{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/tib/chagdud.htm","path":"bud/tib/chagdud.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/chagdud.htm","text":"Homage to Chagdud Rinpoche\nThis poem was written in the Trinity Alps of Northern California at\nRigdzin Ling, the main center of Tibetan Lama Chagdud Tulku. It was\nmy second time there. I had the yurt, a canvas covered, circular\nstructure secluded in a meadow, all to myself. At night the moon\ncast spectacular beams through the plexiglass skylight, spiralling\nthem around the room. On moonless nights the stars were brighter\nthan I'd ever seen. Night was my favorite time. I sat at a makeshift\ndesk, basking in the meager warmth of a little woodstove, brewing\ntea, reading texts, and writing by light of a kerosene lamp.\nThe Buddha of Sawtooth Peak\nby Pema Gonpo\nthe Sawtooth Peaks\nerupt from deep pine valleys\nsquirming against the floating\nblue vibrant sky\ncast in shadow\nof glacial ice and snow\ngrey rock\nreaching for the heavens\nstars are pinlights\nin distant galaxies\npointed at the earth\nat the skylight of the yurt\ndartplayers hurling beams of light\nwith a twitch\na flick of the wrist\n186,000 miles per second\npiercing this tinted bullseye\nan eyeball observatory\nthrough which I swim\ninto aquamarine midnight sky\nsilhouettes of darkness\nridge and rising mountain\na pulsing mass of fuzzy pine\na surry with the fringe on top\na geological freight train\nrising\nslowly steadily unstoppably\nfrom the bowels of the earth\nuntil bursting\nerupting from deep green valleys\nthe Sawtooth Peaks\nholding up the afternoon\nearly spring sky\nI sit alongside the path\nconnecting yurt and house\nacross the footbridge\nover the swirling stream\nthen up the rock steps\nthe steep path to the clearing\nlittle patches of blue\npeek through the clouds\nlike babies fighting sleep\na mosquito hovers\na few inches from my forehead\na bumblebee swings\ntwo tight buzzsaw haloes\nflies away\nreturns twice\neach time 360 degrees\nthe Buddha of Sawtooth Peak\nsmiled upon me today\nI could barely see the haggard form\nsteadfastly meditating\nfor the benefit of all beings\namongst the glaciated boulders\nof the Trinity Alps\nas wind whipped snow\ntransformed the alpine desert\ninto sandstorm fury\nthe Buddha's eyes opened\nin a wide mouth grin\nto bow to the Sawtooth Peaks\nin anticipation of Maitreya\nthe coming Buddha\nof enlightenment\nfor all sentient beings\nI prostrated half a dozen times\nkissing the enlightened earth\nthat blesses me with raindrops\nwhich have flowed unceasingly\nfrom person to air\nto cloud communion of molecules\nthen back again and again\nuniting the three times\nconnecting each thing to the Buddha\nconnecting each thing to the Teaching\nan unbroken verbal lineage\nI stood with my eyes\nupon the distant snowy peaks\nfeeling the strangest truest feeling\nthat the Buddha of Sawtooth Peak\nhad risen from the ice and snow\nand stood in the bitter wind\nto watch over my approach\nto ease my suffering\nby extending a hand\nto see me through to a place\nfar beyond the Sawtooth Range\nperhaps a smaller mountain or a valley\nas a bodhisattva\nserving all sentient beings","title":"Homage to Chagdud Rinpoche","type":"page"}