One Man's Journey

Barry Kerzin received his BA in philosophy at UC
Berkeley amidst an anti-war culture. He then trained
in medicine at USC and completed a residency in Family
Medicine at the Ventura County Medical Center in
California. Seven years of private medical practice in
Ojai, California deepened his experience of human
suffering.  He then pursued academic medicine as an
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the
University of Washington School of Medicine. He was
intellectually challenged, but spiritually bereft.

Illness and death were powerful influences early in
life. His own childhood life-threatening illness
strongly influenced a career in medicine. The death of
his mother and wife early in life prompted an intense
spiritual quest for meaning. A year long sabbatical
was spent in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Living in a
monastery receiving instruction from extraordinary
meditation masters, his life changed course.

In the Seattle area he further studied and meditated
with the yogi Gen Lam Rimpa whom he then followed back
to Dharamsala, India which became home, now for the
last 19 years.  In Dharamsala he taught research
methodology and conducted research into the efficacy
of Tibetan Medicine for high blood pressure.  A year
later he returned to studying, meditating, and
teaching Buddhism.

After fourteen years of short and long meditation
retreats, His Holiness the Dalai Lama ordained him as
a Bikkshu, a fully ordained Buddhist monk.  Over the
last nine years he has been privileged to provide
medical care to three great meditation masters during
their dying days. All three stayed in meditation
called tuk.dam, or clear light, for days to weeks
following clinical death. Their bodies remained fresh,
supple, and warm. An atmosphere of serenity and
meditation surrounded them. When their meditations
were completed and their consciousnesses departed, the
bodies rapidly decayed.  Warmth, freshness, and
flexibility quickly disappeared. Copious amounts of
watery and blood-like fluids poured from the nostrils.
Two of the yogis had their bodies dried and preserved
in salt as holy sacred objects of worship.

Barry continues meditation and teaching Buddhism and
Science in India, the United States, and Japan.  A
book on Buddhist madyamaka is in process.  In tandem
his 19 years of charitable medicine continues.

In 2005 and 2006  Barry had the privilege of
participating in the neuroscience meditation research
with Richard Davidson, and Antoine Lutz, in Madison,
Wisconsin. He participated in similar research at
Princeton with Jonathan Cohen and Brent Field.  The
two worlds of medicine and meditation continue to draw
closer.