Grace McLeod, world traveler, potent advocate for Buddhism
Grace McLeod didn’t know exactly what she was in for when a Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader summoned her to Rumtek, India.
When she appeared before Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, then head of the Karma Kagyu tradition, “He looked at me and looked at me,” Mrs. McLeod later wrote. “I could tell he knew me through and through.
“Then he clapped his hands and called in eight nuns and said to them, ‘This is your mother. She will build you a home.’ “
Build a home she did. As the karmapa’s new American secretary, she raised $21,300 — enough to build a convent, which opened in Rumtek in 1985.
Mrs. McLeod, who converted to Buddhism in the late 1940s, was a leader for three and a half decades in producing English-language study materials for Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Church and other temples in Buddhist Churches of America.
She died at 98 on Aug 12.
Aug 27, 2006
