This is a 21 part poem that is currently 38 percent finished… I thought that posting it might inspire me to finish it… let me know your thoughts. It’s based on a short text by Terton Padgyal Lingpa, called ’21 Encouragements to Be Earnest’. I feel that some parts need filling out. Which parts seems complete and which parts seem to need some more work?
-Erick
“When you train in experiencing all appearances
as illusions devoid of reality,
If you do not realize that appearances
are the mind, and that all is primordial purity,
How can you express this with conventional words?”
-Terton Padgyal Lingpa
HOMAGE TO ONE’S ONE TRUE FACE,
(your own best friend)…
1.
I wander along the streets, more rain than
concrete, and befriend each growling dog
with a smile which shoots up from my heart.
Green Tara guides the way, past the closed
shop doors perfect in their garage-like equipoise.
At present I hold nothing in my hands
so I don’t have much to offer you
except these mountains of flowers
I’m visualizing right now above me.
There’s more where those came from,
so I suppose I have enough.
The Inner Guide is like a flashlight
in this current pitch-black maze
with batteries that keep going and going.
You’re like a young boy with the
most angelic face
floating on a lake
of goat-milk mixed with sugar.
You seem to me like a power-plant of
purity, that fortifies my natural stream of
goodness.
I hope we all find the right road-signs.
Mind-strength (sems shugs, “enthusiasm”)
is an essential component of the way
to get to the way of the Way of Abiding (gnas tsul).
Numbers are arbitrary, but I still love
them all day long. Learn how to
properly turn on your
flashlight.
2.
You already know that you’re asleep
all the time, so let’s learn how to wake up.
You’re Original Face doesn’t need make-up, really,
but she appreciates it. There’s a proper way
to put it on.
You have to know where to find the nice kind.
When you apply it, do it gently and with love,
like an art-form.
When you’ve finished application,
unfasten the screws on your forehead
and make like a porcelain bathtub.
We’ve got to be the best; we’ve got to
become the best that we actually are.
My watch tells all three times.
Original Face has always been pretty,
but now she’s caught your attention.
There’s light-houses in her eyes.
They tell you better than a map.
I’m glad that heaven is even in my
dirty concrete floor. The Isle of Gold
ain’t no vacation spot —
it’s a year round cruise
with a non-stop celebration of timelessness
right on deck.
Original Face builds up pressure
and lets loose like an ongoing pinata burst
streaming forth from the peak of Mt. Kailash.
I never learned how to put on make-up
but everyone discovers their own method of
adornment.
3.
The other day I walked right past
a horse on the street, and didn’t notice him.
What the hell?
He was sick, and wandering. Why didn’t anyone help him?
I didn’t even see him.
Did he learn how to tame himself?
Still,
he definitely can do some things I can’t.
Real freedom
must be better than Kyoto, Portland, and Kathmandu combined. Oh, it’s got to be, of course.
Times infinite.
There’s always that uncomfortable feeling
lurking right underneath the surface.
No one likes it, be we all know about it.
Not to mention the real hard pain.
Medicine is available on the market, but
you’ve got to be a smart consumer. Some of those will make you worse… I can promise you.
Even sick horses have qualities to admire.
Original Face knows how to operate
all the right electronics
and brings us to our destination.
Thank you for boarding your precious body,
pretty as a penny made of pearl.
Gigantic straws lower themselves
to help you suck out the essence. You might
as well do it now. These flights are
hard to come by. Have you seen the rates these
days? This is like a concreted
drop of preciousness.
4.
It’s hard to light a match in the wind —
That Difficulty: that sums up how I feel
sometimes. I know you feel that way too.
Sometimes you’re the match, and I’m the wind, sometimes I’m the wind
and you’re the match.
Impermanence has an expedited service
these days. Joyful perseverance needs a
forceful tone, like a deep pumping base that gets you going.
Look straight
ahead — the other shore is definitely there.
Who needs all this STUFF?
I want to collect really extraordinary things.
5.
There’s varying degrees of energy
–let’s call them gross and subtle–
all dancing along a bigger spectrum.
The farmer knows what he’s planting with
an exactitude of certainty. I want to be
like that, with my actions. EVERY THOUGHT IS A
SEED.
Qualites, they do wax and wax;
Insights, they do drip;
From merit’s jar they fill the mind
and form a lovely ship.
Don’t forget that seeds are seeds
A good farmer knows his needs.
6.
Happiness looks boring to most people.
Suffering seems like a big party.
There’s got to be something wrong w/ our discernment.
I made love with a beautiful girl yesterday.
I was the form of air and space
And she was a fire, blooming forth into flame,
ready to ignite —
I was just the right space.
Her colors, blue and orange and red
are engraved on my retina.
That kind of thing
can to be hard to shake off your mind.
7.
It’s funny how it all comes down to
your attitude. everylivingbeingprecious
everyoneanopportunity
… I’m sticking the head of my ego in the sand
and admitting that
everyone’s the same as me.
8.
bad habits are like the most sticky kind of
invisible substance out there. It feels like
there’s black snakes of strange tendencies wrapped
up in loops
upon loops
in my stomach. It feels like
the oozy residue of stupid actions,
thoughtless words, careless impulses <<<
it feels like it’s so thick it’s taking over.
I want to be rid of all this now.
I know I can do it with some help.
The Timeless Friend acts as my witness. Thank you.
I come clean with all my bad actions
I vow to do my best never to repeat them
And I am a vessel, a jug, ready for the
steeping, ready for the flooding
with that sweet old
nectar of deathless purity juice
….
oh
my atoms are shiny AH
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