Sunday February 29
*
A glimpse
across the open sky
to the light of my long day
slight gentle beautiful determined bright one
firmly alone firmly herself
to quietly remind me
that not so far away
for we two
our warm and bright
future day
and to her then to say to tell
of the Yarlung Valley at the beginning of time
when a monkey romping among the fields
met an ogress from the mountain's height
compassionate light hearted was he
amiable in his heart’s wisdom way
generous big as the flower filled field
terrifying was she with a look
as that of shriven rocks tumbling toward the maw
of the deepest crevasse
clinking together in an icy wind
with her own dark wisdom of the
impermanence of living beings
Unlikely a pair were they
and yet so inevitable their play
gamboling across the vast flowered field
as the deities looked on amused
in their houses of eternal stone
in day when sharp edged light shone upon
turquoise lake through sky azure blue
and through the stars that gleamed so bright
through the vastness of the mountain night
Thus it is that Tibetans came from
this chance meeting on a wondrous day
for they gave rise to the six clans of Tibet
The Se, the Dong, theTong, Ba, Da and Mu
to carry their joined wisdom in their hearts
to grow and flourish in a later day
when conditions favored its expression
Look beautiful one there in Mount Zodang Gongpori
it’s a cave over a thousand feet into the sky
for the Monkey expansive in his way
boundless in his compassion
created in this their fantastic home
statue of him stands there still
formed naturally from the rock
perhaps made by she who prone in grief
sleeps upon the high plateau
her form lying there to create
perilous places of fear and woe tamed only by
the fabled Queens
Bhrikuti Wen Chen Monzam Tricham
and the great King Songsten Gampo
with Padmasambhava to work his shamanic magic
to hold the demons there in thrall
to the Buddhist faith so natural
to Tibetans that lived there
with the wisdom of the ogress who slept there still
and the monkey who incarnated again and again
to see the generations through
and rest upon his frightening one
Then to look upon five stone pillars
a bridge once were they
A cast iron span over the stone
its length some eight hundred feet
over Brahmaputra roaring there
in the depths below
From Tsetang to the valley of On
In the thirteen hundreds
TangTong Gyelpo
engineered such marvelous things
these monuments to his unsurpassed skill
remained for six hundred years more
until the twentieth century
Thence to the valley of On to
Ngari Tratsang ruins of monastery fortress there
it once contained treasures Tibetans stole
from the center of Asia
when the ogress once in their heart’s held sway
before they took to the path of peace
And Choding monastery of great renown where
some earliest statues of Tibet reign still
resplendent in their finery
Not far from here the Chabtang village
with its five sacred receptacles its stupas
on their platform shaped in the shape of the letter L
and a tiger’s lair once a terrifying place
that became a wisdom refuge of Padmasambhava
and Yeshe Tsogyel
to become a place of the mantra of the reverent voice
as mesmerizing in it resonance as
the tiger’s bloodcurdling roars before
Thence to return south to a magical place
the hermitage Tashi Doka
where once sculptor Tashi from a celestial realm
offered his brilliant skill
to the Tsongkhapa the great lama founder
of the Gelukpa lineage
and to create in but a day seven magical images
into which then Tsongkhapa left
bits of his hair as relics there
He shaved his hair each and every time
Tashi got one finished
seven times in all that day
But on a remarkable day more still
an encounter higher on the hill
as Gedun Drupa humble monk
made his way to Tsongkhapa’s cave
to become Tsongkhapa’s disciple there
and Tibet’s Dalai Lama I
the monkey had returned to earth
And so we rest here for awhile
beneath the swaying willows
to look upon a shimmering spring
All this not so wonderful
to my straining eyes
as your determined beauty
and uplifted patient dignity
this that I see in you
on this cold morn
of our winter of necessity
Lotus blossoms rest
upon the window sill
and so we wait
two as one
we our effort
real and lasting
slight gentle
beautiful one
February 23
* courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions.
reference material for the poem is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje.