Words of wisdom from Commencement Speaker Kyva Holman
While Naropa’s 2021 Spring Commencement Ceremony had to take place virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions, the event was still full of lively and radical Naropa spirit. Kyva Holman, graduate of Naropa’s BA in Interdisciplinary Studies and MA in Religious Studies, was elected to be the graduate student speaker for the class of 2021. His address below speaks to the unique hardships our 2020 and 2021 graduates faced and the beauty and resilience they found in these challenging times.
Wow… Naropa University class of 2021—just trip off how crazy that sounds for a minute. Advanced, dystopian, apocalyptic. The fact is that we are living in the future. Many predictions have been made about this future by everyone from economists, climate scientists, and think tanks to philosophers, poets, and even prophets.
Well, here we are. You, me, and all the sentient beings who are desperately counting on some form of sanity to prevail on a deeply troubled and imperiled planet.
So before I say another word, I want to enthusiastically offer you a 21-ton salute for having made it this far in the first place. That was never a fait accompli, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably had many moments where it looked like you actually might not pull it off.
Unlike Ivy League institutions, which prepare people for material and technological success, our contemplative education at this crazily wise Buddhist-influenced institution provoked us to look deeply into the very essence of who we are as spirit beings having a human experience.
We faced Babylonian towers worth of maladies like structural racism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and the like, beset—if not bombarded—by notions like planned obsolescence, systems theory, and intersectionality. Really? Yes, really. We’ve been forced to reckon not with statistics and algorithms but with the very psycho-spiritual origins of human dysfunction. How many times have you cringed just anticipating the next discussion post, the vulnerability-exposing homework assignment, or the next warrior exam?
Time and again we have faced down the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. The arrows of Maras demons assaulting Buddha beneath the bodhi tree and the invitation of provocation was to not freak out, like so many in this chaotic moment, but to respond with deep presence, compassion, and skillful means; and don’t forget for a minute the broader social conditions you did so in.
The COVID-19 pandemic or plandemic, the great reset, Black Lives Matter, white nationalist unrest, Trumpism, political skullduggery, a full-frontal attack on democracy at the Capitol, and now mass shootings and bomb threats. It was nearly 60 degrees on Christmas day and 80 degrees in early April.
As I write this text, my visual field is diminishing with stress and anxiety, and I’m reminded why it took me so long to deal with this address in the first place. And I’ll tell you exactly what I did. I lit a stick of incense, got up to take some deep breaths, did a little stretching, made a cup of tea, and came back to the computer. I’m confident at least some of you out there can relate.
We can do this. We have to. The causes and conditions of our lives led us to an education that prepared us to be spiritual first responders. As we steel ourselves to the mission ahead, let us also pause to acknowledge and celebrate the positive trends we see arising in our time.
As long as the arc of history bends, it bends toward justice. Now is not the time for trepidation or cowering, but boldness and vision. I have said that the advantage a Naropa education affords us over an Ivy League one is that an MBA, lawyer, or tech specialist is not trained to deal with the moment where they step out of their house and the entire neighborhood is upside down.
States across America are beginning to lift the restrictions and impositions made on our lives as a result of COVID-19. Some of the side effects of the pandemic have been deer spotted in central park in New York City, mountain lions in downtown Boulder, shrinkage of the hole in the ozone layer, and the stunning ability of New Delhi residents to see the Himalayan mountains for the first time in recent memory. As I write these words, the state of Minnesota delivered a guilty on all counts verdict for the murderer of George Floyd, officer Derek Chauvin.
As long as the arc of history bends, it bends toward justice. Now is not the time for trepidation or cowering, but boldness and vision. I have said from time to time that the advantage a Naropa education affords us over an Ivy League one is that an MBA, lawyer, or tech specialist is not trained to deal with the moment where they step out of their house and the entire neighborhood is upside down.
We live in extraordinary times—the best and the worst —if there ever were such times. Our familiarity with Sunyata, or emptiness, means we can even challenge the notion of time itself. As I said in a song I recorded many years ago, it’s only maya, illusion, samsara.
So with that said, let us boldly go where no one has gone before into the wild blue yonder of tomorrow—apocalypse, Age of Aquarius, or more than likely, both.
May we be ever mindful of the things we discovered here that not only bring us joy but are in fact, technologies for self-realization and transcendence. Let us stay vigilant about our yoga, tai chi, aikido, and ikebana practices. If you’re a musician, keep playing. Music, art, or photography—whatever you do that gives your soul nourishment, guard it like a precious jewel.
Let us also keep in our hearts and minds the many wonderful instructors, staff, and administrators of Naropa who kept us on our journey—our path— straight and narrow or sprawling and messy.
Please, keep yourself sane and functional. The world needs you desperately. The way I see it, the three trends to be reckoned with going forward into this great reset will be natural consequences, ripening karma, and boundary dissolution. It was perhaps not given to you to finish the task and yet you may not give it up—and the times are so crazy that you just might finish it.
Essentially, we have our marching orders from Siddhartha Gautama himself and from the holders of the Kagyu lineage responsible for Naropa through Trungpa Rinpoche and beyond. Good luck. Godspeed. May all beings be happy, and may the world know healing, peace, joy, prosperity, and positive transformation. Asé
