Artist in the Community – Ricky Sued

I met the Master in 1989. At that time I was returning from a trip to France after being in a Karma Kagyu monastery where I met different Masters of that lineage and also the Drupa Kagyu lineage.

When Marisa and I returned from that trip, our mutual friend Jennifer Fox told us that she had met a Master in New York who had dazzled her so much that she wanted to help us so to go Tsegyalgar and meet him also. Honestly, I didn’t feel like meeting any new Master at that time, but given Jennifer’s excited enthusiasm and gift, I accepted.

Since I didn’t speak English and we knew that the Master was going to Caracas after Conway, we asked Jennifer if she minded that we use the money to go to Venezuela instead, to which she replied that the only thing that would make her happy is that we could meet Chögyal Namkhai Norbu no matter where. So that year we headed to Caracas.

In Venezuela, we and others went to receive the Master at the airport.  Honestly, I had no expectations. When someone dressed in red and wearing a strange hat got off the plane, I began to cry uncontrollably for no reason. I had never had a similar emotion before! The day after, because of dreams that I had that same night plus my state of emotion, I realized with absolute certainty that I had arrived home. I had found without looking for, the person who would mark my life and the path to love.

Six months after that, the Master visited Argentina and we organized our first retreat in a center of Focolare nuns in Córdoba. The following year, with the help of the international Community, we were able to buy the place where the Master established Tashigar South.

Tashigar Sur is my home, the Master is my home, the Teachings are my home… I mean, everything I do revolves around that, even if it’s something other than writing a poem or composing a song or whatever, the heart of all this activity is the Master and the Teachings. And of course, also the Sangha without whom none of this would exist.

I moved to Tashigar South twenty-two years ago, I built my family here together with Noe, we have two beautiful daughters very related to the Dharma: Zoe and Uma who always lived here, they grew up between Ganapujas, practices, Vajra Songs and games taught by the Master (by the way, they are both very good Bagchen players!)

So my life is this, my friends are here, when I go out of my house I can see the Stupa that we have built… I can only thank and thank the Master for this tremendous gift and all those who maintain it at this time.

As far as my work as an artist, for example, when the Master gave us some teachings on the retreat in the dark, at that moment I asked myself, what about doing theater in the dark? What about taking out one of the most important elements in theater, which is light? I told the Master and began to experiment with the project with my group, so in the 90’s the first play in the dark came out, called Caramelo de Limón. It had a great success and played in many cities. After that, many theater groups begun to work in this field, so this is an example on how the encounter with Chögyal Namkhai Norbu affected my creative life.

Also in the plays I wrote, the poems and the songs I’m working on now, in all of them you will find a little bit of the seed of the Master and his teachings. This is not something that I do on purpose, but arises naturally, I think that the experience is similar for all disciples and people who met the Master, everything is imbued with his presence.

Then I started to discover playing music. The plays I did were always closely related to music, in fact we did an Rock Opera with friends and great musicians in 1983. But I was always on the other side, directing, staging, or writing. When I turned fifty, my friend Marisa gave me an acoustic guitar and from that moment on I began to study guitar, then sax, then piano and finally the bandoneon [ed. a type of concertino]. Of course, I play all the instruments badly, but all this led me to a place where I  felt very comfortable, and  that is the composition. I write the lyrics, I work on the melodies and I am lucky to be surrounded by great musicians who complete and harmonize the songs, like Diego Bravo with whom I did most of the songs, Gabriel Braceras and Diego Lucientes.  I am deeply grateful to all of them.

So far I have written about twenty-five songs, twenty are already on my You Tube channel (Ricardo Sued) because, in addition, along with all the songs, I produce a video of each song, which also makes it very interesting. I work for that with a small group of people who are very talented and creative, since we do everything with a very small production, but we are always trying to do something interesting.

My plans are to go on practicing, trying to understand more and more in depth all this wonder that the Master has left us, and trying to apply it in my life whatever is at that moment.

There’s a little cloud in the sky
On it we have built a great building
Also made of cloud substance

There’s a little cloud in the sky
On it we have built our love
Also made of cloud substance

There’s a little cloud in the sky
Above it is located our world
Also made of cloud substance

There’s a little cloud in the sky
on it are all our joy and happiness
Also made of cloud substance

There’s a little cloud in the sky
on it are all our sadness and pain
Also made of cloud substance

There’s a little cloud in the sky
on it are my goals in this life
Also made of cloud substance

There’s a little cloud in the sky
on it are my achievements in this life
Also made of cloud substance

There’s a little cloud in the sky
on it are my frustrations in this life
Also made of cloud substance

I must finish this poem
Because it has started to rain…
Soon the sky will be clear
and the blue will shine