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Photo courtesy of Santa Cruz Mission Chapel.
Andrew Vahldiek, 69, died in Santa Cruz, CA, on June 7, 2022.
Long-time student of FPMT, Andrew Vahldiek, became a quadriplegic at the age of 17, following a near-death swimming accident in Wisconsin, US. This experience devastated him both physically and emotionally as his once active lifestyle had to be abandoned for life in a wheelchair, dependent on the assistance of others. Without the benefit of tools to cope with his life-changing injury and following months spent in an acute care hospital, his doctors prescribed him a wide variety of painkillers, to which he became tolerant and subsequently addicted. Isolated and mentally unwell, he decided to quit the drugs “cold-turkey.” This is when Andrew discovered systematic relaxation, breathing mantra recitations, and in time, Tibetan Buddhism.
In an article published in Mandala in 1999, Andrew explained this change in his worldview:
“My personal care assistant who had traveled to India and who was also interested in Zen Buddhism had become good friends with a senior student of Geshe Lhundup Sopa in the University of Wisconsin Southeast Asia Studies Department. He invited me to come to Geshe-la’s private talks that he had begun giving on weekends. He suggested I look at a book entitled The Tibetan Tradition of Mental Development by Geshe Dhargyey. This was very powerful for me, although I had a problem with the concept of the hell realms and using fear as a motivating factor for spiritual practice. But this was the first contact with Tibetan Buddhism.
“Tibetan Buddhism takes a very psychological approach and goes right to the heart of the matter, instead of issuing commandments, rules. Instead of saying what is good conduct and bad conduct alone, it also presents a variety of methodological vehicles whereby one can develop the skills needed to operate in accord with a code of behavior that is positive and beneficial, not only for oneself, but for all other beings. There are so many different aspects of the Dharma that appealed to me the more I studied and went to teachings. I was a very poor student at first – I had little conception of how vast the literature is. For some years I floundered about and wasted a lot of time, but nonetheless used what little skill I had to work with difficult states of mind.
“The concept of emptiness enabled me to gradually see that I was not my body alone, and that was a great comfort to me. Instead of being someone with a concrete physical status, I was a being with consciousness with a body that is impermanent that would not remain, eventually would die, and given my karmic predisposition I could go to a different body. Just the fact of having a way intellectually of seeing myself other than this body, this disability that defines myself and my existence, helped a great deal, even though my understanding of emptiness was very, very modest. The concept alone was very helpful.”
We invite you to read more of Andrew’s inspiring story, “Changing Suffering into Happiness.”
Please also see an obituary for Andrew published in Santa Cruz Mission Chapel.
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/).