Crazy Saints

[Simple_Jack]

Embodying the role of saintly heretic,

revealing the hypocricies of man,

meshed in throes of hypocrisy;

not bound, not free, no worry:

 

night plum blossoms spreading under a branch

between her thighs narcissus revolves smell it?

 

she'd play with it almost anywhere day and night

touch it with the deepest part of herself

 

a beautiful woman's hot vagina's full of love

I've given up trying to put out the fire of my body

 

a butterfly hovers in front of her face

how long will she sleep

 

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ikky%C5%AB:

 

Eight inches strong, it is my favourite thing;
If I'm alone at night, I embrace it fully -
A beautiful woman hasn't touched it for ages.
Within my fundoshi there is an entire universe!

 

My Hovel trans. by John Stevens

 

The world before my eyes is wan and wasted just like me.
The earth is decrepit, the sky stormy, all the grass withered.
No spring breeze even at this late date,
Just winter clouds swallowing up my tiny reed hut.
Crazy Cloud is a demon in Daito’s line
But he hates the hellish bickering.
What good are old koans and faded traditions?
No use complaining any more, I’ll just rely on my inner treasures.
My real dwelling
Has no pillars
And no roof either
So rain cannot soak it
And wind cannot blow it down
Every day priests minutely examine the Dharma
And endlessly chant complicated sutras.
Before doing that, though, they should learn
How to read the love letters sent by the wind and rain, the snow and moon.

 

Crow With No Mouth versions by Stephen Berg

 

Hearing a crow with no mouth

Cry in the deep

Darkness of the night

I feel a longing for

My father before he was born

~ trans. by Soiku Shigematsu

 

Void In Form

When, just as they are,

White dewdrops gather

On scarlet maple leaves

Regard the scarlet beads!

Form In Void

The tree is stripped,

All color, fragrance gone,

Yet already on the bough,

Uncaring spring!

mirror facing a mirror

nowhere else

the mind is exactly this tree that grass

without thought or feeling both disappear

not two not one either

and the unpainted breeze in the ink painting feels cool

nobody before me nobody after

writing it

nobody knows shit nobody lives anywhere

hello dust!

pine needles inches deep hug the ground

no one lives here

all koans just lead you on

but not the delicious pussy of the young girls I go down on

thirsty you dream of water cold you want fire

not me I want the firm warm breasts and wetness of a woman

a crazy lecher shuttling between whorehouse and bar

this past master paints south north east west with his cock

ten years of whorehouse joy I'm alone now in the mountains

the pines are like a jail the wind scratches my skin

the crow's caw was ok but one night with a lovely whore

opened a wisdom deeper than what that bird said

...Among those who came to him for guidance was Murata Shuko, the most eminent tea ceremony master of the day. Visiting Ikkyu, he was asked what he thought of Master Joshu's well known reference to tea drinking (in spite of their different responses, Joshu invariably said to three monks training under him "Have a cup of tea"). Shuko remained silent, and at last Ikkyu served him a cup of tea.

As Shuko lifted the cup to his lips, Ikkyu let out with a Zen shout and smashed the cup with his iron nyoi (Buddhist implement).

Shuko made a deep bow. "What are you like" Ikkyu said, "when you've no intention of taking tea?"

Without answering, Shuko got up and moved toward the door, "Stop," Ikkyu replied. "What are you like when you've taken tea?" "The willow is green," Shuko said, "the rose is red." Ikkyu, approving of Shuko's grasp of Zen, smiled broadly.

...

http://sweepingzen.com/ikkyu-bio/ - A short bio. Keep note, that "Red Thread Zen" is not an actual Zen lineage and that he had a daughter, not a son.

http://www.whitepine.org/wildways.pdf - Preview of "Wild Ways" by John Stevens

http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/hp/Ikkyu/00ikkyu.htm - Selected poems by John Stevens and Stephen Berg

Edited February 1, 2014 by Simple_Jack

[Simple_Jack]

Flaming Thunderbolt raised triumphantly to the sky,

hearken the crazy fool's words.

A dragon among men, knows not

where his dwelling shall abide.

Alcohol and women, are his divine play;

Going forth aimlessly, right here

in this very spot: liberated in its own state.

 

The Divine Madman: The Sublime Life and Songs of Drukpa Kunley trans. by Keith Dowman, Pg 39:

 

Failing to catch the spirit of the Buddhas,

What use is it to follow the letter of the Law?

Without an apprenticeship to a competent Master,

What use is great talent and intelligence?

Unable to love all beings as your sons,

What use is solemn prayer and ritual?

Ignorant of the sole point of the Three Vows,

What is gained by breaking each in turn?

Failing to realize that Buddha is within,

What reality can be found outside?

Incapable of a natural stream of meditation,

What can be gained by violating thought?

Unable to regulate life according to the seasons and the

time of the day,

Who are you but a muddled, indiscriminate fool?

If an enlightened perspective is not intuitively grasped,

What can be gained by a systematic search?

Living on borrowed time and energy, wasting your life,

Who will repay your debts in the future?

Wearing coarse and scanty clothing in great discomfort,

What can an ascetic gain by suffering the cold hells in this life?

The aspirant striving without specific instruction,

Like an ant climbing a sand hill, accomplishing nothing.

Gathering instruction, but ignoring meditation on the nature

of mind,

Is like starving oneself when the larder is full.

The sage who refuses to teach or write,

Is as useless as the jewel in the King Snake's head.

The fool who knows nothing but prattles constantly,

Merely proclaims his ignorance to all.

Understanding the essence of the teaching , practice it!

 

 

pg. 120-121:

...Meanwhile, Drukpa Kunley was coming down from Nangkatse to look for arrow. He crossed the Phari Tremo La Pass, and descended into the Southern Valleys, a true haven for mankind. At Wodo Rock (between Phari and Paro) he found some travellers camped by the rock, and indicated the door of a cave. Before they slept that night, he heard them mutter, 'Have mercy upon us Lord Demon of Wodo!'

Before the Lama slept he said, 'May I myself be merciful!' In the middle of the night he was awakened by a fierce demon with his hair flying behind him in the wind. 'Who do you have that is so special?'

'I have this!' replied the Lama, showing the demon his steel hard penis. 'Ah! It has a head like an egg, a trunk like fish, and a root like a pig's snout,' exclaimed the demon. 'What strange beast is this?'

'I'll show you what kind of beast it is!' Kunley told him, and swung his Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom at him, hitting him in the mouth and smashing his teeth back into his head. The demon fled, but returned later in a peaceful frame of mind. The Lama explained the Teaching to him and after imposing deterrent promises upon him, the demon was bound to service of the Buddhas. Thereafter, the Demon of Wodo no longer harmed travellers.

Below Shingkharab (towards Paro) the Lama went to a place which he knew was inhabited by a demoness addicted to human flesh. He waited under a tree, and finally the demoness approached him in the form of a beautiful woman.

'Where have you come from?' she enquired. 'From Tibet,' the Lama told her. 'And you? Where is your home and what are you doing here?' 'I live on the pass,' she explained, 'and I come down into the valley to find food and clothing.' 'What do you eat and what do you wear?' the Lama asked her. 'I eat human flesh and wear human skin!' she replied menacingly.

'Then put this on!' said the Lama, unrolling his foreskin and covering the girl with it. 'In future may you be drenched with rain in the summer and frozen by ice in the winter!' The demoness was rendered completely helpless, bound by the Lama's blessing.

Edited February 1, 2014 by Simple_Jack

[Simple_Jack]

The wrath of wisdom's subjugation,

Poor Marpa, Dharma Dodey,

likewise, was spared not;

Samsara, nirvana: not two,

appears as Vajrabhairava's mandala.

Wielding power, mercilessly

destroying the roots of 'self'.

...

 

http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Ra-Lotsawa-Dorje-Drakpa/5461 - bio summarzing Ra Lotsawa Dorje Drakpa's life.

 

http://ralotsawa.com/44-2/ [draft translation]:

 

The Life of Ra Lotsawa

The Enlightened Sorcerer

 

The All Pervading Drumbeat of Fame

The Biography of Venerable Ra Lotsawa, the Lord of Power

 

Ralo replied, “It’s very marvelous. This is the kind of confidence I have,” and he sang this song:

 

I offer to the inseparability, which adorns my head,

of the Lama who is the source of blessing

and the yidam deity who bestows the siddhis.

Turn the mind of beings towards the Dharma.

 

I, Dorje Drakpa, a minor Tibetan priest,

was accepted by the kind guru.

When I received many profound teachings

whatever I saw and heard were like this: [252]

All phenomena are my mind.

The nature of the mind is empty.

It cannot be altered to be good or bad.

So that there is little need to maintain mindfulness.

 

Though there are various mental events and thoughts

They are the natural power of unceasing awareness.

Whatever arises is the movement of the dharmakaya

So there is little need to stop anything.

 

Stillness and movement, stupor and agitation, distraction, and so on,

Are all merely concepts assigned by the mind,

which are in truth without basis or root.

So there is little need to adopt and reject.

 

Whatever is seen is a deity, and whatever is said is mantra,

Thoughts and memories are known to be the play of the dharmakaya

Always remaining within that state,

There is little need to have sessions of meditation.

 

There are a great number of beings in the six existences,

But they are all ones kind parents.

Therefore one maintains benefit for all beings without distinction,

So that there is little need to remain in peace and bliss.

 

Internally there is power over ones own perceptions,

 

Externally there is a rainfall of desires.

and there is the true nature of the power of interdependence,

so that there is little need to abandon distractions.

 

Those to be forcefully liberated, the act of liberating and ones own mind

Appear as separate only as an illusion.

They are not separate in the nature of phenomena,

so there is little need to avoid sorcery.

 

The wisdom of the ultimate is the ‘space’ of the consort.

The great method is to unite with great bliss.

The supreme path of the female companion is swift,

so there is little need to feel guilt over karmamudra. [253]

 

Merely through knowing the natural state,

the five poisons arise as the five wisdoms

The illusory appearance of subject and object vanishes in the essence

so there is little need to rely on remedies.

 

At the time when one knows this,

moving around has the nature of meditation.

sitting still has the nature of meditation.

speaking has the nature of meditation,

eating has the nature of meditation

whatever arises is the mandala of meditation.

 

Maintaining spaciousness one is liberated

And there is no need fro the solidity of remedies.

...

You, a girl who has faith,

If you are practicing Dharma from the heart

There is not much that needs to be said

Just practice as described in this song.

 

All the beings circling in the three realms

Because they are obscured by the darkness of ignorance

Believe there is an I, when there is no I,

Believe there is a self, when there is no self. [261]

 

The fixation on its importance leads to

sinking into the swamp of the five poisons, the afflictions.

Carried away by the waves of samsara, the lower existences,

there is no chance to reach the dry land of liberation.

 

The cause of this is the mind,

The conditions are infallible results of actions.

Therefore all causes conditions and results

Are the manifestations of your own mind alone.

 

The essence of the mind is empty

It is without basis and has no root

But the stains of transitory mental events

Overpower it with the propensities and illusion

 

The karmic results of happiness and suffering are experienced.

They are relative, they are unreal appearances.

Ultimately they have no existence.

They are like dreams and mirages.

 

Happiness and suffering are impermanent

Fame and its absence are also impermanent.

Acquisition and its absence are impermanent.

Honour and its absence are also impermanent

 

Everything is momentary and brief.

They are not permanent or truly existing.

If you examine all the happiness and suffering

that you have experienced until now,

 

even their names, have now ceased to be.

With every instant they change and depart

Therefore, towards illusory appearances

don’t have strong clinging or belief in their reality.

 

If you are happy rest in that happiness;

the essence of that happiness is empty.

If you are suffering rest in that suffering;

the essence of that suffering is empty.

 

All the appearances perceived by the five senses

Each one is naturally empty [262]

Whatever arises in the mandala of meditation

There is no need for tightness, freely relax.

...

There are many who wish to gain

the words of the perfect Buddha

but those who know the way to practice them are rare

The Dharma that is without that deceives beings.

 

Even though the nature of phenomena is primordially empty,

The law of phenomenal cause and results is infallible

If you do not know that true nature

You will not attain buddhahood through emptiness alone.

 

If you do not unite method and wisdom

How can the two benefits ever appear? [299]

 

If the wood, skin and the drumstick don’t come together

on their own there will be no drumbeat.

 

If the father and mother do not come together,

It’s impossible to have a parentless baby.

 

Therefore abandon all the beliefs that come from not realizing the truth,

The beliefs in eternalism and nihilism and so on,

 

First completely analyze the basis

Then apply the medicinal mineral of freedom from doubt

Then practice without error or going astray.

Otherwise there is the danger of being deceived by the Dharma.

Listen, male and female meditators,

If you wish to void errors and wrong ways

When you are practicing one-pointedly,

You should understand the true nature in this way:

 

The essence and wisdom are inseparable

Wisdom is obscured by stains

That is how samsara appears

Buddhas and beings are simultaneous

They have the same nature

In-between there is the nature of karma

 

Karma arises from delusion

Delusion is dependent origination.

From goodness there come good and bad (03262)

From good and bad there ripen results.

Accumulation and purification purifies those.

The result of purification is complete buddhahood.

The practitioner who realizes this [300]

Has realized the meaning free of adoption and rejection

but teaches that karma alone is profound.

 

Be free of the senseless talk of a verbal view on emptiness.

Be free from aspiring for peace and happiness.

Dedicate whatever you do to the benefit of others.

And with non-dual compassion

there will be the effortless benefit of beings.

 

Whatever prayer and words of truth you recite will be accomplished

Whenever you pray you should pray only for the benefit of others.

Whatever you wish for your wishes will be fulfilled..

It will be the splendor of fulfilled desires for beings.

...

I pay homage to the gurus

Kind ones, hold me in your compassion.

Give your blessing that all beings,

who have all been my mother, will attain enlightenment. [310]

Dorje Drakpa, the minor Tibetan priest

Has fully attained the realizations of the two stages

So whatever happiness or unhappiness occurs

I have this kind of confidence and no regrets:

 

Beginning with Darma Dodé

I have slain thirteen vajra holders

Even though I’m reborn in hell, I have no regret,

I have the confidence of knowing that it is an appearance from myself.

 

Beginning with Özer Bummé,

I have had five young consorts

Even if that has become lust, I have no regret.

I have the confidence that it arises as the union of bliss and emptiness.

 

I have meditated on generation and completion as the essence of practice.

I have kept the commitments principally as work

Even though that is said to be conceptual elaboration, I have no regret.

I have the confidence of knowing them to be in union.

 

I have repaired a hundred and twelve temples,

Such as Samye and Tradruk.

Even though I die of hunger, I have no regret.

I have the confidence of having completed the two accumulations.

 

I am continually involved in other activities

Creating the appropriate conditions for all Dharma practice.

Even if I have acted incorrectly, I have no regret,

I have the confidence that I have trained beings.

 

I have served my two kind gurus

Without consideration of fatigue.

Even if no one shows me respect, I have no regret.

I have the confidence of having been their pupil.

 

I have completely entrusted myself, without doubt

In the yidam Vajrabhairava.

Even though people say that this is a heretical practice, I have no regret.

I have the confidence that I have made no error in my choice [311]

 

I have clearly seen the three times without obscuration,

I have manifested all-encompassing miraculous powers.

Even if I have been distracted by busyness, I have no regret.

I have the confidence that I have accomplished the benefit of beings.

Edited February 1, 2014 by Simple_Jack

[RongzomFan]

A lot of people don't even know about Ralo.

 

There is a good bit about him in "Tibetan Renaissance" by Ronald Davidson.

[Simple_Jack]

http://artsandsciences.fsu.edu/In-the-News/Religion-professor-adds-Guggenheim-to-earlier-NEH-fellowship

 

 

"Cuevas, the John F. Priest Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion, will use the grant money provided by his NEH Fellowship for University Teachers, as well as the funds that accompany the Guggenheim fellowship in humanities, to translate from Tibetan into English the biography of one of Tibet’s most controversial Buddhist saints, Ra Lotsawa Dorje Drak (often referred to simply as Ralo)...“Among the most illustrious Buddhist saints of Tibet, Ralo stands tall as one of the most notorious figures in the history of Tibetan Buddhist culture, equal in celebrity to Tibet’s beloved poet Milarepa (1040-1123 A.D.),” Cuevas said. “But whereas Milarepa is viewed as Tibet’s ideal Buddhist contemplative yogin(a master of yoga), who in a single lifetime transformed himself from great sinner to great saint, Ralo is his shadow double.”

Was Ralo, who was born in 1016 and died around 1100 A.D., an enlightened saint or a murderous villain? Nearly 1,000 years later, the answer to that question is still somewhat ambiguous. According to legend, he killed more than a dozen Tibetan lamas, or Buddhist high priests — many of them famous and with large numbers of followers of their own. But according to texts of the Yamāntaka and Vajrabhairava traditions of Buddhist practice that he brought from India and Nepal, translated and then popularized in Tibet, Ralo was compelled to “liberate” those who were on the wrong path so that they could eventually reach a state of enlightenment.

Faithful supporters viewed Ralo’s actions as heroically virtuous, both because they served to promulgate a “truer” Buddhism and to subjugate his enemies.

“He is the paradigmatic sinister yogin, Tibetan Buddhist antihero and wonder-worker, who deployed his magical abilities to defeat his competitors and to gain abundant riches, worldly power and spiritual influence,” Cuevas said. “His achievements, however, were not confined to the promotion of hostile practices in defense of Buddhism but included translations from Sanskrit of major Indian Tantric Buddhist scriptures — hence the name ‘Lotsawa,’ the Tibetan term for ‘translator,’ which was reserved for only the most learned of Buddhist linguistic scholars.”

Cuevas says his translation of “The All-Pervading Melodious Drumbeat” will challenge popular and overly romantic conceptions of Buddhism as a thoroughly pacifist and non-violent religion.

“The topic of Buddhist violence has been attracting a growing audience in recent years, and a few excellent books on the topic have now appeared,” he said. “To date, however, there have been no sustained scholarly studies on the history of Buddhist sorcery and ritual magic. Buddhist sorcery has been a legitimate expression of religious and political action throughout Buddhist history. In Tibet, magic and spiritual warfare have been inextricably tied to conventional Buddhist forms of ritual action and deeply embedded in Tibetan religious ideology.”

Readers of Ralo’s translated biography, Cuevas said, will discover “extravagant accounts of Ralo’s magical exploits, as well as the more conventional episodes in the life of a Buddhist saint — wondrous birth, remarkable childhood, quest for the guru, enlightenment, meritorious works and expansive preaching career.”