Neurotic Confusion - Ordinary Mind
Looking through my 1997 notebook Meditations and Improvisations, I came across a four-line piece I'd completely forgotten writing. At the bottom of the page it was on, I'd written this explanation for the piece: "Mahamudra poetics exercise suggested by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso and used in Ginsberg's 'Big Eats.'" Strange... I don't remember anything about that exercise and I don't even remember the Ginsberg poem I mentioned. Anyway, here's what I wrote that day:
14 July 1997
2:40 p.m.
"neurotic confusion" — "ordinary mind"
Catapult Kissinger chaos Key Largo who's looking at you kidnapping the Czar
In ground control groundless one wonders why Wheat Thins are square and not cubed sayonara
In vitro capacitous cunning cantankerous reaching for hope like a Cuban
Cigar American cigarette tycoon grasping for straws and then gasping for breath.
Doing a bit of online research this morning, I've not yet found any details regarding this "Mahamudra poetics exercise" - otherwise I would invite everyone to try it (and I would try it again myself). Anybody looking for more information might find this Khenpo Rinpoche site a good starting point (or at least interesting to see what else I was into at that time of my life):
http://www.nalandabodhi.org/khenpo_tsultrim_gyamtso_rinpoc.html
Ginsberg's "Big Eats" can be found in his collection entitled Cosmopolitan Greetings, which I'd borrowed from the prison library (according to my journal) and was reading when I wrote the above piece. Oddly enough, I no longer have a copy of that book, or I'd share the poem here - but it is available in my Amazon bookstore. I guess I'll have to order a copy - and perhaps some of you will want to, too.... [UPDATE: a friend has provided me with a copy of "Big Eats," and you can find it in the comments below. Thanks!]
If anyone can direct me to more information on the mahamudra poetics exercise, please do.
14 July 1997
2:40 p.m.
"neurotic confusion" — "ordinary mind"
Catapult Kissinger chaos Key Largo who's looking at you kidnapping the Czar
In ground control groundless one wonders why Wheat Thins are square and not cubed sayonara
In vitro capacitous cunning cantankerous reaching for hope like a Cuban
Cigar American cigarette tycoon grasping for straws and then gasping for breath.
Doing a bit of online research this morning, I've not yet found any details regarding this "Mahamudra poetics exercise" - otherwise I would invite everyone to try it (and I would try it again myself). Anybody looking for more information might find this Khenpo Rinpoche site a good starting point (or at least interesting to see what else I was into at that time of my life):
http://www.nalandabodhi.org/khenpo_tsultrim_gyamtso_rinpoc.html
Ginsberg's "Big Eats" can be found in his collection entitled Cosmopolitan Greetings, which I'd borrowed from the prison library (according to my journal) and was reading when I wrote the above piece. Oddly enough, I no longer have a copy of that book, or I'd share the poem here - but it is available in my Amazon bookstore. I guess I'll have to order a copy - and perhaps some of you will want to, too.... [UPDATE: a friend has provided me with a copy of "Big Eats," and you can find it in the comments below. Thanks!]
If anyone can direct me to more information on the mahamudra poetics exercise, please do.
Hey... This is interesting. I 'll have to come back and comment on this later though. I think I have heard of this somewhere before... I'll have to see if I can locate where.
Cheers!
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Cool.... Thanks!
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Sorry.. Haven't been able to find it. I'm sure it was in a site Ed had referred me too a few months ago... I can't seem to put my finger on it though... Sorry.
I will keep looking...
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Thanks! Hmm....
I'm still looking, too!
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i wish you well - i tried searching multiple ways and get not the vaguest hint of the theory. let me know if you find it.
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I appreciate your efforts and will keep you posted!
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Rinpoche? This name was mentioned over and over again when the Buddhists who stayed with me were here. I have a book "House of the Turquoise Roof" by Dorje Yudon Yuthok who I met and had lunch with her when she gave a talk on this book at the Oberlin Coop Bookstore. She mentions the name Rinpoche as the guru of her family. It is a well known last name and the Rinpoche she mentions was the tutor of the Dalai Lama. But all this is too long a story to blog or comment on. If you want to know anything about Tibet this woman's story is indispensable. 300 or more pages of her life in Tibet before being exiled.
I don't think the Buddhists mentioned here know a damn thing about Ginsberg, however or your "mahamudra poetics" Sorry about that but you might be interested in this autobiography of a very important Tibetan woman who of course was very close to the Dalai Lama and his family.
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It is probably likely these are different gurus. Rinpoche is a bit of an honorific title. For comparison's sake, think of Esquire in English - except that Rinpoche literally means "precious one." Looking through my library, I have books by other teachers who bear the appellation Rinpoche - but none currently by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. I'm thinking I must have read about the exercise in a book by someone else. Hmmm.... But I don't believe I've stumbled upon this poem/exercise today by accident, and so my search contines.
Thanks for your input!
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Here it is: Rinproche: literally "Precious One," the title of address for incarnate lamas often used with great teachers as a term of respect.
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I found this explanation on Nalandabodhi.Org along with the song's translation. I will try to email the song to you as it was too long to add to my comment. I hope this leads you to what you are looking for.
Edwinna
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Here's the song's translation, to which you referred - posted for the benefit of all. Excellent!
Namo Guru Hasa Vajra Ye!
You see that everything in samsara and nirvana
Is merely dependently arisen
You see the dharmata, the true being
That is the essence of all dependent arising
The power of your great insight
Fills the universe with auspicious light
Oh mighty Shepa Dorje
Please rise up now from within my heart.
Ground's basic nature transcends conceptuality
And like watermoons, appearances arise dependently
May everyone realize that this is true
And dispel the darkness cast by doubt and wrong view
And may their realization's auspiciousness
Light up the whole universe!
The vision of Your wisdom is amazing
You see just how things are, You see everything
As parents love their children, so You love all beings
You bring us benefit and happiness
Your power makes disciples out of Your enemies—
May Your auspiciousness light up the universe!
For samsara's cause, clinging to "I" and "me",
The Dharma realizing selflessness is the greatest remedy
May all beings use it to pacify
Their confused belief that there is an "I"
And by the power of this great happening
May auspiciousness light up the universe!
The ways of ordinary beings, you have left behind—
Noble ones who realize reality, the true nature of mind
May you lead all ordinary beings
Who have not yet entered, to the path of peace
And by this may auspiciousness
Light up the whole universe!
May the yidams who bestow the siddhis
And the protectors who clear obstacles away
Eliminate all harmful conditions—
Everything adverse to the path
And by this may auspiciousness
Light up the whole universe!
May the noble path of non-violence
Flourish in all the worlds there are
When beings meet and interact
May the connections they make be filled with love
And by this may auspiciousness
Light up the whole universe!
At the twilight of this century
That has been one of such prosperity
May struggle over wealth and gain
Disappear and not be seen again
Free from strife and violence
May all enjoy great abundance
And by this may auspiciousness
Light up the whole universe!
This has been a century
When science has advanced incredibly
Amazing and wondrous, these new machines
That have brought the gods' enjoyments to human beings
May they be used with skill supreme
To end violence and cause peace to reign
And by this may auspiciousness
Light up the whole universe!
May the sciences that explore outside
Be joined with the inner science of the mind
To excellently put an end
To mistaken views and confusion
And by this may auspiciousness
Light up the whole universe!
The source of all this auspiciousness
Is the true nature of mind, so luminous!
So may realization of mind, just as it is
Set the universe ablaze with auspicious excellence!
Through all of this auspiciousness
Wherever its light may be seen
With the love and the compassion
That make bodhicitta mind supreme
May this thought arise in everyone:
"Other beings' happiness is as important as my own"
And may excellent virtue and auspiciousness
Always increase, never diminish!
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I'm sorry. This explanation was dropped from my first comment. Edwinna
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
"Auspiciousness That Lights Up The Universe"
Nepal (1997) In the Garden of Translation near the Great Stupa of Boudhanath, Nepal, this song about auspicious aspects of the path, was spoken extemporaneously by the one only called "Khenpo", Tsültrim Gyamtso. Translated by Ari Goldfield
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Very cool and very interesting! Thank you so much, Edwinna!
I look forward to your e-mail (you can either send it to my space or use this address: jc@crisischronicles.com.
Now I'm heading back to Nalandabodhi.Org to explore.
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"Big Eats" by Allen Ginsberg
Big deal bargains TV meat stock market news paper headlines love life
Metropolis
Float thru air like thought forms float thru the skull, check the headlines
catch the boyish ass that walks
Before you fall in bed blood sugar high blood pressure lower, lower,
your lips grow cold.
Sooner or later let go what you loved hated or shrugged off, you walk in
the park
You look at the sky, sit on a pillow, count up at the stars in your head, get up
and eat.
august 20, 1991
[thanks to mb for finding/providing this poem]
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from the wilipedia link below:
His wife Diana Mukpo summarizes: "Although he had many of the classic health problems that develop from heavy drinking, it was in fact more likely the diabetes and high blood pressure that led to abnormal blood sugar levels and then the cardiac arrest".
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Makes sense to me....
By the way, Ginsberg's is much more a poem (and flows (much better than mine. Certain turns of phrase in mine I really like. But others baffle me. Understanding whatthe exercise called for might explain why I made odd choices like "sayonara" that seem to be completely and embarrassingly out of place (its near rhyme with Czar only makes matters worse... lol).
But with my current mindset and very little work, I think I could turn it into a very good poem. I'm sure Khenpo Rinpoche wouldn't mind. While the exercise didn't produce a great poem in my case - it seems it created the seed of a great poem. Perhaps I'll do something with it in the near future and post the revision in a blog.
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did you ever find the answer you were looking for about the poetic exercise?
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No!
But when the time is right, I shall.
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maybe you need the other mb to hypnotize you.
ha! now i've got fleetwood mac in my head...
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And here I thought I was already hypnotized.
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They say there's a place down in Mexico
Where a man can fly over mountains and hills
And he don't need an airplane or some kind of engine
And he never will
Now you know it's a meaningless question
To ask if those stories are right
'Cause what matters most is the feeling
You get when you're hypnotized
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Dig it!
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i found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%B6gyam_Trungpa
ginsberg was a student and is mentioned several times, especially under the "Meditation and education centers" and the "Controversies" sections.
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Interesting... going to read at the link now....
Thanks!
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Amazing story of this man who died at 48 and in spite of his alcoholism was a very
influential Tibetan Buddhist leader. I certainly learn a lot from these blogs and
the web sites that are mentioned.
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The book I mentioned, "House of the Turquoise Roof," by Dorje Yudon Yuthok who came from an aristocratic family in Tibetan society. Her guru Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche who was the Junior Tutor of the Dalai Lama was very sick in 1973 and she returned to India for his blessing. It was the first time she had been in India
since leaving for the U. S. in 1965. This book has a wealth of detail about Tibetan history and society and is unusual in its presentation by a woman who lived through a lot of this history and came to the U. S. where she has lived in New York and I believe now lives in Cleveland. To understand Tibetan Buddhism it is a "must read" according to Tenzin N. Tethong, special representative to the Dalai Lama in D. C. who has known this woman since childhood. She is a very special person and it was a pleasure to meet her and talk to her when she was in Oberlin.
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Very cool!
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I have met some really cool Buddhists here in Oberlin. I tried to put their pictures on my site but have to scan them first.
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By the way the pictures were taken on my non-digital camera and I have a video also that was taken on my non-digital camcorder. How can I transfer these to My Space. I am in need of help to do these things. Help!!
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The non-digital pictures will have to be scanned and saved. Then you can upload them to MySpace or whatever As far as non-digital video - I'm not sure. That's one of the things I want to learn but have had (or made) time to learn. Thankfully, my camcorder is digital, with its own hard drive, and I can dowload directly to my computer if I wish. There is a way to do it with non-digital video, I'm sure (perhaps all you need is the right software. But the easiest way, if you can afford it, is probably to take it to one of these places that digitalize your VHS. There are also fairly fairly inexpensive VHS to DVD recorders. Once it's on a DVD, you can upload it. But videos have to be less that 100 MB - which means that if they're longer than five to ten minutes, you'll have to use editing software (like Cyberlink PowerDirector) to create a file of the correct size.
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Ok. I'll experiment but I have so much to do around here with a three story house, garden pond that needs cleaning and Tom has been sick, lawn mowing, house painting, etc. that I just sit and wonder what I can do myself. So I get nothing done but comments on your blogs.
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Don't feel bad - that's all I get done, too!
Okay... so we're both exaggerating slightly.
I'm actually getting quite a bit done today.
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"American cigarette tycoon grasping for straws and then gasping for breath."
I like this especially. I wrote an informal haiku a while ago 'bout cigarettes:
Good Dad wipes his tears.
Cigarette dangles,
candy drips from fingertips.
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I don't think your first version was bad at all, have you tried reading it out loud...I did, the alliteration of the hard 'c''s is interesting and grabs you. Jarring?
I took the sayonara as a 'later' or 'seeya' dismissal?
What do I know about poetry?
(What you and my son teach me and what my gut tells me!) lol
Hugs,
Suze
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That was how I intended the sayonara, I think.
Maybe I'll just leave it as is for a while.
Thanks, Suzette!
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