558 WEATHERMEN: Underground radical extreme confrontation-protest antiwar SDS splinter group engineered pot-convict scientist Dr. Timothy Leary’s over-the-wall departure from half-ounce grass-bust twenty-year sentence to California prison.
558 EAST HILL: Highest point Otsego County, N.Y., 2,400 feet near Cherry Valley town (pop. 300).
Guru Om
561 PRANAYAM: Yogic conscious breath attention practice.
561 NITYANANDA: Swami, guru to Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa, from whom author received meditation instruction at time of writing.
562 SAMSARA: World of illusory suffering, or existence seen as condition of suffering.
562 ASANAS: Yogic postures.
562 KUNDALINI: Energy wakened by yogic practice. See The Serpent Power, by Arthur Avalon (New York: Dover, 1974), celebrated early exposition-translation by Westerner.
Milarepa Taste
565 MILAREPA: “Cotton-clad” Himalayan yogi poet, early father of Kagyu lineage, Tibetan Buddhist hero, author The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, trans. Garma C. C. Chang, 2 vols. (New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1962).
Bixby Canyon to Jessore Road
(1971)
Bixby Canyon Ocean Path Word Breeze
569 MUDRAS: Sacramental or yogic hand gestures, bodily or psychologic attitudes.
570 BEEDLE: Beetle, or beadle: church official who bears the mace. See Blake, Songs of Innocence, “Holy Thursday”: “Grey headed beadles walked before / with wands as white as snow / …”
September on Jessore Road
579 JESSORE ROAD: At time of author’s visit, millions of Hindu refugees from East Pakistan communal strife crowded starving in floods on this main road between Bangladesh and Calcutta.
582 SUNIL POET: Calcutta poet Sunil Ganguly (Ganghopadhyay), with whom author traveled Jessore Road, in company with American Buddhist student and poet John Giorno.
IX
MIND BREATHS ALL OVER THE PLACE
(1972–1977)
Sad Dust Glories
(1972–1974)
Thoughts Sitting Breathing
597 OM MANI PADMI HUM: (Sanskrit) “Hail jewel in the lotus,” Tibetan mantra for compassion practice, each syllable penetrating its equivalent among the six worlds pictured in Time Wheel Mandala: Heaven Realm, Human Realm, Hungry Ghost Realm, Hell Realm, Animal Realm, Angry Warrior Realm, transitory delusive states of consciousness, all revolving on the axle of vanity, greed and ignorance. The poem explores the cycle thrice. See illustration to poem.
597 CORD MEYER: CIA officer responsible for covert subsidization of international intellectuals’ opinion-making organizations and periodicals, 1950s–60s Committee for Cultural Freedom, Encounter magazine, etc.
599 DHARMAKAYA: Buddhist term—kaya: realm, world or body; dharma: truth, law or nature. World of absolute, in the sense of totally accommodating open space, nondiscriminating ultimate reality, equivalent to the nonconceptualizing awareness of ordinary mind.
“What would you do if you lost it?”
600 RINPOCHE CHöGYAM TRUNGPA TULKU: (1939–1987) Rinpoche, honorific title for lamas: “precious jewel”; Tulku, one of succession of teachers “reincarnated” or trained in specific lineage teachings. Chögyam Trungpa, the author’s Vajracharya, or Mantrayana-style meditation practice master, born in Tibet, abbot of Surmang Monastery, is presently director of Vajradhatu Buddhist Centers and Naropa Institute. See his Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, 1973, and First Thought, Best Thought (108 poems), with introduction by Allen Ginsberg, 1984, both Shambhala Press, Boulder.
600 TANTRAS: Buddhist texts for Mantrayana practice mode.
600 HAGGADAHS: Hebrew liturgy, Passover Seder service.
600 ZOHAR: Kabbalist-gnostic theosophical work expounding Pentateuch mysteries.
600 KOANS: Extrarationalistic riddles for nonconceptual mindfulness and “nonlinear” awareness used in Zen meditation practice with a committed teacher’s guidance.
600 DHARMAKAYA … NIRMANAKAYA … SAMBHOGAKAYA: “body of truth” (absolute Buddha nature), “body of creation” (earthly or grounded Buddha form) and “body of bliss” (visionary communicative aspect of Buddha as speech).
600 PADMASAMBHAVA: Founder Tibetan Buddhist Nyingma or “old sect,” A.D. 747 author of Tibetan Book of the Dead.
600 DR. SAMEDI: Traditional Vodun presence in Haitian graveyard, dressed as described.
600 BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI: Founder of U.S. Hare Krishna movement, spiritual friend of author; died 1977.
600 FILES ON NY POLICE AND C.I.A. PEDDLING HEROIN: See section “Narcotics Agents Peddling Drugs,” including “Brief bibliography of news reports showing that narcotics agents, federal, state and local, the bulk of each group, are themselves involved in dope trafficking,” pp. 63–70, and “CIA Involvement with Opium Traffic at Its Source,” pp. 71–97, Allen Verbatim, ed. Gordon Ball (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974). See also Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (New York: Harper & Row, 1973).
601 JOE BOZZO & HARRY HAINES: Respectively, reputed 1930s mob boss, Paterson N.J., and publisher of Paterson Evening News.
601 MOUNI: (Sanskrit) Wise man, sage, sometimes vowed to silence.
601 TOM VEITCH: American poet (b. 1941) See his Death Collage, (Berkeley: Big Sky, 1976), with afterword by Allen Ginsberg.
601 IBM 135–35: During U.S. invasion of Vietnam, world’s largest computer located at Nakon Thanom Airbase, Thailand, directed “electronic battlefield” Indochina bombing.
601 IGLOO WHITE: U.S. project to destroy supply trucks and people moving down Laotian Ho-Chi-Minh jungle trail, 1967 on. Sensors, implanted on ground or suspended from trees by air drop, sent electronic messages to aircraft overhead, for relay to central computer control station. Then flying gunships equipped with low light-level TV systems and infrared detectors were directed to strike area.
601 DRAGON-TOOTH: Plastic pellet bombs which devastated football-field-sized areas.
601 FUEL-AIR BOMB: Scattered a powder gas which exploded after penetrating underground caves and shelters used by Viet Cong.
601 BODHISATTVAS: Who take Four Vows: (1) Sentient Beings are numberless, I vow to liberate all; (2) Obstacles are countless, I vow to uncover all; (3) Gates of Dharma are innumerable, I vow to enter all; (4) Buddha path is endless, I vow to follow through.
601 BHUMI: (Sanskrit) World, realm, among graduated stages of awareness. For Ten Bhumis, see Gampopa, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, trans. H. V Guenther (Boulder: Shambhala Press, 1971).
601 RUNG: (Hebrew mystic term) Realm or state of attainment.
601 OM AH HU?: Trikaya mantra of body, speech and mind.
601 A LA LA HO: Salutation mantra.
601 SOPHIA: Gnostic wisdom goddess.
601 SOHAM: Pranayama breath mantra, “I am.”
601 TA RA MA: Mother Tara, Hindu-Buddhist compassion aspect goddess; also, a female Buddha.
601 OM PHAT SVAHA: Mantra of offering to affective spirits. See D. L. Snellgrove, Hevajra Tantra (New York: Oxford, 1959). (For traditional use, consult lineage teacher.)
602 MARPA … GAMPOPA: Kagyu order, early Tibetan lineage teachers. Marpa the translator (1012–1096), farmer-yogi; Milarepa (1052–1135), yogi-poet; Gampopa (1079–1153), consolidator of teachings, author guidebook, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation.
602 TRUNGPAYE: Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, a current bearer of Kagyu teachings.
602 NAMASTAJI: Intimate Indian salutation.
602 BRAHMA: Formless aspect of Hindu trinity with Vishnu, Preserver, and Shiva, Changer.
602 SURYA: Vedic sun god, much like Occidental Apollo.
602 INDRA: Chief Vedic god, rain-lightning-thunder.
602 BOM BOM! SHIVAYE!: Mantra of offering cried out, often at cremation grounds, by cannabis-smoking saddhus to grace a chilam (clay ganja pipe) before inhaling.
602 RAM NAM SATYAHEY: “Ram’s name is the truth,” traditional chant of Hindus bearing corpse litter to Ganges cremation ground.
6
02 GANIPATTI: Or Ganesha, four-armed, elephant-headed Remover of Obstacles, god of wisdom, prudence and learning, son of Shiva and Parvati, whose vehicle is a rat.
602 OM SARASWATI HRIH SOWHA: Traditional mantric invocation to goddess of music, learning and poetry.
602 ARDINARISHVARA: Hermaphrodite-bodied Hindu divinity.
602 RADHA: Krishna’s consort.
602 HAREKRISHNA: Krishna, seventh of nine avatars of Vishnu, lord of preservation. Hare may be shakti of Krishna, consort, or spiritual-bliss potency of supreme person of universe.
Who
603 WHO: Reply to request from Who’s Who for self-characterization.
Yes and It’s Hopeless
604 HALF MILLION COMMUNISTS ASSASSINATED: Indonesian slaughter accompanying 1965–1966 overthrow of President Sukarno, political coup influenced by U.S. business intelligence.
604 SLAUGHTER … MEXICO CITY: Refers to 1968 machine-gun massacre of 1,000 student protesters at Tlatelolco Square, a clean-up of political dissidents preparatory to Olympic festivals. See also “Birdbrain.”
What I’d Like to Do
610 NAROPA’S SIX DOCTRINES: Psychic Heat, Illusory Body, Dream State, Clear Light, After Death State, and Consciousness Transference; see Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, W. Y. Evans-Wentz (Oxford, 1967).
610 KITKITDIZZE: Wintun Indian name for tarweed, bear clover or mountain misery, dark green shrub varying 3–15 inches in height, tarry touch and smell, belonging to rose family. Typical ground cover, western slope Sierra ponderosa pine forest. Poet Gary Snyder’s Sierra household is named Kitkitdizze, after this common plant, Chamaebatia foliolosa.
Mind Breaths
616 AH: Calligraphy by Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, 1978. Symbol of Tibetan Buddhist Kagyu order; one syllable summary of Prajnaparamita Sutra; mantra for purification of speech, and appreciation of space; related to Samatha meditation practice, mindfulness of outbreath; a vocalization of the outbreath.
617 SANGHA: (Sanskrit) Community of Buddhist practitioners.
618 BO TREE: The ancient pipal, Ficus religiosa, or sacred fig tree, in Bodh Gaya, India, under which Buddha meditated till enlightened.
Flying Elegy
620 SKANDAS: (Sanskrit) The five “heaps” of experience or psychosomatic aggregates of individual personality, namely: form, reaction-sensation, feeling-ideation, cumulative habit pattern, and apparent consciousness, which compound the transitory energies of ego.
620 SUNYATA: Emptiness, nonmind, or awareness devoid of egocentric projection.
Jaweb and Allah Battle
622 SNAKE COCK AND PIG EAT EACH OTHER’S TAILS: Symbols of anger, vanity and ignorance at center axle of Time Wheel Mandala. See illustration, p. 588.
622 CALLER OF THE GREAT CALL: According to Barbelo-Ophitic myth of Garden of Eden, the snake (as caller of the Great Call) was Sophia’s messenger to waken awareness in Adam and Eve. Sabaot, archon of their aeon, was but seven-aeon-times-removed reflection of Sophia’s first thought. See Hans Jonas, Gnostic Religion (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963). Refer also to “Plutonian Ode,” note to verse 16, Sabaot.
622 STERN GANG IRGUN: Terrorist groups under British mandate, fought for Zionist cause.
622 AL FATAH BLACK SEPTEMBER: Terrorist groups after Israeli sovereignty, fought for Palestinian cause.
623 MEYER LANSKY: U.S. organized-crime chief reported to’ve supplied guns to Zionist terrorist/freedom fighters. Retired to Israel for years, was deported back to U.S. after public scandal, 1972, and arrested for income tax evasion.
623 MY FATHER HAD A COFFEE SHOP IN JERUSALEM: See poem “Write It Down, Allen Said,” in Clean Asshole Poems & Smiling Vegetable Songs, Peter Orlovsky (San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Poet Series #37, 1978), pp. 118–20.
623 COMMENTARY: American highbrow crypto-Zionist right-wing ideological journal edited by ambitious early prose critic of Kerouac’s poetic prose, later hawkish proponent of military hard-line hardware equated as alternative discipline for supposed loose 1960s national morals including public acknowledgment of gaiety.
623 PALESTINE REVIEW: Pro-Palestinian journal.
624 SHEMA YISROEL ADONOI ELUHENU: End of Hebrew chant: “Rejoice, O Israel, the Lord is one, the Lord is God.”
624 LA ILAH …: Sufi chant: “There is no god but Allah.”
624 HU: Sufi mantric out-breath.
624 SHALOM! SHANTIH! SALAAM!: Hebrew, Sanskrit, Arabic for “Peace!”
Sad Dust Glories
627 KENJI MYAZAWA: 20th-century Japanese poet, trans. Gary Snyder among others.
628 SHOBO-AN: Japanese Soto temple reconstructed by San Francisco Zen Center in California Sierras adjacent to Kitkitdizze “Ring of Bone” Zen Practice Center.
628 ACORN PEOPLE: Sierra Indian diet staple was acorn mush.
Ego Confessions
(1974–1977)
Ego Confession
631 GYALWA KARMAPA: 16th lama head of Milarepa lineage, Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism.
631 WEATHERMEN GOT NO MOSCOW GOLD: Timothy Leary, held incommunicado for years, early 1970’s, by Feds, refused to testify falsely that Weathermen were directed by Moscow finance. FBI heads were later convicted of illegal wiretapping since no evidence that antiwar protesters were agents of foreign powers could be found.
631 VAJRASATTVA: Central image of Nyingma old-school Tibetan meditation practice, blue-bodied, with diamond-lightning bolt (vajra) form held in right hand at breast, bell (ghanta) of empty (open) space held at left hip. Dharmakaya Buddha.
631 OVERTHREW THE CIA WITH A SILENT THOUGHT: Refers to 1970 Georgetown dinner bet between author and then CIA chief Richard Helms: whether or not Central Intelligence Agency had working relationship with opium traffickers at “secret” CIA base, Long Cheng, Laos. Author offered his vajra, if misinformed, and requested CIA Director Helms to practice meditation an hour a day for life if his denial proved incorrect. The wager was accepted, a bet either party might profit from by losing. Note also:
The New York Times
3 rue Scribe
75 Paris 9e
Apr. 11 1978
Dear Allen,
I fear I owe you an apology. I have been reading a succession of pieces about CIA involvement in the dope trade in Southeast Asia and I remember when you first suggested I look into this I thought you were full of beans. Indeed you were right and I acknowledge the fact plus sending my best personal wishes.
C. L. Sulzberger
Who Runs America?
636 GENERAL MOTORS … STANDARD OF CALIFORNIA: The dozen corporations name-dropped herein are top twelve capital powers whose $133 billion sales represented a tenth the total gross national product one yearly trillion $. Traditionally, an oil corporation representative fills post of U.S. Secy of State and auto corporation representative fills Secretary of Defense post. This gossip’s source was conversation with Daniel Ellsberg & Gary Snyder, November 26, 1974, re: Douglas F. Dowd’s The Twisted Dream, Capitalist Development in the United States Since 1776, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Winthrop, 1977).
Thoughts on a Breath
637 FOUR YEARS AG O: Poem is sequel to “Guru Om,” October 4–6, 1970.
637 STONY BURNS: “After being arrested twice on pornography charges, then convicted for inciting riot, Stony Burns, art director and founder of Iconoclast and Dallas Notes [underground newspapers], was sentenced in Dallas to ten years and one day in prison for the possession of less than one tenth of an ounce of marijuana. The extra day in the sentence prevented eligibility for parole. Within a year, public protest freed editor Burns.”—Unamerican Activities: The Campaign Against the Underground Press, PEN American Center report, ed. Geoffrey Rips, foreword by Allen Ginsberg (San Francisco: City Lights, 1981); see pp. 102, 107–8. The poem was written when Stony Burns was first jailed, 1974.
Hospital Window
642 (MAYAGUEZ CRISIS): After U.S. withdrawal from Indochina war, the U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez, presumed to be spy ship, was taken by Cambodians near their coast in 1975. The ship was recaptured
by U.S. with giant force, some loss of life, large headlines. The incident was argued at the time to symbolize U.S. resolve to “be perceived” still as “number one” in world might.
Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox
643 BIG TIME SYNDICATE TAMPA: Sam Giancana and John Roselli, associated with Tampa mob chief, engaged by CIA to assassinate Cuban Premier Castro in “turf war,” early ’60s. Both were murdered or “rubbed out” prior to scheduled testimony before Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by late Senator Frank Church, 1965, re CIA assassination attempts against Castro. Roselli was found in barrel in ocean; Giancana was shot in his kitchen.
643 LET LUCKY LUCIANO OUT OF JAIL …: The international organized crime chief was released from federal prison by wartime Office of Strategic Services to supplant influence of Communist partisan anti-Hitler underground in Sicily with Mafia political infrastructure. According to American authorities, Luciano later became Mediterranean narcotics overlord. See “I’m Glad the CIA Is Immoral,” Thomas W. Braden, Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1967, p. 14.
644 CHILE’S RED DEMOCRACY …: Salvador Allende (1908–1973), first democratically elected Marxist-socialist head of state in the western hemisphere, was deposed by U.S.-trained generals’ junta, 1973. Subsequent Senate investigation revealed that CIA funds were used to organize destabilizing truck transport strikes, to penetrate Santiago’s daily newspaper Mercurio, and to arrange “housewife demonstrations” against the new Allende government. Well-dressed family ladies walked in the streets, and banged on pots and pans, conveying an impression of normal people spontaneously protesting Allende government’s socialist austerities. The night after the U.S.-backed generals’ assault on presidential palace and assassination of Allende, the author remembers watching the TV screen with his father while news commentator Victor Riesel energetically congratulated American viewers: “The CIA was not involved!”