The New York Times on the Sixth Dalai Lama
by Danny Fisher
The New York Times today offers a piece about His Holiness Tsangyang Gyatso, the Sixth Dalai Lama of Tibet, and his home town of Urgelling in India. Take a look.
Unorthodox to say the least, the Sixth Dalai Lama wrote some of the most remarkable erotic poetry you’ll ever read. Over at the Tricycle Editors’ Blog, editor and publisher James Shaheen posts one powerful example (translated Rick Fields, Brian Cutillo, and Mayumi Oda):
That girl who’s stolen my mind—
If we could be together forever—
Like the joy of finding a jewel
Deep in the depths of the sea.White teeth smiling.
Brightness of skin.
On my seat in the high lama’s row
At the quick edge of my glance
I caught her looking at me.Doing what my lover wishes
I lose my chance for dharma.
But wandering in lonely mountain retreats
Opposes my lover’s wishes.
By drawing diagrams on the ground
The stars of space can be measured.
Though familiar with the soft flesh
Of my lover’s body
I cannot measure her depths.When I held the jewel in hand
I didn’t know its worth.
When I lost it to another
The wind of loss howled in my chest.If young girls never died
There would be no need to brew beer.
At such a time
This is a young man’s surest
Source of refuge.The arrow of fortune is shot.
It strikes the target
Or buries its tip in the ground.
Since I’ve met my new lover
My heart flies after her all on its own.Meditating, my lama’s face
Does not shine in mind.
Unbidden, my lover’s face
Again and again appears.First, best not to see.
Then mind won’t be captivated.
Next, best not to become intimate.
Then mind won’t be trapped.
Unorthodox, perhaps, but the East isn’t as puritanical as we Americans. I think that any Dalai Lama’s “job” is to be himself and not fit himself into a box of expectation.
It’s nice, I think, that the 6th Dalai Lama got all that sex stuff out of his system, allowing the current incarnation to focus more on taking care of the business of keeping Tibetan culture alive.