Sunday June 13
*
A glimpse up
toward the span
to the leading light of my long day
slight gentle beautiful determined bright one
patiently making her way
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 ascent steep from Derge
along the Zi chu sparkling
past Kosado gorge
and a humble Sakya monastery
far into Dangla Zelmogang
on the pass they call Tro la
more than three miles high into the sky
between lofty crags
covered with snow
silent but for sound of wind
grunting yak
and thunderous avalanche
Far below our gaze
in glorious panorama
the Yangtze Dri chu flows
dark blue in it's steep valley
carved in the living rock
for we now stand
between it and Yalong Dza chu
more than forty miles northeast from where
inked block presses upon
hand made paper
to form the wondrous texts
of the Derge Parkhang
Then to descend Tro la
leaving forest lands behind
towards a place of grassland vastness
swaying flowing in the wind
to suddenly see before our eyes
in ancient hand carved script
upon a small flat stone
a prayer for all that lives
left here a hundred years ago
but it was not the first placed here
Look beautiful one
another and still another
thousand upon thousand here
we are at a sacred lake
magical in splendor for
everywhere we look
carved mani stones adorn
Yilhun Latso's crystal shores
yet this is not all its wonder
For before the vision
of the trained mind absorbed
in perfect contemplation this lake and shore
transform themselves into
a mandala a design wondrous
of the sacred palace of deities
Cakrasamvara and Vajravarahi
blue with four faces twelve arms wrathful
incredible yet not inherently existing
attainment of the transcending mind
Then down to the grassy plains below
to the town of Manigango
and the Dzochen monastery of Yazer Gon
where Derge Yilhunpa Sonam Namgyel
accomplished what so few have
complete attainment of self guided transition
from one incarnation to the next
leaving behind naught but nails and hair
within his humble abode
and a blaze of flickering coloured lights
to fill the sky as he went on
to his next existence in the mortal form
not an ancient myth long past
for this wondrous thing took place scant more
than fifty years before
our arrival at this place
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 uplifted gentle dignity
that endures with patient grace
this that I see in you
beneath the open sky
on this mid afternoon
of our spring 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
June 8
* courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions.
reference material for the poem is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje.