharma books.

In May 1980, Lama Yeshe led a Chenrezig retreat at Grizzly Lodge near Mount Shasta. It was sponsored by Vajrapani Institute. Jody sold her trailer to raise money to attend that course. It was there that she met Diney Woodsorrel and George Galt. After that course, Jody and her family moved to Berkeley.

Judy Weitzner recalled, “When Jody and Andy moved to the Berkeley Dharma House just after Grizzly Lodge, Jody was invaluable in her efforts to keep things organized. She was an exceptionally hard worker and contributed with cleaning and cooking. She attended many teachings and classes. Geshe Thardo was the resident teacher, but Lama Yeshe, Lobsang Chonjor, and Zong Rinpoche, as well as others, also offered teachings. It was at the Berkeley Dharma House where Jody first met Shasta Wallace, who was living at Vajrapani Institute at the time.” When the Dharma House closed in 1981, Jody moved to Vajrapani.

Jody said that Berkeley was too wild for her, so she went to Vajrapani. She and Andy had separated by then, but Andy came to Vajrapani from time to time, and eventually settled in Boulder Creek.

Shasta, a founder and long-time Vajrapani resident, recalls that Jody was always willing to jump in and help no matter how daunting the job. Shasta remembers such a job. It was cleaning and restoring a grease-laden, dilapidated-looking, commercial cookstove bought in San Francisco from an old restaurant in the Mission District. It looked like a wreck, but it needed to be functional for a retreat in one week. Jody told Shasta that not only could it be done, but it would be done. She helped take it apart, soak the encrusted parts and scrub it until it shined. It served as the cookstove in the Vajrapani kitchen for many years.

Initially, Jody and her children, Ben and Alicia, lived at Vajrapani in the “Dzome,” a canvas structure originally built by Rick Crangle and Jacie Keeley in 1978. It had an outdoor shower, an outhouse, and a small separate hut used for a kitchen. Jody was no stranger to rustic living. As she recalled, “Ben was three and Alicia was eight when we moved into the Dzome. That’s where I did my retreats – Tara and Vajrayogini. At 3:00 a.m. I would wake up. I loved it there so much. I wanted to be part of the community. I paid my $40.00 every month, hauled cement bags, and did what I could. In those days, we joked that I was living at Vajrapani, where you pay to work.”

Jody remembered working on the trails around the Chenrezig Gompa, while it was under construction, when Bill Kane came down with a terrible case of poison oak. Since Jody seemed to be immune, it became her job to pull the poison oak, and pull it she did, for two or three weeks. She ended up also getting the worst case of poison oak she had ever seen.

Janet Brooke recalls, “I met Jody when she arrived at Vajrapani in early 1981 following Lama Yeshe’s course at Grizzly Lodge. We were both mothers at the time. Her son Ben was a year older than my infant, Lise. There were many other children at Vajrapani who were close in age at the time, so Jody and I inevitably shared a lot of time around children.

“Jody and I also connected with the hard work needed to build this wonderful retreat center. We shared a love of gardening. Jody was very knowledgeable and experienced in this area. I learned so much from her. Together we had the opportunity to plant and create the garden beds around the stupa and surrounding the Vajrapani Gompa. This was all done under Jody’s expert guidance and skill and with great joy at being able to make such a wonderful offering. It was fun and, when working with Jody, it was guaranteed that somewhere along the way, no matter how hard the job, there would be a lot of laughter. Jody had a great sense of humor, and we shared a lot of laughter. There was hard work and there was laughter, and there were difficult times too. It was during the most difficult times in my life that Jody did her best, despite her own difficulties, to be there for me, as much as she was able, and I will be forever grateful.”

Jody had started a landscaping business and employed a few Vajrapani women who needed to make some money. Bev Gwyn remembers that two of Jody’s clients were Dick and Ramona Andre, who bought Lama Yeshe’s house in Rio del Mar (Santa Cruz), after Lama’s passing. Ramona loved Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Jody and maintained a relationship with Bev and Jody until her passing this year. Dick still lives in Lama’s house.

Following torrential rains, Jody’s beloved Dzome became unlivable when the roof collapsed. The family moved to Boulder Creek. Jody refers to Tom Waggoner as her “guardian angel,” who built her a house on Vajrapani land so she could move back about a year later. As she said, “It was the biggest gift of kindness.” Then, as luck would have it, that new house was irreparably damaged by a mudslide the following winter. Jody and the kids had to climb out a bedroom window to escape. They moved back to Boulder Creek.

In 1983, Lama Yeshe gave his last teaching a Vajrapani Institute when he taught the Six Yogas of Naropa. It was attended by so many of his beloved students, including Diney, George, and Jody. Diney was soon diagnosed with terminal cancer and died at the end of that year. Jody helped George as caregiver for Diney and also his three children, Shyela, Bodhi, and Sanje.

In October 1988, George and Jody were married. Jody continued to work in landscaping and engaging in other creative projects. She attributed her creativity to her mother who was an artist. Her parents had lived in Japan and her mother was greatly influenced by her time there. When Jody was living in the Berkeley Dharma House, she was quilting. Judy Weitzner shared that she gave Jody her old dresses which were cut up and returned to Judy in the form of a quilt with the Tara mantra on all four sides. Judy said it was the most heartfelt gift she ever received. Jody responded, “It was because of how much I treasured the gift of Dharma you gave me.”

Lama Yeshe at a family gathering at Vajrapani Institute, California, 1983. Photo by Carol Royce-Wilder.

Jody once shared, “Lama told me it was always going to be really difficult for me to see him. I was very shy and had such low self-esteem that I felt I should not be bothering someone for whom I had so much respect. At Grizzly Lodge, on the last day, Lama said that anyone could come in to talk with him. I told myself, ‘OK this is it.’ I was intimidated, but Lama said, ‘I think you have something you wanted to ask me.’ I said, ‘Lama, if you appear in my dream and give me teachings, is that what I should take as the truth?’ Lama replied, ‘Whenever I appear to you, you can believe what I’m telling you, even in a dream form.’ That was so encouraging to me.”

Judy explains, “Vajrapani is a miracle. It is magnificent. Lois (Greenwood) and I were talking about how when Lama spoke, people heard different things. People often took different pieces of his vast vision to make real.”

For the last many years of her life, Jody lived in pain from a degenerative spinal disease which led to half a dozen surgeries. Additionally, Jody’s immune system was attacking her nervous system leading to pain, numbness, and loss of motor control, for which she endured ongoing medical procedures.

About this period, Jody once shared, “Twice when I was in the hospital, very sick, Lama and Rinpoche and Chenrezig appeared in my room. I was delusional. I didn’t know where I was. When I saw them, they weren’t just figures. They were glowing, sparking, alive entities that I could feel radiating love out to me. Then, I knew they were there, whether I could see them or not. I thought, ‘OK, I gotta trust you.'”

Jody continued, “Once when I was in the hospital, they thought I had meningitis in my spine so I was in isolation. The man next to me was dying. I started saying prayers. I asked the nurse if he was going to make it. She told me it was doubtful. When they called a code blue I just said prayers. Ten minutes later he was OK. The nurse said, ‘I don’t know what kind of prayers you are saying, but they are sure powerful.’”

Jody found the practice of tonglen helped her the most. About this practice she said, “Thinking about the suffering of others almost always takes me away from focusing on my own pain and my own problems. I have other meditations, like Tara, but my go-to constantly is tonglen. Rinpoche is always sending me so much energy. He sends beautiful chants and prayers for when the pain gets very bad.”

Once while Rinpoche was visiting Jody in her home and offering advice, Jody asked Rinpoche what karma she had to have so much suffering. Rinpoche told her that by suffering that pain, she was taking it on so Rinpoche did not have to suffer it. Jody relied on Rinpoche’s words for inspiration and consolation.

When asked what practices she did during the difficult times, she said, “It is hard, but I think, if in any way I could take on the suffering of others and relieve them, how great that would be. Every two weeks I go to the hospital. I remember that the blood I get comes from others, and I see others sick with cancer, so I hold that in my mind. I bear the pain for others.”

Jody died peacefully in the hospital surrounded by George, her daughter, Alicia, and Shasta. Often in her decline,  Tom Waggoner was also at her bedside. The practices from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice were followed. There was a stupa at her crown, a prayer wheel at the bend of her left arm, a Namgyalma mantra over her heart, and the prayers Rinpoche designed, with all the important mantras to be recited, gently resting on her chest. Breathing evenly and peacefully, when the last breath left her body, Rinpoche was notified, prayers were recited, including Medicine Buddha, The King of Prayers, and many mantras. Medicine Buddha puja was also done at Vajrapani Institute that evening and will be continued every seven days until the forty-ninth day.

We cherish our memories and pray; may Jody be free … at last.

We offer grateful thanks to Elaine Jackson and all of Jody’s dear friends and family who contributed to this obituary.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche requests that students who read obituaries pray that the person mentioned finds a perfect human body, meets a Mahayana guru, and becomes enlightened quickly, or be born in a pure land where the tantric teachings exist and they can become enlightened.” While reading obituaries we can also reflect on our own death and impermanence prompting us to live our lives in the most meaningful way. More advice from Lama Zopa Ripoche on death and dying is available, see Death and Dying: Practices and Resources (fpmt.org/death/).

To read more obituaries from the international FPMT mandala, and to find information on submission guidelines, please visit our new Obituaries page (fpmt.org/media/obituaries/).