David was born in Salem, Massachusetts to Margaret and Robert Petit. He was the third of six children. The family later moved to New Hampshire where he lived until, at the age of sixteen, he traveled to Europe and began studying in the Anthroposophic communities of England and Germany, founded by Austrian philosopher, social thinker, and architect Rudolf Steiner.
David graduated from Eurythemeum College in Stuttgart, Germany in 1981 where he studied Eurythmy (an expressive movement art), acting, choreography, directing, music, literature, and philosophy. He stayed in Europe for thirteen years and became a well-known performer and director of plays and a theater company that toured throughout Western Europe, Germany, and Poland. While living in Germany, he also studied Waldorf pedagogy and eventually taught theater to high school students. He returned to the United States in 1986, where he met Lama Tsultrim Allione because he was teaching her children in Spring Valley Waldorf School after she returned from seven years in Italy. David became her partner and her husband and helped to raise her children who adored him. Together they moved to Pagosa Springs, Colorado in 1994 and co-founded Tara Mandala. David built the dream that Lama Tsultrim had carried with her since she was a nun in her twenties.A retreat center in the west dedicated to the interface of Buddhism and Western psychology.
Two years before his death, Tsoknyi Rinpoche recognized that David was ready for the advanced Togal (Leap Over) teachings which lead to the rainbow body. David’s diligence with this high level of practice allowed him to reach liberation immediately after death, as confirmed by all of his teachers. He sat every day from 5:00 to 8:00 a.m. and, when possible, at sunset again, always outside, resting his mind in the vast Colorado sky. Even in wintertime he continued his outdoor practice and he would come in afterwards covered with icicles.
David passed away from a heart attack in the early morning hours of July 22, 2010. He was only 54 years old.
The impact on Lama Tsultrim, her family and the Sangha was immediate and devastating. Without David it was hard to continue. But after a year of mourning Lama Tsultrim came back and carried on overseeing Tara Mandala with the loving support of the Sangha and her family.
Light on his feet and cryptic with his words, David gave us the experience of the unexpected and brought Tara Mandala to fruition. It was as though he had been sent to fulfill Lama Tsultrim’s dream, which he accomplished with great skill. Let’s remember David today with great gratitude.
His Death
David Petit (1955-2010) died at his home, Hawk Hill Ranch adjoining Tara Mandala, during the early morning hours of July 22, 2010. That afternoon rainbows filled the sky at Tara Mandala. Immediately upon the discovery of his body, Lama Tsultrim, Khenpo Urgyen Wangchuk, and Lama Gyurme began P’howa, the transference of consciousness practice. Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche was contacted in Taiwan and gave instructions for handling the body and performing cremation.
As family and sangha members were contacted and began to arrive, practice for David continued throughout the night. Lama Tsultrim’s son, Costanzo (Dorje Gyaltsab Tulku Ösel Dorje), was in one of the most remote areas of Tibet with his teacher, who told him of David’s death before the news had reached the monastery, and told him to prepare to leave. Costanzo received his advice and carried instructions from his teacher with him as he made the four-day journey back to Chengdu in 34 intense hours.
The day after David’s death, as tears fell, Tara Mandala was enveloped in heavy rain clouds and the sky opened, raining tears to mirror the grief of the Sangha. The next morning, preparations began to construct a funeral pyre on the east side of the Stupa that David had built with his own hands. Sangha and family traveling throughout the day and night arrived for the sunrise cremation ceremony and were received by the dawning of a clear, Dharmakaya-blue sky. The glory of the procession, with Tibetan instruments, ceremonial hats and robes, five-colored silk scarves, and garlands of flowers, was beautiful to behold as David’s body was placed upon the pyre.
When the ceremony began, feather-like clouds started to dance in delicate, woven layers across the early morning sky. Gathered sangha members offered juniper branches and silk scarves with blessings and prayers for David’s journey. Brilliant shafts of light emanated in all directions from the sun, as traditional offerings of oil, grain, and flowers were made to the fire while David was visualized as the deity Vajrasattva in the center.
For the next week a twenty-four hour vigil was held at the Stupa. During that time, rainbows appeared daily, and on the third night during the full moon, the rarest atmospheric phenomenon called a lunar rainbow stretched from the peak of Ekajati to Lama Tsultrim and David’s home.
For many days the fire smoldered and practice continued at the Stupa. On July 30th, a hot and dusty morning, Lama Tsultrim, Khenpo Urgyen, daughters Sherab, Aloka and Dorje Gyaltsab Tulku Ösel Dorje sifted through the ashes, discovering multi-colored fragments of bone and teeth. The next day, David’s ashes were offered to the river as the community gathered in practice and prayer. When the ashes were released, the previously flat river swirled clockwise, generating an auspicious, white, foam-like flower which traveled downstream along with many tears.
Each day during the 2010 Drubchen in August, Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche poured purifying saffron water over the bones. In accordance with Rinpoche’s instructions, many have practiced merging with David’s mindstream. Tsoknyi Rinpoche said that upon liberation David became the three kayas, and whenever he is invoked, he will be spontaneously present. Lama Tsultrim lovingly refers to him as “Dharmadatu Dave.”
The Artist David Petit
David Petit was also, to no one’s surprise, a secret artistic master. He began painting in Bali in 1990 and continued to work whenever he had free time, especially during his Colorado years, 1994 – 2010. He worked privately, almost never showing his work to anyone. Though we knew he was imaginative and abstractly ingenious, most who knew him were unaware of the large body of work that he had developed until his collection was revealed after his death.
David’s collection reveals his soul’s journey, his inner struggles, and his path into the light. Such extraordinary images in art might have the propensity to alienate or unnerve the psyche, but in the David Petit gallery this is not the case.
Mystifying and spontaneous, David’s work creates in us space for the exploration of light and shadow. Viewing the images that continue to surprise, we have little choice but to relinquish conceptual limitations.
To those who knew, loved, and admired him, David remains a mystery. Let his work tell you some of what lay beneath the surface of this complex, generous, beloved man.
THIS PRECIOUS LIFE: A Celebration of the Life & Passing of David Petit from Chariot Videos.
Learn more about the David Petit Sustainability Fund, Tara Mandala’s Endowment »
Make a pledge or online donation to the David Petit Sustainability fund »
Poems
Venice
I know we must have promised
to find each other again,
But where was that promise made?
Amidst temple ruins looking out to sea
on the isle of Rhodes?
Or in a bamboo and wattle hut
to the sounds of talking drums?
Or in an incense imbued yak hair
tent sitting on carpets in Tibet?
Or was it on a morning in early May
amidst wild poppies in Tuscany?
But now as I see a pair of red-tailed hawks
Fly below my cabin
Setting sun reflecting liquid gold off tail feathers
I know it doesn’t matter
I have this one moment to taste
the warm honey of your shoulder
heated by spring sun
One moment to feel that
soft curve of your waist
To taste the sage on your hips
All these tell me of the promise
To weave our threads of light
Together…under this vast sky.
-Tsultrim Allione, Spring 2001
Wild Pony Boy
When I think of you my heart swells
Turning to the sun
I find refuge resting my head on your
Shoulder
Your arm strong and gentle
Around me
Leaning against your old white shirt,
Never ironed
Soft
Torn at the tail by scrub oak
On some wild ride to Laguna
Its single pocket stained black by a leaking pen,
Always there for me to borrow
Collar turned up framing your face
Golden and deeply lined
Like the streaked arroyos after rain
Resolve deepening with time
Like the hardened ponderosa snags
That stand as totem sculptures
Between the living trees
Setting sun draws broad strokes
Of pink across the horizon
Feather clouds against robin’s egg blue sky
You are the place I call home
-Tsultrim Allione, Valentine’s Day 2005
Let Us Ride With You David
There’s no way to thank you now
And yet we feel you everywhere
You are in the soft breeze coming through the window in late afternoon
You are making rainbows and rain
You are the three kayas
Dancing in space
And you are in everything that is here
From the first stones turned into the stupa to the last instructions
for the cabinets in the temple
But your body is gone now from this place
You were the one we relied on when things were difficult
You were our protector
You knew how to hold a line
You felt the spirits of this land
And were guided by them
We danced and played with you
The beginning of making a garden is the hardest part
The digging and pulling out weeds
There seems to be nothing there when you plant seeds
Just dirt and work
You lived to see your garden flower
But not to eat the fruit of the trees you planted
Yet those fruits many beings will eat for years to come
Your merit is immeasurable
And your vision so vast
Let us ride those wind horses with you back to the Land of the Dakinis
They gave you to us and now they’ve taken you back
But let us go with you and then let’s come back together soon
-Tsultrim Allione, August 22, 2010
From David’s Journal
Italy on the Mediterranean near Grossetto 7.15.92
“Many gulls and no others to swim my whole body in the silken sea tasting salt the builder of life moving in silence celebrating the gratitude swelling in my heart.”
Later same day
“…deep blue sea-ness of such long life cannot hold sway as we watch the world spin in time as meaning unfolding forever beyond this moment of ‘awake awareness’ cannot be known the cause clause in answering questions of eternal-eternal expect nothing and all things will reveal themselves to the knower of the remember life-past into remembered future of right action love in the center heart self of today forever more being only words the sounds of which carry worlds of forming life as they form us we create all that we become are becoming because the nature of this bliss is elusive. To walk through walls or cliffs – the labyrinth of love – love – creating embracing moving placing…”
In Homage
David,
I feel sluggish
my mouth
mouthing words
that can’t say
the sadness I feel
As Lama Tsultrim
is my spiritual mom
so you were
my spiritual dad
And like a son
though older than you
Scorpio and Leo
we’d bump heads
then work it out
and be friends
Not an easy friendship
but if anything can be
real, that was real
You could be
a tough taskmaster
but when the work
was done and when you
said it was good
I’d know it was good
You set the standard
on horseback or
with a chöd drum
And you could dance\
a soft side of self
you seemed reticent
to show, but you
moved with winged feet
Go, now, liberated
as they say
but come back
soon
-Jampa Dorje, July 2010
For David Petit
Bowing,
Prostrate,
My heart against Her ground
Radiant ash
cloaks my skin
A sound of Fire
deep within
You rise
and I rise with You
Flame
Radiant Body
Empty Smoke
Air
I breathe You in
and I become You
Mother, Father, Child
Buddha
You,
the One who offers and the Offering
Surrounded by the Wisdom Beings
Gone
Gone beyond.
-Josephine Doig, July 2010
David performing Sang (Fragrant Juniper Smoke Offering)
Prayer Flag Ridge, Summer 2009
How like the sun
He was.
Hair framing his face
Like a corona.
Fiery.
At once rugged and elegant.
How we took joy
when bathed in the warmth of his attention.
Or even
Singed
By his glare.
His light
Gave us life.
-David Laufer, July 2010
A Song of Liberation:
Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond
Death is the final liberation
Death is our greatest teacher
David’s passing is his greatest teaching
He is everywhere and nowhere
Meet him in the space of the Dharmadatu
The space of awareness beyond duality, he is there!
Let’s meet in the dancing ground of the dakinis
Where we dance the divine dance
Of creation and destruction
Of hope and fear
Of existence and nonexistence
And we move beyond duality and rest in bliss emptiness
And we too feel our bodies dissolve
Dissolve back into the five elements
Returning home is the greatest liberation
May we rejoice in his grand finale, his final performance!
Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Swaha!
-Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton, July 2010
David!
Sharp mind
Warm Eyes.
Smiling Tenderness.
May your mind hold and protect
Lama Tsultrim and Tara Mandala
furthermore!
-Gudrun Binder, July 2010
Wind Horse Haiku
“I think we were probably the last people to leave after the Chod retreat, & we were camping up in the trees on the edge of the meadow, when David flew by on a large horse, at full gallop. It was very impressive. We went, “wow.” I wrote this little haiku for him on the spot, at the time. I hope you like it.”
Wind man on wind horse,
turning earth to sky.
three jewels flaming on his back
-Preston Chase, July 12, 2009
I see you in the spring planting trees.
I see you in the summer garden.
I see you in the autumn at sunrise sang.
I see you in the falling snow.
Body, speech and mind lithesome and working hard,
Intent on liberation for all.
Planting trees, conserving the land, building fires, pulling everyone’s cars out of the snow banks,
Riding horses in boundless presence and joy.
Lama Tsultrim’s beloved husband,
I miss you so much.
Meeting us all now in the Dharmata,
Thank you for this parting gift that will never cease.
by your vast generosity,
May all beings be free.
-Carol Hoy, Gendun Drolma, July 2010
For David Petit
Dear Man
Arrow Man
Valiant Man
Easy in the saddle Man
Horse Man whose animals crop the grass at dawn
Hat Man whose broad brim slices light and shade
Builder Man who alcoves relics of the Dharma
Fire Man who tends the sacred, now be tended by it
Rainbow Man, arch on the walking rain
Seeing Man, offering the body: sound, light, rays
-Mary Gilliland, July 2010
Thank you David for your bright light
Thank you David for your bright light… When I heard of your death I closed my eyes and felt your strong presence immediately, radiant and full of joy. there was no reason to be sad for you; there was no doubt that you had found liberation. I saw you riding your horse like a warrior, your white hair blazing, sounding PHET and dispelling all darkness and liberating many beings in the bardo. You were traveling down the tunnel toward the Great Luminosity, like a river to the great ocean… I am reminded of these beautiful words by Longchenpa. Many blessings to you…
In a cloudless night sky, the full moon,
“The Lord of Stars,” is about to ride…
The face of my compassionate lord, Padmasambhava,
Draws me on, radiating its tender welcome.
My delight in death is far, far greater than
The delight of traders at making vast fortunes at sea,
Or lords of the gods who vaunt their victory in battle;
Or of those sages who have entered the rapture of perfect absorption.
So just as a traveler who sets out on the road when the time has come to go,
I will not remain in this world any longer,
But will go to dwell in the stronghold of the great bliss of deathlessness.
This my life, is finished, my karma is exhausted, what benefit prayers could
bring has worn out,
All worldly things are done with, this life’s show is over.
In one instant, I will recognize the very essence of the manifestation of my being
In the pure, vast realms of the bardo states;
I am close now to taking up my seat in the ground of primordial perfection.
The riches found in myself have made the minds of others happy,
I have used the blessing of this life to realize all the benefits of the island of
liberation.
Having been with you, my noble disciples, through all this time,
The joy of sharing the truth has filled me and satisfied me.
Now all the connections in this life between us are ending,
I am an aimless beggar who is going to die as he likes,
Do not feel sad for me, but go on praying always.
These words are my heart talking, talking to help you;
Think of them as a cloud of lotus-blossoms, and you in your devotion
as bees plunging into them to suck from their transcendent joy.
Through the great good of these words
May all beings of all the realms of samsara,
In the ground of primordial perfection, attain nirvana.
David, you are in my heart and prayers. Much love to you…. Jessica Stevens
for david – 22 july 2011
by charlotte
there is so much space now
where you were
and though I seem to see you everywhere
a straw hat waiting by the door
blue jeans and a white shirt out the corner of my eye
a black backpack stuffed with letters to be mailed
you are gone
there is a silence that fills this land
a waiting
as though you should return
the maroon Toyota Tundra winding up the dusty road
or a sweat-glistened horse breathlessly
delivering you to the front door
those days are closed
iron door without a hinge
my mind strains against
the permanence
of your impermanence
forever the smell of rosemary
elicits roasting chicken
the ease with which you conduct
symphonies of meals
effortless grace
of the primordial magician
you dance
sinews swaying
to the rhythms of some sweet beat
the chodpa’s chant
or perhaps, when no one was looking,
to the delicate whisper of flowers
who sang your praises in hues of gold and vibrant pink
even now
you walk this land
an ancestor
your bones the twisted arms of the hardy scrub oak
your sweat the cool exhale of rocks
your heart the pulsing throb of life that will not stop
and though we may look
we will not find you
and though we may not find you
you are there
until we are left
speechless in our searching
stopped by the determinacy of what is no longer
in the simple presence
of space
that is
always
already
and finally
with you
we rest
