Sunday March 14
*
A glimpse down
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 swift descent
with Mom’s wagon tearing behind
heavy laden with tree sustenance
as the wind gusts along
above the dry brown grass
sprinkled here and there with glittering snow
and cold earth hard beneath the stumbling feet
not yet awakened to the warmth of spring
A day much like that
in Tibet one thousand six hundred years ago
when just as swift the sustenance of Tibetan mind
came tumbling down upon the palace roof
the first Buddhist texts had come
miraculously from the sky
to land upon Yumbu Lagang
There are some who say
they came thus
others who say they came with great
Buddharaksita scholar of India
no less miraculously through snow covered immensity
trip of stark beauty and peril
to the roof of the world
King Lhatotori Nyentsen held them in his hands
and wondered of their meaning
but knew within his heart their worth
nyenpo sangwa the awesome secret were they
And sometimes he would gaze upon them
when the light had faded from a trouble filled day
to feel serenity emanated
from these sacred writings
He left the world feeling yet not knowing
the power of their import
his mortal coil to sit within the tomb
that looks down from high upon the ridge
to where the texts they fell
to remain for centuries after
five Kings their Queens
came and went until great Songsten Gampo
and his Queens rose upon the throne
and the words within became living truth
to the Land of Snows
We enter in this palace
built anew but recently
in homage to that which was destroyed
to rise up to a terrace
beneath the open sky then to enter
to chapel within
Look beautiful one there are murals here
glowing in colors painted
one to speak of the descent of Tibet’s
first King Nyatri Tsenpo
from heaven at Mount Lhababri
another of an even more wondrous descent
the sacred texts as they fell to the palace roof
still another looks upon the caves of Sheldak
great Padmasambhava arriving there
to quell the demons that they might serve
the new arriving Buddhist faith
Many other faces
look out upon us here
divine compassionate benign wrathful
mutely speaking of the wonder
of the enlightened mind
We rest here for a time in the
warm glow of yak butter lamp
then out to sharp edged mountain light
to look over the terrace
to the northwest figures stoop low
over a field to rise with a burden of soil
for the yak that stands not far
It’s the field of Zortang beautiful one
the farmers way out there seek
it’s sacred essence to bring to life
the fields from whence they come
for in Zortang the first yak drawn plow
pulled through the soil
and the first abundant harvest came
to the people of Tibet
We continue from this place
up the Yarlung for a few miles
to Podrang oldest village of Tibet
thence to the east to Gyatsagye
to where 119 stupas sacred receptacles
stand beside the road
to rise upon the hill nearby
to another greater than the rest
more than twenty feet high towers above us
Takchen Bumpa in awesome stillness
It is said it holds a sacred relic
the left eye of bodhisattva
benefactor of all that lives
Sadra pra rudita
constantly it weeps
for the suffering of beings
in this turmoil ridden world
we rest there in this quiet place
looking at this monument
to the gentlest of grief
in our mind the sound of a spring
flowing from cold windswept stones
gurgles to sustain a weary traveller
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
late in 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
March 11
* courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions.
reference material for the poem is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje.