Sunday February 27
*
A glimpse
forth on the way to the span
to the leading light of my long day
slight gentle beautiful determined bright one
patiently making her way
she firmly alone firmly herself
to quietly remind me
that not so far away
for she I we two
our warm and bright future day
And to her then to say to tell
of the way southeast of Jol
over Yak La on the way
to Yangtze Dri chu
To gaze upon Mount Padma
blazing white immensity
rising above slopes
of dark green forest
seeming to come more from
the depths of radiant blue sky
as a lotus from a lake
Then over three passes
the long descent
Look beautiful one
it's the Yangtze Dri chu again
and there below us
Tongtaling Gonpa
place of Gelukpa lineage
We arrive our eyes to rest
within warm golden glow
of butter lamps
upon charts of wonder
observations of millennia
guiding the course through time
with stars eternal
Beside them four
fierce guarding kings
glare balefully out at us
from near the great wheel
of rebirth where beings
from all the realms
struggle in existence
gods bask in opulent luxuriance
almost immortal but not quite
still they must return
angry gods
pit their wits
against each other in
eons of eternal strife
until they too must relinquish
their forms
they too to return
the animals living lives
of pain suffering and want
in unpredictable changing world
to which they must return
In a terrible world of darkness
hungry ghosts
flit here and there
in an agony of longing
until they find rest
then return
to existence and a higher form
And in a realm of
of blazing inferno and endless torment
hell beings scream and wail
but the wheel turns
their pain ends
they escape into oblivion
to again return
But the most precious of all the human life
more difficult the wisdom teachers say
to achieve than a turtle swimming through
the sea
to raise it's head
through a single wooden ring
floating upon it's vastness
it most precious because only from here
can one escape from beyond
the wheel's confines
held by Yama the lord of death
clutched in his teeth and claws
glaring out at us
in silent reminder
that until forces of ignorance
greed and rage
are overcome in each and every being
to the wheel of rebirth
they must return
of this Nyingma Kagyupa
Sakyapa spoke
and Gelukpa lineage too
as did Tsongkapha
whose image with practitioners great
stands here among
meditational deities in reminder
just as certain
that for all beings someday
escape to the exalted state
can some day be
their limitless reality
we to contemplate this
as in visage bright
Lord Buddha generous laughs
within the courtyard's light
All this not so wonderful
to my straining eyes
as your gentle serious smile
as beautiful as the rainbow
on a stormy day
with determined beauty
and swift uplifted grace
that endures with patient dignity
this that I see in you
beneath the open sky
on this afternoon
of our winter of working and waiting
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 24
* courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions.
reference material for the poem is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje.