Friday, November 22, 2019

12 ½ Crippled Verses





Twelve and a Half Crippled Verses 

Prostrations to the revered Lama and
to the Vajra Skygoers.

Human body: attained.
Sense faculties: complete.
Age: young.
Dharma: encountered.  What miracles.

Precepts: the best.
Lineage: good.
Compassion: mastered.
Master: encountered.  What miracles.

Directions: known.
Business: given up.
Retreat: staying.
Put into practice.  What miracles.

Staying alone.
Devoted to meditation.
Anxieties: few.
Preserving experiences.  What miracles.

Relaxed and unwound.
Immovably settled in meditation.
Dharmabody seen.  What miracles.

Nothing to meditate.
Made a habit.
Become real.
Meditation and post-meditation the same.  What miracles.

No root or foundation.
Doubts seen through.
Self-reification revoked.
Awakening attained.  What miracles.

Voidness realized.
Compassion arisen.
Aspirations achieved.
Benefit for others done.  What miracles.

Beggar-monk Zhang.
Directions: skilled.
Distracting doubts: cut off.
Words: abundant harvest.  What miracles.

Disciples and sons
Are very loving,
Listen to what I say,
And keep pure commitments.  What miracles.


Little Non Sequiturs

Prostrations to the revered Lama and
to the Glorious Vajra Skygoers.

For incomprehensibly many aeons
without leisure in body, speech and mind,
they tried to do all sorts of virtuous things
and meditated on the profundity of voidness.
But if they did not serve a Lama
it was all like churning water in hopes of butter.
With no one else to tell them about it
they would never find their birthright, The Innate.
“It is to be known through relying on the interventional 
methods of the Lama and through ones own merit.”

This ever-clear Full Knowledge
has been concealed in the vase of partiality.

This naturally-arrived-at precious quality
has been encased in the mud of inimical anxiety.

The horse of our muddied awareness
has been hobbled in quotidian activity.





  • The source of the first is Zhang G.yu-brag-pa, Bka'-'thor-bu, p. 576, while the second starts at p. 637, line 7.  For more about the author, see New Works on the Works of Lama Zhang. Before anyone complains about it, I'm aware there aren't even 12, let alone 12 and 1/2 verses. Thanks to Dominique Townsend who reminded me about them.  The photos were taken in the winter of 2013 in Himachal, at McLeod Ganj.


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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMonday, December 02, 2019

    It is amazing how a couple of anonymous pictures can carry one's heart immediately, and effortlessly, more than 40 years back in time, and straight to the right address.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DanWednesday, December 04, 2019

    Dear Anon., I would say ‘Some things never change.’ But actually, even those some things do change over the aeons. I think I know what you mean about McLeod, those photos could have been taken any year in the foreseeable future or distant past. Best wishes for the holy days. Yours, D.

    ReplyDelete

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