Dzogchen and Kerouac — Alive with Words

LONGCHENPA and JACK KEROUAC — a Tibetan yogi and a western author — reshaped our world through their writings.

Few authors stir our imagination in the West like Jack Kerouac. Kerouac rewrote the use of language in literature.

Longchenpa in Tibet wafts the same smoke and scent. He established the efficacy of words to express the inexpressible: The Dharmakaya. A state Vessantara described as “unconditioned consciousness, beyond space and time.”

Completed in the early fifties, ON THE ROAD was published in 1957. The true life adventures of Neal Cassady, left (portrayed as Dean Moriarty) and Kerouac, right (Sal Paradise) made icons of both men. Born Jean-Louis Kerouac on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, Kerouac’s native language was French. His early difficulties with English instilled in him an obsession with the use of words to set the stage for memory relived realities. Known as Memory Babe in high school for his astonishing ability to recall events and conversations word for word, Kerouac was also a gifted athlete who went to Columbia on a football scholarship. Already set in a lifetime pattern of refusal to conform to custom or discipline, Kerouac dropped out of football and resolved to spend his life writing. Allen Ginsberg became a lifetime friend of Jack’s at Columbia University.

Published a year after On the Road, THE DHARMA BUMS rewrote my life. Like all of Kerouac’s works, The Dharma Bums is autobiographical, based on adventures with the poet, Gary Snyder (Japhy). Now deeply immersed in Buddhism after a trip to Mexico, Jack (Ray) shares three week old cheese, wine and a boxcar with a “little bum sitting crosslegged at his end before a pitiful repast of one can of sardines.”

          “He ate the cheese and bread and drank the wine with gusto and gratitude. I was pleased. I reminded myself of the line in the Diamond Sutra that says, “Practice charity without holding in mind any conceptions about charity, for charity after all is just a word.” I was very devout in those days and was practicing my religious devotions almost to perfection…I believed I was an oldtime bhikku in modern clothes wandering the world (usually the immense triangular arc of New York to Mexico City to San Francisco) in order to turn the wheel of the True Meaning, or Dharma, and gain merit for myself as a future Buddha (Awakener) and as a future Hero in Paradise. I had not met Japhy Ryder yet, I was about to the next week, or heard anything about “Dharma Bums” although at this time I was a perfect Dharma bum myself and considered myself a religious wanderer. The little bum in the gondola solidified all my beliefs by warming up to the wine and talking and finally whipping out a tiny slip of paper which contained a prayer by Saint Teresa announcing that after her death she will return to the earth by showering it with roses from heaven, for all living creatures.”  – The Dharma Bums

I’m sure that passage had long gone from my mind many years later when my wife, Angelina, and I  began work on our novel PURE VISION: The Magdalene Revelation. Of course I knew who Teresa (Saint Thérèse of Lisieux) was when I took my lunch break from Technicolor movie lab, one block from Times Square. I did not know that the her reliquary was being displayed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. Before I entered the Cathedral’s great vaulted wooden entrance, Angelina had already envisioned the rough outline of a story concerning a terrorist attack on Jerusalem that would frame our proposed plan for peace in the Middle East. What we lacked was a hook, a pivot upon which to focus our story, a hub around which to fashion a plot. So when I realized Teresa’s relics were present, I entered a fervent plea for her intervention, “Give us a hook, please, dear Saint.”

I have spent much of my life either in, or on the way to or from, bookstores. So it was in character for me to swing by Barnes & Noble on my return to Technicolor. There, in the basement, among the New Age and Esoterica collection, was a book I had never seen before — that in itself was amazing. For this fascinating title should have drawn my gaze many times over. THE SPEAR OF DESTINY by Trevor Ravenscroft was first published in 1973, not long after I first read THE DHARMA BUMS, and had been in paperback since 1982. Subtitled The Occult Power Behind the Spear which pierced the side of Christ . . . and how Hitler inverted the Force in a bid to conquer the World, I knew I had the answer to my prayer, and within fifteen minutes! To this day, Teresa is the patron saint of PURE VISION.

When I showed Angelina THE SPEAR OF DESTINY that evening, she understood immediately. The spear shoved into Jesus’ side by the Centurion Longinus to ease his suffering would become the starting point of our narrative.

LONGCHEN RABJAMPA, 1308-1364, and the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (seen here), were students of Rigdzin Kumaradza, a great master of Dzogchen (Clear Light Great Completion). Longchenpa performed the most extraordinary feat in Tibetan Buddhism. He mastered the expression of the infinite through the finite expression of the written word. His father was a tantric yogi. At the moment of his conception, his mother dreamed of a sun placed on the head of a lion, illuminating the world. Kumaradza’s training was strenuous and involved continuous moving from encampment to encampment amidst the most rugged Tibetan terrain. This training instilled in Longchenpa a distaste for traditional scholars and monastics. The day of Longchenpa’s arrival, Kumaradza told his students, “Last night I dreamt that a wonderful bird, which announced itself to be a divine bird, came with a large flock in attendance and carried away my books in all directions. Therefore, someone will come to hold my lineage.” The terminology we associate with Dzogchen today dates to Longchenpa.

His works are available with commentary by numerous prominent teachers. Padma Publishing under the direction of Richard Barron (Lama Chokyi Nyima, shown here with Kalu Rinpoche, from The Chariot For Travelling the Path to Freedom) has done a superlative job. The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena and Longchnepa’s commentary on his own text, A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission, are amazing books.

Reading Tibetan is essential to serious Vajrayana pratice, and without that ability chanting is not possible. Dharma books which do not include the original text will not have lasting value. Tibetan is a surprisingly easy language to learn to read. The key is spelling. You can learn to spell  by first identifying the letters, and then recognizing the accent marks and how they affect the pronunciation. Translating scriptural texts is difficult. The language is cryptic and shadowed with vaguery. The translation team established  by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche is to be commended. The The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena has the Tibetan text on the left hand page and an English translation on the right. A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission is entirely in English with a glossary in the back.

      Just as all light is subsumed within the sun as its source, all phenomena are subsumed within awakened mind as their source –  Longchen Rabjam

The Nyingma (the Ancient Ones) school of Tibetan Buddhism dates to Padmasambhava, Guru Rinpoche. One of the greatest strengths of the Nyingma — a strong lay presence — has served it well in the West. Ngagpas, non-monastic tantric yogis, are an essential element to a strong Dharma community. Many Nyingma teachers have imparted their wisdom and dedication to learning Tibetan and essential Dharma practice through empowerments (wangs) and verbal authorization (lungs). Growing strong communities without the cultural and mental entrapment of monastic vows  has been effective in the West.

Faith is the great engine which drives spiritual progress. “Go,” said Jesus, “Your faith has healed you.” The man recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road. (Gospel of Mark 10:52)

RIGDZIN JIGMA LINGPA (1730-1798), born over 400 years after Longchenpa, had faith. His faith transformed Buddhism in Tibet, and his faith continues to transform the world. Jigme Lingpa’s devotion to Padmasambhava was so strong that, one night in 1757 while engaged in a solitary retreat, he entered a deep meditative state after crying passionately because he was not in Guru Rinpoche’s presence. In a state of luminous clarity, he experienced himself flying a great distance on the back of a white lion. He arrived at the Bodhnath Stupa in Nepal and was met by a wisdom dakini who gave him a small, beautiful casket before vanishing. Inside were five rolls of yellow paper with dakini script as well as seven crystal beads. At the urging of another dakini, Jigme Lingpa swallowed the rolls of paper and the crystal beads. When he returned from his state of Ultimate Union (sungjuk), he understood that the Longchen (Great Expanse) Nyingthig (Heart Essence) teachings and realizations, entrusted to him many lifetimes earlier by Guru Rinpoche, had reawakened in his mindstream.

Om svabhava shudda sarva dharma svabhava shuddo ham.

All Dharmas are pure in nature and I am pure in nature.

Several years later, Jigme Lingpa had three pure visions of Longchenpa. In the first vision, he received the transmission of both the words and meaning of Longchenpa’s teachings. In the second vision, he received the blessing of Longchenpa’s speech and was empowered to propagate his teachings. The final vision imparted to Jigme Lingpa the vast wisdom mind of Longchenpa and the vast power of his enlightened awareness: Longchen Nyingthig.

Seven years would pass before Jigme Lingpa passed the sadhanas to students. Rigdzin Dupa: The Assemblage of Vidyadharas (Eight Enlightened Masters), Yumka Dechen Gyalmo: The Queen of Great Bliss (Yeshe Tsogyal), and Senge Dongchen: The Lion Faced Dakini form the foundation practices of these powerful teachings. Padmasambhava/Guru Rinpoche lives in these practices — his mind, his power, his Pure Vision — available to all those who receive the empowerment and verbal transmission to practice from authorized teachers in the Longchen Nyingthig lineage.

Many wonderful and learned books have been written about Guru Rinpoche/Padmasambhava. Tulku Thondup Rinpoche is an authority on the Longchen Nyingthig. In addition to Hidden Teachings of Tibet he translated the two Longchen Nyingthig texts pictured above, The Queen of Great Bliss and The  Assemblage of Vidyadharas. Also, Blessing Power of the Buddhas: Sacred Objects, Secret Lands by Norma Levine provides a refreshing overview of Guru Rinpoche’s power within the context of real life adventures. Norma Levine knew nothing of Buddhism in the early 1970′s when she was traveling to Northern Scotland to visit a friend. She stopped over at Samye Ling, the first Dharma Center in the West founded by Akong Rinpoche and Chögyam Trungpa. Her “overnight” coincided with the first visit to the West by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, a giant (literally) of the Nyingma lineage. She stayed for two months, never made it to Northern Scotland, and figuratively never left Samye Ling.

Khenchen Palden Sherab (1938-2010) and his brother Tulku Tsewang Dongyal (born 1950), from the Kham region of Tibet, have been tireless and ever-cheerful teachers. Their father, Chime Namgyal, was also a Lama. Therein lies the great strength of the Nyingma family. Together they founded Padmasambhava Buddhist Center in the Catskills of New York with centers worldwide. The many books they authored together form the greatest single body of properly assembled works available to Western students. The Dark Red Amulet on the Vajrakilaya practice exemplifies excellence in Dharma. The sadhana, its history and lineage is introduced. Then line by line, with the Tibetan text and transliteration, the practice is explained. The entire sadhana is then given at the end of the book.

Garab Dorje is the first human teacher in the Dzogchen lineage. He brought the teachings from the pure lands and transmitted them to Manjushrimitra and Padmasambhava. Garab Dorje’s classic text Tsig Sum Nedek — The Three Words that Strike the Crucial Point is presented by Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal in Lion’s Gaze. The brothers present teachings on both Garab Dorje’s text and Patrul Rinpoche’s commentary, The Special Teachings of the Wise and Glorious Sovereign. Patrul was a student of Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu, a direct disciple of Jigme Lingpa, and from him received original transmission of the Longchen Nyingthig.

The portal from the East opened Westward in San Francisco. Two East Coast writers literally blasted the door from its hinges. On Thursday, October 13, 1955, Allen Ginsberg read Howl at The Six Gallery in San Francisco. Words reshaped reality. America hasn’t been the same since. Kerouac portrayed the event in The Dharma Bums.

          Anyway, I followed the whole gang of howling poets to the reading at the Gallery Six that night, which was, among other important things, the night of the birth of the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance. Everyone was there. It was a mad night. And I was the one who got things jumping by going around collecting dimes and quarters from the rather stiff audience standing around the gallery and coming back with three huge gallon jugs of California Burgundy and getting them all piffed so that by eleven o’clock when Alvah Goldbook was reading, wailing his poem “Wail” drunk with arms outspread everybody was yelling “Go! Go! Go!” (like a jam session) — The Dharma Bums

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of City Lights Books and himself an excellent poet — A Coney Island of the MInd – was in the San Francisco audience the night of Allen Ginsberg’s reading. Recognizing Allen’s brilliance and inspired by what he heard, Ferlinghetti decided to publish the poem. Over fifty years later, a feature film, Howl, was made about the event. It includes portions of Allen’s poem which are set to animation. The film is an excellent portrayal and highly recommended.

I was able to hear a reading of Howl myself when I attended the Last Happening of the Sixties at Miami Marine Stadium, December 22, 1969. Allen Ginsberg decided at the last minute to add his father, Louis, also a poet, to his scheduled reading. Miami city officials, still reeling from the effects of a Doors concert earlier in the year when Jim Morrison reportedly exposed himself, refused permission.

Allen was fuming when the reading started. I was among the chilly members of the audience, my own psyche reeling from the death of my mother a year earlier and the Woodstock Festival in August. Howl spoke to me that night, and Allen gave a memorable reading. When he launched into a poem about the Czechoslovakia police state, the stadium manager had heard enough and announced the reading was over. Not for Allen, though. When he didn’t stop, the manager cut the power to Allen’s microphone and turned the stadium lights on full. Jeremiah railed on, screaming. With the music piping in over the sound system finally drowning him out, Allen left the stage to a standing ovation.

A few months later, I was back in Lawrence, Kansas, and not attending my classes at KU. Vietnam was no longer an option. My birth date had received a high number in the first draft lottery. Lawrence Ferlinghetti was in town to do a reading. I went with my friend George Kimball, himself a writer and friend of Ginsberg’s. After the reading, Ferlinghetti agreed to come with us to The White House, the notorious hippie house a block from the campus where George and I lived with a crazy collection of smokers, yogis and dealers. A coterie of Ferlinghetti fans accompanied us. We sat in a circle in the largest room — on the floor, orange crates, rocking chairs and a double bed. The house’s ever present marijuana supply was passing freely. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare . . . I don’t know who started chanting . . . it was de rigueur for the times.

Suddenly, on my left George Kimball sailed a tin of Bugle Boy Tobacco, barely missing the blonde across the room seated on the floor next to Ferlinghetti. “What was that for?” The group demanded in unison. “She was off key,” George replied. The party ended on that sour note. Within minutes the crowd was gone. That same year George was defeated in his run for Douglas County sheriff. He later moved to Boston and became an award-winning sports journalist for the Boston Globe.

Decades later, Kerouac’s and Ginsber’s contributions, beyond the literary, have liberated our thought stream and opened our doors of perception. The Beat Explosion wasn’t about wine and sex, just as Woodstock wasn’t about drugs and music. Words made the difference. Writing for the moment, they wrote us all into a new time.

          Carried by the natural rhythms of thought and speech, and the mind’s capacity to mock the rhythm of what it thinks about–driven mostly, in this case, by the staccato beat of freight trains–some of Kerouac’s sentences roll on for a whole page. — Gerald Nicosia

Jack Kerouac gave us the holiness of the everyday moment. Myriad works have been written on his life and writing. John Tytell, Professor of English at Queens College (CUNY) wrote a classic study of the works of Kerouac, Ginsberg and William Burroughs. It’s an excellent read for fans of these authors.

In The Dharma Bums, Kerouac dramatized a crucial shift in the Beat sensibility: instead of continuing to seek escape from boredom and the spiritually corrupting emphasis on materialism and careers through desperate activity, Kerouac began an inward search for new roots. The Dharma Bums replaces the hysteria of On The Road with a quietly contemplative retreat toward meditation. – from NAKED ANGELS: The Lives and Loves of the Beat Generation by John Tytell

Of the Kerouac biographies, I found The Voice is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac by Joyce Johnson to be the most readable and informed source for Jack’s life and vision leading to On The Road. The author’s insights are authentic. She had a two year relationship with Kerouac and was with him the day the New York Times Book Review of On The Road legitimized his struggles. Memory Babe by Gerald Nicosia is amazing. Herein is contained not only every inning, but every pitch of Jack’s troubled life. Mr. Nicosia is to be commended for his efforts. On the Road: The Official Movie Companion is another must for Kerouac fans.

Thinking about his months away from home, he reminded himself in emotional language that sounds directly translated from his French thoughts, “I hope, little madam, that you realize that destination is not really a tape at the end of a straight-way racing course, but that it is a tape on an oval that you must break over and over again as you race madly around.” –  From The Voice is All.

Jack Kerouac died on October 21st, 1969 in St. Petersburg, Florida after a lifetime of alcohol abuse. He was 47 years old.

KAGYU IMAGES: The Lion’s Roar

Sukhasiddhi                                                                   Niguma

The Kagyu (Lineage of Transmitted Mastery) began with the songs of Dakini’s calling to Tilopa one thousand years ago. Thus began a remarkable odyssey transmitted from Master to Disciple unto this present age. The teachings of the dakini, revealing the nature of mind, are couched in their secret speech: ‘secret’ in the sense of self-secret, naturally discreet, because it only makes sense to those sufficiently awakened to understand. Their discrete terms reveal jnana, the bright lamp of essence-awareness which automatically dispels the darkness of ignorance. — from TILOPA by Tai Situ Rinpoche, perhaps the ultimate Dakini Realm instruction manual, published by Kagyu Samye Ling, Eskdalemuir, Scotland, the first Tibetan Buddhist center in the West.

Three remarkable Kagyu Masters ushered the Dharma westward in the twentieth century. Kalu Rinpoche, the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje and Chögyam Trungpa.

Two Heart Sons followed close behind. Jamgon Kongtrul and Tai Situ Rinpoche have forged close bonds with Western students. Bringing traditional teachings along with a strong command of Enlish these teachers have assured the survival of Tilopa’s legacy.

Today the Kagyu Lineage is identified with Karmapa, the Black Hat Lama. The First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa pictured above on the left was one of three wild yogis who studied under Gampopa, who instituted the monastic tradition that exists to this day. Dusum Khyenpa and his companions were expelled for consuming alcohol and dancing wildly in celebration of a Dakini festival. Gampopa realized his most talented students had been expelled by the master of discipline when he saw the birds flying away from his monastery and the dakas and dakinis departing. He left his retreat cave and chased after the three yogis imploring them to stay.

Dusum Khyenpa eventually became known as Karmapa, Knower of the Three Times, Man of Action. Many miraculous events are associated with Dusum Khyenpa but none more incredible than the letter he left detailing where he would be reborn. Thus Karma Pakshi became the first incarnate lama in Tibet. This sequence has repeated itself now seventeen times. Before Rangjung Rigpe Dorje died in 1981 he left an amulet with Tai Situ Rinpoche. The prediction letter within the amulet led to the discovery of Orgyen Trinley Dorje born in Tibet in 1985.

The Second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi, above, born in 1204, set the standard for intensive mystical mastery we expect of Karmapas. Caught between the demands of conflicting Chinese rulers, Karmapakshi was forced to drink poison, thrown off a cliff and into flames by Kublai Khan. Each time he emerged unharmed forcing the Emperor to recognize his ultimate nobility. While in China he arranged for a giant Buddha statue to be constructed at his monastery, Tsurphu near Lhasa. Upon his return to Tibet he discovered the statue was leaning to one side. He sat in meditation in front of it and, imitating the statue, he leaned to the side. As he slowly righted himself, the statue straightened along with him. (photo by Lawrence Birney)

The 15th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje and the 17th, Orgyen Trinley Dorje.

The most pronounced quality of the Kagyu is the relationship between students and master which is passed on from one lifetime to the next, each recognizing the other. Tai Situ (far reaching, unshakeable) Rinpoche is the root lama of the Karmapa. He was the one given the letter by Rangjung Rikpe Dorje that led to the discovery of the 17th Karmapa. Here they are shortly after their reunion in a wonderful photo from Ken Holmes’ book Karmapa that details the entire chain of events. Ken is a long time student of the Karmapa and Situ Rinpoche and has lived and taught at Samye Ling in Scotland for many years. He has edited the classic books by Situ Rinpoche published there. He and his wife Katia have also translated Dharma texts.

Kalu Rinpoche, a meditation master who lived from 1905 to 1989, was instrumental in training many young incarnate lamas. After studying under the 11th Situ Rinpoche, Padma Wangchuk, he helped train the current Situ Rinpoche, Pema Donyo Nyingche Wangmo. They are shown here together shortly after the Tibetan diaspora in 1959. Kalu Rinpoche spent many years in solitary retreat in the Himalayas before the Karmapa asked him to visit the West and teach the Dharma. He first established a traditional three year retreat program in France. His life story is well told in The Chariot for Travelling the Path to Freedom by Ken McLeod. The drawings of Tilopa and the dakinis Sukhasiddhi and Niguma are from this book which is a must have for Kalu Rinpoche students. Homage to Khyab Je Kalu Rinpoche published by Lama Lodu and KDK Publications in San Francisco is another must. The wonderful photo of Kalu Rinpoche, the Karmapa and Chögyam Trungpa is from this book.

Yangsi Kalu Rinpoche was born September 17, 1990. He was recognized by Situ Rinpoche and made his first visit to the United States in 1995. I was part of the welcoming party when he arrived at Kennedy Airport with his former student, then teacher, Bokar Rinpoche. I had met the previous Kalu Rinpoche and received one empowerment from him. My faith in Situ Rinpoche was complete, but I was apprehensive meeting the new Kalu Rinpoche. After all, we were there to welcome a four year old boy. This was my first experience meeting a young tulku. When they walked through customs the hairs on my arm stood on end. I realized that THIS ACTUALLY WAS KALU RINPOCHE.

No experience to date can match that for confirming the authenticity of Vajrayana teachings. The next month was magical. Bokar Rinpoche gave many teachings and transmissions from the Shangpa Kagyu tradition, and we also shared Kalu Rinpoche’s joy at having a fresh young body. Since the previous Kalu Rinpoche had projected such a stern exterior, albeit with an inner radiance and glow, this new incarnation was a fresh bloom on the rose. (Yangsi Kalu Rinpoche photos by my friend and construction collaborator, Steve Petty from Salt Spring Island.)

In 2011, Kalu Rinpoche visited the United States for the first time since completing his formal training. Unfortunately, he chose not to visit New York. Therefore many devoted students who were closely connected to the previous Kalu Rinpoche were unable to see him during that visit. Hopefully, he will return to the US soon and give teachings in New York at his monastery or anywhere else that he feels is appropriate. In fact, I extend an invitation to teach at my home anytime he would like.

Chögyam Trungpa was a phenomenon. Arriving at Cambridge University from India in the mid-sixties, he perfected his English, learned Western psychology and mastered the culture. After founding Samye Ling in Scotland with Akong Rinpoche he moved on to America, and we are so thankful that he did. Trungpa was a tireless teacher until his death in 1987. He authored close to thirty books which have had a wide impact in introducing Vajrayana to the West. His first book BORN IN TIBET was published in 1966. I read it in the early 70′s. It set me on (as of now) a forty year cascade through the most powerful mental training system on the planet.

The lion’s roar is fearlessness in the sense that every situation in life is workable. Nothing is rejected as bad or grasped as good. But everything we experience in our life-situations, any type of emotion, is workable. From THE MYTH OF FREEDOM.

DRAGON THUNDER: My Life With Chögyam Trungpa by Diana Mukpo, his wife of nearly twenty years, is one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve had in a long time. This is an entertaining view behind the roller coaster carnival of Trungpa’s life. DRAGON THUNDER IS A MUST READ! Chögyam Trungpa: His Life and Vision by Fabrice Midal offers a thoughtful and complete review of Trungpa’s work.

Shambhala was an enlightened society that manifested nonagression. Its geographical location was in the middle of Asia, in the middle, or the heart, of the Orient. The Shambhala society was able to transmute aggression into love. Consequently, everybody in Shambhala attained enlightenment. So they no longer needed to domesticate their animals, and they no longer needed to fight wars. Finally, the whole society, the whole country — including all the buildings — ceased to exist on the earthly plane. This is the story of Shambhala. — Chögyam Trungpa from Midal’s book.

Above all, Trungpa championed the ideal of Shambhala and presented it to the West. Shambhala is a Pure Land, a beyul, the home of the sacred Kalachakra teachings, the Highest Tantra vehicle. In a novel written with my wife Angelina, the  Shambhala teachings are highlighted through a fictional journey which explores their current need in creating peace in the world. PURE VISION: The Magdalene Revelation encourages a closer look at the spiritual forces that infuse the world’s political battles. 

Trungpa’s genius manifested itself in many ways, but none more impressive or lasting than the creation of Naropa University in 1974. Today it is a thriving liberal arts college boasting among other accomplishments, The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. The university was named after Naropa, who was the illustrious abbot of Nalanda in eleventh century India. After an encounter with a powerful Dakini, Naropa recognized his knowledge was useless without wisdom. The Dakini empowered Naropa to seek her brother Tilopa who straightens Naropa out, so to speak.

Our story began with Tilopa, or rather with the Dakini’s call to Tilopa. Feminine Wisdom is mother of the Buddhas. Without the discrete terms of the dakini, teachings revealing mind, the lamp of essence awareness dispelling ignorance’s darkness, known of itself, occurring by itself and lucid in itself cannot be recognized — From Situ Rinpoche’s TILOPA as is the calligraphy below.Tilopa’s Kagyu oral transmission lineage sprang from the discrete terms of the Dakini, Mahamudra, The Great Seal, Wisdom Beyond Knowledge. The punishing apprenticeship he put Naropa through is the stuff of legend. Naropa passed his lineage on to Marpa who carried the teaching to Tibet, he himself undertook three arduous  journeys to India to obtain his treasures. Milarepa, the poet-yogi, earned his mantle through another epic apprenticeship. Gampopa, guru to Dusum Khyenpa, the First Karmapa, studied under Milarepa.

Tilopa’s teachings are summed up in The Ganges Mahamudra, which he emparted to Naropa on the banks of the great river. There are numerous commentaries and translations of this root text but my favorite is found in MOTHER OF THE BUDDHAS by Lex Hixon. Hixon was a great contributor to our modern spiritual dialogue. Born on Christmas Day 1941, he began his studies with Vine Deloria, a Lakota Sioux elder, at the age of nineteen. Six years later he began studying with Swami Nikhilananda, a disciple of Sarada Devi, Ramakrishna’s wife. Hixon’s epic work on Ramakrishna, GREAT SWAN, is brilliant. It is always worth recalling Ramakrishna, as his life in nineteenth century Bengal is an open mirror to Tilopa’s eleventh century India.

The dedicated practitioner experiences the spiritual way as a turbulent mountain stream, tumbling dangerously among boulders. When maturity is reached the river flows smoothly and patiently with the powerful sweep of the Ganges.  Emptying into the ocean of Mahamudra, the water becomes ever-expanding light that pours into great Clear Light – without direction, destination, division, distinction or description.  Tilopa – Mother of the Buddhas.

The Kagyu lineage web has been spun by generations of students standing upon the shoulders of their teachers, who in turn became the students in their next life. A story line like this could only continue with the ability to identify these departed masters upon their return.

The third Jamgon Kongtrul, pictured at left with the 16th Karmapa, was universally loved by all who met him. I had the great honor of taking the Kalachakra and Shitro empowerments from him. His death in 1992, at the height of the search for the 17th Karmapa, was a shock to the entire Vajrayana community.

There is no more serious task for any Karmapa than orchestrating the search mission for incarnate lamas. In 1996 the 17th Karmapa informed representatives of Pullahari Monastery that he had information concerning the rebirth of Jamgon Kongtrul. At the moment the Karmapa handed over the letter containing his instructions, there was a single clap of thunder. The Karmapa himself was only eleven years old at that time!

The Karmapa indicated that the 4th Jamgon Kongtrul would be found south of Tsurphu, the Karmapa’s seat in Tibet. In his exercise book he drew some pictures of the mountains, a river and the house (two storeys with the door facing exactly east) where he would be found.  The Karmapa also mentioned by name several nearby villages and the number of persons in the family (eight). He even informed them of the most auspicious day to begin their search, several months hence. Even so, there were difficulties with the search and the party had to return to Tsurphu for clarification. Perhaps, their faith in an untested eleven year old Karmapa was shaky. The Karmapa seemed to toy with them and merely repeated his instructions. On their return to the area, the group found the fourth Jamgon Kongtrul. The entire story can be found online in E MA HO.

(left) The Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje and the Fourth Jamgon Kongtrul, Karma Lodro Chokyi Nyima in 1996. Jamgon Kongtrul today and Tai Situ Rinpoche (above).

As Tilopa promised, the Kagyu lineage will continue to bring a great deal of both temporal and ultimate benefit to the world.

Read Rolling Stone

I bought my first copy of ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE in London the last week of January 1969, the same week the Beatles performed for the last time together on the Abbey Road studio rooftop. On a newsrack along with SPY the Rolling Stone name jumped out. I bought it, but have no memory of what was inside, or even my own impressions. That was after all the same week my friend Bruce and I saw HAIR on stage and my life changed forever.

But Rolling Stone has continued to chronicle the culture in which my emotional petrie dish has morphed from hopeful amazement to cynic contempt and now back to hopeful amazement.

My generation will, no is, changing the world. Against the Vietnam windmills slowly turning with the Kissinger fumes of Nixonian paranoia Hunter Thompson chronicled a hilarious hipster assault on logic. I remember laughing aloud at the accounts of Nixon’s campaign train rolling through Florida with this out-of-control drug ninja destroying reason. His early articles became FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS.

History was made again in one of the most significant scoops in American publishing history. Karen Silkwood was a chemical technician and a labor activist at an Oklahoma nuclear power plant who blew the whistle on their unsafe and illegal safety measures, shortly before becoming contaminating with plutonium and dying in a car accident. In a 12,000-word article from 1977, Howard Kohn argued she was murdered.

Named after a famed Muddy Waters song Jann Wenner published the first issue of Rolling Stone in November 1967 with $7,500 borrowed from his family. To this day, he and the magazine remain the counter culture gold standard of what we may achieve by remaining true to out inner tune, our own celestial I Tune calling us home. Like Woodstock its not just about the music, although, Ralph J. Gleason has chronicled that aspect admirably.

Sadly through all these years the American war machine has been a steady presence. In 2011 Rolling Stone made journalistic news once again with Michael Hastings scathing portrayal of General Stanley McChrystal, The Runaway General. The story led to McChrystal’s firing and a book, THE OPERATORS which is one of several must read accounts of the absolute idiocy in which America has latched itself to the Afghanistan tar baby at the expense of our nations economic treasure and emotional sanity. LITTLE AMERICA by Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Jon Krakauer’s excellent account of Pat Tillman, WHERE MEN WIN GLORY, tell personal stories against the larger backdrop of national savagery and waste.

War is and remains the greatest evil, and he who has understood the meaning of Christ and his Gospel of human and Christian brotherhood can never detest it enough. Angelo Roncalli, September 9, 1920 – Almost forty years later to become Pope John XXIII

America was firmly set on the lunatic path of gun worship with the Civil War, national Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ensued from which we have not recovered. Nor will recovery be easy. Rolling Stone is uniquely positioned with its credibility with younger and older audiences to step into this breach.

They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us everything from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they’re never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance -
Jackson Browne – LIVES IN THE BALANCE

America began its war persona early. The Mexican War was Ulysses S. Grant’s first. He was not in favor of James Polk’s blatant expansionist expedition. “I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.”

In 1846 he wrote his wife, Julia, “I begin to think like one of our captains who said that if he were the Government he would whip Mexico until they would be content to take the Sabine for their boundary and he would make them take the Texans with it,” from THE MAN WHO SAVED THE UNION: ULYSSES GRANT IN WAR AND PEACE. Like all of H. W. Brands’ books this one is excellent, well written with heretofore unheard nuggets. Sam Grant remains, alongside Lincoln and FDR, one of America’s brightest lights, A Great, Great man. Contrast his earnest, low key dedication to his troops and the cause for which they fought with David Petraeus who actually showed up at a Washington party after becoming CIA chief in civilian clothes with all his military medals pinned to his suit jacket. As General McCauliffe replied to a German request for his surrender when he commanded the 101st Airborne at the Battle of the Bulge, “NUTS.”

Matt Taibi’s July 2009 article “The Great American Bubble Machine” summed up Goldman Sachs and the monetary financial machine as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” This quote became America’s outpouring of our subliminal response to the arrogant, out of control greed which characterizes Wall Street, and for which the criminals have yet to pay a price.

Now Rolling Stone has waded forward into one of the greatest causes for which every spiritual activist must stand firm — Women of Faith against little men with no faith and less vision. This battle has no boundaries, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism all share this problem.

In the November 22, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone Mark Minelli, with a great illustration by John Ritter recounts The Sisters Crusade against the Vatican.

In the 2012 Presidential campaign many of us found ourselves fascinated by Simone Campbell  and her Nuns on a Bus crusade. Sister Campbell, Executive Director of Network, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby has also been been Director of her community The Sisters of Social Services. With a law degree from UC-Davis, Campbell spent 18 years as the lead attorney for the Community Law Center in Oakland, California.  Her battle for Obamacare against American Bishops led to a memorable speaking slot on prime time at the recent Democratic National Convention.

How did it come to this? In 1962 I visited the Vatican for the first time as a child. Never before had I seen such a massive structure as St. Peter’s Basilica, a church that sold stamps and seemingly everything else in a great, crass, shameless display of a tourist economy. But how to explain the huge stadium style bleachers inside the church? The answer was Vatican II. John XXIII opened the doors of the Vatican to allow the heart of Christ to re-enter a cranky, male only club where social compassion was seldom spoken. “He showed His concern for the material welfare of his people when, seeing the hungry crowd of His followers, He was moved to explain: ‘I have compassion on the multitude.’ An these were no empty words . . . “ From Mater et Magistra, Mother and Teacher, John XXIII’s encyclical of 1961 which set the stage for  massive three year review of Church policy, Vatican II.

The definitive biography of Angelo Roncalli, POPE JOHN XXIII: Shehperd of the Modern World, was written by Peter Hebblethwaite. This is a wonderful, easy to read book, with lots of referenced to the ongoing Catholic dialogues from his birth in 1881 until his death in 1963.

Angelo Roncalli was elected pope in 1958 and in four and a half years, through summoning the Second Vatican Council and putting in hand a major revision of the Code of Canon Law. Through his personality and teachings, and his initiatives with world leaders, he gave the papacy a new vision and set before the Catholic Church a new version of its mission to the world. Today many people throughout the world see Pope John XXIII as one of the twentieth century’s most loved and influential figures. From the back cover of the paperback edition, JOHN XXIII: Pope of the Century. Unfortunately, for this edition the font was changed, reducing the page count from 504 to 258. This makes reading the paperback an unpleasant experience. I suggest buying a used hardcover from Amazon.

James Carrroll, a former priest and author of CONSTANTINE’S SWORD: THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS – A HISTORY, reviewed Vatican II in an op-ed in the Boston Globe on the 50th anniversary of the councils opening in October 2012.

For all of Catholicism’s triumphs in America after World War II, the faith was in trouble. . . Roman Catholicism had yet to face up to its complicity in the fascisms of Italy, Spain and various Latin American dictatorships, while the Vatican’s failure to openly oppose Adolf Hitler’s assault on Jews still haunted the Catholic conscience. . .

In books and articles over the years, I have often praised Pope John XXIII. But never has his unpredicted arrival on the Catholic scene held more significance than it does right now, when church authorities have returned to insisting that, in matters of faith and morals, Catholicism bears a God-given mandate never to change. . .

Ever since the Crusades, Catholicism has fervently preached of one war after another that “God wills it”, and the tradition underscored the church’s belligerent Cold War condemnation of communism. But now Pope John questioned the morality of America’s nuclear arsenal,and his council began the astounding transformation of Catholicism into a peace church. . .

Imagine if the other great reform movements of the 1960′s had been rolled back. The civil-rights campaign, feminism, the peace movement, and environmental awareness have all transformed our culture. But the most profound religious transformation of the time was cut short, with implications far beyond Catholicism. Membership in the church, especially in Europe and America, has hemorrhaged. The moral authority of the Catholic hierarchy has been gutted. Priests, at best, evoke pity. Nuns upholding Vatican II are targeted by inquisitors. The magnificent Roman Catholic Church, a millennial font of reasoned faith and aesthetic genius, is on the road to becoming yet another fundamentalist cult. . .

James Carroll is not alone in his bleak reflections on the state of the Vatican State. Matthew Fox, a noted theologian was forbidden to teach theology in 1988 by Joseph Ratzinger and eventually dismissed from the Dominican Order. His criticism of Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI is scathing. Sentimentalism is everywhere integral to Ratzinger’s spiritual sentiment. But, as Ann Douglas has revealed in her weighty study on the subject, the essence of sentimentalism is ‘rancid political consciousness.” Sentimentalism is feeling without care for justice. Nazi concentration camp hierarchy would torture prisoners during the day and return home at night and weep listening to Beethoven. “Scratch a sentimentalist and you find a violent person,” Carl Jung warned. Lurking behind sentimentalism is pent-up rage. Ratzinger whenever he can substitutes the word “charity” for the word “justice.” THE POPE’S WAR

THE POPE’S WAR is not only a view on the Ratzinger Papacy but a truly Christian appraisal of the steps that must be taken to place Christ back at the heart of Christianity. The war on Christmas is real and its being waged by misogynist religious leaders wearing Cardinal’s hats, skull caps and Buddhist robes. It is time to take our faith and place it in the hands of feminine priest, lamas and rabbis. There once was a GOOD POPE, there will be again.

Epiphany-12 Days of Christmas

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” Matthew 2:1-2

The visit of Balthasar, king of Arabia, Melchior, king of Persia, and Gaspar, king of India is now celebrated as the Feast of the Epiphany (manifestation, striking appearance) on January 6th. Magi, priests of the Persian Zoroastrianism faith, were renowned for their mastery of astrology. The word later morphed into the English word magic, with all its connotations.

In the Eastern church this festival is known as Theophany (vision of God) and is celebrated on January 19th because they use a different calender. In any event the post Vatican II Catholic church only uses January 6th in countries that consider this a Holy Day of Obligation. Otherwise it falls on the first Sunday after January 1. The Church of England considers any Sunday between January 2 and 8. As we know, American Protestants hardly remember the magi and consider Veronica a character in Archie comics.

Knowledge of Christianity, or even Jesus, has never been an impediment to those who loudly claim to spring from his spiritual lineage. Witness the charming discussions among certain “Christian” spokes persons over their divine right to carry concealed pistols or assault rifles. Anyone for a game of huckabee?

Christians, from Day One, the first Christmas, have recognized the transcendental nature of Jesus, known as Christ. There seems to be no other point of reference. Western Christianity has reveled in a fascination with persecution and violence. Jews are not alone in this experience. Fellow Christians have been favorite targets of which ever denomination has the latest bloodbath technology. The NRA didn’t invent carnage, they come from a long and proud tradition. The Catholic faith was banned in England for almost three hundred years beginning in the 1500′s. One penalty was to be drawn and quartered. Hung by your neck until almost dead, cut down, your midsection sliced open till your innards spill out. Then ropes are attached to your four limbs and horses pull you apart. Much like what an modern assault rifle does in less time.

It’s easy to see why being a Catholic in England required some clandestine practice. Hence The Twelve Days of Christmas, from December 25 to January 6. This popular song was taught to children to help them learn the catechism (to sound down), doctrinal manuals of the faith.   1- the partridge in the pear tree – Jesus. “How ofter I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it.” Luke 13:34   2- two turtle doves- the Old and New Testament.   3- three French hens – faith, hope, love “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three: but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13   4- four calling birds, the Gospels   5- five golden rings – Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament   6- six geese a-laying – the six days of creation   7- seven swans a-swimming – seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge, to another faith, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, the effecting of miracles, prophecy, and the interpretation of tongues.” 1 Corinthians 12: 8-11   8- eight maids a-milking – the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 5: 3-10    9- nine ladies dancing – nine fruit of the Holy Spirit. ” The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5: 22-23   10- ten lords a-leaping – Ten Commandments   11- eleven pipers piping – the Disciples: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Jude son of James   12- twelve drummers drumming – The Apostles Creed – I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell: The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead: I believe in the Holy Ghost: I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints: The forgiveness of sins: The resurrection of the body: And the life everlasting. Amen.

Christians have not even learned to temper their anger, greed and jealousy in the administration of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, Christendoms holiest site. The Rock of Golgotha and the Tomb, lay within the churches interior, yet the placement of ladders or a chair have led to centuries long feuds. For more on this read HOLY FIRE by Victoria Clark. The title refers to a mystical fire that lights a taper for the Greek patriarch on Holy Saturday during Easter, the longest running miracle in the world. It has been documented yearly since 1106 AD. The Holy Fire ceremony draws the faithful from around the world and profoundly affects all those who attend.”Holy Fire invades the church, a fast-breeding light transfiguring faces, transforming the dark stone space. I hear gasps and cheers and sobs and tears. The emotion is overwhelming, the heat suffocating. Every Easter the ‘miracle’ of the Holy Fire is enacted in front of hundreds of the faithful in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.” Victoria Clark

Paul Badde, whom I greatly admire, has a moving account of the Holy Fire ceremony in his classic book THE TRUE ICON: From the Shroud of Turin to the Veil of Manopelo. This photo from the book shows a Greek monk during the flame lighting ceremony. The Greek patriarch is led by the Muslim guards of the church into the Edicule, the stone building within the church which houses the tomb of Jesus. The patriarch enters alone to cries of Kyrie eleison: Lord have mercy on us. The packed church rocks with the cry of Christos anesti. Christos anesti ek nekron! Alithos anesti. Christ is risen! Risen from the dead! Truly he is risen.

Christ is risen. The resurrected Christ is alive and among us today. Witness the Veil of Manopello. “The Veil of Manoppello is the sudarium of Christ. This is the mysterious second cloth from the tomb of the crucified Christ that John the Evangelist discovered about 40 hours after the death of Jesus-together with another linen sheet, which is today preserved in Turin,” Paul Badde.

For all those who aspire to the words of Jesus, calling themselves Christians or not, the fate of his followers in the world today is precarious. Peril lurks where fools with microphones equate Christianity with the right to carry assault rifles. Danger wears the Devil’s apron in corporate halls where the pay is high and the lives of the working class is devalued. Grave danger extends from Africa’s northern shores to the Sea of Japan. THE BODY AND THE BLOOD is a frank appraisal of the problems facing the Christian  communities in the Holy Land by Charles Sennott, former Middle East bureau chief for the Boston Globe.

John Moschos was a Christian monk who journeyed throughout the areas we now call Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt in the middle of the sixth century. With his companion Sophronius, who later became Patriarch of Jerusalem, and presumably himself lit the Holy Fire, Moschos lived with monks, hermits and ascetics. His travels were recorded in his epic tale THE SPIRITUAL MEADOW written before his death in Rome in 619 AD. This period was classic, the spiritual fervor of the era abounded in mysticism and miracles, Islam would soon sweep through and Christianity would begin its long slow spiral into near extinction in the land of its own becoming. William Dalrymple, a Scots Catholic, became intrigued with the journey after reading about Moschos in Sir Steven Runciman’s HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. He decides to trace Moschos’ footsteps, FROM THE HOLY MOUNTAIN is the result. Today his journey would surely not be possible, so we must be content to accept his witness to the few remaining remnants of a once vibrant Christian presence.

Yet, we must be careful in drawing harsh conclusions from history’s unfolding spiritual web. We must resist the temptation to fault Islam for Christianity’s difficulties in the Levant. Under Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski the National Security Advisor, admits to supplying the mujahideen in Afghanistan with weapons to lure the Soviet Union into an invasion and thereby crippling that country’s economy and political power. The Soviets invaded in 1979 and Carter used that as a pretext to boycott the 1980 Olympics. A trap well set sir, George W. Bush, stepped into the same snare you left twenty years later and now America’s economy is in peril and our political system tettering on the absurd.

The faith and teachings Jesus brought to mankind are unrivaled in their poetic simplicity. Now we must live up to the shining light he held out for us and follow him to the Christ center within ourselves. And we don’t have to kill anyone to do it. With a pure heart and compassion any huckabee can do it.

Merry Christmas – - – 12/24/12

Sancta Veronica Ierosolymitana – The Holy Veronica from Jerusalem

A semi-transparent slide-picture with the face from the Shroud of Turin in front of the image on the veil at Manopello: so called “superimposition” by the Trappist nun Blandina Paschala Schlomer. From THE FACE OF GOD by Paul Badde. This discovery is the single most important development on the planet today. The veil explains the explosive spread of Christianity and why the early followers of Jesus were absolutely convinced he had risen from the dead. So must we today and live accordingly.

His entire life had prepared him for this morning, this trial. For this Jesus had traveled halfway around the world to receive his teaching transmissions in the Himalayas. For this morning he  had returned to Jerusalem, preached the Beatitudes, and confronted the money changers (read here Chase/Citi Bank . . . ). Now he lay wrapped in linen with a byssus-cloth veil across his face. Now, he would link Heaven and Earth, his Spirit one with God/Dharmakaya, his body bridging the Holy Spirit and Man. Never again would men lack proof of the Eternal Nature of Life.

The question is not: Is Jesus unique? The question is rather: How may we follow the teachings of a man who taught the Kingdom of God is within us all? In that scenario the seed syllable of enlightenment resounds within each of us. Remain silent, listen, the hum of prayer will open your heart.

 

 

SHAMBHALA – The Great Mother

Free from my passion

Free from my sorrow

Free from my freedom

I sit and just listen

Poem by Lawrence Birney, Sphinx photo by Paul Brunton from the Special Illustrated Edition of A SEARCH IN SECRET EGYPT.  A map of the twentieth century’s search for consciousness would not be complete without an examination of the extraordinary writings of Dr. Brunton.

I wish to emphasize what I have already stated elsewhere-that I did not seek to teach people, but rather to show them how to direct their thinking inwards, and in so doing, build up an inner life which would enable them to live in constant communication with the spiritual realm while pursuing their normal activity in the market-places and on the busy thoroughfares of the external world. I did not desire disciples, because I wished rather to lead men to the discovery of the Teacher and Guide within themselves, the all-powerful Overself, and so make them the disciples, not of any person or object outside, but of the True Supernal Spirit which resides in the own hearts.  Paul Brunton

Paul Brunton is perhaps best known for his expositions on yoga and his introduction of Ramana Maharshi, the sage of Arunachala, to the world. A SEARCH IN SECRET INDIA is a classic spiritual journey taken in the 1930′s. PB, as his students call him, was a constant companion for me as I roamed America in my VW camper in search of my identity. His seaches in India and Egypt led him to write many books examining the mind, meditation and Western scientific thought.

Ramana Maharshi was born on December 30, 1879 in southern India. After receiving some education at English speaking schools he decided, at age 16, to devote his life to spiritual practice. Know first the I and then you shall know the truth. Ramana Maharshi

There is something in this man which holds my attention as steel filings are held by a magnet. I cannot turn my gaze away from him. My initial bewilderment, my perplexity at being totally ignored, slowly fade away as this strange fascination begins to grip me more firmly. But it is not till the second hour of the uncommon scene that I become aware of a silent, resistless change which is taking place within my mind. One by one, the questions which I have prepared in the train with such meticulous accuracy drop away. For it does not now seem to matter whether they are asked or not, and it does not now seem to matter whether I solve the problems which have hitherto troubled me. I know only that a steady river of quietness seems to be flowing near me, that a great peace is penetrating the inner reaches of my being, and that my thought-tortured brain is beginning to arrive at some rest. Paul Brunton

To help suffering humanity regains its forgotten state of Perfection, Sri Ramana teaches that one should constantly ask himself: “Who am I?” – the Great Inquiry indeed. By stern rejection of all other thoughts the devotee soon finds himself going deeper and deeper into the true Self, and the sidetracking bewilderments of other thoughts ceased to arise. Yogananda -  Autobiography of a Yogi

Nicholas Roerich, whose painting is seen on the cover of Overself, was born October 9, 1874 in St. Petersburg. A talented artist he became a designer for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe. He designed the set and costumes for The Celebrated Rite of Spring. He left Russia after the revolution and settled in London for a time. Like PB he became involved in Theosophy before moving to New York.From 1925 to 1930 Roerich traveled through the Himalaya’s painting and writing. His paintings of this period are the most stunning images of this region and the spiritual foundation upon which the Himalayan region is rooted imaginable. Roerich influenced FDR’s vice president Henry Wallace. The Roerich Pact, an early international treaty protecting cultural heritage, was signed at the White House in 1935.

Roerich was one of the first persons to introduce the land of Shambhala to Western audiences. Shambhala means Source of Happiness in Tibetan. It is a pure land, accessible by spiritual warriors with proper motivation. “Although those with special affiliation may actually be able to go there through their karmic connection, nevertheless it is not a physical place that we can actually find. We can only say that it is a pure land, a pure land in the human realm. And unless one has the merit and the actual karmic association, one cannot actually arrive there,” the Dalai Lama. PURE VISION is a modern, prophetic novel that tells of a journey to Shambhala concurrent with a worldwide march of women to create a universal spiritual capital in the old city of Jerusalem.

The Nicholas Roerich Museum on West 107th Street in New York is one of the city’s hidden gems. As amazing as Roerich’s reproductions are, the large canvases simply take your breath away.

When Roerich first came to this country from Russia in 1920, the world was still reeling from the shock of one of history’s most cruel and devastating wars. The great material optimism that had dominated Western thinking for so long was deeply shaken. Uncertainty and fear were rampant; a new ideology had triumphed in Russia and threatened to engulf the world. For whatever reasons, the upheavals tossed Roerich onto our shores. The results resonate even today. Roerich arrived with ideas that promised stability and the victory of timeless and enduring truths. He brought proposals for utilizing these truths on the way to a spiritually richer future-a future that would see an end to war, a rejection of rampant materialism, and a flourishing of culture. All of this would be accompanied by the power of Beauty, which to Roerich was the fundamental motivating force in the universe. All the qualities that the imagination craves for humanity and for the world-equilibrium, truth, compassion, justice, synthesis-can be seen as expressions of this esthetic power. Any theoretical mathematician who rejoices in the beauty of a newly developed equation can understand this; any scientist engaged in the search for vital life energy can grasp it; any philosopher who dreams of a truly synthetic theory to explain existence comprehends it; and certainly any true artist, whose mind lives in that balance universe, expresses it. No room for theories of chaos here. This source of order, harmony, and synthesis is the Great Mother-the Mother of the Universe-who presides over all, who throws down her banner of peace between battling warriors, who lowers her veil of compassion so that those who have been wrong can ascend and become right. Daniel Entin, Executive Director, The Nicholas Roerich Museum

Nicholas Roerich, left. Paul Brunton, right.

Lennon/Harrison: Music as Consciousness

In the twentieth century two towering figures reshaped the world, it’s meaning and our minds. George Harrison and John Lennon (shown here on Bob Spitz’s excellent account of The Beatles).

Their list of accomplishments is staggering. Simply put, though, George and John introduced Asian culture to Western youth.

In 1966 John was reading The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary. This wonderful book is itself based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead the classic teaching by Padmasambhava, Guru Rinpoche. Tomorrow Never Knows was the first recording made for what became the Revolver album.

To Lennon, the book cried out for a soundtrack. He set this road map to the mind with the ultimate garage-rock conceit; a single chord driven furiously from beneath by bass and drums, with only two shifting modal harmonies up top . . . Tim Riley

Trying to achieve the effect of Tibetan monks chanting John inspired EMI’s engineers at Abbey Roads Studio to develop two new techniques that were introduced on Tomorrow Never Knows. ADT (Automatic Double Tracking) used two tape recorders to capture one vocal and this was coupled with Flanging, a term applied when one of the tapes is deliberately delayed. The song was styled on Indian classical music using the C note as a tonic and dispensing with traditional chord changes. George supplied the drone effect by playing a tamboura.

As radical as the musical concepts on Tomorrow Never Knows it is the thought stream on which the musical scheme floats that reverberate to this day .

Turn off your mind relax and float down stream
It is not dying, it is not dying
Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void,
It is shining, it is shining.
Yet you may see the meaning of within
It is being, it is being
Love is all and love is everyone
It is knowing, it is knowing
And ignorance and hate mourn the dead
It is believing, it is believing
But listen to the colour of your dreams
It is not leaving, it is not leaving

These lyrics, written by John Lennon, inspired by Timothy Leary are actually the teachings of Guru Rinpoche/Padmasambhava, who lived in the eighth century and is credited with bringing Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet.

Padmasambhava was both yogi and magician. He subdued the many wrathful, craved, demonic elements that held dominion over much of the rugged Himalayan ranges. In doing so he secreted many treasure teachings (ter chos) to be discovered by subsequent followers at more appropriate times for the message. The Great Liberation by Hearing on the Intermediate Steps (known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead) is a manual that details the nature of the after-death state  and provides meditation practices to understand the nature of mind and prepare practitioners for travel through the Bardo realms. The first English translation was made in 1927 by Lama Kazi Dawa Samdup and W. Y. Evans-Wentz who wrote the Preface to Autobiograophy of a Yogi.

Bardo means gap; it is not only the interval of suspension after we die but also suspension in the living situation; death happens in the living situation as well. The bardo experience is part of our basic psychological make-up. There are all kinds of bardo experiences happening to us all the time, experiences of paranoia and uncertainty in everday life; it is like not being sure of our ground, not knowing quite what we have asked for or what we are getting into. Chogyam Trungpa – The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Shambhala Dragon Edition

The term ‘treasure-teachings’ is generally extended to include not only concealed ‘earth-treasures’ (sa-ter), but also revelations discovered in a telepathic manner directly from the enlightened intention of buddha-mind (gong ter), and pure visionary experience (dag nang). From The Tibetan Book of the Dead translated by Gyurme Dorje and edited by Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa.

Sung Juk

yuganaddha/unification/union/non-dual attainment of Buddha’s form/wisdom body, union of bliss/emptiness, attainment of clear light mind/illusory body

Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche a Nyingma/Kagyu Lama from Kham who spent twenty years in Chinese captivity. His earnest willingness to transmit the Dharma experience to young Western practitioners will forever be cherished by all who knew him. Kindness is the essence of Dharma. He carried many rare transmissions and passed them on to the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje among others. He exemplified the Guru Rinpoche lineage.

In 1971 George, with encouragement from Ravi Shankar, organized the first rock mega benefit concert at Madison Square Garden for the people of East Pakistan/Bangladesh who had been ravaged by a cyclone and civil war. Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbhar Khan, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan were among the performers. By 1985 over $12 million had been sent to Bangladesh. To this day all sales of the Concert for Bangladesh CD and DVD benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF. In return for your investment you will hear the finest Bob Dylan set ever recorded.

George Harrison gave generously throughout his life to spiritual causes. He exemplifies the Artist/Yogi.

Throughout his life as a closet yogi, chanting served as Harrison’s conduit to the mystical world, his favored method of remaining God-conscious and acruing good karma. In a conversation with Mukunda Goswami, he likened life to a piece of string with knots tied in it. The knots represent a person’s karma from previous lives, and the object of a person’s life is to untie the knots already there in order to be free. However, not being aware of that fact, people tend to create more knots while failing to untie the previous ones. Chanting and God-consciousness, Harrison believed, have the power to untie the knots. The key is accepting the truth of the old axiom “As you sow, so shall you reap.” We have no one to blame but ourselves for the situation in which we now find ourselves, but on the other hand we can earn our way back to daylight through positive actions now. And positive action can be as simple as chanting. As Harrison says in “Awaiting on You All”; “But here’s a way for you to get free/ By chanting the names of the Lord and you’ll be free.” Working Class Mystic by Gary Tillery.

There’ll come a time when all of us must leave here
Then nothing sister Mary can do
Will keep me here with you
As nothing in this life that I’ve been trying
Could equal or surpass the art of dying
Do you believe me?
There’ll come a time when most of us return here
Brought back by our desire to be
A perfect entity
Living through a million years of crying
Until you’ve realized the art of dying.
George Harrison

The time of death arrives for all, uninvited, sudden . . . final.

No tradition has unraveled the intricacies of the death state like Vajrayana (Diamond Thunderbolt) Buddhism. Death and the Art of Dying by Bokar Rinpoche is one in a series of concise elucidations on the principles of Tibetan Buddhism published by Clear Point Press.

In June 1969 Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers, Allen Ginsberg, Petula Clark, Dick Gregory and others joined John and Yoko in their room at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. Their ensemble recording of Give Peace a Chance reshaped history. The citizen activist we see in the Occupy Movement are the organic flowering from John and Yoko’s seed ideas. This is it boys, over the hill. Stop the killing, Do It Now.

Subliminally at least, most of us who are old enough, remember when we first heard Give Peace a Chance. Released on July 21, 1969, three weeks before the Woodstock Festival. I was going to summer school at the University of Kansas and thinking of visiting my friend Clippy in Tuxedo, New York. I hadn’t heard of the festival until I arrived in NYC. I though it was a hoax, nobody could assemble those acts. But Michael Lang did, I had actually attended one of his three day festivals in Miami the previous December. Thank you for that and more, Michael.

In September, 1969 John performed with Yoko, Alan White, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voorman as the Plastic Ono Band at the Toronto Music Festival. Voorman on bass was an old friend from the Hamburg days who also illustrated the awesome Revolver cover.

Mind Games has never been popular with music critics, it’s one of my favorite John Lennon songs.

We’re playing those mind games together
Pushing the barriers, planting seeds
Playing the mind guerrilla
Chanting the mantra, peace on earth
We all been playing those mind games forever
Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil
Doing the mind guerrilla
Some call it magic, the search for the grail Love is the answer and you know that for sure
Love is a flower, you got to let it, you got to let it grow So keep on playing those mind games together
Faith in the future, outta the now
You just can’t beat on those mind guerrillas
Absolute elsewhere in the stones of your mind
Yeah we’re playing those mind games forever
Projecting our images in space and in time Yes is the answer and you know that for sure
Yes is surrender, you got to let it, you got to let it go So keep on playing those mind games together
Doing the ritual dance in the sun
Millions of mind guerrillas
Putting their soul power to the karmic wheel
Keep on playing those mind games forever
Raising the spirit of peace and love For me this song resonates with many of the qualities which I love in Lennon’s music . . . druid dudes . . . the karmic wheel . . .  chanting the mantra peace on earth . . . absolute elsewhere in the stones of your mind.Critics suck! Like what makes you feel good.John Lennon received inspiration from dakinis. His poetic chorus in Number 9 Dream,  “Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé” came to him in a dream.

Dakinis are Feminine Wisdom/Sky Dancers, the guardians of the gates to the Pure Lands. To meet a dakini is to face our own enlightened mind. The great yogis who blazed the paths we follow were all taught by dakinis. Tilopa and Naropa, founders of the Kagyu lineage, both had old hags appear to them and declare that their spiritual attainments which they were so proud of came to naught. Water may wash away stains but never water itself. Perhaps, as Vessantara suggests, “they had so lost themselves in scholarship, that the upsurging forces of inspiration, which dakinis embody, had become dull and neglected. Dakinis are the Dharma felt in one’s gut.”

Simhamuhkha, The Lion Headed Dakini, Sengdoma in Tibetan, was one of the principal teachers of Padmasambhava. Her nature embodies the wrathful force of anger redirected as joy, i.e. enlightenment. Even the most realized teachers do not immediately recognize the dakini, whose ambiguous, semiotic quality accounts for the richness and variety of her lore. Judith Simmer-Brown

Without any production whatsoever, mind itself is the self-liberated dharmakaya within which arises self-liberatred mahamudra: this key, of self-liberated samaya, I possess. Calligraphy by Tai Situ Rinpoche.

This teaching by Tilopa contains the essence of the Kagyu (transmitted mastery) lineage he founded.Tilopa lived in Bagladesh over one thousand years ago, during the day he pounded sesame seed to extract oil, by night he procured customers for a prostitute. Full time, he was an enlightened yogi who trained Naropa who in turn trained Marpa who took the Kagyu transmissions  into Tibet from whence we receive the pure essence of enlightened wisdom from Tai Situ and the Karmapas. For more on dakinis read Dakini’s Warm Breath by Judith Simmer-Brown.The greatest source book for information on Tibetan Buddhism is Meeting the Buddhas by Vessantara (Tony McMahon).Thank you George and John – Life goes on within you and without you.

Aspiration prayer from the Long-Chen Nying-Thig (Heart Essence of the Great Expanse) Assemblage of Vidyadharas translated by Tulku Thondup. Vidyadharas are Knowledge Holders, heart sons of Padmasambhava.

Yeshe Tsogyal, consort and principal student of Padmasambhava. She was the principal steward of the terma tradition that hid spiritual teachings in both physical and spiritual realms to be retrieved by future students. Adverse conditions are the true wealth of the practioner – Guru Rinpoche.

ARABIAN NIGHTS – Alf Layla wa Layla

The lure of Arabia has called to the imagination for thousands of years; mysterious and unfathomable like the Sphinx itself. Now, after the promise of Arab Spring, we watch events unfold and wait. Like the Pyramids, like the Sphinx, like the Libyan Desert – we wait.

Mystery, magic, the supernatural – ‘aja’ib – spells of Orient Arabia have long captivated European minds. King  Solomon – the archetype magi – perhaps, cast the first spell and its taste has lingered since. There is no more formidable evidence of this spell than Alice Coltrane’s 1970 classic album Ptah the El Daoud. She carries on the jazz as mystical search genre that John Coltrane pioneered. With help from Pharoah Sanders this gem is a must for those who experience music as meditation and message. I saw her perform with Carlos Santana, John Mclaughlin and Michael Shrieve in San Francisco. Her over whelming power as an organist and on the harp was unforgettable. She became a student of Swami Satchidananda and Sai Baba and the Swamini of her own Vedanta ashram near Malibu. Much beloved, she died in 2007.

1001 Arabian Nights/Alf  Layla wa Layla remains another classic exemplifier of the lure. Sultan Shahryar, having been betrayed by a faithless wife, is determined to never again fall victim to a woman. So he marries a virgin every day then has her executed the following morning. Over time the empire is runs short of acceptable candidates. Shahrazad, daughter of the Grand Vizier begs her father’s permission to marry the Sultan. Finally he relents, and so the plot unfurls.

After making love with the Sultan on her wedding night Shahrazad begs his permission to tell her younger sister, Dunyazade, one final bedtime story. Shahrazad weaves her intricate tales and carefully winds them into a climatic turning point  just as dawn arrives.. And so it goes for 1001 nights, until the Sulltan rescinds his terrible decree and Shahrazad lives, as do her stories.

Her stories are white magic. They open up worlds that invite reflection. Naguib Mahfouz

Stranger Magic by Marina Warner is a new, intriquing view into the fabled web of Aladdin, Ali Baba, genies and flying carpets with a special focus on how these archetypes have themselves becomes fused in Western culture and psyche. This  is a very good read with wonderful illustrations from the various Arabian Night editions.

The first known copy of Arabian Nights, in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, dates to Syria and the fourteenth century. The first Western translation was in French by Antoine Galland in 1704.

The most popular and successful was by an Englishman, Edward William Lane, which came out in 1841. Lane also authored a definitive Arabic-English dictionary which is still referred to. What makes Lane’s life story so appealing is the view he offers of an Ottoman Egypt as it was even in the early nineteenth century fading away. The voice of women could still be heard in Cairo. Ghawazzi dancers were learned women who could recite poetry, discuss intelligently and dance seductively. The name ghawazzi means conqueror in Arabic, they conquered the hearts of their audience. They gave rise to the belly-dance art form. Awalim (learned females) were the elite among women entertainers, known for thei singing and modest chaste behavior.

Lane was also a scholar and explorer well versed in Egyptology. He made extensive notes and drawings of the ancient Egyptian monuments at the time Jean Francois Champollion’s epic work on the Rosetta Stone was underway.

Edward William Lane, 1801-1876 is the first extensive look at this fascinating man.

I have resided in a land where genii are still firmly believed to obey the summons of the magician or the owner of a talisman, and to act in occurrences of every day; and I have listened to stories of their deedss related as facts by persons of the highest repectability, and by some who would not condescend to read the tales of “one Thousand and One Nights’ , merely because they are fictions, and not written in the usual ploshed style of literary compositions. Edward Lane

Paul Brunton, born as Hermann Hirsch in London on October 21, 1898, traveled in the East among yogis and mystics in the 1930′s and wrote of his experiences. He is rightly credited as an early popularizer of yoga and meditation in the West. After serving in a tank division in the First World War he became a partner in an occult bookstore.

I read many of PB’s books, as he is known to his fans, in the early seventies while crisscrossing the United States, Canada and Mexico in my tan VW camper bus with an icebox, sink and pop-up roof. His writing of the higher mind which he calls the Overself is timeless and deceptively simple. A SEARCH IN SECRET EGYPT was one of my favorites.

Having spent my formative years in Libya from 1960 to 1965 I remain enchanted by PB’s ability to capture the ethereal, nymph-like auara of North Africa.

The nights of Egypt are strangely different from the nights of Europe. Here they are soft-footed, mysteriously palpitant with a host of unsown lives, shaded to an indigo blue whose effect upon sensitive minds is magical; there are somewhat hard, brutally matter-of-fact, and definitely black.

There is now a powerful, fully illustrated edition of A SEARCH IN SECRET EGYPT by Larson Publications, editors of the PB Notebook series.  This collectors edition has many of PB’s original photos. The drawings of the interior of the Great Pyramid are a wonderful assist. As many readers have learned in the eighty some years since PB was fortunate to spend a night alone inside the Great Pyramid his meditation and vision that night are a gift from the cosmos to mankind.

His conversation with Sheikh Moustapha el Maraghi, regent of the famed Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo are central to the book’s message. PB and the Sheikh hold their discussion in the early 1930′s, the world’s view of Islam has much changed since then as has Islam’s view of the West. But the tone of respect and careful appreciation of tradition is one that needs to be heard today more than ever. The formative years of my life in which I spent in Libya provide me deep respect, awe almost, at the obvious deep roots of faith and tolerance within Islam’s core.

Remembrance of God is security for the heart
from Illustrated Secret Egypt

Where do we go now? The Arab Spring swept Mubarak from the Presidential Palace something few thought possible. The Muslim Brotherhood has a member in his place. But the key problems remain. Egypt’s young men face grim economic headwinds and few chances for a healthy relationship with female friends. Forget marriage even, a society that remains unable to accept women as equals is in trouble in today’s world. Spiritual fervor can mask many sins, ask Paul Ryan.

Mary Anne Weaver’s A PORTRAIT OF EGYPT published in 2000 still has valid clues as to what we may expect as this society, with many sores long unbalanced, tries to stabilize itself.

The trail has long threads. In 1994 Naguib Mahfouz, the only Arabic writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature was stabbed in the neck. He was eight-two years old and an open critic of both secret Islamist and government violence.

Speaking openly in a sealed society is risky. A sealed society with no voice for women is doomed in this new world.