tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47985428120241953772024-03-19T09:31:48.950-07:00ENDLESS TRANSITIONSArticles concerning Gesar of Ling, The Kingdom of Shambhala, The Rigden Kings, the Infinite Cycles of Transitional States or Bardos, and the unending journey of sentient beingsDouglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-9942692981609546702013-03-29T16:08:00.001-07:002013-03-29T16:08:31.176-07:00<br />
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June 11, 2012</h2>
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This appeared earlier here but somehow disappeared. I apologize for any misunderstandings.</div>
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-DJP.</div>
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/2572383-long-bibliography-for-journey-of-the-north-star--you-really-may-not-want" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Long Bibliography for Journey of the North Star- You really may not want to look</a></div>
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BIBLIOGRAPHY<br />A<br />1)Sarah Allen: The Shape of the Turtle;NYUP1991<br />2)Roget T. Ames: The Art of Rulership; SUNY1994<br />3)Roger T. Ames&David L.Hall: Focusing on the Familiar; Hawaii UP 2001<br />4)Poul Anderson: The Method of Holding the Three Ones; Curzon Press 1980<br />B<br />1)Gina L. Barnes The Rise of Civilization in East Asia; Thames and Hudson 1999<br />2)Richard M.Barnhart: Peach Blossom Spring; Metropolitan Museum1985<br />3)Tony Barnstone& Chou P’ing: The Art of Writing; Shambhala 1996<br />4)Anne D. 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Dreyer: Early Ming China; Stanford UP 1982<br />E<br />1)Patricia Buckley Ebrey: Chinese Civilization; Free Press 1993<br />2)Patricia Buckley Ebrey: Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China; Princeton UP 1991<br />3)Patricia Buckley Ebrey: The Inner Quarters; U. Cal. Press 1993<br />4)Ronald C. Egan: Word, Image and Deed in the Life of Su Shi;Harvard UP,1994<br />F<br />*1)John K.Fairbank: Cambridge History of China; Ming Dynasty vol.8; Cambridge UP 1998<br />2)John K. 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Giles: Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio;Dover Pubs. 1959<br />5)Rene Girard: Violence and the Sacred; Johns Hopkins UP 1972<br />6)Paul R. Goldin: The Culture of Sex In Ancient China ;U.of Hawaii Press, 2002<br />7)Luis Gomez: The Land of Bliss;Hawaii UP,1996<br />8)John A. 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So (ed): Music in the Age of Confucius; Freer Gallery/Washington UP ,2000<br />22)Smith, Caron&Sun Yu: Ringing Thunder; San Diego Museum of Art, 1999<br />23)Kidder Smith: “Zhouyi Divination from accounts in the Zuochuan” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 49.2 (1989)<br />24)Jonathan Spence: Chinese Roundabout;WW Norton, 1992<br />25)Jonathan Spence: Emperor of China; Vintage Books, 1975<br />26)Jonathan Spence: Ts’ao Yin and the K’ang-hsi Emperor; Yale UP,1966<br />27)Rolf Stein: Le Monde en Petit; Flammarion 1987<br />28)Keith Stevens: Chinese Gods; Collins and Brown 1997<br />29)Richard E. Strassberg: Inscribed Landscapes; California UP 1994<br />30)Lynn A. Struve: Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm; Yale UP,1993<br />31)Su T’ung-p’o, B. Watson, tr.: Selected Poems; Copper Canyon Press, 1994<br />32)Michael Sullivan: The Arts of China; U.Cal Press 1977<br />33a)E-Tu Sun&J.De Francis eds: Chinese Social History; Octagon Books 1966<br />33)Sun Hai-chen: The Wiles of War;Foreign Language Press Beijing 1991<br />34)Sun Tzu, Thos. Cleary tr.: The Art of War; Shambhala1988<br />35)Sun Tzu, Denma Translation Group tr.: The Art of War; Shambhala 2001<br />36)Sun Tzu, Samuel B. Griffith tr.: The Art of War; Oxford UP 1963<br />37)Sung Ying-Hsing: Chinese Technology in the 17th Century; Dover Publications, 1966<br />38) SYL Wushu Newsletter vol.4#6Mingshi Fangizhuan in Shou-Yu Liang:Tai Chi Chuan:<br />T<br />1)T’ao-Chi, Wen Fong tr.: Returning Home; Braziller 1976<br />2)T’ao Ch’ien, Wm. Acker, tr.: T’ao the Hermit; Thames&Hudson 1952<br />3)Rodney Taylor: The Way of Heaven; E.J.Brill 1986<br />4)Stephen F. Teiser: The Ghost Festival I Medieval China; Princeton UP1988<br />5)Robert L. Thorp: Son of Heaven; Son of Heaven Press1988<br />6)Tjan Tjoe So, tr.:Po Hu T’ung :E.J.Brill 1952<br />*7)Shi Chan Henry Tsai: Perpetual Happiness; University of Washington Press 2001<br />8)Shi Shan Henry Tsai: The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty; State University of NY Press 1991<br />9)Tu Fu, David Hinton, tr.: Selected Poems of ; New Directions1988<br />*10)Tun Li-Ch’en, Derek Bode, tr.: Annual Customs and Festivals in Peking; Hong Kong UP 1965<br />11)Tung Chi’eh Yuan, LL Ch’en tr: Master Tung’s Western Chamber Romance; Columbia UP1994<br />12)Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche: Transcripts of Kalapa Assemblies (mss.)<br />U<br />V<br />1)Griet Vankenberghen: The Huainanzo&Liu An’s Claim to Moral Authority; SUNY 2001<br />2)Ilza Veith: The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine;U Cal Press 1949<br />W<br />1)Arthur Waley: The Book of Songs; Grove Press, 1960<br />2)Arthur Waley: Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China; Stanford UP 1956<br />3)Georges Walter, tr.: Dispute sur le Sel et le Fer; Seghers 1991<br />4)C.H.Wang: The Bell and the Drum; U California Press 1974<br />5)Wang Congren, Yu,Chi&Zhang re.: Dragon; Hai Feng Publishing Co. 1996<br />6)Wang Shihfu, S.West&W.Idema tr.: The Story of the West Wing; U Cal.Press 1995<br />7)Geofffrey Waters: Three Elegies of Ch’u; Wisconsin UP,1985<br />8)Burton Watson: Chinese Rhyme-Prose; Columbia UP 1971<br />9)Burton Watson: Early Chinese Literature; Columbia UP 1962<br />10)Burton Watson, tr.: Tso Chuan; Columbia UP1989<br />11)James Warson&Evelyl Rawski,ed.: Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China; Cal.UP 1988<br />12)William Watson: Early Civilization in China; McGraw-Hill, 1966<br />13)William Watson: The Arts of China to 900; Yale UP1995<br />14)Holmes Welch&Anna Seidel, ed.: Facets of Taoism; Yale UP 1979<br />15)E.T.C. Werner: Myths and Legends of China; Dover Books 1994<br />16)Roderick Whitfoeld: In Pursuit of Antiquity;Princeton UP 1969<br />17)Elizabeth Wichmann: Listening to Threater; U.Hawaii Press 1991<br />18)Douglas Wile: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics; SUNY Press 1992<br />19)Helmut&Richard Wilhelm: Understanding the I Ching; Bollinger Series, Princeton UP 1995<br />20)Richard Wilhem/Carey Baynes: The I Ching; Bollingen Series, Princeton UP 1950<br />21)C.A.S Williams: Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives; Dover1976<br />*22)John E. Willis: Mountain of Fame; Princeton UP 1994<br />23)Eva Wong: Cultivating the Energy of Life; Shambhala 1998<br />24)Eva Wong : Feng-Shui ; Shambhala1996<br />25)Eva Wong: Harmonizing Yin and Yang; Shambhala 1997<br />26)Eva Wong: Seven DaoistMasters; Shambhala 1990<br />27)Eva Wong:The Tao of Health, Longevity&Immortality; Shambhala 2000<br />28)Arthur F.Wright: Buddhism in Chinese History; Stanford UP 1959<br />29)Arthur F. Wright,ed.: Confucian Persoanlities; Stanford UP 1962<br />30)Arthur F. Wright,ed.: The Confucian Persuasion; Stanford UP 1960<br />31)Arthur F. Wright, ed.: Confucianism in Action; Stanfofrd UP 1959<br />32)Arthur F. Wright: The Sui Dynasty; Knopf 1978<br />33)Wu Cheng’en,W.J.F.Jenner, tr.: Journey to the West ; Foreign Language Press Beijing1993<br />34)Wu-chi Lu &I.Y.Lo: Sunflower Splendor; Indiana UP 1975<br />35)Wu Ching-tzu,Yangs tr.:The Scholars; Foreign Languages Press1991<br />36)Wu Hung: The Transparent Stone in Representations 46: U Cal Press,1994<br />37)Pei-Yi Wu: The Confucian’s Progress; Princeton UP1990<br />38)Wu Zuguang, Huang Zuolin&Mei Shaowu: Peking Opera and Mei Lanfang; New World Press 1981<br />39) Boudewijn Walrave; Songs of the Shaman- Korean Ritual Chants; Kegan Paul International 1994;<br />40) James C.Y.Watt& D.P.Leidy: Defining Yong Le; Yale UP ,,2005<br />X<br />1)Xiao Tong, David Knechtes,tr.:Wen Xuan (3 vols) Princeton UP, 1982,8796<br />2)Xie Huang:, Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden (scroll painting in the collection of the Metropolitan Musueum, New York.<br />2)Xing-ai Liu: Tiantan- The Temple of Heaven; China Travel and Tourism Press 1993<br />3)Xue Tao, Jeanne Larson,tr.:Brocade River Poems; PrincetonUP 1987<br />Y<br />1)Lien-Shang Yang: Money and Credit in China; Harvard Yenching Monograph 12 1952<br />2)Yang Ye: Vignettes from the Late Ming; U. Washingtom Press 1999<br />3)Chiang Yee: Chinese Calligraphy; Harvard UP 1973<br />4)Robin Yates, tr.:Five Lost Classics; Ballantine Books, 1997<br />5)Wai-Lim Yip: Chinese Poetry; Duke UP, 1977<br />6)Pauline Yu, Peter Bol, Stephen Owen, W. Peterson: Ways With Words : Cal.UP2000<br />7)Yuan Hung-Tao: Pilgrim of the Clouds; Chaves tr.: Weatherhill 1987<br />8)Yuan Mei, Kam Louie&L.Edwards,tr.:Censored by Confucius; M.E.Sharpe 1996<br />9)Tung Yueh, Lin&Schulz,tr.: Tower of Myraid Mirrors;Asian Humanities Press1978<br />Z<br />1)James H. Zimmerman; ‘Time in Chinese Historiography’, unpublished paper for Yale University 1970<br />1)Angela Zito: Of Body and Brush; Chicago UP 1997<br />2)Wang Zongshu: Han Civilization; Yale UP 1982</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-83837875590828585462013-01-15T09:03:00.002-08:002013-01-15T09:03:58.772-08:00
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<br />
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PIECES THAT HAVE APPEARED IN THE LAST YEAR</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1) <u>ONE WAY OR THE OTHER </u>-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(An article about new possibilities in publishing)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY </b></div>
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http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/50015-one-way-or-the-other.html<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2) <u>BY THE RIVER</u> </div>
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(A contemplative fable)</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>ANNAK
SASTRA </b><span style="color: #434343; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #434343; font-family: Tahoma;">http://anaksastraarchive.wordpress.com/issue-7-april-2012/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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3) An article about JOURNEY OF THE NORTH STAR</div>
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<b>HISTORICAL TAPESTRY</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
historicaltapestry.blogspot.com</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4)An interview about JOURNEY OF THE NORTH STAR</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hockgtjoa.blogspot.com</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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5) <u>TAKASAGO</u><i> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(A poem about Kami)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>BUDDHIST POETRY REVIEW</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><span style="color: #434343; font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #434343; font-family: Tahoma;">http://www.buddhistpoetryreview.com/archives/issue-six/douglas-penick<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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6) <u>A DISTORTION IN TRANSMISSION</u> <o:p></o:p></div>
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(A story about an accidental gender switch during
re-incarnation)<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>KALKION</b><span style="color: #434343; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #434343; font-family: Tahoma;">http://www.kalkion.com/fiction/1855/distortion-transmission<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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7) <u>TWILIGHT HISTORY</u> </div>
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(A monologue about decline and fall in old age)<b> <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>CONTRARARY<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>http://contrarymagazine.com/2012/twilight-histories-a-monologue/<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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8) <u>THREE MOONS</u> -</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(3 poems)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>PASSIONATE TRANSITORY </b><span style="color: #434343; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
http://thepassionatetransitory.yolasite.com/current-issue.php<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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9) <u>FLOWER PLAY</u> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(a play/ poem with Noh origins about extinction and beauty's
continuance)<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>BODY </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
http://bodyliterature.com/category/performance-text/ <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
http://bodyliterature.com/douglas-penick/<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
10 <u>YOU DIED, AND</u><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>(</u>A very short story of air travel and<u> transition)<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Tahoma;">http://www.marcopoloartsmag.com/You-Died-And<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
11) <u>CONTINUING WITH: ARAKAWA</u> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(A post mortem conversation with reminiscence)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>EMBODIED EFFIGIES </b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #434343; font-family: Tahoma;">http://effigiesmag.com/archives/issue-two/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #434343; font-family: Tahoma;">pp. 22-31<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #434343; font-family: Tahoma;">12)</span><u>
ELYSIUM</u> -</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(On the life and sorrows of cattle)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>DANSE MACABRE<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
http://www.dansemacabreonline.com/#!__dm-65-oceans/fictions/vstc13=elysium<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
_____________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>PERFORMANCES - 2012<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1) <u>TIME'S UNENDING</u> -<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>DENVER ECLECTIC CONCERTS</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> - 1/12/2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
http://www.eclecticconcerts.com/events/2011-2012/120112.php#hd_musicsamples<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2) <u>FOR SCHEHERAZADE</u>- <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>EASTERN CAPE ORCHESTRA CARPETOWN S.A. (GILLIAN BARNETT) </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>L'HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT</u>-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SOPHIA VASTEK- <b>MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC</b></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-36500333350185047832012-11-04T17:09:00.002-08:002012-11-04T17:09:28.664-08:00
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text";">AN INTRODUCTION TO <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text";">JOURNEY
OF THE NORTH STAR<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text";">For more than four thousand years, Chinese
society has been bound by two contradictory but coexistent theories of
government. Confucius held that the ruler’s authority derives from his own
moral example, the moral cultivation of those who act in his name, and the
moral obligation of each person to place the well-being of the society above
her or his own self-interest. The second theory, often called Legalism, is
almost equally ancient and advocated that the Emperor direct a wholly
totalitarian state based on enforcing harsh laws by means of extreme
punishments. The state apparatus here consisted of vast networks of informers,
secret police, military personnel, and officials empowered to make swift
summary judgments, all enforcing the Emperor’s slightest whim. The first
Emperor of China unified the nation by employing these violent means, and no Emperor
thereafter, regardless of his intentions, was able to dispense with them.<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text";"><u>T</u>he Yong Le Emperor, who lived from
1360 to 1424, was one of the exemplary figures in China’s five thousand year
history and transformed a society in a state of chaos and depletion into a
great and enduring empire. In so doing, he reformed the institutions of China
in ways that prevailed until the beginning of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. The
slave-narrator of this transition, is a fictional character who witnesses and
records the Emperor’s life as he seizes the throne, forms his government,
initiates his policies, sees them through to fulfillment and suffers his
personal decline. The narrator witnesses the Emperor’s life from the point of
view of a high-ranking slave whose existence in every aspect is dependent on
his complete identification with the Emperor and his intentions even as his
experience of the world to which he must accommodate himself is both unique and
traditional.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text";">This book is then concerned with the living
interplay of two kinds of thinking and how social changes were carried out in
such a circumstance. For in reality, the Yong Le Emperor was not simply a
well-intentioned man forced to be cruel nor just a cruel and ambitious man
forced to cloak his intentions in moral rhetoric.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His way of being involved a far more complex synthesis
rooted in an overarching view of time and of the natural world. This view in a
general way also becomes that of the eunuch slave who writes down the story of
his life</span><span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text"; font-size: 11.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text";"><u>Journey
of the North Star </u>is a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>novel
about the twenty-one year reign of Chu Ti, the Yong Le Emperor and third ruler
in the Ming Dynasty. When the future Emperor was born, his father, Chu Yuan
Chang was still one of a number of warlords vying for the throne of China. And
even when he succeeded in becoming the first native born Chinese Emperor in
almost four hundred years (The preceding Yuan Dynasty was Mongol.), the
country, after a hundred years of increasingly misrule and years of internecine
war, was in chaos. The first Ming Emperor brought order by brutal means and
left a country whose governmental practices were still unstable to his
inexperienced grandson, the Chien Wen Emperor. Though the Founding Emperor may
have preferred the vigorous and talented Chu Ti, it was more important to him
to ensure the new dynasty’s stability by establishing succession by
primogeniture. Chien Wen’s brief reign was marked by humane goals, uncertain
administration and inept efforts to eliminate the founding Emperor’s surviving
sons. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text";">The eldest surviving son, Chu Ti, who had
been given the northeastern fief of Yen with its capital, Beiping, was an
experienced general, tireless administrator, and devoted student of the
classics. Seeing many of his father’s reforms being overturned and being threatened
himself with extinction, the Prince of Yen rebelled and after three years of
grueling warfare, defeated Chien Wen.<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text";">When, in 1403, Chu Ti ascended the Throne of
Heaven as the Yong Le Emperor, China was in a state of almost anarchic
depletion. Accordingly, the new Emperor applied himself to realizing his
father’s intentions that Chinese culture return to its historical roots, that
its governance attend to the people’s security and that it resume the scope of
influence it had enjoyed in earlier dynasties. He ordered the repair of the
extensive system of canals and roads, expanded the country’s agricultural and
manufacturing base. He stabilized government institutions, restored the
educational system, produced standard editions of all the major Chinese
Classics, and ordered the creation of the largest encyclopedia of all Chinese
learning and arts ever made. He strengthened the military and re-enforced the
Empire’s defenses. He fostered extensive trade relations with all neighboring
states, and he dispatched the largest maritime mission in the world to extend
China’s influence to Indian coastal states and kingdoms on the west coast of
Africa. The Yong Le Emperor also rebuilt the Imperial city of Beijing and moved
his capital there. In his twenty-one year reign, the Yong Le Emperor re-shaped
the nation and its institutions in a way that determined the pattern for all
future Ming rulers as well as providing a model of governance for the Ching
Dynasty that followed. The methods by which he did so are no strangers in the
China of today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFooter" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-53839153818800276222012-02-12T08:40:00.000-08:002012-02-12T08:42:02.938-08:00QUESTION:What I learned from the Dorje Dradul<br />Is fading daily from my mind.<br />Like my father’s face, I remember his face. <br />Like my mother’s voice I remember him say:<br />“The phenomenal world becomes the guru.”<br /> <br /><br />All the words: <br />Buddha, Dharma, Sangha;<br />Body, Speech, Mind; <br />Are the echoes of craving permanence.<br />There is no practice.<br /> <br />Immersed in phenomena. <br />Moment follows moment, rises, falls<br />Unlinked<br />Surrendering.<br /><br />Gone<br />In a vast, all-engulfing night-bright flow <br />That has no name or substance, method, goal, origin or end<br />Edge or core.<br /><br />If this needs a name, <br />Time would seem the least misleading word,<br />And, of course, True Love.<br /><br />Carrying us away,<br />Moment to moment, carrying us and all. away,<br />Not moving.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-81893296158663752752011-12-10T14:54:00.000-08:002011-12-10T14:56:02.143-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5c1A7kr6pu_WtpwESS0KylfQgkc6scqmvH7e7ywS1YcyhOEw9uDivaA0ebbJ5W3kVC5XLORz5DSUK7b_ZXU72IpUYEuh4mh8S6y3bu4Fx19aaEyJBf7WdD1ux7_BqC9mweoL0C0vUvQ/s1600/KingGesar700.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 385px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5c1A7kr6pu_WtpwESS0KylfQgkc6scqmvH7e7ywS1YcyhOEw9uDivaA0ebbJ5W3kVC5XLORz5DSUK7b_ZXU72IpUYEuh4mh8S6y3bu4Fx19aaEyJBf7WdD1ux7_BqC9mweoL0C0vUvQ/s400/KingGesar700.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5684637271995099250" /></a>Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-70556987779016806572011-12-10T14:51:00.000-08:002011-12-10T14:54:31.157-08:00INTRODUCTION to THE BRILLIANCE OF NAKED MINDThere is a powerful strand in European thinking that ties knowledge to loss. There is an unbridgeable divide between the physical world, the world of the senses and knowledge. According to this view, understanding, knowledge, wisdom only come into being when the object of that understanding is disappearing or has disappeared. <br /><br />In this outlook, words come into existence only to signify the absence of their referent. After all, when Itard set out to teach language to the mute wild boy of Aveyron, he taught him the word for milk by taking it away from him. Little wonder then that the child did not learn to speak. He did not wish to be deprived of more. The only other words he learned were “Oh God”!<br /><br />Theology is a study that arose when God no longer walked with Abraham in the cool of the evening. Petrarch’s sonnets arose from the absence of Laura. Dante’s divine cosmos radiated from the absence of Beatrice. Folk songs and tales were collected and studied when folk singers and storytellers began to disappear. Anthropology came to exist when the people who were the objects of its study were becoming extinct. The various studies related to ecology now arise as the balance of the natural world appears irretrievably out of kilter. <br /><br />Our knowledge, both in a scientific and poetic way, seems contingent on loss and absence, and our relationship to the experience of knowing is impoverished and constricted accordingly. We are only prepared for the kind of knowing that emerges when, as Hegel famously put it, “Athena’s owl only flies at dusk.”<br /><br />In what follows, knowledge, understanding and wisdom pervade the total range of phenomena, arise in the simplicity of the present moment, and expand in continuous and uncontrolled profusion; here wisdom and utter wakefulness have never been separate and remain an endless terrain of ardent exploration. Only a lack of courage and a failure of love can make the world otherwise.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-72600513939534378372011-05-19T07:07:00.000-07:002011-05-19T07:11:30.072-07:00MEDITATION FOR...This year, The Museum of Jurassic Technology sent a Christmas card that has a 3-D picture (with red and green glasses) of someone looking into a cave. Inside is a fable that concludes: <br /><br />"Our seeking is without end and the object of our search ever elusive; yet the memory of light draws us on. Please join with us in our never ending efforts as we seek, perhaps without understanding that the search itself is creating the very light after which we are seeking."<br /><br />1)<br />Perhaps you’ve seen, and maybe even read, books and articles assuring you that Buddhist meditation can increase your clarity, kindness, peace of mind, happiness, etc., while reducing your tension, anger, discursiveness, all-around self-centeredness and other negative characteristics. <br /><br />No doubt there are buried deep within you, as there are within us all, secret sources of pain you would like to mitigate, just as there are deep inner longings that call out to be realized. Meditation, if what you read is to be believed, is the path whereby such aims can be achieved. Perhaps, even that grand but elusive goal called enlightenment, the awakened state may be within our reach.<br /> <br />2)<br />Enlightenment, as is said, is awakeness without reference to sleep or dream and not subject to life or death. It is light without reference to darkness. It is not subject to causes, conditions, characteristics, creation, destruction or limitations of any kind; it is continuous, inalterable and all-pervasive. It cannot be increased or diminished by any means. It is not a thing, state or entity of any kind. Though not subject to the infinite range of contingent circumstances, it cannot be separated from them. This being so, the only thing we can say truly about enlightenment is that it is a word. <br />But because the awakened state is universally and uniformly intrinsic in all that is known, unknown, experienced and not experienced, it cannot be abstracted. Thus it is called ‘the natural state’. Since it is intrinsic, it is vain to say it is attained. Since it is the natural state, it is absurd to believe it can be realized by one method only.<br />Further, it follows that realizing enlightenment does not bring any normal kind of happiness, comfort, or personally satisfying quality, nor does it necessarily decrease painful experiences.<br /> <br />Late in life, Trungpa Rinpoche said: “There is no problem with dying… except it’s so FUCKING painful. ”The 16th Karmapa, though riddled with excruciating cancer, greeted his visitors with smiles, apparently experiencing no discomfort.<br />Is there any meaningful conclusion to be drawn here?<br /> <br />3)<br />In books and magazine articles you may read or at least glimpse, you may encounter words like empty, transcendent, non-dual, primordial and some of those used above. Sonorous, impressive, self-evidently arcane, such language may simply embody the hope that enlightenment can be grasped. Only the fact that such words verge on the meaningless lends them any usefulness in the practice of meditation.<br />At the end of a talk, Suzuki Roshi sometimes said: “I hope you don’t understand too much.”<br /> <br />4)<br />You may hear that one can meditate in such a way as to achieve any of the large-sounding words and notions mentioned above. If the words mean what they seem to, this is obviously not possible. Nonetheless, we must admit that all of us try. We hear a particularly attractive term, let’s say: Non-duality.<br /> <br />If we analyze the process of perception carefully or read about such an analysis in a text like the Surangama Sutra, we can see how the faculty of smell and an odor are interdependent. One can not take place without the other. Thus we could say that what seems to us as dual – nose and smell, is innately non-dual. We could then familiarize ourselves with this notion in meditation, either using some kinds of mental exercises or simply investigating our perception to see whether this assertion is in fact true. We may then feel we have some kind of direct experience of non-duality. Based on our new realization, can we then explain why a rose would not spontaneously produce a nose, or a nose produce the dreaded durian?<br /><br />Be that as it may, the use of large words in meditation most often leads to what is called Target Shooting Meditation. Here we form a mental construct of something we believe we should experience. By analysis, we create a construct, a mental shape of that experience, and we aim our mind at having this experience. Because mind moves even while it is shapeless, it will, at least momentarily believe itself existing on the ground to which we have directed it. We will think we are actually having a real meditation experience when in fact we have been simply fabricated it out of words and longing.<br /><br />To try and make a path by putting one aspect of oneself in opposition to another aspect is inescapably to create a world of frantic anguish. The result is like a crazy person trying to realize his or her own conception of sanity. So as Francisco de Quevedo observed in a slightly different context: “The soup was lost between the hand and the mouth: pass on to other things.”<br /><br />There is a profound opening in the first moment of meditation: we recognize that we do not have to take our thoughts as completely real; we are not compelled to act on them. This is a small, ordinary experience, but one with profound implications. Nonetheless, during a period of practice or at its conclusion, if we think that our meditation has gone well or poorly, this is an infallible sign that our meditation has drifted into reliance on some concept or other, even if this concept is merely the memory of our first sense of openness. How else could we make such a judgment? Similarly, if we feel we have encountered definite obstacles in our practice, such as physical discomfort, discursive thought, obsessions and so forth, it is important to understand that those experiences are obstacles only as a function of whatever concept we have of our aim in meditation. In the absence of aims, there are no such obstacles.<br /><br />5)<br />You may read that meditation enables you to tame your mind and bring it to a state of stability and peace. Despite meditating as a Buddhist for more than 40 years, I have not achieved even a glimpse of this, nor have I ever seen anyone else achieve it. Admittedly, I am not much of a practitioner, but there may also be a more general reason why this is so.<br /><br />Mind itself is intrinsically unstable. Traditionally, mind has been described as ‘that which seeks an object’. In other words, it is in the nature of mind to be on the move between a subject (you or me) and an object (whatever we fear, desire, or believe will bring an end to such uncomfortable states). This process is continuous, and our minds constantly bounce between whether we should make changes in ourselves, our attitudes, outlooks and so forth, or whether we should move more decisively obtain what we want from the world. Beyond that, our sense of what we are changes, our intellectual and emotional frameworks change, our desires change, and the outer world is also in continuous change.<br /> <br />Looking closely at our own circumstances as well as reading texts makes this self-evident.<br /> <br />6)<br />You may hear meditation described as practice. Practice generally means a kind of preparatory exercise you do in order to be able to do ‘the real thing’. Hence practicing the piano, the guitar, ice-skating, geometry, French. You practice until you’ve mastered it and can actually do it. Practice then, means not quite doing it for real.<br /> <br />Why not do it for real? Why not enter practice as both preparation and realization simultaneously?<br /> <br />On the other hand, perhaps it is good to refer to meditation as practice since there is no attainment.<br /> <br />7)<br />The Buddha’s enlightenment is both no different and different from the many ways the Buddha formatted the awakened state in order to teach the path.<br /> <br />Hence Ikkyu says:<br />No beginning, no end, this one mind of ours.<br />The Original Mind cannot become Buddha-nature.<br />Original Buddhahood is Buddha’s mischievous talk;<br />The Original Mind of sentient beings is nothing but delusion.<br />(tr. Stevens, Shambhala Pub 1995;p.27)<br /> <br />8)<br />Orgyen Kusum Lingpa stated: “The essence of all Buddhist meditation is not following thoughts.”<br /> <br />This does not mean rejecting thoughts; not following thoughts means that as thoughts arise with their innumerable attractions, suggestions, warnings, seductions, questions, terrors, one does not follow the path onto which they invite us. We see them appear, but do not follow. Obviously, this includes practice, instruction, wisdom, and any other concepts about the path of enlightenment.<br /> <br />Thus the path of enlightenment is not the path TO enlightenment, a way to get to this so-called awakened state. The path of enlightenment is what is underneath our feet.<br /> <br />If one meditates simply in this way, each time one sits to meditate, one enters the unknown, the uncertain, the purposeless. Continuing, one repeatedly experiences uncertainty on the spot. One enters a great expanse that is unknowable, ordinary, alive and secret. One enters into the timeless and unbiased continuum of all being.<br /> <br />9)<br />Mostly when we sit down to meditate, we bring with us our motivation. This comprises the aspects of our past that we wish to overcome, combined with inspirations from aspects of the past that promise to produce our hoped-for future where we are finally the person we would like others to think we are. We sit down in a moving train of thought and follow its momentum. We are moved along from feeling to feeling, thought to thought, even if this thought is the end of thoughts or the stability of mind. We cannot bear to leave the familiar dynamism of thinking and knowing. We cannot bear to diverge for very long from the familiarity of our problems, our longings, our shortcomings, our aspirations, from the busy mind that ceaselessly produces such things.<br /> <br />Learning about meditation, learning to meditate, practicing meditation, we think perhaps we could leave the tensions of thinking and the anxieties of the world of the known behind. We could enter the free and unconstrained expanse beyond thought, free of causes and conditions, hope and fear. Thus, desperately we press in our meditation practice to leave, control or finally end the world of thought.<br /> <br /> But in the path of meditation, relating to thoughts is the unfolding of compassion, relating to what is beyond thoughts allows the spontaneous presence of wisdom to bloom. The two are inseparable. For instance George Gershwin said: “ I frequently hear music in the heart of noise.”<br /> <br />Meditation then is not a matter of developing mastery or control. Enlightenment expands, speaking to us. The rich world of complete wakefulness is always vibrant regardless of the qualities that appear in our experience. It is singing in silence and chaos.<br /><br />Meditation establishes the equality of the known and unknown in our journey and our living.<br /> <br />10)<br />But the appearances of insight, the experience of bliss or clarity of wisdom, elements which once articulated have such authority, followed with such intensity, how do they figure in our journey? It is perhaps as Proust puts it:<br /><br />“Perhaps it is not-being that is the true state, and all our dream of life is inexistent, but if so, we feel that these phrases of music, these conceptions which exist in relation to our dream must be nothing either. We shall perish, but we have as hostages these divine captives who will follow and share our fate. And death, in their company is somehow less bitter, less inglorious, perhaps even less probable.” (Swann’s Way p.381 Vintage 1981)<br /> <br /> 11)<br />In early summer evenings, beneath the mulberry tree at the foot of our garden, fireflies flickered neon green in the humid lavender dark. I was five, and on one special night I, my brother and sisters were allowed to go out and catch fireflies. Our mother gave us jars with holes poked in the top, and we ran barefoot beneath the trees catching the small fluorescent creatures as berries fallen in the grass squelched beneath our feet.<br /><br />By morning light, we could see that many fireflies in the jar had died and that those living were shabby grayish bugs. But now we saw our feet were dyed a wonderful shade of purple-blue.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-4872659577612415602011-01-27T14:55:00.000-08:002011-01-27T17:15:38.076-08:00MomentAll Buddhas, infinite and bright as oceans of stars,<br />Dwell in all realms in all of whatever is called space,<br />Manifest in all eons in whatever is called time.<br />Infinite in form, they dance: they share in a single act.<br /> <br />Each produces illusion on illusion on illusion:<br />Rainbows within rainbows within rainbows<br />Shining in an illusory sky,<br />Opening in the eyes and hearts of beings<br />In a living moment of self-liberated awake.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-56202354712269406132011-01-23T10:02:00.000-08:002011-01-23T10:03:24.458-08:00THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF SHAMBHALA: THE FIFTH DHARMA RAJAH SURESVARA1<br /><br />Now the fifth Dharma Raja of Shambhala,<br />The second to be named, Suresvara, Lord of Asuras,<br />The Destroyer of the Cities of Delusion,<br />Rules from the Crystal Palace of the Kalapa Court.<br /><br />Dharma Raja Suresvara enters this world as an emanation<br />Of the self-born lord of ceaseless wrath, The Vajrakumara Vajrakilaya.<br /><br />Vajrakilaya’s towering body is radiant black,<br />He has three heads and six arms.<br />In his two central hands, he rolls a kila of meteoric iron<br />Whose top pierces the summit of the sky <br />And whose point penetrates the depth of existence.<br />In his embrace he holds his consort, pale blue as snow in moonlight.<br />Together, they blaze with all consuming-bliss.<br />This is the utter inseparability of space and awareness,<br />The primordial freedom that cuts through liberation.<br /><br /> 2<br /><br />The Dharma Lord Suresvara appears in the center of a field of flowers<br />Where he sits on the earth amid fragrant blossoms, beside a treasure vase.<br />His face is pale gold and his expression is still and thoughtful<br />As if he is looking into the ebb and flow of time.<br />His hair and mustache are black and cool.<br />He wears the gold crown of a Dharma King <br />Surmounted by an emerald which radiates black light. <br /><br />He wears a gold brocade robe adorned with springing tigers .<br />His sash is dark blue as a clear autumn sky.<br />He wears the gold necklaces, earrings and bracelets of an earth-protector.<br /><br />In his right hand, he holds a golden arrow with red garuda feathers and an obsidian tip. <br />Which pierces space and opens the display of the sense fields. <br />In his left hand, he holds a bow made from the leg of a black antelope, <br />The power of yearning that projects all the realms of life and death.<br /><br />Without concern, he fingers these great weapons as playthings,<br />And one feels paralyzed in his presence, <br />Full to the brim and completely empty.<br /><br /> 3<br /><br />In his unchanging secret form, the Dharma Raja Suresvara<br />Is glowing red like the all-consuming fire of time,<br />Youthful, radiant, naked to the waist.<br />He smiles, but his gaze is unmoving and fearless.<br />Because all aspects of the world are inseparable from his being,<br />He wears a crown of unconditioned love made from pink utpala flowers.<br /><br />He wears swirling red silk pants and a skirt of blue brocade<br />Adorned with gold blazing clouds of flame.<br />His body is adorned with golden necklaces,<br />And his arms with gold bracelets, and a scarf the color of laurel leaves.<br />He sits before his fiery palace<br />On a burning throne surmounted by the three jewels.<br /><br />With his raised right hand, he plays an ivory damaru,<br />From which emerge the vowels and consonants of creation and destruction<br />Filling the whole of space.<br />In his left hand he holds a lotus the color of dawn<br />On which stands the blue jewel of the Buddha-nature itself,<br />Glowing amid the gold flames of totality.<br /><br />His consort, still and white a cloudless noon sky,<br />Sits next to him holding the sun-disc<br />In which all the myriad displays of mind unfold and fade.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-41747129617047937162010-12-09T10:19:00.000-08:002010-12-09T10:22:30.303-08:00THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF SHAMBHALA: DHARMA RAJAH SOMADATTA1<br /><br />Somadatta, Gift of the Amrita Moon, The Lord of Speech<br />Now enters the Crystal Palace of the Kalapa Court.<br />He is the fourth Dharma Raja of Shambhala,<br /><br />Dharma Raja Somadatta enters this world as an emanation <br />Of the transcendent Bodhisattva<br />Sarvanivaranavikrambhin, the Conqueror of All Hindrances .<br /><br />Sarvanivaranavikrambhin is pale blue like a summer moon<br />He is very young and his smile is inviting.<br />He holds in his right hand a white lotus. <br />On it, as if floating in the sky, the full moon of compassion shines.<br />His left hand makes the gesture that overcomes all fear<br />And opens the moonlit path of self-existing fulfillment.<br /><br /> 2<br /><br />The Dharma Lord Somadatta sits on a throne on a high mountain peak.<br />His face is the color of pearl. His gaze is passionate.<br />His hair and mustache are fine and black.<br />He wears the gold crown of a dharma king surmounted by a moonstone<br />Whose soft luster fills the sky at evening.<br /><br />He wears a robe of pale orange brocade marked with mating tigers.<br />His silk sash is turquoise like a summer sea.<br />He wears the gold necklaces, earrings, and bracelets of an earth-protector. <br /><br />In his right hand he holds the iron mace, the power of time <br />Which intoxicates and stupefies the mind, and breaks all who oppose it.<br />In his left hand he holds the diamond chains that bind the three worlds to nowness.<br />Thus he floods the world with a moon ocean of bliss, luminosity and complete non-thought.<br /><br />To stand before him is to feel shy and eager like a passionate virgin<br />Meeting a lover for the very first time.<br /><br /> 3<br /><br />In his unchanging secret form, the Dharma Raja Somadatta<br />Is the all pervasive blue-black color of midnight.<br />His teeth are clenched in a fierce smile,<br />And his three eyes gaze passionately into all phenomena.<br />He is the lord who exhausts all hunger and fulfills all thirsts. <br />He wears the crown of the five families of thataghatas.<br />And a halo of ruby light shines all around him.<br /><br />He wears a heavy crimson robe embroidered in gold with coils of joy.<br />Beneath that he wears a white under-robe covered with silver clouds.<br />He sits on a red throne, and his left foot rests on a lotus and moon disc.<br /><br />He holds in his raised right hand the flaming vajra sword <br />Cutting through the obsessions of all-consuming need.<br />In his left hand, he holds the golden shield,<br />The self-existing satiety of the mind of nowness.<br /><br />His golden consort holds a fan adorned with blue peacock's feathers, <br />The sign of endless and uninterrupted offering,<br />The love that ends the tortured cravings of beings.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-56427784387988424232010-11-06T09:15:00.001-07:002010-11-06T09:17:52.891-07:00THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF SHAMBHALA: DHARMA RAJAH TEJIN1<br />Now the third Dharma Raja of Shambhala<br />Takes his seat within the Crystal Palace of the Kalapa Court: <br />He is Tejin, Glowing with the Splendor and Dignity of Unconditional Confidence,<br />The bearer of the dharma wheel and auspicious conch.<br /><br />The Dharma Raja Tejin enters this world as an emanation<br />Of the terrifying Conqueror and Lord of Death, Yamantaka.<br /><br />Yamanataka is Dark blue in color with thirty-four arms, sixteen legs, and nine heads,<br />His principal face is that of enraged buffalo.<br />His three blood-shot eyes wheel madly,<br />And below his burning snout his pointed iron teeth gnash.<br />He is adorned by serpents and garlands of human heads.<br />Because he sees to the core of all the cycles of time,<br />The empty radiance of reality itself.<br /><br /> 2<br /><br />The Dharma Lord Tejin sits erect near a fresh stream in a forest glade.<br />His face is dark brown and stern. His gaze is uncompromising.<br />His hair and mustache are black and cool.<br />He wears the gold crown of a dharma king, surmounted by a yellow diamond <br />Which shines like the sun appearing through the smoke of a battle-field.<br /><br />He wears a glistening white robe embroidered with golden lions.<br />His sash is orange like an early sun.<br />He wears the gold necklaces, earrings and bracelets of an earth-protector.<br /><br />In his right hand, he holds a golden eight-spoked dharma-chakra,<br />And in his left he holds a conch shell.<br />Thus he proclaims the unceasing path of liberation<br />And the truth which is not limited by words.<br /><br />To see him is to experience a terror that cuts to the marrow,<br />As all one's self absorption, one's schemes for self-satisfied happiness<br />Are revealed as cowardly vain, and finally fatal self- deceptions.<br /><br /> 3<br /><br />In his unchanging secret form, the Dharma Raja Tejin<br />Is the color of a lake of molten gold,<br />And he is youthful, naked to the waist.<br />His teeth are clenched, <br />And his three eyes stare implacably into the depths of space.<br />He wears the crown of the five families of Thatagathas,<br />And his red hair, the color of fire is bound into a top-knot.<br /><br />As the lord who is unaltered by time's endless cycles<br />And is never confused by changing reference points, <br />Blue serpents twine around his neck, wrists and ankles as ornaments.<br />His legs are covered by a silk rainbow and he wears a tiger-skin skirt.<br /><br />In his raised right hand he upholds that which never changes,<br />The golden eight spoked dharma cakra;<br />In his left hand he holds a pure white conch<br />Whose turnings shape the elements in ever shifting forms <br />And whose sound is the birth-cry of all creation.<br /><br />His throne is a black and red jeweled palace <br />Floating amid clouds and a halo of time-ending fire, <br />And supported from below by three blue and two bronze water buffalo.<br /><br />His consort, on his right, is the color of pure lapis,<br />She holds the kapala of amrita which overcomes death <br />By dissolving belief in the permanence of individual existence<br />And the hooked knife which returns all thoughts to the essence.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-20676924294598878672010-09-24T09:39:00.000-07:002010-09-24T09:41:39.058-07:00THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF SHAMBHALA: DHARMA RAJAH SURESVARA1<br /><br />Now the second Dharma Rajah enters the Crystal Hall of the Kalapa Court. <br />He is Dharma Raja Suresvara, Lord of Asuras,<br />Binding All Beings by Love in Union with Pure Nowness.<br /><br />The great Dharma King Suresvara enters this world <br />As an emanation of Bodhisattva Kshitigharbha,<br />Who, because he loves all living beings as if he were their mother,<br />Is called :The 'Womb of Earth'.<br /><br />Kshitigharbha appears as a simple monk.<br />The mark of perfection shines on his forehead.<br />He holds the wish-fulfilling gem in his right hand.<br />Because his love supports all beings in the six realms,<br />He holds in his left hand, a staff with six rings. <br />Determined that none who are born shall linger in the bonds of suffering,<br />He is the protector of all children <br />And carries a child in the crook of his right arm.<br />He is the compassion of the Buddha,<br />Inseparable from every form of life,<br />The final liberator of all who suffer all the tortures of hell.<br /><br /> 2<br /><br />Ruling from within the Crystal Palace, the Dharma Lord Suresvara<br />Sits at ease beside the wish-fulfilling tree <br />In a garden filled with fragrant trees.<br /><br />His face is ruddy and his expression is determined and loving.<br />His hair and mustache are black and oiled.<br />He wears the gold crown of a dharma king <br />Surmounted by a ruby that glows like a dawn sun. <br /><br />He wears a vermilion brocade robe adorned with gold garudas.<br />His sash is white as winter ocean spray.<br />He wears the gold necklaces, earrings and bracelets of an earth-protector.<br /><br />In his right hand, he holds the gold Vajra prod <br />Which guides the mad elephant of mind <br />Through the jungles of claustrophobia and aggression, <br />In his left hand, he holds a rope of iron <br />Which draws all beings out of hell<br />With the ring of faith and hook of longing.<br /><br />The sight of him overcomes all chaos, uncertainty, and anger<br />And one experiences complete confidence in the power unconditional love.<br /><br /> 4<br /><br />In his unchanging secret form, the Dharma Raja Suresvara<br />Is dark red in color like heart's blood.<br />Youthful, naked to the waist, <br />He smiles and the sweetness of his expression pervades all space<br />Like the scent of honey-suckle on a summer night.<br /><br />He wears a crown of pink utpala flowers<br />And a scarf the color of laurel leaves.<br />He wears red pants and a skirt of blue brocade<br />Adorned with golden swirling clouds.<br />Because all aspects of the world are dear to him,<br />His body is adorned with golden necklaces.<br />And his arms with gold bracelets.<br />He sits on a throne before the coral and crystal gold-roofed palace of Kalapa<br />On a throne surmounted by the three jewels.<br /><br />With his raised right hand, he plays an ivory damaru,<br />From which emerge all the vowels and consonants.<br />Thus all the senses vibrate in pure nowness.<br />In his left hand he holds a lotus the color of dawn<br />On which stands the blue jewel of the Buddha-nature itself,<br />Glowing amid the gold flames of all consuming compassion.<br /><br />His consort, gentle and white a noon-day cloud,<br />Sits next to him holding the sun-disc of the complete power of mind.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-16121413241547158902010-08-14T08:33:00.000-07:002010-08-14T08:38:12.559-07:00THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF SHAMBHALA: DHARMA RAJAH SUCANDRAThe Earth Protector Kings <br />Who ruled the land called Shambhala, <br />Which means "Held by the Source of Happiness",<br />Were all descended from Shambhaka of the Sakya clan,<br /><br />Emerging from this immemorial lineage,<br />Sucandra, Auspicious Moon, the Lord of Secrets<br />Is the first to be called a Dharma King.<br />Now he enters the Crystal Hall of the Kalapa Court. <br /><br />This great Dharma Raja enters this world as an emanation of Vajrapani,<br />The All-Conquering Lord of Secrets<br />Who brings the blazing light of wisdom <br />Into the fickle realities of the human realm. <br />Vajrapani is the master of Buddha Activity<br />Beyond the waxing and waning of life and death.<br /><br />Out of Vajrapani’s heart, the Dharma King Sucandra takes birth <br />As the first son of King Suryaprabha and Queen Vijaya.<br />Thus he enters the Kalapa Court and takes his seat on the Lion Throne.<br /><br />His pale face is serene and his dark gaze fathomless.<br />His hair and mustache are black and smooth.<br />He wears the Gold Crown of Reality Beyond the Limit of Knowledge <br />Which is surmounted by a white diamond free of any flaw.<br /><br />As the lord of heart and mind,<br />He wears gold earrings shaped like sea-dragons.<br />His dragon-patterned brocade robe is turquoise. <br />His sash is pale red like an early winter moon. <br /><br />In his right hand he holds a white lotus <br />On which stands a crystal Vajra;<br />In his left a silver bell.<br />He sits on a glowing golden throne<br />Beneath the rainbow colored parasol of complete fearlessness<br />Which is vast as the sky and supported by a golden pole high as Mount Meru.<br /><br />Encountering him is overwhelming<br />As if one had emerged in the night from a narrow mountain pass <br />And found oneself suddenly on an immense plain bathed in full moonlight. <br /><br /><br />2<br /><br />In his unchanging secret form, the Great Dharma King Sucandra<br />Is ever youthful and his body is white as a conch.<br />His face is inviting and completely peaceful.<br /><br />Because he has attained the summit of dharma,<br />His top-knot is surmounted by the three jewels <br />Blazing with their own radiance.<br /><br />He wears the flower garland crown of the five senses <br />And a necklace of the five elements displayed as five kinds of gem-stones.<br />He wears a red and gold brocade shawl as radiant as the splendor of love.<br />His golden bracelets are the four aims of life.<br />He wears the Jewel Treasure of the Ocean on a gold chain at his heart.<br /><br />In his right hand, he holds the Wish Fulfilling Tree,<br />And in his left a red lotus, <br />On which stands the golden eight spoked wheel of unobstructed truth<br />Surmounted by the three jewels.<br /><br />His consort on his right, gold as the dawn sun, <br />Makes the gesture of timeless offering,<br />Extending the gold vase of eternal life surmounted by the flaming three jewels.<br /><br />The Dharma King Sucandra is surrounded <br />By all the offerings of the phenomenal world.<br />In the peace of his radiance, there is no room for doubt or discursiveness.<br /> <br />3<br /><br />The Great Dharma Raja Sucandra journeyed to the stupa of Dhyanakataka,<br />Accompanied by a great retinue of Nagas, Dralas,<br />And a vast number of his own subjects.<br /><br />There the Great Lord prostrated to the Enlightened One, <br />Sage of the Sakyas, the Gautama Buddha,<br />The conqueror of the three worlds and light of this age.<br /><br />The Dharma Raja requested the teachings for one who remains a King,<br />Remains in the embrace of the senses, and seeks the well being of all.<br />He requested the teachings that unfold outer life as an inner path.<br />He requested the teachings that open the gate of the seventh consciousness, And purify the full display of the ayatanas.<br /><br />He requested the teachings that show the world of Basic Goodness <br />Glowing and fertile in the light of the Great Eastern Sun. <br /><br />According to the text of The Supreme First Buddha,<br />The way in which he made his request is told as follows:<br /><br />To eliminate the kleshas of sentient beings<br />By the union of body, speech and mind,<br />He supplicated the Bhagavan by offerings<br />Of jewel flowers strewn at his lotus feet.<br /><br />He supplicated with the petals of precious flowers,<br />With prostrations made on bended knee.<br />With right knee to the floor <br />And with palms joined at the forehead,<br />The Lord of Shambhala requested:<br /><br />"The Unsurpassed Highest Tantra, The First Buddha<br />Gathers all siddhis, possesses the vowels and consonants,<br />The Glorious Yoga of Kalachakra <br />Instantly manifests perfect Buddhahood.<br /><br />“Possessing the four times<br />By its 60 divisions,<br />It holds the four bindus:<br />The emptiness and wisdom bindu,<br />The great supreme Vajra Holder,<br />The great emptiness of five words,<br />The empty bindu of six letters.<br /><br />“Outer, body, Buddha, god, and non-god, 25 classes of beings,<br />All are within the nature<br />With bodies of various scale<br />Which are the cause of the three worlds' arising,<br />The enjoyment of gods and non-gods;<br />All these without exception<br />I ask the teacher to explain."<br /> (2)<br /><br />Then interior of the stupa became transformed into an immeasurable skull cup,<br />The inconceivable expanse of the dharmadhatu.<br />There, in the infinite expanse without beginning or end,<br />The Buddha arose in the form Vajrasattva <br />And opened the mandala of Kalachakra, The Lord of Time. <br />In the great dance of Vajra compassion,<br />He opened the immeasurable palace: <br />Below, he displayed the twelve blissful aspects <br />Of the Lord of Vajradhatu Speech;<br />Above, he displayed the sixteen mandalas of stars.<br />All this had not been seen, heard or known <br />Since the eon of Buddha Dipankara. <br /><br />In this way, the Buddha himself gave the initiation <br />Into the great Mandala of Vajradhatu <br />And conveyed the root text of the Tantra of Glorious Kalachakra.<br /><br />The Root Tantra explains the essence:<br /><br />Ka is pacification of cause.<br />La is dissolving.<br />Cha is the motion of mind.<br />Kra is being bound to the stages.<br /><br />And the Great Commentary expands this:<br /><br />Whoever has neither cause nor characteristics,<br />Is without movement and free from stages:<br />This is the meaning of Kalachakra.<br />To that non-duality, I make homage.<br /> (3)<br /><br />So upon returning to Shambhala, Dharma Raja Sucandra <br />Recorded all this in writing, the "Paramadibuddha" in 12,000 verses, <br />With commentary five times that length.<br /><br />Upon returning to Kalapa,<br /> Dharma King Sucandra manifested his pure perception<br />As a great pleasure garden<br />To the south of the Palace of Kalapa and to the West of the "Near Lake".<br /><br />In the midst of that vast park called Malaya, <br />From liquid gold, rubies, sapphires, emeralds,<br />Crystal, coral, and turquoise, and silver,<br />The Dharma Lord built the great Body Mandala of the Lord of Time,<br />A perfect square with four gates, four arches, and eight charnel grounds<br />With five surrounding fences,<br />And beyond them the mandala of the elements adorned with vajra chains.<br /><br />Near it he built the Speech Mandala of Kalachakra, alike in form,<br />And close to that, he built the Mind Mandala of Kalachakra, <br />Alike in form but with three surrounding fences.<br />Closer still, he placed the Wisdom Mandala of Kalachakra<br />Surrounded by sixteen jeweled towers.<br />Again nearest yet to the Kalapa Court, the Dharma King Sucandra<br />Created a vast eight-petalled lotus <br />Whose golden anthers sway on breezes of delight and brush the sky, <br />Radiating like a hundred suns.<br /><br />Placed in the timeless expanse of pure perception <br />The Mandalas of the Lord of Time are utterly complete<br />In every aspect and characteristic, and power.<br /><br />From this moment on, time is marked with the names of the Kings of Kalapa.<br />It is from this time that the names of the Lords of Kalapa are known to all.<br />It is from this time that the teachings of Shambhala flourish,<br />Blazing through all the human realm and in every human heart.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-85045056793351408122010-07-11T14:41:00.000-07:002010-07-11T14:46:46.840-07:00from THE MIRROR OF NOWNESS- THE KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA AND THE KALAPA COURTTHE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:<br /> THE KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA<br /><br /><br /> 1<br /><br />Floating on the radiance of nowness<br />In the infinite circle of the cosmic mirror,<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as a pure realm.<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala appears on the face of this earth.<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as the secret form of the human heart.<br /><br />Because Shambhala is nowness,<br />It is all pervasive as basic goodness.<br />Because Shambhala does not rely on confirmation,<br />It expands as the vastness of the ayatanas.<br />Because Shambhala vaults over the apparent opposition of phenomena,<br />It rises as the power of wind horse.<br />Because Shambhala is timeless <br />It is always appropriate,<br />Because Shambhala is self-fulfilling,<br />It is awake in the primordial stroke.<br />It posses the spontaneous confidence of Lion, Tiger, Garuda, Dragon.<br /><br /><br /> 2<br /><br /><br />Luminous, immense, verdant, stately and eternal,<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala is hidden.<br />A towering range of impenetrable, glistening snow-mountains,<br />Formed from time<br />Frozen by the anger, lust and ignorance of egoistic fixation,<br />Completely surrounds it.<br /><br />Within this circular ice mountain wall,<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala, "Held by the Source of Happiness", opens<br />In the shape of vast lotus with eight petals.<br /><br />The melting waters of Shambhala’s mountains<br />Form eight cold blue racing streams<br />Which enrich its fields and forests<br />And mark the boundaries of the Kingdom’s eight provinces.<br /><br />In each province, farms, forests, lakes and towns<br />Adorn the land, as dew in sunlight <br />Sparkles on a lotus' outstretched petals.<br /><br />This is the land where the intrinsic sacredness <br />Of humanity has never been lost,<br />And is always whole.<br /><br />The births of all who dwell here are free of pain.<br />Following the ways of their ancestors and the guidance of elders,<br />They are raised according to the inner path of meditation, <br />And cultivate the outer paths of art and warrior discipline.<br />Their manner is dignified, direct and considerate,<br />And their lives are untouched by sickness, hunger, unhappiness or poverty.<br />Both men and women are true warriors,<br />But live the lives of ordinary householders.<br />Their life spans last a hundred years,<br />And they view their deaths with equanimity <br />As no different from the transitions of life.<br /> (1&2)<br />Their confidence and kindness<br />Appear in the ordinary human realm<br />As galaxies of stars in the dark of night.<br /><br />In each province, as on the apex of a lotus petal’s gentle curve, <br />Sits a glittering capital city.<br />In the east is The Proud One; in the southeast, The Vast Field;<br />In the south, the Secret; in the west, The Flexible One;<br />In the northwest, The Happy One; in the north, The Originating One;<br />And in the northeast, The Radiant One.<br /><br />In the gleaming inner courts of these capitals<br />Reside the Lords of Shambhala,<br />The father and mother lineages of dralas.<br />Their minds do not stray from nowness.<br />They are gentle and fearless.<br />By speech and symbol, <br />They expand the luminous, vast perception of nowness<br />Unrestricted by the limits of conventional thought. <br />Their brilliance blazes through the realm of human time<br />As protectors, as mountain gods and goddesses of lakes,<br />As non-dual sudden wakefulness.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-77791229380085526622010-06-14T09:43:00.000-07:002010-06-14T09:49:50.309-07:00THE MIRROR OF NOWNESS: THE LEGACY OF THE RIGDEN KINGS OF SHAMBHALAFOREWORD<br /><br />The core of what follows is an account of the thirty-two rulers of the legendary Kingdom of Shambhala. The first eight were titled Dharma Kings and the latter twenty-five titled Rigdens or ‘Caste Holders’. The eighth Dharma King, Manjusrikirti-Yasas was responsible for the change of social arrangements resulting in the change of title.<br /><br />The Kingdom of Shambhala is said to have three aspects first as a pure realm, secondly as a real though seldom seen place on the earth, and thirdly as an essential part of human nature. Thus Shambhala is the fruition, path and ground of the social manifestation of enlightened mind.<br /><br />Only four of its rulers are spoken of as having manifested directly in human historical time: Sucandra, Pundarika, Manjusrikirti-Yasas, and the future twenty-fifth Rigden, Raudracakrin. The rest are known only by the description of their outer appearance in the Kingdom of Shambhala and by the description of their inner manifestation in Sambhogakaya form. <br /><br />One of the distinguishing characteristics of those who dwell in pure realms is that their compassion can manifest anywhere, uncircumscribed by the concepts of space and time. Thus the inner descriptions of the rulers of Shambhala portray the aspects of enlightenment which they display and which radiate during their reign throughout the human world. Through their complex forms, colors, attributes and atmospheres, the rulers of Shambhala manifest the mind of timelessness in the world of time and move in the hearts of all human beings. <br /><br /><br /> <br /> THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:<br /> THE COSMIC MIRROR<br /><br /> 1<br /><br />In the all-pervasive pure immensity of primordial space,<br />The limitless, the timeless;<br />Space before stillness, time before occurrence,<br />The signless, the directionless, the gateless;<br />In this realm which neither appears nor disappears; <br />Space without other, ground without path, the primordial mandala <br />Is pure presence, is pure reality itself. <br /><br />Now<br />Without beginning,<br />Now<br />Without end,<br />The cosmic mirror <br />Is the spontaneous expanse of infinite space.<br /><br />The first moment without the second,<br />The cosmic mirror is primordial nowness.<br /><br /><br /> 2<br /><br />Now,<br />Radiating within the space beyond space and the time beyond time,<br />Everywhere and simultaneously<br /><br />Now,<br />Light before illumination and shadow;<br />Luminosity inseparable from bliss,<br />The radiance of all, bliss of all: <br />The self-luminous blazes as gates of light.<br /><br />Now<br />Without logic or consequence,<br />Sight, sound smell, taste and touch<br />Shine<br />Free from the limits of perceiver, perception or consciousness.<br /><br />This is the all-encompassing radiance<br />Of the cosmic mirror. <br /><br /><br /> 3<br /><br />Now,<br />As a bolt of lightning, as a sharp cry<br />All the wisdom of the cosmic mirror<br />Condenses.<br /><br />A sudden dot,<br />Vibrant, alive, awake,<br />Pulses in the infinite expanse of luminous space.<br /><br />Now is the all pervasive life<br />Of vision, tenderness and courage.<br /><br />The Kingdom of Shambhala<br />Rises beyond time<br />Complete, Brilliant and all pervasive<br />In every instant. <br /> <br /><br /><br />THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:<br /> THE KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA<br /><br /><br /> 1<br /><br />Floating on the radiance of nowness<br />In the infinite circle of the cosmic mirror,<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as a pure realm.<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala appears on the face of this earth.<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as the secret form of the human heart.<br /><br />Because Shambhala is nowness,<br />It is all pervasive as basic goodness.<br />Because Shambhala does not rely on confirmation,<br />It expands as the vastness of the ayatanas.<br />Because Shambhala vaults over the apparent opposition of phenomena,<br />It rises as the power of wind horse.<br />Because Shambhala is timeless <br />It is always appropriate,<br />Because Shambhala is self-fulfilling,<br />It is awake in the primordial stroke.<br />It posses the spontaneous confidence of Lion, Tiger, Garuda, Dragon.<br /><br /><br /> 2<br /><br /><br />Luminous, immense, verdant, stately and eternal,<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala is hidden.<br />A towering range of impenetrable, glistening snow-mountains,<br />Formed from time<br />Frozen by the anger, lust and ignorance of egoistic fixation,<br />Completely surrounds it.<br /><br />Within this circular ice mountain wall,<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala, "Held by the Source of Happiness", opens<br />In the shape of vast lotus with eight petals.<br /><br />The melting waters of Shambhala’s mountains<br />Form eight cold blue racing streams<br />Which enrich its fields and forests<br />And mark the boundaries of the Kingdom’s eight provinces.<br /><br />In each province, farms, forests, lakes and towns<br />Adorn the land, as dew in sunlight <br />Sparkles on a lotus' outstretched petals.<br /><br />This is the land where the intrinsic sacredness <br />Of humanity has never been lost,<br />And is always whole.<br /><br />The births of all who dwell here are free of pain.<br />Following the ways of their ancestors and the guidance of elders,<br />They are raised according to the inner path of meditation, <br />And cultivate the outer paths of art and warrior discipline.<br />Their manner is dignified, direct and considerate,<br />And their lives are untouched by sickness, hunger, unhappiness or poverty.<br />Both men and women are true warriors,<br />But live the lives of ordinary householders.<br />Their life spans last a hundred years,<br />And they view their deaths with equanimity <br />As no different from the transitions of life.<br /> (1&2)<br />Their confidence and kindness<br />Appear in the ordinary human realm<br />As galaxies of stars in the dark of night.<br /><br />In each province, as on the apex of a lotus petal’s gentle curve, <br />Sits a glittering capital city.<br />In the east is The Proud One; in the southeast, The Vast Field;<br />In the south, the Secret; in the west, The Flexible One;<br />In the northwest, The Happy One; in the north, The Originating One;<br />And in the northeast, The Radiant One.<br /><br />In the gleaming inner courts of these capitals<br />Reside the Lords of Shambhala,<br />The father and mother lineages of dralas.<br />Their minds do not stray from nowness.<br />They are gentle and fearless.<br />By speech and symbol, <br />They expand the luminous, vast perception of nowness<br />Unrestricted by the limits of conventional thought. <br />Their brilliance blazes through the realm of human time<br />As protectors, as mountain gods and goddesses of lakes,<br />As non-dual sudden wakefulness.<br /><br /><br />THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:<br /> THE KALAPA COURT<br /> <br /> 1<br /><br /><br />At the center of the Kingdom of Shambhala, <br />Like silver anthers rising amid golden lotus petals,<br />A towering ring of crystal mountains rises<br />Formed from time frozen by concepts of eternalism and nihilism.<br /><br />Theses glittering peaks surround a lofty circular green plateau,<br />The great park of Malaya, adorned with turquoise lakes and crystal streams. <br />Glades of juniper, tamarisk, bamboo, and rhododendron perfume the air.<br />Here stands the mandala of Kalachakra,<br />Surrounded by the mandalas of the eight gods, the eight Naga kings, <br />The protectors of the ten directions,<br />The nine great destroyers, the gods of the eight planets,<br />The twenty-eight stars, and innumerable other protector deities.<br /><br />At the center of Malaya, arising in the spontaneous heart of nowness,<br />Is the ultimate court of primordial time,<br />Kalapa, "The Timely”, the capital of Shambhala, <br />Glowing with an intense radiance that fills the whole of space.<br /> <br />Here dwell the Earth Protectors and Rigdens <br />Who rule over all Shambhala<br />And radiate the heart of all true human law.<br /><br />Kalapa is a vast square with high bright ruby walls<br />Surmounted by golden balustrades.<br />Its four gates are made from sapphire, yellow diamond, ruby and emerald.<br />Within the walls are the inner gates and courtyards paved with white opal.<br /> In the center, on a platform of pearl, is a great palace, the Kalapa Court. <br />It is made of gold and looms nine stories high<br />With pillars and beams made of cinnabar, silver, coral and gzi.<br />Its floors are ebony, sandalwood and cedar. <br />It's moldings are made of silver and liquid gold,<br />And its roof and the floor of its throne room <br />Are made from crystal plates that radiate heat.<br />Its roof is surmounted by victory banners and a gold dharmachakra.<br />Garlands of gold and pearl hang from its eaves.<br />The luster of the palace is so great that it dims the sun and moon,<br />And the sky above the palace shines like a sparkling sea.<br /><br />Also within the ruby walls of Kalapa, surrounding the central palace<br />Are thirty-one smaller pavilions built in the same way. <br />Each is surrounded by gardens and streams.<br />The sound of chimes and the scent of flowers fill the air. <br /><br />Here dwell of the Rulers of Shambhala,<br />The seven Earth Protector Dharma Rajahs and twenty-five Rigdens.<br /><br />The Rulers of Shambhala appear directly from the heart of the cosmic mirror<br />As nowness pervades the endless succession of time.<br />As timelessness pierces the endless stream of cause and effect,<br />The rulers of Shambhala follow one after another<br />Just as the sun moves across the sky.<br />Thus primordial time radiates within the realm of time<br />As ruler, as guide, as sustenance, as vision.<br /><br /> 2<br /><br />Inseparable from the fabric of the vast and minute cycles of time itself,<br />The thirty-two Lords of Kalapa<br />Move slowly across the luminous court yard.<br />Each in turn dwells in each of the thirty-two pavilions of Kalapa. <br />Each in succession appears in rulership,<br />Resolving, one into the other,<br />As the many rays and aspects resolve into a single blazing sun.<br />The True Law of the human realm <br />Resounds with their foot-fall.<br />Time unfolds as the vowels and consonants <br />Weave the binding of the senses and elements<br />To the pervasive unwavering blue light of Samantabhadra.<br /><br />Thus the mind of the rulers shines in light.<br />The mood of their command colors the sky.<br />Their deeds are the dance of the elements.<br /><br />The sun and moon are their wisdom display,<br />The stars and planets show their path,<br />The four seasons are their law<br />In order that confidence blaze like a prairie fire <br />In the hearts of all men, women and children.<br /><br />In order to show the law inherent in the movements of the human,<br />The Lords of Kalapa, the Rulers of Shambhala<br />Appear in the Kalapa Court,<br />One after the other;<br />Appear in slow procession<br />And the whole of time resounds from their footsteps.<br /><br />So<br />Through the blessings of the elements and ayatanas,<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala appears<br />As living reality on the very face of this earth,<br />Alive in every breath, sound, mood, season, hour and instant.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-37195027485858729272010-05-27T11:58:00.000-07:002010-05-27T12:01:45.925-07:00INTRODUCTION to CROSSINGS ON A BRIDGE OF LIGHTThe Gesar epic is a vast body of literature that recounts the struggles of Gesar Norbu Dradul, the legendary 12th century King of Ling in Eastern Tibet. Gesar was renowned for the many battles and quests he undertook to secure the wellbeing, prosperity and peace of his embattled kingdom, and he came to be regarded as the embodiment of continuous cultural and spiritual renewal.<br /><br />In all his endeavors, Gesar is inspired by fearless compassion. Unafraid of chaos, he is able to uncover a path of wakefulness and harmony even in the most perilous and compromising situations. His unconditional commitment to others gives birth to the confidence that always uncovers spontaneous, precise and vital expressions of enlightened mind. Thus, he is revered throughout central Asia in Buddhist, Shambhala and shamanic teachings as the perfect warrior. <br /><br />The Spirit of Renewal<br /><br />Gesar's character in all his journeys is somewhat unique in Asian folklore. He is, even from before his birth, an enlightened being. However he is also a classic epic hero, prey to a range of flaws. Unlike the Buddha who, having once realized enlightenment, was invulnerable to worldly sorrows and blandishments, Gesar is repeatedly caught in nets of outer and inner conflict. And he repeatedly engages his torment and confusion in order to uncover the freedom of fundamental wakefulness. <br /><br />The deepest impulse in the Gesar tradition is the constant renewal of enlightenment in the world. It is this dynamic—the constant rediscovery of wakefulness and compassion within the most horrific, grotesque, and frightening situations—that accounts for the Gesar epic's continued vitality and its many elaborations. <br /><br />A Living Tradition<br /><br />One of the world’s most extensive bodies of epic lore, the Gesar songs and stories have long focused the social and spiritual aspirations of Eastern Tibet, Western China, Mongolia, Buryatsia, and the Kalmuk Republic. This epic tradition is still alive, in a wide variety of forms, today. <br /><br />Itinerant Gesar singers perpetuate the saga’s basic episodes and characters in improvised songs and chants, with some illiterate singers pretending to recite from written texts, and others unfurling scrolls that depict the tales of their songs. In eastern Tibet and elsewhere, an elaborate theatrical tradition boasts distinctive dances, costumes, and backdrops.<br /><br />The epic has also been composed in written form, most famously in the early 20th century at the behest of Mipham Rinpoche, the great Nyingma lama and scholar. This written tradition includes many liturgies invoking Gesar as a deity, protector, and spiritual guide. Of the written versions now available to us from Tibet, Mongolia, and Ladakh, many were adapted in whole or in part from the songs and performances of one or more singers. Meanwhile new episodes arise in response to the inspiration and needs of the time. One lama, for example, hearing of the horrors of World War Two, composed an episode in which Gesar goes to Germany to conquer Hitler.<br /><br />The Gesar epic is unlike the Mahabharata, which exists in one definitive written form, or the Ramayana which exists in two. Throughout India and South East Asia, the many theatrical and spiritual variations of these two great Indian epics assume the stability of the root texts. By contrast, there is no “definitive” Gesar epic, which is constantly evolving—as are its modes of presentation (with some songs and performances containing only selected episodes). In this sense, it is very much a living, improvisatory tradition. Because its message continues to inspire people in many cultures to find courage and hope in the hardships they encounter daily, new renditions of the Gesar epic have often arisen in times of special uncertainty and danger. <br /><br />The Heart of the Story<br /><br />The Gesar Epic has a core repertoire of episodes. These include Gesar's celestial origin and miraculous birth, his childhood and accession to the throne, his four great campaigns against the demonic lords of the four directions, and his departure from this earth. Other episodes tell of his battles in foreign lands, undertaken to procure various spiritual and material riches for the people of Ling. (These can be found in Alexandra David Neel’s Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling, Douglas Penick’s Warrior Song of King Gesar, and Robin Kornman forthcoming translation, among others.) <br /><br />The episode recounted here is also part of the traditional canon, but less well known and tells of Gesar’s journey to rescue his mother from hell. To do so, Gesar, after encountering the great protectors Vajrasadhu and Vetali, enters the kingdom of Yama, Lord of Death (part 1) he then travels through the six realms of existence and the interim states or bardos (part2). And afterwards, he visits the Kingdom of Shambhala, where he meets four great warrior rulers who frame this journey in a worldly societal context (part 3). Finally, (in part 4), King Gesar makes his last return to Ling.<br /><br />This episode is in some ways the epitome of all Gesar’s other endeavors. Here he experiences of the six realms of being: hell, the realm of hungry ghosts, animals, humans, jealous gods, and gods. These realms are traditional in Tibetan, Indian and other central Asian cosmologies, but even as they may be considered ‘real’ places, they also represent the kinds of worlds that evolve from our own states of mind. Thus, when our anger becomes completely solid, our world becomes a constant source of pain; when our craving becomes incessant, we inhabit a world of utter deprivation; willful ignorance makes a world of endless apprehension; clinging to stability accentuates a world of constant change; envy produces a world where what is most desired is the possession of others; and the hallucinations of self-absorption flourish in complete indifference. From this point of view, we may find that all these realms not just resonate but even exist in our human world.<br /><br />At the same time, the actual experiences of anger, craving, ignoring and so forth are all intensely, even unsparingly alive. We try to harness them to our narrative of a solid self achieving goals in a solid world, but, letting go of such reference points, the energy of the passions themselves becomes a path of enlightenment. Passions wake us up to what is real in the world, in ourselves, in life, in dying. Thus, Gesar’s experience of each realm leads him to realize the immediate enlightenment within it. <br /><br />Although in this rendition, the six realms and the Buddhas within them are represented traditionally, this story lives beyond its original cultural framework. The inner truth of Gesar’s journey is not ultimately confined to any specific imagery. The demonic figures are expressions of our own inner terrors; the Buddhas ( literally: ‘awakened ones’) refer to the intrinsic clarity and vividness of our own minds. Beyond any specific cultural or spiritual tradition, Gesar continues to provoke and inspire because we continually feel that there is an intensity, a truthfulness beyond our own limitations, and we continue to dare to seek it, even beyond the limits of life and death. <br /><br /> *<br /><br />As this entire episode has never been translated into English, I have relied on the Gesar tradition as transmitted to me by the Vidyadhara, the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, the Dorje Dradul of Mukpo Dong. I have also been given unstinting and generous assistance from the teachings of His Holiness Orgyen Kusum Lingpa, the Venerable Tulku Thondup, the Venerable Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, the Venerable Yangthang Tulku, and the Venerable Namkhai Drimed Rinpoche. I am also deeply indebted to Ives Waldo, the late Robin Kornman, Blake Thomson, and the works of R.A. Stein, Alexandra David Neel, Ida Zeitlin, and Geoffrey Samuels.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-20758912564468597592010-03-23T04:27:00.000-07:002010-03-23T04:34:57.093-07:00THE GATES OF KALAPAGATE 1<br /><br />Beyond the small stream of a life <br />Led striving with memory, <br />A cold thought at one's back:<br />Possibility, obligation, achievement<br />Heard of but not yet known or seen; <br /><br /><br />To turn from this<br /><br /><br />Past the poverty of holding back,<br />Past choosing, <br />Past consulting needs as oracles;<br /><br />Past the all-consuming vacuum<br />That is called a self,<br />Wandering diminished in a shadow world:<br /><br /><br />To turn from this,<br /><br /><br />And see beneath a clear vast cobalt sky<br />The world in autumn,<br />In hazy gilded light<br />Turned crisp by cold air.<br /><br />The mountain's purple shadowed clefts<br />Blacken remote stands of pine.<br />Against the dust of early snow.<br /> <br />Tree tops burn against the sky,<br />Yellow and red light filling leaves,<br />And ripple with the sound of distant clapping hands.<br /><br />The smell of wood smoke hovering in the dry air<br />Bears the deeper scent of horses and of mouldering grass;<br />A taste in the air of dried corn and snow:<br />Here, in this world, longing ripens<br />In fulfillment of an afternoon<br /><br />As gold fulfills light and space, <br />Pervading mountain tops, wheat stalks, a ripe pear.<br />Deer move warily to fodder, and geese arch to winter home,<br />And stillness.<br /><br /><br />GATE 2<br /><br /><br />In this mirror of limitless ayatanas,<br />The Kingdom of Shambhala opens from the heart<br /><br />In this, the immediate path of timeless time,<br />The gold eight petalled heart lotus of Shambhala opens.<br /><br />Watching a hornet circle in the air,<br />Sight, turning beyond aims,<br />Enters into ceaseless expansion,<br />Is pure awareness.<br /><br />Listening to a silvery wind chime,<br />Hearing, turning beyond questioning,<br />Enters into silent immensity, <br />Is pure space.<br /><br />Smelling the perfume on a passerby,<br />Smell, turning beyond memories,<br />Enters into wordless depth,<br />Is pure time.<br /><br />Tasting the bitterness of strong black tea,<br />Taste, turning beyond satisfactions,<br />Entered into inescapable intimacy,<br />Is pure love.<br /><br />Feeling the thick fur of a horse's winter coat,<br />Touch, turning beyond preference,<br />Enters into all-pervasive contact,<br />Is real non-duality.<br /><br />Aware of time's passage,<br />Consciousness, turning beyond meanings,<br />Enters into its unobstructed boundlessness,<br />Is pure light.<br /><br />Body and wakefulness inseparable:<br />This is the spontaneous union of kaya and jnana: <br />The self-existing mandala of dralas.<br /><br />The Kingdom of Shambhala<br />Lives as a pure realm,<br />On the earth, and in the heart.<br /><br />Shambhala is alive in the senses<br />And opens itself<br />As one turns one's face<br />To the full hot light of the blazing sun.<br /><br /><br />GATE 3<br /><br />Like touching a rock face,<br />Because it is the support of life,<br />Entering it is like falling <br />Into a fathomless golden sea.<br /><br />Like drinking liquor,<br />Because it is luminous,<br />Entering it is like being flooded<br />With joy.<br /><br />Like hearing the sound of a silver bell<br />Because it is true,<br />Entering it is like being stripped<br />Of petty mind.<br /><br />Because it is powerful<br />Entering it is like being struck<br />By a blue-white lightening bolt.<br /><br />Because it is all victorious,<br />Entering it is like knowing reality<br />Irreversibly.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> Douglas Penick, Magyel Pomra Sayi Dakpo 10/18/94Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-26254327547753542592010-02-08T09:47:00.000-08:002010-02-08T09:53:48.384-08:00TILOPA; THE STREAM OF SELF-EXISTING FIRETHE STREAM OF SELF-EXISTING FIRE<br /><br /> A GURU YOGA FEAST INVOKING <br /> THE LIFE FORCE OF LINEAGE <br /> THE DEATHLESS TILOPA <br /><br /> <br /> 1<br /><br /><br />Gathered here in the charnel ground of all phenomena<br />Surrounded by the corpses of rotting hopes, false assumptions,<br />Decaying love, possessions that will soon be stolen away;<br /><br />Sitting amidst the ashes of dreams and secret ambitions,<br />The air is choked with the smoke of ignorance<br />That renders all around us almost invisible;<br /><br />Here we are paralyzed by the winds of hope and fear<br />As predatory ghosts of uncertainty, doubt, and anguish swirl about.<br /><br />Confessing our myriad delusions,<br />O Tilopa,<br />We look for you, the fount of lineage,<br />The father of refuge.<br /><br />Aspiring to see the living face of enlightenment<br />In the darkness of this world,<br />We call on you.<br /><br /><br /> 2<br /><br /><br />Now, on this powerless ground of utter futility,<br />Arise from the eternal womb of emptiness,<br />Telo come here in this very place<br />Come here and display the Vajra Dance<br />Utterly consume this vajra feast. <br /><br />In consuming the offering of food,<br />Display the living body of reality.<br /><br />In accepting the offering of song<br />Display the living speech of reality.<br /><br />In consuming the offering of amrita,<br />Display the living mind of reality.<br /><br />I offer myself in body speech and mind.<br />Please take your seat here.<br />Please show yourself now as life itself <br /><br /><br /> 3<br /><br /><br />Accepting these offerings,<br />Consuming us utterly,<br />Though you do not move or stir,<br />We request you now to appear.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the living paths of development and completion. <br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the living experience free from bias.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of samsara itself,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the living bond of samaya.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that arises from karma,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the complete committment of inner heat.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,<br />May we meet you face to face <br />In the lilmitless illusion of embodiment<br /><br />As you crush the husk of the three worlds,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the luminous expanse of dream.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I, <br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the unimpeded flow of all-pervasive luminosity.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that tends to clings to an I<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In passing freely from illusory life to life.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that cling to an I,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In completely transforming the apparition of existence.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of craving in the duality of samsara and nirvana,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the one taste of great bliss.<br /><br />Offering the mudra to the Guru who is Buddha himself,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the great mirror of Mahamudra which is Reality itself.<br /><br />Offering you our body as the mandala of existence,<br />May we live in the ever present spontaneous union <br />Of mother and child luminosity<br />Inseparable from your body, speech, and mind<br />In the ceaseless co-emergence of the bardo. <br /><br /><br /> 4<br /><br /><br />Here, by the power of life itself,<br />You arise unborn <br />From the red thousand-petalled lotus <br />Which is the spontaneous flowering, <br />The living purity of all outer and inner phenomena,<br />The secret space of Prajnaparamita.<br /><br />Seated with your left leg down and your right knee raised,<br />Your naked body shimmers <br />Like the pale autumn sky at sunrise.<br />You are covered with ash. <br /><br /><br />Your wild black hair is bound up into a loose topknot.<br />Your blood-shot eyes burn like the noon sun.<br />Your face is sun-burned and unshaven.<br />You grimace and your sharp irregular teeth clash <br />With the sound of breaking glass.<br />You smile lasciviously <br />And every movement of the air seems melodious.<br />Your expression, is shameless, impenitent<br />Lustful and indifferent.<br /><br />In your right hand you hold an ancient skull-cup<br />Brimming with liquor.<br />In your left hand, you hold a living silver fish<br />Whose red guts hang from its belly.<br /><br />Your scent is tangy and feral.<br />You are still as a wolf awaiting its prey.<br />You are luminous as the full moon at midnight.<br /><br />Suddenly, you arise on your seat <br />In the shimmer of all perception.<br /><br />Suddenly you sing <br />In the beating heart of the body.<br /><br />You are presence itself.<br /><br /><br /> 5<br /><br /><br />In endless union with the self-existing consort,<br />In the yoga of Chandali,<br />You are the heat of fire.<br />In endless union with the self existing consort,<br />In the yoga of illusory body,<br />You are the solidness of earth.<br /><br />In endless union with the self existing consort,<br />In the yoga of dream,<br />You are the movement of wind.<br /><br /><br />In endless union with the self existing consort,<br />In the yoga of luminosity,<br />You are primordial space.<br /><br />In endless union with the self existing consort,<br />In the yoga of transference,<br />You are the pervasiveness of water.<br /><br />In endless union with the self existing consort,<br />In the yoga of bardo,<br />You are consciousness itself.<br /><br />In inseparable non-dual union,<br />You dwell in the empty essence<br />In the luminous heart of the primordial consort<br />Where all inner and outer phenomena<br />Rise, dwell and die.<br /><br />Free from experience,<br />You are not born;<br />You do not remain;<br />You do not die. <br /> <br />OM AH HUM<br />TILO, TILO TILO<br />HRIH AH HAM<br />AH AH AH HUM PHAT<br /> 6<br /> <br /><br />Sought in the mirage of appearance,<br />You change form and disappear.<br /><br />Found in the mirage of appearance,<br />You are mute.<br /><br />Supplicated in the mandala of appearance,<br />You show the luminous empty heart<br />Piercing through all the illusions of pleasure and pain.<br /><br />All that exists and does not exist,<br />All that moves and does not move,<br />All that is mind and is beyond mind,<br />Offering and offered inseparable,<br />Swirls in your kapala.<br /><br />RAM YAM KAM<br /><br />Unborn,<br />As our senses shine.<br />This is the direct experience<br />Of Tilopa, the corpse,<br />The natural kingdom of body.<br /><br />Living,<br />As the seasons pass.<br />This is the direct experience<br />Of Tilopa, the root,<br />The unceasing power of speech.<br /><br />Without past<br />As in the alternation of day and night,<br />This is the direct experience<br />Of Tilopa, the tree,<br />The deathless lineage co-emergent wisdom.<br /><br />Beyond awareness<br />There is reality here and now.<br />This is the direct experience<br />Of Tilopa, the stream<br />Ungraspable, complete, alive. <br /><br />Experience now<br />The bliss of Tilopa's mind:<br />This unborn word:<br />This naked world.<br /><br /><br /> 7<br /><br /><br />(These are the oral instruction which Tilopa himself sang to Naropa)<br /><br />You are a worthy vessel.<br />In the monastery of Pullahari,<br />In the limitless expanse of luminosity, beyond concept, <br />The sparrow of mind, moving from life to life, <br />Has flown on the wings of co-emergence.<br />Do not yearn for belief in a self.<br /><br />In the monastery of non-dual prajna,<br />In the offering pit of the illusory body,<br />By the radiance of awareness rising from the bliss and heat of inner heat,<br />The fuel of the kleshas and conventional concepts<br />Of body, speech and mind has been burnt up.<br />Do not pine for the duality of this and that.<br /><br />In the monastery free from words and concepts,<br />The sharp knife of prajna,<br />Of Mahasukha, of Mahamudra<br />Has cut the rope of ambition in the bardo.<br />Dismiss the craving which causes all attachment.<br /><br />Walk the hidden path of the Wish-Fulfilling Gem<br />Leading to the realm of the heavenly tree, the changeless.<br />Untie the tongues of mutes.<br />Stop the stream of samsara, of belief in a self.<br />Recognize your true nature as a mother knows her child.<br /><br />Prajna is self-aware,<br />Beyond the path of speech <br />And the object of no thought whatsoever .<br />I, Tilopa have nothing at which to point.<br />Know this as pointing in itself to itself.<br /><br />Do not imagine, think, deliberate,<br />Meditate, act, but be at rest.<br />Do not be concerned with any object.<br />Reality, self-existent, radiant,<br />In which no memory can disturb you,<br />Cannot be called a thing<br /> (1)<br /><br /> 8<br /><br /><br />O great Tilopa<br />O incomparable<br />O unborn and deathless one,<br /><br />As you have never departed,<br />By your unsparing kindness,<br />May we remain In the Great Inseparability <br />Of your unchanging body speech and mind.<br /><br />If there is any continuity of anything,<br />It is you.<br />If there is any lineage of anything anywhere,<br />It is you.<br />If there is love,<br />It is you.<br /><br />By the power of your motiveless intention <br />Which fills the sky like ceaseless wind,<br />May every illusory being,<br />Drifting frantically through the skies like dust <br />Find completion <br />In the vast luminous single mandala of your being.<br /><br />AH AH AH<br /><br /><br />**********************************************************<br /><br /> The spontaneously arisen, mysterious and eternal Khenpo Ganshar, the deathless Mahasiddha, Tilopa himself is an unceasing, boundless, torrential river of purity raging through the polluted desert of this age. <br /> This has been written with one pointed devotion and confidence so that his children and grandchildren and all generations yet to come never imagine they are parted from him. <br /> Chodzin Paden<br /> Magyel Pomra Sayi Dagpo <br /> October 15, 1996 Boulder, Colorado<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />_________________________________________________________ <br />(1) Adapted from The Life and Teaching of Naropa- Herbert V. Guenther<br />Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK 1963 :PP 94-5Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-27613080005190047502010-01-04T11:49:00.000-08:002010-01-04T11:52:02.698-08:00THE STREAM OF SELF-EXISTING FIREA GURU YOGA FEAST INVOKING <br /> THE LIFE FORCE OF LINEAGE <br /> THE DEATHLESS TILOPA <br /> 1<br /><br /><br />Gathered here in the charnel ground of all phenomena<br />Surrounded by the corpses of rotting hopes, false assumptions,<br />Decaying love, possessions that will soon be stolen away;<br /><br />Sitting amidst the ashes of dreams and secret ambitions,<br />The air is choked with the smoke of ignorance<br />That renders all around us almost invisible;<br /><br />Here we are paralyzed by the winds of hope and fear<br />As predatory ghosts of uncertainty, doubt, and anguish swirl about.<br /><br />Confessing our myriad delusions,<br />O Tilopa,<br />We look for you, the fount of lineage,<br />The father of refuge.<br /><br />Aspiring to see the living face of enlightenment<br />In the darkness of this world,<br />We call on you.<br /><br /><br /> 2<br /><br /><br />Now, on this powerless ground of utter futility,<br />Arise from the eternal womb of emptiness,<br />Telo come here in this very place<br />Come here and display the Vajra Dance<br />Utterly consume this vajra feast. <br /><br />In consuming the offering of food,<br />Display the living body of reality.<br /><br />In accepting the offering of song<br />Display the living speech of reality.<br /><br />In consuming the offering of amrita,<br />Display the living mind of reality.<br /><br />I offer myself in body speech and mind.<br />Please take your seat here.<br />Please show yourself now as life itself <br /><br /><br /> 3<br /><br /><br />Accepting these offerings,<br />Consuming us utterly,<br />Though you do not move or stir,<br />We request you now to appear.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the living paths of development and completion. <br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the living experience free from bias.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of samsara itself,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the living bond of samaya.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that arises from karma,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the complete committment of inner heat.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,<br />May we meet you face to face <br />In the lilmitless illusion of embodiment<br /><br />As you crush the husk of the three worlds,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the luminous expanse of dream.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I, <br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the unimpeded flow of all-pervasive luminosity.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that tends to clings to an I<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In passing freely from illusory life to life.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of a body that cling to an I,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In completely transforming the apparition of existence.<br /><br />As you crush the husk of craving in the duality of samsara and nirvana,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the one taste of great bliss.<br /><br />Offering the mudra to the Guru who is Buddha himself,<br />May we meet you face to face<br />In the great mirror of Mahamudra which is Reality itself.<br /><br />Offering you our body as the mandala of existence,<br />May we live in the ever present spontaneous union <br />Of mother and child luminosity<br />Inseparable from your body, speech, and mind<br />In the ceaseless co-emergence of the bardo. <br /><br /><br /> 4<br /><br /><br />Here, by the power of life itself,<br />You arise unborn <br />From the red thousand-petalled lotus <br />Which is the spontaneous flowering, <br />The living purity of all outer and inner phenomena,<br />The secret space of Prajnaparamita.<br /><br />Seated with your left leg down and your right knee raised,<br />Your naked body shimmers <br />Like the pale autumn sky at sunrise.<br />You are covered with ash. <br /><br /><br />Your wild black hair is bound up into a loose topknot.<br />Your blood-shot eyes burn like the noon sun.<br />Your face is sun-burned and unshaven.<br />You grimace and your sharp irregular teeth clash <br />With the sound of breaking glass.<br />You smile lasciviously <br />And every movement of the air seems melodious.<br />Your expression, is shameless, impenitent<br />Lustful and indifferent.<br /><br />In your right hand you hold an ancient skull-cup<br />Brimming with liquor.<br />In your left hand, you hold a living silver fish<br />Whose red guts hang from its belly.<br /><br />Your scent is tangy and feral.<br />You are still as a wolf awaiting its prey.<br />You are luminous as the full moon at midnight.<br /><br />Suddenly, you arise on your seat <br />In the shimmer of all perception.<br /><br />Suddenly you sing <br />In the beating heart of the body.<br /><br />You are presence itself.<br /><br /><br /> 5<br /><br /><br />In endless union with the self-existing consort,<br />In the yoga of Chandali,<br />You are the heat of fire.<br />In endless union with the self existing consort,<br />In the yoga of illusory body,<br />You are the solidness of earth.<br /><br />In endless union with the self existing consort,<br />In the yoga of dream,<br />You are the movement of wind.<br /><br /><br />In endless union with the self existing consort,<br />In the yoga of luminosity,<br />You are primordial space.<br /><br />In endless union with the self existing consort,<br />In the yoga of transference,<br />You are the pervasiveness of water.<br /><br />In endless union with the self existing consort,<br />In the yoga of bardo,<br />You are consciousness itself.<br /><br />In inseparable non-dual union,<br />You dwell in the empty essence<br />In the luminous heart of the primordial consort<br />Where all inner and outer phenomena<br />Rise, dwell and die.<br /><br />Free from experience,<br />You are not born;<br />You do not remain;<br />You do not die. <br /> <br />OM AH HUM<br />TILO, TILO TILO<br />HRIH AH HAM<br />AH AH AH HUM PHAT<br /> 6<br /> <br /><br />Sought in the mirage of appearance,<br />You change form and disappear.<br /><br />Found in the mirage of appearance,<br />You are mute.<br /><br />Supplicated in the mandala of appearance,<br />You show the luminous empty heart<br />Piercing through all the illusions of pleasure and pain.<br /><br />All that exists and does not exist,<br />All that moves and does not move,<br />All that is mind and is beyond mind,<br />Offering and offered inseparable,<br />Swirls in your kapala.<br /><br />RAM YAM KAM<br /><br />Unborn,<br />As our senses shine.<br />This is the direct experience<br />Of Tilopa, the corpse,<br />The natural kingdom of body.<br /><br />Living,<br />As the seasons pass.<br />This is the direct experience<br />Of Tilopa, the root,<br />The unceasing power of speech.<br /><br />Without past<br />As in the alternation of day and night,<br />This is the direct experience<br />Of Tilopa, the tree,<br />The deathless lineage co-emergent wisdom.<br /><br />Beyond awareness<br />There is reality here and now.<br />This is the direct experience<br />Of Tilopa, the stream<br />Ungraspable, complete, alive. <br /><br />Experience now<br />The bliss of Tilopa's mind:<br />This unborn word:<br />This naked world.<br /> 7<br /><br />(These are the oral instruction which Tilopa himself sang to Naropa)<br /><br />You are a worthy vessel.<br />In the monastery of Pullahari,<br />In the limitless expanse of luminosity, beyond concept, <br />The sparrow of mind, moving from life to life, <br />Has flown on the wings of co-emergence.<br />Do not yearn for belief in a self.<br /><br />In the monastery of non-dual prajna,<br />In the offering pit of the illusory body,<br />By the radiance of awareness rising from the bliss and heat of inner heat,<br />The fuel of the kleshas and conventional concepts<br />Of body, speech and mind has been burnt up.<br />Do not pine for the duality of this and that.<br /><br />In the monastery free from words and concepts,<br />The sharp knife of prajna,<br />Of Mahasukha, of Mahamudra<br />Has cut the rope of ambition in the bardo.<br />Dismiss the craving which causes all attachment.<br /><br />Walk the hidden path of the Wish-Fulfilling Gem<br />Leading to the realm of the heavenly tree, the changeless.<br />Untie the tongues of mutes.<br />Stop the stream of samsara, of belief in a self.<br />Recognize your true nature as a mother knows her child.<br /><br />Prajna is self-aware,<br />Beyond the path of speech <br />And the object of no thought whatsoever .<br />I, Tilopa have nothing at which to point.<br />Know this as pointing in itself to itself.<br /><br />Do not imagine, think, deliberate,<br />Meditate, act, but be at rest.<br />Do not be concerned with any object.<br />Reality, self-existent, radiant,<br />In which no memory can disturb you,<br />Cannot be called a thing<br /> (1)<br /> 8<br /><br />O great Tilopa<br />O incomparable<br />O unborn and deathless one,<br /><br />As you have never departed,<br />By your unsparing kindness,<br />May we remain In the Great Inseparability <br />Of your unchanging body speech and mind.<br /><br />If there is any continuity of anything,<br />It is you.<br />If there is any lineage of anything anywhere,<br />It is you.<br />If there is love,<br />It is you.<br /><br />By the power of your motiveless intention <br />Which fills the sky like ceaseless wind,<br />May every illusory being,<br />Drifting frantically through the skies like dust <br />Find completion <br />In the vast luminous single mandala of your being.<br /><br />AH AH AH<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />**********************************************************<br /><br /> The spontaneously arisen, mysterious and eternal Khenpo Ganshar, the deathless Mahasiddha, Tilopa himself is an unceasing, boundless, torrential river of purity raging through the polluted desert of this age. <br /> This has been written with one pointed devotion and confidence so that his children and grandchildren and all generations yet to come never imagine they are parted from him. <br /> Chodzin Paden<br /> Magyel Pomra Sayi Dagpo <br /> October 15, 1996 Boulder, Colorado<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />_________________________________________________________ <br />(1) Adapted from The Life and Teaching of Naropa- Herbert V. Guenther<br />Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK 1963 :PP 94-5Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-35045941988166964942009-12-06T11:33:00.000-08:002009-12-11T07:59:55.154-08:00About KING GESAR(The following appeared tirst in New Muse, but I’ve changed it somewhat for publishing in the blog Word and Wordless. I was asked to write the piece as part of the publicity for the release of Sony Classical’s wonderful (And with Yo Yo Ma, Emmanuel Ax, Deborah Marshall, Peter Serkin, Omar Ibrahim among others how could it not be?) of ‘King Gesar’ which Peter Lieberson composed and for which I wrote the text. It was also supposed to provide some discreet tub thumping (eliminated here) for the premiere of our opera ‘Ashoka’s Dream’. ) <br /><br /><br /><br />THE WORD AND THE WORDLESS<br /><br />There is, of course, awareness beyond thought.<br /><br />*<br />In our collaborations, neither Peter nor I have thought of our work as particularly “spiritual” or as bearing the message of some particular religious outlook. But we do share a view, or a sensibility that sound, whether formalized in music or specified in words, is a communication from and to the world that is all-pervasive, alive and never ceasing. Whether presented in melody, rhythm, and the movement of chordal structures, or articulated in the language of conversation, of epics, love poems, of comedies, elegies, novels, or tragedies, sound is awareness as continuity. <br /><br />* <br /><br />As a child, I found music more vivid and compelling than painted images, sculpture or words. Since then, though I have never had the slightest ability to play or compose, music remains not only a love, but a model for what I have wanted to realize through writing. It always remains entirely mysterious how music, by arranging sounds without any conventional meaning according to varying underlying formal logics, can move us into the deep, subtle movements of existence and invite more profound involvement with them.<br /><br />But language itself is hardly less unfathomable. Words distinguish and separate one experience from another, but brought together in stories and poems, they brought the lives of others to life and enabled me to explore worlds in time and space far beyond my own. So while music provided a feeling of continuity with wordless inner live, words provided a vivid sense ways of life long gone and deeds that would have otherwise been long forgotten.<br /><br />*<br /><br />Peter Lieberson and I met thirty-five years ago when we were each beginning our respective careers as composer and writer, and from the very start we wanted to write opera together. In the following years, though we both studied with Trungpa Rinpoche teacher, we usually have ended up living fairly far apart, so our friendship has developed over many years in numerous visits and dinners, sometimes with our families, sometimes not, and in correspondence, phone, fax, and the like.<br /><br />And I think we both feel, even though we have never discussed it, that in combining words and music, we have the opportunity to convey the worlds which expand in the immediacy of so many ordinary moments which subtly present but usually bypassed.<br /><br />*<br /><br />Often, standing alone in a crowd, one may see a flock of birds wheel before a sky-scraper, hear a child whistle, smell rain coming, and experience some poignant feeling of meaning. We cannot explain, reduce, or convey this feeling of elusive significance in terms of the outer circumstances from which it arose. Nor can we capture it by referring to our own inner states of mind or the history of our moods. It cannot be directly stated.<br /><br />The essence of what we feel then is both specific to a moment and somehow outside of its circumstances; intimate, it is somehow impersonal. There is a kind of freedom from contingencies here, and this may be experienced as freedom of longing, freedom of enjoyment, freedom of feeling or awareness. It does not remain, can barely be remembered, and is, in some elusive way, very near our core. <br /><br />In general, our world is an unceasing welter of conflicting emotions, obsessive thinking, long term ambitions and desires, and a pervasive uncertainty about what is, or is not, truly real, valuable, and significant. But in certain moments, like a bubble rising out of a rushing stream, such subtle feelings bring a stillness free from all this.<br /><br />Then, as we try to verbalize and hold such moments in the language and memory of personal continuity, the experience fades. We lose the heart of it. We are returned to the clamor of outer and inner life.<br /><br />*<br /><br />The obdurate and impassioned 14th century Zen genius, Ikkyu wrote of our passage between unsought stillness and unceasing movement like this:<br /><br />From the world of passion,<br />I return to the world beyond passion.<br />A gap.<br />If the rain comes, let it rain.<br />If there is wind, let it blow.<br /><br />*<br /><br />When we try to articulate and convey anything whatsoever, be it lust, rage, understanding, sorrow; whether it be smoothness or sweaty heat, or granular roughness; or whether it be more complex sequences: aspirations not quite reached, hopes overwhelmed in passion, longings sustained by unfulfillment, insights that did not quite hold up; when we try to articulate and convey what we have felt and know, that same empty silence, the suspended moment of presence arises, mocking our intentions.<br /><br />It is mysterious that this gap bubbles up through the stream of our intentions again and again. <br /><br />*<br /><br />Although in the early eighties, Peter had set some poems of mine for the Fromm Foundation, our first real collaboration began with King Gesar, a chamber opera commissioned by Hans Werner Henze for the Munich Biennale. Peter and I discussed the piece extensively before I wrote it, but I felt it necessary to write a full account of Gesar’s most famous exploits before I made excerpts for the libretto. (This was later published by Wisdom Publications and will soon be re-issued.) Then it was edited and slightly altered as musical needs dictated.<br /><br />King Gesar is based on a Tibetan and Central Asian epic which is part of a bardic tradition, involving narrative, chant and song still alive today, and tells the story of the semi-mythical medieval monarch, Gesar, King of Ling. Gesar, as is said, was born completely enlightened in order to overcome the demonic forces in his world. However, unlike the conventional Western notion of 'enlightenment' which usually is taken to mean: serene, otherworldly, unflappable, and consistently full of wise sayings and cryptic advice, Gesar is a warrior. His life is a life of battles, treachery, ruses, jokes, and feasting. Within that, he is always acting to renew uncompromising wakefulness and to restore confidence in the potential of human life. The demons he fights are neighboring lords who embody the self-serving territoriality of envy, fear, lust, greed, and so forth. Often he loses himself completely to those mental states before he can conquer them. Thus, in order to realize the freedom, dignity and luminosity of open direct experience, Gesar moves through his wild and shifty world with ferocity, passion, crude humor, and uncompromising simplicity. <br /><br />Working on this grandiose, gaudy, barbaric, yet somehow very human play called forth a scale of gesture and utterance that left me uncertain of its possible effect. When I was done, I had no idea what to think of it. I also had no idea of what Peter would do or what the music would sound like. But when I finally heard the words and music together for the first time in Munich, the power, extravagance, and lyric delicacy of Peter’s created a world where the words seemed more pointed and resonant. The world of Gesar was present in the hall, and it was like listening to, as Peter put it, a “campfire epic”. <br /><br />*<br /><br />Sound, of course, is a ceaseless communicative presence. Within this, music is distilled from our appreciation of the pattern and flow of all that lingers on the edge of comprehension. Words rise in the precision of our desire to communicate that appreciation. Music is more true because, even if notated, it exists only moment by moment. Writing is more true because of its lavish, shifting specificity. Music is delusory because of its freedom from embodiment. Words are delusory because they make the insubstantial seem solid. Joined, words and music create a reciprocal context, not necessarily more ‘real’, but often more haunting.<br /><br />*<br />Ikkyu again:<br /><br />From the endless realms of sight and sound<br />One transparent note emerges in the cold.<br />The crazy master had a few tricks up his sleeve;<br />Wind and bell meet high above the frozen balustrade.<br /><br />*******Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-8665767468279189922009-11-21T14:01:00.000-08:002009-11-21T14:05:01.141-08:00Gateways to ShambhalaA GATEWAY TO SHAMBHALA <br /><br />(This essay previously appeared in Cahiers De L'Herne)<br /><br /><br />“It became clear to me that humankind is full of gods, like a sponge immersed in the open sky. These gods live, attain the apogee of their power, then die, leaving to other gods their perfumed altars. They are the very principles of any total transformation. They are the necessity of movement.” – Louis Aragon (Le Paysan de Paris. – Paris, Gallimard 1953-P. 143)<br /> <br /> I<br /><br />As is well known, Gautama Buddha renounced the possibility of being a world ruler in order to take the path which led supreme complete enlightenment. He made this choice in order to discover a way to liberate all sentient beings from the endless cycles of delusion and suffering in which they are inevitably ensnared. <br /><br />The choice he made and indeed advocated in most of his subsequent teachings is based on a strict dichotomy between the world of form and the formless, between engagement in the secular world of humankind and commitment to spiritual awakening. This has been the paradigm for enlightenment not just in Buddhism but in most other world religions.<br /><br />After Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche left Tibet and his traditional role as an abbot-lama, he began to explore the possibilities in re-uniting these two paths. In the Political Treatise, one of the earliest texts written after he came out of Tibet, he expressed the view that the spiritual path is not the only means to enlightenment, nor is it necessarily the highest of such paths. In fact, he considered that the path of a political or social leader could be a more evolved manifestation of the awakened state.<br /><br />While Trungpa Rinpoche emphasized the continuity between spiritual practice and ordinary daily life in the way he taught Buddhist practices, it was in presenting the Shambhala teachings that he opened a form where engagement in the secular world became a complete path of enlightenment. <br /><br />It is implicit in the Shambhala view that enlightenment can be realized by many paths of discipline. But, as the great early twentieth century sage, Jamyang Mipham Rinpoche once observed, while the goal of every (Buddhist) path is the same, the experience and the way it is conveyed is colored by the path which was taken to reach it.<br /><br />Thus the enlightenment, the unconditioned awareness that may be realized by a concert pianist or a diplomat or a nurse or an astronomer or a vagrant differ from one another as they do from that of a religious practitioner. The teachings relating to the Kingdom of Shambhala constitute a vision in which these many paths may find greater clarity, inspiration and support on a common ground.<br /><br /> II<br /><br />There are many ancient legends concerning the Kingdom of Shambhala as an enlightened society. Nevertheless, it is not a past ‘golden age’ since it is still considered to be alive. Nor is it is not a future utopia in the Occidental sense of being an arrangement of laws and institutions set forth to produce some kind of ideal state of existence. The “vision of Shambhala” is not a vision of something seen, but rather a way of seeing and perceiving and acting in the context of the phenomenal world. The Kingdom of Shambhala is an innate and spontaneous longing to realize the freedom of the awakened state within the context of our existing social life.<br /><br />Unlike a monastic path which emphasizes cultivating the awakened state by renouncing worldly pre-occupations and the detailed exploration of mind itself, the Shambhala path proposes going into the world ever more deeply and thoroughly. This is the path of discovering the vivid wakefulness in every aspect of daily living as one leads the life of a householder: working, cooking, cleaning, and relating to spouses, lovers, parents, children, friends and neighbors. When we cut through the narrow preoccupations and projections of ego-fixation, wakefulness illuminates as the processes of everyday tasks. <br /><br />This path is a discipline much like art and requires attention to the minutiae of the mundane and love in the ways one shapes it. It is in some ways more difficult than the monastic approach since there is no vinaya (monastic rules) and less outward communal support.<br /><br />To intensify this awareness, Trungpa Rinpoche introduced (in addition to the practice of meditation and the teachings now part of Shambhala Training) the practices of poetry, Kyudo (‘Zen archery’), flower arranging, equitation, theater, Bugaku, calligraphy, cooking and military strategy, among others. Such personal disciplines establish a basis for sharing the world and uncover, moment by moment, the ongoing ground of enlightened society. <br /><br /> III<br /><br />There are however obvious and continuing obstacles on this path. How easy it is to conflate indulgence and appreciation, self-aggrandizement and inspiration, obsession and discipline. Trungpa Rinpoche was untiring in his scorn for comfort- seeking and the pursuit of endless entertainments. These were in his view the building blocks of what he called “the cocoon” and this desire to build a private world of ease and diversion around ourselves is not merely a psychological quirk but one with solid cultural enfranchisement. <br /><br />As Walter Benjamin noted in his discussion of trends that began during in France in the period of Louis-Phillippe (1789):<br /><br />“For the private citizen, for the first time the living-space became distinguished from the place of work. The former constituted itself as the interior. The office was its compliment. The private citizen who in the office took reality into account, required of the interior that it should support him in his illusions. The necessity was all the more pressing since he had no intention of adding social preoccupations to his business ones. In the creation of his private environment he suppressed them both. From this sprang the phantasmagoria. This represented the universe for the private citizen. In it he assembled the distant in space and in time. His drawing room was a box in the world-theater.”<br /><br />(Walter Benjamin, tr. Harry Zohn- Paris the Capital of the Nineteenth Century, NLB 1973pp.167-8) <br /><br />And in moving to his considerations on art nouveau, he continued: <br />Art nouveau “appeared, according to its ideology, to bring with it the perfecting of the interior. The transfiguration of the lone soul was its apparent aim. Individualism was its theory.” (supra. P.168)<br /><br />With the telephone, television and attendant home entertainment systems, the internet, and so forth, these trends have clearly accelerated to a level that would have been impossible to imagine even fifty years ago. Now it is quite easy to be informed about events throughout the world, the nation, one’s city, and one’s neighborhood, and to conduct widespread communications about them without leaving home or meeting anyone face to face. Immediacy, presence, authentic community and even solitude are, within this social construct, exotic. Alone amid the endless torrent of images, commercial promises, manufactured needs and ‘information’, silence and the sheer momentariness of life afford only haunting anxiety.<br /><br /> IV<br /><br />“The people need poetry that will be their own secret<br />to keep them awake forever,<br />and bathe them in the bright-haired wave<br />of its breath.”<br />(Osip Mandelstam, Selected Poems, tr. Brown and Merwin, Atheneum Press, NY 1974, p.xiii)<br /><br /><br />The stories and songs concerning the Kingdom of Shambhala as an enlightened society have been current throughout central Asia for a thousand of years, and have, as David-Neel, Stein, Hessig, Bernbaum, Samuels and Roerich among others have shown, provided enduring inspiration for rulers as well as ordinary men and women. This lore exists in liturgies, prayers, songs, epics, histories and folk tales. In them Shambhala itself is often described in three simultaneous ways: as a real place on the earth which is sometimes manifest and sometimes not; as a pure realm, a place where the practice and communication of the awakened state of mind proceed without obstacle; and as the innate structure of the human heart.<br /><br />In this tradition, the Kingdom of Shambhala is not just an enduring aspiration for enlightened society but is equally a kind of ongoing substrate within our lives. For just as it is said that enlightenment is the natural state, it is likewise true that the Kingdom of Shambhala represents the intrinsic ground of all societal possibilities.<br /><br />Beyond the lore that describes the Shambhala kingdom and its rulers, there are also accounts of heroes and heroines for whom Shambhala provided crucial inspiration or who expressed this vision from their own intuition. These stories do not take place in an ideal world and are concerned with the struggle to uplift the human condition.<br /><br />In several important texts, Trungpa Rinpoche gave particular emphasis to four historical exemplars of the spontaneous appearance of the Shambhala path. These four ancestral sovereigns combine the inspired and the pragmatic in a very heightened way. All are warriors. None received the throne as a matter of course but had to seize the throne and make great alterations in the pre-existing social order. Sometimes these changes were in the direction of restoring tradition and sometime they involved ideas and institutional norms that were entirely new. In uplifting their social world entirely, the ways in which these monarchs ruled each represents a specific kind of fruition of the warrior’s path. Trungpa Rinpoche correlated each of these sovereigns with specific attributes from the Shambhala teachings, and considered that each was the embodiment of specific qualities of the warrior. Trungpa Rinpoche therefore referred to these four as the ancestral sovereigns of Shambhala.<br /><br />First mentioned of the four ancestral sovereigns is Ashoka Maharaja who ruled India and lived from 304- 232 BC. Ashoka is the warrior-monarch associated with meekness, modesty, kindness and mercy. He embodies the activity of pacifying, and in his own life transformed himself from a rapacious conqueror into one who extended non-violence and compassion as the foundation of his laws and polity.<br /><br />Next is Gesar, King of Ling who is semi-legendary but who lived in the ninth or tenth century AD. Gesar is associated with perkiness, unceasing discipline and uninterrupted wakefulness. He embodies the action of cutting through all delusions. Gesar unhesitatingly plunged himself into demonic realms of madness and chaos in order to conquer them.<br /><br />Then follows the third Ming Emperor, Yong Le who lived from 1360 to 1424. The Yong Le Emperor is connected with the quality of outrageousness in going completely beyond hope and fear to immerse himself in all the complex totality of the world and its requirements. He magnetized and illuminated his empire, and established an order that lasted for three hundred years. <br /><br />Finally, there is Prince Shotoku Taishi who was Regent of Japan and lived 574-622 AD. Prince Shotoku Taishi embodies the warrior quality of inscrutability, unshakable confidence pervading one’s whole existence such that one does not need to act nor to doubt those actions one has undertaken. As a Prince Regent of Japan, Shotoku Taishi did not take the throne but enriched his country by initiating many spiritual and temporal forms that characterize Japanese culture to this day.<br /><br />The ancestral sovereigns of Shambhala delineate a terrain in which spiritual enlightenment would appear, at first, to be in conflict with secular life, but they proceed to explore ways in which the two can, and in fact, must be carried forward inseparably. By so doing, the spirit and the reality of Shambhala dawns.<br /><br />Each of these four rulers opened the path of secular enlightenment in the heart of his social order and each worked unceasingly until it pervaded his entire society. Their vision was shared with all their subjects and was in turn embodied by many. Though their lives were immersed in the needs of a specific time and place, the accounts of their deeds resonate as a living possibility without the constraints of time and space.<br /><br />So it is said of the ancestral sovereigns<br /><br />If there is a vision of mercy in this world, <br />It is Ashoka.<br />If there is a vision of victory in this world,<br />It is Gesar.<br />If there is a vision of luminosity in this world,<br />It is Yung Lo.<br />If there is a vision of true warriorship in this world,<br />It is Shotoku Taishi. <br />-The Razor of Kalapa<br /><br /><br /> V<br /><br />Even the most cursory review of human history cannot avoid the fact that to live on this earth is to inhabit a slaughterhouse. For more than five thousand years, the number of lives subjected to war, slavery, starvation, plague, grinding labor, random violence and terrible uncertainty dwarf the number of lives that have been prosperous and secure. We cannot escape the recognition that our heroes tower over battlefields littered with legions of the anonymous dead and our histories of our momentary Golden Ages do not recount the lives of the masses that endured the grinding misery of unending servitude. <br /><br />And yet, at the same time, human beings have never ceased to produce heroes, moral exemplars, teachers and artists. The past is equally bursting with heartbreaking and hauntingly beautiful artifacts: pottery, sculpture, painting, songs, stories, dances, buildings, philosophies and spiritual visions. <br /><br />Truly, suffering and beauty are inextricable in this realm and it is here that the four ancestral sovereigns have by their great endeavors marked their age with the light of an inspiration that continues into our own time.<br /><br />A definitive representation of such figures is neither possible nor, perhaps, fruitful. The stories of the ancestral sovereigns can manifest in innumerable permutations and renditions as epic, as fiction, as song, music and drama. One hopes, in exploring and presenting the stories of these rulers, that they open a further and more intense and deeper sense of life altogether. <br /><br />Because, as is said:<br /><br />As a kingdom on this earth,<br />As a Pure Land ,<br />As eternal in the human heart,<br /><br />Shambhala opens<br />In the unchanging heart-light<br />To which you return.<br /> -The Razor of KalapaDouglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-63049886985567592952009-10-04T09:58:00.000-07:002009-10-04T13:07:01.464-07:00INTRODUCTIONThe articles and other pieces on this blog are here to comment on and enrich the material in THE WARRIOR SONG OF KING GESAR and CROSSINGS ON A BRIDGE OF LIGHT. If you wish to, please submit your own work. Thank you for your interest and participation.Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798542812024195377.post-63494968074365955042009-10-04T09:47:00.000-07:002009-10-04T13:08:04.656-07:00Luminous EmptinessThis performance piece, presented in varying forms at the Asia Society in New York and this year at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado is a presentation of the cycle of transitional states or bardos which appear between life and death. It is based closely on the Bardo Thodol but contains material from other sources as well.<br /><br />Historical Context <br /> <br />The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a teaching by Padma Sambhava who brought <br />Buddhism to Tibet in the Eighth Century. The text was recovered six hundred <br />years later by Karma Lingpa and was soon adopted throughout the region as one <br />of the principal texts for giving aid and guidance to the dying. It was subsequently <br />passed down through the Trungpa lineage and presently to us.<br /> <br />The title of this text in Tibetan is 'Bardo Thodol' which means 'Great Liberation <br />through Hearing during the States of Transition.' Though the general notion of <br />bardos or states of transition covers many of life's changes, those emphasized in <br />this text focus upon the passage between the dissolution and rebirth of individual <br />identity. <br /> <br />The first two bardos presented here are concerned with dissolution. The first is <br />the bardo of dying which describes the breakdown of the body's constituent ele- <br />ments and ends with the separation of consciousness from its physical reference <br />point. In the second transition, the Bardo of Luminosity, consciousness dissolves <br />into its own ground, the subtle unceasing awareness that underlies, pervades and <br />animates all our experiences and mental states. <br /> <br />The third bardo, the bardo of the nature of mind describes the spontaneous ap- <br />pearance of mind's innate wakefulness in a variety of modes and aspects. <br />Mind's intrinsic potential is seen as the array of peaceful and wrathful deities at <br />the same time as it may become the focus of habitual ego-oriented existence. <br />And so, in the fourth bardo, the Bardo of rebirth, consciousness solidifies as an <br />individual in a realm. <br /> <br />Traditionally, this text is read to dying people to counsel and guide them at the <br />time of death. The reason for doing so is that when the nature of even the most <br />disorienting and horrific experiences are realized, liberation is simultaneous. The <br />entirety of the Bardo Thodol is grounded in the teaching that every single mo- <br />ment of life, death and transition contains the seed of complete and immediate <br />enlightenment: complete wakefulness can be realized on the spot. <br />The Tibetan Book of the Dead embodies the aspiration and prayer of Padma <br />Sambhava that all sentient beings realize the freedom and enlightenment that is <br />already within them, and which can be awakened in all the phenomena of life and <br />death. All readings of this text, including this one, are offered with this intent.<br /> <br /> <br />By Douglas Penick<br /><br /><br />LUMINOUS EMPTINESS: <br />LIBERATION THROUGH HEARING<br /><br />Douglas Penick, <br />18550 Folsom Street #606, <br />Boulder, CO 80302 <br />for a performance to be produced by Naropa University and the Golden Sun Foundation<br /><br /><br />(a-high female voice, b-low female voice, c-high male voice, d-low male voice)<br /><br /><br /><br />PROLOGUE: (chorus, solo, whispers)<br /><br /><br />SOLO VOICES CHORUS<br /><br /><br />Voice<br /> Voice ending<br /><br /><br />Ending<br /> Ending longing<br /><br />Longing<br /><br />0<br /><br />Rest<br /> Voice, ending longing. <br />Rest aware<br /><br />Aware<br /><br /><br />Imagining <br /> Aware imagining voice continuing<br /><br />Voice<br /><br /><br />Continuing<br /> Continuing love<br /><br />Love<br /><br /><br />Expanding<br /> Continuing love expanding<br /><br />Joining<br /><br />Earth<br />Water<br />Fire <br />Wind<br /><br />Joining infinite beings, infinite realms<br /><br /><br />Earth<br />Water<br />Fire <br />Wind<br /><br /><br />Dissolving<br /> Dissolving infinite Being, Realms<br /><br /><br />Stillness<br /> Stillness ending terror longing<br /><br />Terror<br /> Terror ending longing voice<br /><br />Voice<br /><br /><br />Ending<br /><br />Returning. Endless <br /><br />Voice.<br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I) BARDO OF DYING<br /><br />(Tutti)<br />Death is real.<br />It comes without warning and cannot be escaped.<br />Soon this body will be a corpse. <br /><br />1a)<br />Moving between knowing and unknowing<br /><br />Tutti)<br />Death is like waking from a dream. Waking from a dream, we return to the reality from which our dreams arose. <br /><br />(1b)<br />Moving between knowing and unknowing<br /><br />1d)<br />We will all die. Sooner than we could ever have imagined, whether due to age or sickness or sudden misfortune, we will know that our life is coming to its end. Our pain will be more intense than pain we’ve known. Our panic will be more vivid than any kind of fear we’ve felt before. We will be trapped alone and powerless. Suddenly we will know: “I am dying.” We will be utterly alone. We cry out.<br /><br />(1c)<br />“I am dying without choice and without friends.<br />“Driven by a great wind, there is no solid ground. <br />“Waves of pain carry me into dark and chaos. <br /><br />“O Buddhas and bodhisattvas, O compassionate ones, I am lost.<br />“Please reach out to me and grant me refuge.<br />“Let the light of your compassion blaze in my heart.” (1) <br /><br />(2a&b- together for 2 sentences then alternate)<br />I am dying. Trapped in my body, I can barely move. My body aches and, I am too weak to turn. My mouth is dry. I am thirsty but I cannot swallow. I’m sweating and I feel like I am burning up. Suddenly I am freezing. I gasp for breath. I am coming apart. I cannot stop. <br /><br />The people in the room and those I remember blur together. Sometimes I hear nothing; other times, I am deafened by the roar of waves. Rot and sickness fill my senses. My skin feels raw, then hot and dry then cold. I try to understand what is happening. But even as I realize I am dying, I cannot control my thinking. My existence is unraveling. I cannot stop.<br /><br /><br />(1c)<br />Death takes hold of you. The elements of earth, water, fire and air that have come together to form your body while you live now separate. First the element of earth dissolves. You feel crushed into the earth by a huge mountain, and your limbs no longer support you. Your senses collapse. You feel insubstantial. The outer world is like a familiar dream. <br /><br />1d)<br />When the earth element dissolves into water, you feel swept away on a raging stream. There is no control of your bodily fluids and you feel unstable as a crashing wave. Feelings shift constantly. Perceptions are hazy and fragmented.<br /><br />1c)<br />When the element of water evaporates in fire, your body burns, dries like ash and cools. Ribbons of flame shimmer before you eyes, and your memories and perceptions flicker. Your mind turns further inward.<br /><br />1d)<br />The element of fire collapses into wind, and you shiver with cold. Your mind now moves randomly with no connection to the world. Showers of sparks flicker all around you as if you were caught in a chimney above a raging fire. <br /><br />1c)<br />Wind dissolves into consciousness. Your breathing becomes labored and painful. The last connection with the physical world falls away. You float groundlessly and your mind is a welter of hopes and fears. Your breathing stops. You feel you have been dropped into the darkness of space.<br /><br />(2c&d alternating after 1st sentence)<br />Whether it takes a year or a month or a day or an hour, whether it is prolonged or sudden, the elements collapse one into another. Earth dissolves into water; water into fire; fire into air; and then, when breath has stopped, air dissolves into consciousness. The elements separate, Your physical existence ends.<br /><br />(1b)<br />The life of those who have a body is as fleeting as a dream.<br />Like a mountain stream, it does not halt.<br />Like a fire it blazes and consumes itslf.<br />Like a wind, it rages and falls.<br /><br />1a)<br />Like an illusion, like a magic spell, like a dream,<br />All the contents of mind appear, hover and disappear. (2)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />II) BARDO OF LUMINOSITY <br /><br />Tutti)<br />Your physical existence has ended. But your inner life, all your thoughts, dreams, intentions, memories, longings, fears and uncertainties swirl unanchored in the air. <br /><br />1a)<br />All at once, milky white light descends and fills the whole of space. <br />It is like a night sky flooded by moonlight. <br />All thoughts of anger, rejection and distance merge, <br />Dissolving in falling white light. <br /><br />1b)<br />Then the light of a red sun blazes up. <br />All of space glows like a sunset. <br />All thoughts of desire or the sense of closeness merge and rise,<br />Consumed in rising red light. <br /><br />(1c)<br />The white and red flow together at your heart.<br />It is like an eclipse of the sun.<br />All forms of consciousness dissolve in shadowed light. <br />Consciousness dissolves into space.<br /><br />(1d)<br />Now suddenly the Luminosity of Death,<br />Free from the constraints of body and mind <br />Shines unobstructed and complete,<br />Like a sky of light. <br /><br />(1a<br />This is naked awareness, stripped of passion, aggression and ignorance.<br /><br />1b)<br />This is naked awareness unborn, unceasing, and all pervasive. <br /><br />1c)<br />This is the unchanging Dharmakaya. <br /><br />1d)<br />Inner and outer struggles to maintain a self <br />Dissolve without a trace.<br /><br />Tutti)<br />This is the essence of your own mind,<br />The heart essence of all the Buddhas and all the awakened ones. <br /><br />(1a) <br />“As I leave this body of flesh and blood,<br />“I will know it to be a transitory illusion.<br />“When the bardo of dying opens to me,<br />“I must abandon my all-desiring mind.<br />‘Buddhas and Boddhisattvas, teachers and friends on the path,<br />“Please bless me so that my mind will not waver.<br />“May I rest in the clear essence ,<br />“The luminous expanse of unborn naked awareness.” (3)<br /><br />(2a&d<br />But our aspiration is so easily overwhelmed <br />By habitually clinging to a self.<br />Unable to remain without our reference points <br />We fall into utter black unconsciousness.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />III) BAR DO OF THE NATURE OF MIND<br /><br />1) The Peaceful Deities<br /><br />1b)<br />I wake alone, groundless and without refuge. <br />Suspended without a body <br />In an infinite expanse of luminous empty space,<br />I do not know who or where or what I am.<br /><br />2d)<br />Then like the colors a rainbow emerging spontaneously <br />Out of clear white light,<br />One by one the great primordial powers of mind:<br />Pacifying, Enriching, Magnetizing and Destroying<br />Open from your heart and fill the whole of space.<br /><br />1a)<br />Like a rainbow hidden in the sun light,<br />This is the innate radiance and pattern of your mind.<br /><br />1c)<br />Formerly concealed in ignorance, anger, grasping, lust, and envy, <br />Now, without reference to a body or a self, <br />The pure essence of the passions blaze without limit.<br />Sapphire Blue, golden yellow, ruby red and emerald green, <br />They are pure light and pure awareness.<br />This is the true nature of your own mind.<br /><br />1b)<br />One by one, each color blazes out unfiltered and awake.<br />And within each color rests a Buddhas with his retinue, <br /><br />1d)<br />“Now the Bardo of the Nature of Mind dawns before me.<br />“I will put aside all thoughts of hope and fear.<br />“I will recognize whatever arises as the nature of mind itself.<br />“I will not fear the visions arising here;<br />“I will recognize them as projections of my own mind.”<br /> (3)<br />1a)<br />Your heart unfolds as vast and all embracing space.<br /><br />Within the clear white radiance of pure expanse,<br />Mind has no location, direction, purpose or limit.<br />Confusion, the ground of struggle and delusion, <br />Is now stripped bare. <br /><br />Mirror-like, all encompassing awareness pervades the whole of space.<br />At its center shines Buddha Vairochana. <br />His face is serene, and his body is white. <br />He holds the eight-spoked wheel of the law. <br />He sits on a lion throne embracing his consort, the Queen of Space. <br />Rays of piercing blue light emanate from their hearts<br />Filling all of space with blinding light of unsparing wakefulness.<br /><br />1b)<br />Everything is completely transparent<br />Like a pool of clear water,<br />Your heart is still.<br /><br />Now in the space free of assertion and denial, <br />Unchanging clarity rests focused on this single point.<br />Anger, now stripped of subject or object, <br />Blazes out as clear blue light. <br />Excruciating radiance pervades the whole of space. <br />At its center is the sapphire blue form of Buddha Vajrasattva-Akshobhya <br />With his consort and retinue. <br />He holds a crystal vajra<br />And floods the sky with indestructible peace.<br /><br />1c)<br />Now in utter fulfillment,<br />Your heart expands. <br /><br />Even as endless moments and textures unfold,<br />The simplicity of space does not move.<br />Pride and possessiveness, stripped of accepting and rejecting, <br />Radiates as the all-pervasive saffron yellow light of equanimity. <br />Engulfing the universe in golden honey.<br />At its center sits Buddha Ratnasambhava, gold and impassive<br />With his consort and retinue. <br />He holds the Wish Fulfilling Jewel.<br />The air glows with unchanging radiance of complete equanimity.<br /><br />1d)<br />Your heart burns like the sun <br />Blazing with love in all directions.<br /><br /><br />Now in the vibrant space of limitless light,<br />All the phenomena of life and death are consumed, resolved.<br />Desire and craving are stripped of grasping and fixation. <br />Unending passion fills the sky with brilliant red light.<br />At its center sits the Buddha of Boundless Light, Amitabha with consort and retinue.<br />He holds the vase of boundless life, glowing like an ember<br />Burning through all of space as ceaseless compassion.<br /><br />1b)<br />Your heart breaks <br />In the embrace of all that can be felt or known.<br /><br />Space is, by its nature, unobstructed,<br />There is nothing left to be accomplished. <br />Envy and endless striving now stripped of goal or purpose,<br />Blaze through the whole of space as a seething expanse of vibrant green light.<br />At its center sits the emerald form of Buddha Amoghasiddhi with his consort and retinue.<br />He holds a double vajra which whirls like the mother of winds<br />Destroying all that needs to be destroyed and completing all that needs completion.<br /><br />(tutti)<br />O worthy child, now all five wisdom deities, their consorts, and retinues, <br />Vibrant in their own circles of light ,<br />Appear together like a vast expanse of shimmering brocade <br />Filling the sky with light and music.<br /><br /><br />(2a&b<br />This is the nature of your mind<br />Awakened in the vastness of your heart. <br /><br />1c)<br />Do not be afraid and rest at ease.<br /><br />1d)<br />Do not let thoughts attach themselves to you.<br /><br />1b)<br />Now be resolute.<br /><br />1a)<br />Do not let thoughts of fear and hope attach themselves to you<br /><br />1a&b)<br />Rest and merge into the radiance of your own true nature.<br /> <br />Now is the time. Wake! Wake! (sotto voce)<br /><br /><br />(2) The Lights of The Six Realms<br /><br /><br />1d)<br />Groundless and suspended <br />In the blazing radiance of total wakefulness<br />Where wisdom and compassion are undivided,<br />The luminous essence of mind that does not waver or change.<br />I remain restless, doubtful, hungry, and afraid.<br />I cannot help longing for comfort, ease and home ground.<br /><br />1c)<br />Even as the radiance of the awakened state shows itself to me,<br />Dream-like lights leading to existence <br />In a temporary body and illusory realm arise.<br />Offering a more familiar path.<br /><br /><br />Tutti:<br />These lights rise one by one <br />From ego-born distortions to your own innate wisdom.<br />Do not give in to them.<br /><br /><br />1b)<br />White light, soft and soothing like warm milk comes towards me. <br />This light leads to life in the Realm of the Gods.<br /><br />1a- then different voice for each line)<br />Smoky light leads to the Hell Realm.<br />Pale blue light leads into the human realm.<br />Enticing yellow light leads to the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.<br />Crimson light leads to the realm of the Jealous Gods.<br />Comforting green light that leads to birth in the animal realm. <br /><br />2a&c)<br />These gentle lights seem to promise relief<br />From the unsparing brilliance of being completely awake.<br /><br />1d)<br />“When confusion leads me to drift <br />Towards the pain of existing in worlds of life and death,<br />“May the Buddhas guide me.<br />“And keep me in the unchanging state.” (4)<br /><br />2- The Display of the Vidyadharas <br /><br />(tutti- after first 2 sentences alternate on each sentence)<br />O child of awakened family, desperately you seek to resolve your restless mind. You want to understand. The pure lights of the awakened ones still call to you. Your inborn longing for insight now appears spontaneously from your throat center as the vast mandala of those who hold primordial knowledge. Together with their dakini consorts, they chant and dance in the sky. They call to you. They are the essence of awakened speech. They call from the Pure Realm of Space, inviting you. Their voices are deafening yet silent. Their forms are completely transparent yet vividly alive.<br /><br />Blazing rainbow lights from the wisdom mandala flash, swirl and penetrate every part of space, filling the cosmos with the thundering roar of the true path and resounding with ferocious war cries and wrathful mantras.<br /><br />ITI SAMAYA GYA GYA GYA<br /><br />(1b)<br />“From the Pure Realm of Luminous Space<br />“Holders of Primordial Knowledge come to me.<br />“Come and bring me into the awakened state.<br />“Please guide me now.<br /><br /><br /><br />1c)<br />“Please, O Great Beings, take pity on me.<br />“Hold me with your hooks of great compassion<br />“And do not let me fall back into the tortured realms of birth and death.” (5)<br /><br /><br /><br />3) The Display of the Wrathful Deities<br /><br /><br />(3a,b.d alternating after 1st sentence)<br />But, O Child of Illusion, you feel unready to accept true wakefulness. You are terrified by your own wakefulness. The intensity of uncertainty and fear overwhelms you. You lose consciousness. You awake. The peaceful deities, the true nature of your own mind now appear to you in wrathful form. This is again the nature of your mind raging against the self-imposed limits of your own ego clinging. These great wrathful ones are the immediate energy of the awakened state. They emerge from your brain to attack and destroy all the ways of holding to a self. They tear through all your thoughts. Your terror is irrelevant. <br /><br />1d)<br />Now the Great Awakened Wrathful One, <br />The Buddha Heruka, the active embodiment of indivisible emptiness and compassion <br />Appears before you. <br />His body is like a towering mountain that glows like mass of burning coals.<br />His nine blood-shot eyes gaze into yours in violent rage. <br />He sways in union with his consort, the Raging Buddha Dakini. <br />Their teeth are like copper knives and their tongues are curled back. <br />Their laughter fills the sky with thunder as they cry “A La La”. “Shooooo” and “Ha”. Flames of wisdom flash out from all their hair pores.<br />They drink the heart’s blood of delusion <br />And crush the whole of space in their all-consuming intensity.<br /><br />1b)<br />He appears with the Four Great Wrathful ones, blue, yellow, red and green, embodiments of the unceasing wakefulness that is clothed in anger, pride, lust, and envy. They flail like a wheel of world-ending fire. Their cries fill in your mind. Screaming, they paralyze and destroy all thought.<br /><br />1a)<br />O worthy child, do not let yourself be overcome by terror and confusion. You no longer have a living body. Nothing can harm or kill you. Recognize the great wrathful ones as the naked power of your own mind. Recognition and liberation are simultaneous.<br /><br /><br /><br />(tutti- alternating after 2 sentences)<br />Now, be resolute. What you see is your own anger, pride, passion and envy in their awakened wrathful forms. No reasoning or sympathy or tenderness constrains them. They rage amid all the timid delusions of cyclical existence, and cannot be appeased. Amid flames and smoke, hundreds of furious female deities of many colors with the heads of foxes, wolves, lions, hawks, ravens, owls and serpents, wearing the skins of flayed human corpses brandish arrows, swords, hooks, flames and clubs. Their raging screams shake the earth. Wrathful male deities of all colors with the heads of tigers, yaks, pigs and horses brandish nooses, chains, bells, wheels, treasure vases, vajras, clubs, corpses and skull cups of blood. They burn and blaze like the world ending fire. The tumult of their screams overwhelm all reference points. <br /><br />1b)<br />Now, do not faint or waver. This great and horrifying display is the action of the awakened state. Recognize it as the projection of your own awareness. <br /><br />(Tutti, alternating after 1st sentence)<br />Then all the peaceful deities, all the vidyadharas and all the wrathful deities, together with their consorts and retinues appear suddenly before you. They fill the whole of space with the light of a hundred suns and a hundred moons and a thousand stars. Rays of light stream out from their hearts, weaving together in a luminous web. The air shakes with the sounds of their melodies, mantras, instructions and war cries. All possibilitiy of individual experience is eliminated.<br /><br />1a)<br />You feel you have been crushed and emptied out all at once. You are reduced to nothing. Do not give in now to terror. This vast display arises from the empty radiance of mind and dissolves in the traceless luminosity of mind. Recognizing this, you return to the awakened state like a child returning to its mother’s arms. (4)<br /><br />1c)<br />“Now, when I am alone, cut off , and utterly lost,<br />“May the compassion of the Awakened Ones fill my heart<br />“So that terror does not overwhelm me<br />“And so that I may recognize my true nature<br />“Inseparable from the vast displays of their pure light.”<br /><br />(tutti)<br />SARVA MANGALAM<br /><br />1b)<br />O Child of the Awakened Ones, <br />You saw this in an instant. <br />Like a wild landscape illuminated by a lightning bolt. <br /><br /><br />1a)<br />O Worthy Child,<br />In the eternal and unclouded radiance of pure awareness,<br />The awakened ones do not arise.<br />They do not depart.<br />They are the energy of mind itself, <br />Unborn, unceasing, with a nature like space. <br /><br />1c)<br />O Worthy Child,<br />How often has enlightenment dawned for a moment in your heart<br />As a wisp of dawn,<br />As a flash of panic, of true love?<br /><br />2c&d)<br />But we turn away.<br />Forgetting and forgetting, <br />We struggle on<br />With the needs of living <br />In worlds of birth and death<br />Where we labor and sleep.<br /><br /><br /><br />IV BARDO OF BECOMING<br /><br /><br />Tutti)<br />O Worthy Child, now once again you wake up. <br /><br />1a)<br />The blazing lights of your own awakened mind are forgotten.<br /><br />1b)<br />You remember only the pain of dying.<br /><br />1c)<br />The Buddhas are forgotten.<br /><br />1d)<br />You awake in the form you once knew.<br /><br />1c)<br />It is as if you had a dazzling dream you do not quite remember. You wake, and now the world around you is again as you knew it. The sky is blue, and the sun is shining. The trees have turned yellow and sway in the cool autumn winds. You smell food cooking on the stove. Friends and family have gathered in your house. Your senses are sharp. Your thoughts and feelings are familiar and clear. You do not remember dying. <br /><br />1b, then alternate, c,d,a after the first two sentences)<br />You see your spouse and your children, your loved ones and your old friends. Some are weeping, others chatting quietly. You are surprised that they have come to visit, but you are glad to see them, But when you greet them, they do not respond. You move towards them, but they do not notice you. You reach out to touch them. They shiver as if chilled, but they ignore you. Their attention is focused on your bedroom, so you go there. People are clustered around your bed. But then, when you look to see who is lying there, you see a corpse. Gray-green skin, sunken cheeks, eyes crusted shut, nostrils pinched, you recognize it. It is you. <br /><br />1d)<br />I cry out, but no one hears me. I embrace my children but they feel nothing. I gesture to my oldest friend, but he turns away. What can I do? I go back to the bedroom. I try to enter my body, but I cannot make it move. I have burrowed into a bag of rotting flesh. The stench is so disgusting that I recoil. All around me, things go on as if I were not there.<br /><br />1a)<br />You sit down next to your family, but they have no idea you are there. When you hear the prayers they offer for you, you know they are distracted and bored. When you try to take nourishment from food offerings, they taste like spoiled leftovers. Even if you could consume them, you have no body and cannot. Even though your family is weeping, you feel they have rejected you.<br /><br />1b)<br />The world shifts and fades before my eyes.<br />I am unchanged, but the world and I now part.<br />I am cut off. I am utterly alone. <br />Despair is now my sky and earth. <br />Now matter how I yearn to stay,<br />I cannot remain here.<br /><br />1d)<br />Nothing is solid, permanent or true.<br />I am parted from my body.<br />I feel no density<br />Nothing is rough or smooth, heavy or light.<br />Now matter how I have yearned to stay,<br />I cannot remain.<br /><br />1c)<br />You cannot stop. The winds of thought and longing, fear and desire drive you on. <br />Your mind races from place to place. Whatever you imagine instantly becomes real.<br />For a moment you are happy, but at the slightest flicker of doubt or further yearning, you find yourself elsewhere.<br /><br />1d)<br />Like a vulture I float above the dappled plains.<br />I am a king surveying his vast and peaceful land.<br />I am a silver salmon leaping upstream through the sparkling spray,<br />The armored warrior shouting in battle, brandishing a spear,<br />A hermit contemplating all of time from within his cave,<br />I am a rabbit darting through the underbrush.<br /><br />1a)<br />I: an oak tree on a hillock, a purple water lily, a bonfire, smoke,<br />A thundercloud, a rattlesnake,<br />A great blue whale calling in the depths.<br /><br />(1a<br />I am the goddess of love, floating in perfume,<br /><br />1c)<br />While below, men and women walking through the city as the sun sets<br />Exchange passionate glances.<br /><br />1d)<br />I am a merchant selling rubies, a banker counting gold,<br />An idle courtesan, a farmer harvesting wheat,<br /><br />1b)<br />A child in the darkness waiting by a gate,<br /><br />1c)<br />An old man gasping for breath,<br /><br />1a)<br />A starving woman at a butcher’s stall,<br /><br />1b)<br />A weary mother, an officer who strikes a boy.<br /><br />1d)<br />I am a man in a basement being tortured with molten iron.<br /><br />1c)<br />Ceaseless thinking moves you everywhere. You are a child of illusion. You fly through worlds on wings of craving and hatred. Nowhere can you find rest or peace. As your mind turns, you change. Though you may long for a dwelling place, your ever-grasping mind moves onward leaving world after world behind.. Your emotions are so intense and solid; you cannot stop. <br /><br />1d)<br />All your thoughts pursue you<br />As shadows, beasts and armies of demons.<br />Worlds collapse as you leave them.<br /><br />1a)<br />You are deafened by mountains crashing down, <br />You hear oceans roaring as they devour the land. <br />Forest fires spread crackling behind you <br />And tornadoes howl at your back. <br /><br />3 a,b,d alternate)<br />I am drowning.<br />I am buried alive. <br />I am falling from the summit of the sky. <br />I am battered, driven on the timeless winds of hope and fear <br />Like a dead leaf in a hurricane. <br /><br />1c)<br />O child of illusion, there is no peace.<br />If you could recognize such worlds and beings<br />As projections of your own thoughts,<br />As shadows cast by the light of your own wakefulness<br />You could indeed find peace.<br /><br />1b) *<br />But now you are climbing through an endless mountain range. Sometimes landslides of ice block your way. Your hands are cut as you clamber over them. Your legs are bruised, and your knees are raw and bleeding. The misty air is freezing and so thin. Desperately, you gasp for breath. Often you collapse. You wake and press on.<br /><br />1a)<br />O Worthy Child, these unconquerable snow mountains<br />Rise from the energy of your endless striving.<br />They are the projections of your own mind. <br /><br />1d)<br />That dissolves. Now you are on the edge of a vast desert. Dunes of white sparkling sand extend to the horizon in every direction. At first, the warmth of the sand is comforting, and the hot sun is a relief. But soon, as you trudge forward, your skin begins to burn. Parched and scorched, you clamber up one wave of sand after another. Your skin is flayed by the sharp glittering crystals. You long for cool water. The sense of craving and impoverishment that you have clung to through life after life keeps you going. Again something flickers in your mind.<br /><br />1c)<br />O Worthy Child, this boundless burning desert<br />Extends from the energy of your endless wants.<br />It is the reality projected by your own mind.<br /><br />1b)<br />Now you encounter a mob of exhausted men and women milling at the entrance to a narrow bridge. Their faces are hollow-eyed, and blank, their bodies skeletal and ashen. You are now among the dead. They push and jostle, each absorbed in his or her own anguish. They push you forward. You see that the bridge is really just a single rope strung across a boiling torrent of living blood, filled with corpses, severed limbs and heads, pus and excrement. You grasp the rope and pull your way hand over hand across the stream. You dare not look down. You feel your wrists and fingers being pulled apart. Your shoulders are separating from their sockets. You force yourself on out of the naked will to survive. For an instant, you pause.<br /><br />1c)<br />O Worthy Child this bridge is build from the concepts of good and evil<br />That you held to so that you might not be destroyed in the torrent of life.<br />It is a reality created and maintained by your own mind. <br /><br />1a)<br />Exhausted and in agony, finally you reach the other shore. Two armored soldiers seize you by your arms and legs. Their bodies are human, but one has the smooth head of a serpent and the other the horned head of a deer. Before you know it, they have dragged you into an enormous hall. This vast cavern is dense with greasy smoke and burning blood. It vibrates with the screams and moans of men and women in chains, some being beaten, others whipped, and still others being thrown in boiling cauldrons.<br /><br />Hordes of ghostly people struggle to escape. You look this way and that for a way out. Then you see, on a dais of skulls, the paralyzing form of Yama, the King of the True Law, the Lord of the Dead. You want to turn away but you cannot.<br /><br />1d)<br />Like a seething mass of thunderclouds. <br />The Lord of Death is black and fills the whole of space.<br />He has a huge belly and a thin neck. <br />His wild strands of crimson hair are tied on top of his head. <br />His eyes are glassy and his iron teeth bite his lower lip. <br />Waving the record of your past actions, misdeeds, and neglected possibilities, <br />He shouts: “Beat him” and “Kill him”. <br />He rips off the heads and pulls out organs from living beings nearby. <br />Licking his lips, he consumes them. He glares at you.<br />You feel you are dissolving in freezing water.<br /><br />1c)<br />O Child of the Awakened Ones,<br />Through countless lifetimes you have never ceased judging others <br />And fearing being judged yourself.<br />Formed from past habits and future inclinations. <br />Your body has never been permanent or completely real. <br />You cannot be cut apart or killed. <br />Your body is the vivid form of emptiness as is the Lord of Death himself. <br />This is the display of the awakened state, <br />Appearing from itself to liberate itself.<br />This is the spontaneous play of mind.<br /> If you recognize this, liberation dawns suddenly and without effort.<br /> *<br />1b)<br />“I am helpless and without a friend.<br />“Please now be a refuge for me.<br />“Protect me; defend me;<br />“Keep me from the endless darkness of the bardos.<br />“Turn aside the hurricane of karma.<br />“Protect me from fear of the Lord of Death .<br /> <br />1a)<br />But even as you pray, the Lord of Death holds up a vast crystal mirror. You see yourself, your life, everything that you have thought and done. Your goodness is clear. You see your acts of kindness and generosity, But you see the smugness with which you performed your good deeds. You feel your sense of superiority and condescension licking you like a cold flame. <br /><br />In the great mirror of the Lord of Death, you see how you deceive yourself and others. You see the hidden ways you have taken advantage of others and worked only for your own good. You see how you parade your virtues as masks for greed and lust. You hear your innumerable excuses for not helping. You hear your casually hurtful words, and see your sly disrespect to those who only tried to help you. You see every callow flirtation and loveless lechery. <br /><br />You cringe. But still, you want to defend yourself. You want to justify your motives and your deeds. But you see that such a wish is just another crime. There is no escape.<br /><br />1b)<br />“Now, I am naked and alone.<br />“The projections of my mind torment me<br />“And the winds of my past habits and deeds will not let me rest.<br />“Now oh great awakened ones<br />“Let your great compassion radiate like an unerring sun.<br />“And give me refuge in your luminous expanse.”<br /><br />1c)<br />You think this, but you long to escape the consequences of what you have done. It is then you notice soft lights rising like a soothing rainbow from around the base of the King of Death’s horrific throne. Your eyes are drawn to them. These lights are the paths that open to re-birth in the six realms of birth and death.<br /><br />1a)<br />Soft billows of gray smoky light<br />Rise from your resentment and outrage<br />At the implacable judgments of life and death.<br /><br />Within the shifting clouds,<br />You see the faint outlines of great palaces of ice and fire<br />Teeming with beings torturing and being tortured,<br />They cut and boil living flesh<br />They break and splinter living bone.<br />This is a world of consciousness uninterrupted, <br />And endless pain.<br /><br />You rage and anger will solidify as rebirth here<br />In the excruciating half-light of Hell.<br /><br />1d)<br />Luxurious beams of golden light<br />Rise from your countless hungers<br />Born from the desire to find satisfaction beyond the limits of life and death.<br /><br />Within the gilded light,<br />You see the faint outlines of enormous trays of food<br />And huge pitchers of wine.<br />Innumerable beings flitter amongst them,<br />Eating endlessly but never satisfied.<br />This is a world of craving that will not end.<br /><br />Your hunger and thirst will solidify as rebirth here<br />In the starvation of the realm of hungry ghosts.<br /><br />1a)<br />Gentle rays of shimmering green light<br />Glow in the stillness as you long to forget<br />Loneliness and the fear of life and death.<br /><br />Within this verdant glow,<br />You see the shadows of safe burrows, caves and tree-top nests.<br />Animals sniff the air and join their kind.<br />Fish gather like silver clouds in the warm green sea.<br />Birds migrate and fill the skies<br />Relying on instinct alone.<br /><br />This is a world where intelligence is asleep,<br />And life is not burdened by implications.<br /><br />Your ignorance will solidify as rebirth here<br />In the eternal repetitions of the animal realm.<br /><br />1c)<br />O Worthy Child, these are the three lower realms. Anger, desire and ignorance shape these worlds and occupy the minds of those who dwell there. Hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals constantly repeat these states of minds and their consequences. Compassion and insight are momentary if they occur at all. The possibility of liberation from the projections of your own mind are scant and rare. O worthy Child, do not let your aspiration collapse. Now please rouse yourself.<br /><br />1b)<br />“Quickly please send out the power of compassion<br />“May compassion rouse the clarity in my heart.<br />“May great compassion protect me in the torrents of ceaseless change.<br />“Lead me that I may see the pure radiance of true love.”<br /><br />1c) <br />O Worthy Child, please turn your mind to the lights of the three higher realms.<br /><br />1a)<br />Jets of bright vermilion light<br />Shoot from towering pyres of jealous ambition<br />As you wish to surmount the conditions of life and death.<br /><br />Within this blazing light,<br />You see walled cities<br />Filled with warriors and heroes<br />They study, plan and perfect their skills.<br />They hone their valor and their strength.<br />This is a world of envious striving.<br /><br />Your envy will solidify as rebirth here<br />In the heroic struggles of the Jealous Gods.<br /><br />1d)<br />Silken waves of soft milky light<br />Waft from the vast expanse of lordly pride<br />As you desire to transcend the conditions of life and death.<br /><br />Within this pleasing light,<br />You see jeweled palaces and gardens<br />Where gods and goddesses live out their long lives<br />In infinite bliss, infinite consciousness,<br />Infinite power, and formless contemplation.<br />This is a world of all that can be attained.<br /><br />You pride will solidify as rebirth here<br />In the self-absorption of the Realm the Gods.<br /><br />1a)<br />Finally, rays of pale sky-blue light<br />Rise from the endless exertions of the human realm,<br />Born from your desire to find escape from life and death.<br /><br />Within this kindly light,<br />You see seas and mountains, rivers, towns and farms,<br />Alive with men and women struggling,<br />Laboring and learning, and seeking myriad forms of happiness<br />Within the turmoil of the passions.<br /><br />Your five primordial impulses solidify as rebirth in the human realm,<br />In the uncertain endeavor to find liberation.<br /><br />1c)<br />O Worthy Child, rest for a moment and look:<br /><br />Within each smooth beam of light,<br />Within each sound:<br />Minute spheres of radiance shimmer like dust motes in the air:<br />Sparks of white, yellow, red, green, blue:<br />Luminous spheres,<br />A myriad of Buddha realms<br />Brilliantly alive and pure.<br /><br />Look: <br /><br />Each sphere is a perfect mandala<br />At whose center dwells the essence of awakened mind.<br />An infinity of awakened ones,<br />Calling out, inviting us<br />To enter, to join in this pure moment.<br />Where awareness and compassion<br />Expand beyond the limits of space and time.<br /><br />Let all thoughts and confused emotions dissolve<br />Join in the light of wakefulness,<br />And take birth in those pure realms.<br /><br /><br />1d)<br />O Worthy Child, <br />Your fear, your uncertainty, your longing, your opinions<br />Flicker and change.<br />There is no stable ground except in the light of empty awareness.<br /><br />If you cannot resist the soft lights <br />Of the six realms of birth and death,<br />Follow the blue light of the human realm<br />And find a good birth there.<br /><br />Worthy Child, please remember:<br />As the Buddha, the Awakened One has said:<br /><br />“All sufferings and all pleasures<br />“Arise from the mind, dwell and decay there.<br />“All arise from struggling to make the unstable idea of a self <br />“Continuous, independent and permanent. “ (6)<br /><br />Look now, look at your own mind.<br /><br />1a)<br />Through all that you have experienced since you died,<br />Through all you experience later,<br />Primordial wakefulness, awareness itself has never altered.<br /><br />Now, if you rest awake and without distraction,<br />You abide within the luminous emptiness of mind’s ceaseless display.<br /><br />If you rest there without following thoughts, <br />Without hope or fear,<br />Then there is complete wakefulness.<br /><br />1d)<br />At the time of death, <br />You cannot be saved by a Buddha<br />Or anything outside yourself.<br />Your own awareness is primordially enlightened.<br />It is luminous, empty and unconstrained by thoughts of any kind.<br />Rely on this.<br /><br />1c)<br />But, O worthy Child, if you cannot resist the lights <br />Of the six realms of birth and death,<br />Enter the blue light of the human realm<br />And find a good birth there,<br /><br />1b)<br />Continuing on,<br />Moving between known and unknown,<br /><br />1a)<br />Now you see towns, cities, farms.<br /><br />2c)<br />Among the myriad beings living there,<br />Now you see a man and woman making love.<br /><br />2a&c)<br />Drawn to them,<br />Now you re-enter a realm of birth and death.<br /><br />1d)<br />You lose consciousness.<br />The pain and claustrophobia are unbearable,<br />As winds, heat, solidity and water<br />Press together.<br />The four Great Elements unite<br />To shape your body and your mind.<br /><br />1b)<br />Ah,<br />I am born,<br />Naked, wriggling, gasping,<br />Crying for love<br />Desperate to be secure.<br /><br />2a&b)<br />We are born.<br /><br />2a&c)<br />We move forward as infants, children,<br />Adolescents, young women and men.<br />We cannot stop.<br /><br /><br />2a&d)<br />We raise our children.<br />We age, sicken, die.<br /><br />1a)<br />I know nothing outside the needs and terrors,<br />The wordless desires that rise in my mind<br />From all the demands of living here.<br /><br />1b)<br />Moving between known and unknown,<br /><br />1c)<br />But like the echo of a vanished song;<br />Like the imprint of lightning in the night;<br />Like the memory of a half forgotten dream,<br />Or a yearning unfulfilled,<br />The light of the awakened mind<br />Filters through each moment here.<br /><br />(starting w/1a, each in sequence)<br />Spring does not know summer.<br />Children do not meet the adults they will be.<br />Autumn does not know winter.<br />Men and women cannot imagine the elders they will be.<br />Nor what will happen when we die.<br /><br />2a&d)<br />But even now, may we awake<br />From the coils of blind imagining.<br /><br />2b&c)<br />Even now may we awake<br />From the ceaseless dream-confusion of this torrential life.<br /><br />tutti)<br />May the Awakened Ones bless and guide us<br />In this time, in this place, in this very life.<br />May we find, may we return<br />Into the primordial light of boundless love.<br />May we now see the face of the Awakened one<br />Which is our own true face.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />EPLOGUE<br /><br /><br />SOLO VOICES CHORUS<br /><br /><br />Voice<br /> Voice continuing<br /><br /><br />Continuing<br /> Continuing longing<br /><br />Longing<br /><br /><br />Imagining<br /> Imagining Breath<br /><br />Breath<br /> Longing. <br /><br />Imagining <br /><br />Breath <br /><br />Continuing<br /> Longing breath continuing<br /><br />Continuing<br /><br />Voice<br /><br /> Continuing love<br /><br />Love<br /><br /><br />Voice<br /><br />Love returning voice. <br /><br />Voice.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />PERFORMANCE NOTE<br /><br />The section between * beginning “Now you are climbing” through * on p.18 ending “suddenly without effort” were omitted In the NY performance.<br /><br />GENERAL NOTES<br /><br />(1) Tibetan Book of the Dead-Trungpa/Fremantle;Shambhala ’75);<br />(2) Adapted from Sacred Tibetan Teachings- On Death and Liberation G. Orofino tr.; Prism Press 1990 P.31)<br />(3) adapted from p. 40; Trungpa/Fremantle<br />(4 )ibid p.42<br />(5 )adapted from (1)p.122. Longchen Rabjam, Nyoshul Khenpo:A Marvellous Garland of Rare Gems Padma Publishing 2005)<br />(6) the entire section on becoming adapted from Tulku Thondup- lecture on 8/06 in Boulder, Co, and Peaceful Death Joyful Rebirth 5,pp.85-18; Shambhala Pubs 2005<br /><br />General References:, Fremantle: Luminous Emptiness;; Sogyal Rinpoche:Tibetan Book of Living and Dying; Crystal Mirror ;Erik Pema Kunsang tr.Treasury of Sublime Instructions; The Tibetan Book of the Dead tr. Gyurme Vajra, tr., Viking 2005; Tsele Natsok Rangdrol:Mirror of Mindfulness , Rangjung Yese Pubs 1990; Teachings on Bardo; Orgyen Kusum Lingpa;<br /><br /><br /> © 2007 Douglas Penick, 18550 Folsom Street #606, Boulder, CO 80302Douglas J. Penickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07283200052716389528noreply@blogger.com0