To Suffer All Things is the Way of Our Land

Earlier this year I had heard rumors that a British gent had been hard at work translating Danzan Ravjaa’s poems. I was guardedly hopeful; the translations I’d read in Lama of the Gobi left quite a bit to be desired.

Then one day I visited Hamid Sardar and there on his desk was a thick book called Perfect Qualities – Simon Wickham-Smith’s translations made manifest. I excitedly flipped through it and moved on, figuring I’d just buy it in the next day or two in the shops.

Har har har.

I fruitlessly scoured every likely bookshop, but it seemed Hamid had wrangled one of only a handful of copies printed for the World Congress of Poets, held this year in Ulaanbaatar. A regular printing run was promised, with UNESCO money, no less. Any day now. Margaash or nögöödör. Tomorrow or the day after.

Well. This was in August. About ten days ago Guido rings me. “Konchog, I’m off to Japan but the Ravjaa books should be in our office Monday.” And I’ll be dipped, that’s exactly what happened. Picked one up along with Mongolian Grammar (which, I swear, I’m coming to love). And Guido’s outfit, INMongolia, has kindly made the book available for online purchase. While one should not expect Western publishing standards, know that Simon’s work represents a huge milestone in Western appreciation of the breadth and depth of Danzan Ravjaa’s genius. This tome represents five years of his labor and I, for one, am mighty grateful.

I’ve been savoring the poems little by little. They’re surprising me. Gentler than I expected, the early poems are ripe with pure imagery from Mongolian nature and country life and explore the union of youthful passions and spiritual awakening. Many of the middle ones are extensive teaching poems with reams of pithy advice. And in his final verses, there’s an aching melancholy about the ignorant and fickle state of the world and how stubborn people are in their misbehavior and blind arrogance.

Anyway, today is the tenth day of the lunar cycle, the day that Padmasambhava, Guru Rinpoche, my main man, promised to be vividly present in this world. So it seemed an auspicious day to share one of Danzan Ravjaa’s poems with all of you, reproduced with Simon’s gracious permission.

Enjoying The High Summer

As I enjoy the high summer,
And you are close by, and so beautiful,
In this gift, this feast today,
I shall sing these true words.

In the gentle wind of autumn,
The flowers sway and bend,
And the grass ripples across the lawn,
And I think of your true heart.

The cuckoo sings to celebrate the summer,
Seeks around for one of its own age.
I remember more and more
Your kindness and your gentle ways.

Just here, the mist has settled,
And the goose has returned,
And the clouds have come together –
And suddenly the mind moves.

The distance is a blue haze.
The goose’s shadow barely moves.
The breath of the clear, transparent lake
Is softening the mind.

These thoughts within my mind
Are clear as the moon.
And words spoken from experience
Are bright as stars.

In the human form we’ve just received,
In this life we’re just leaving,
The stupid are left behind in the darkness of desire,
Twisting the laws of the universe.

With the benefit of so much experience,
In the energy of youth and beauty,
In the brightness of the clear void,
Let us take the path of freedom.

The grass is fading in the late afternoon.
Falsely deceived by the shortening of time,
We deeply regret the things which give us hardship.
To suffer all things is the way of our land.

In the peaceful time when power is spent,
Prayer comes together within you.
Now with these two together,
Let us set off for Uddiyana*.

We leave for this land when we’ve died.
Friends and relatives, who truly are going to die,
Spend their time in unkindness.
Torture is the way of our land.

Without forgiveness,
With no desire to believe,
We shall experience in Uddiyana
Our weak body broken.

Ignoring in this life
The seeds of action,
They mourn you after death.
This is the way of our land.

In this life,
The lama’s infallible viewpoint
Cuts through the ties of greed
And we approach the end.

We lack belief, the seeds of action
Have weakened this melody.
Please know that this simple thought
Is one and clear.

The peace of a loving mind
Is abandoned as magic.
To be taught such things –
Whose excuse for kindness is this?

The quality of Dharma is
An inseparable pair.
May we be together as one
In the family of Padmasambhava.

*Uddiyana is one of the pure lands of Padmasambhava

Comments

[Carol]

Konchog,
Is DR's poetry like sufi poems, where what seem to be verses about wine, women and song are really devotional, spiritual works?

I'm still smiling over the Mongolian love poem I read where the speaker asks someone to 'share a blanket with him'. One of the cutest pick-up lines I've ever heard!

[Christian]

What a fascinating poem!

It seems to come from the non-duality of the author and the "true heart" of the doctrine, i.e., his very own nature, presented here implicity as a beloved companion. Then, first, the quietness of the landscape echoes the inner state of mind as a starting point to remember the path which lead the author to freedom (the land of Oddiyana). Mental quietness is the first technical stage which requires a calm environment (shine). Some further stages of his meditation are described through metaphors of external elements. From the wisdom finally attained, he goes on to teach the fools we are about the karma, in order to enable the same path in us by creating favourable conditions to understand the teaching and practice the meditation.

Is it what you understand, lama Konchog?

Some stanzas especially struck me:

Just here, the mist has settled,
And the goose has returned,
And the clouds have come together –
And suddenly the mind moves.

The distance is a blue haze.
The goose’s shadow barely moves.
The breath of the clear, transparent lake
Is softening the mind.

These thoughts within my mind
Are clear as the moon.
And words spoken from experience
Are bright as stars.

I understand that, after an initial state of quietness, the gradual purification of some subtle winds manifests itself on the outside, as a vision of mist in the sky (space or emptiness). The goose may be the thigle, or quintessential drops, as they appear as flying white dots first. Thus, this may be the first extraordinary vision of the Dzogchen. The vision matures and fills the landsacpe ("clouds have come together") and, after some stability, a new stage is attained ("the mind moves"). The blue haze would correspond to another subtle inner wind which manifests itself as if it were in the real, external sky. The lake may be another metaphor for the mature stage of this same vision (the blue becomes continous and stable as lake water), just as we had before mist and then clouds. The breath of the lake is the inner wind movement (another name for it, actually). First, the vision is expanding and shrinking, as breathing, following the gross breath (real air) and then subtle breath (inner wind), until it stabilizes and the vision fills all the landscape again. The outer correspondance of this mytical experience would be that the author is looking to a real blue lake. He sees the shadows of the gooses because they fly above the lake. He describes shadows, not the gooses themselves, perhaps because the quintessential drops are being purified, and start revealing their inner structure, which look as a shadow (before the stage when the colours are distinguishable). Innerly, this may mean that the quintessential drops stop moving as the contemplation deepens (blue vision). The mind recovers mobility and softness; it feels expansiveness, vastness (in the first stage, the quietness was a bit artificial since the roots of thoughts were not dispersed in the air). So thoughts comme back (third stanza) but are no more a poison, they are transparent as the moon's light. (Perhaps this is an allusion to the cycle of Trekcho.) Thoughts are not artificially suppressed, they are liberated instead, without the notion of thinker and thoughts being created in dependance of each other. (The moon and its light are traditionally allegories of wisdom, because the moon's luminosity is not altered by the clouds of ignorance, just temporarily obstructed.) This dynamic aspect of Awakeness is not different from emptyness. The latter is associated with wisdom and the former with compassion, thus the "words" uttered from this clear empty awaken mind of the author, which are the seal. Thus this last stanza naturally serves as a transition to the rest of the poem, which is an instance of compassion (beneficial action towards the fools we are).

What do you think, Konchog?

The goose and lake images reminded me of a poem of the Fifth Dalai-lama:

On the shore of the enchanted lake,
The goose alone would like to linger,
But when the water changes into crystal,
She flies away without regrets!

(My translation from the French, in turn from the Tibetan.)

Wonderful post, thanks!

[Christian]

The translation of the Fifth Dalai-lama from Tibetan to French was done by Zeno Bianu.

[Konchog]

Ah, Christian, I'm so glad you didn't stay mad when I clumsily mocked the French! What a wonderful addition to this little virtual community you are.

While I don't feel qualified to comment directly on the dzogchen aspects of Danzan Ravjaa's imagery, I will say that I hear the same echoes you do. You should get the book. It's like that throughout, extolling the blissful splendor of non-dualistic awareness, while weeping for those who are still bound by their false concepts and persist in their rotten behavior. You've expressed it all very well, I think, and I will provide more examples in the future.

But now I have to make myself beautiful for an early New Year's party!

[Christian]

Mockery? Come on, you know you were dead-on!:-)

I am not qualified to talk about Dzogchen, but, you know me by now: I love to talk:-)

I will buy the book on Danzan Rabjaa, though.

Hey! Don't make yourself too beautiful, who knows what will happen, with this East-Asian trend linking Christmas and New Year's Eve with... romance;-)

Happy New Year to all!