Cheerful Parinirvana, to my only father guru: today is the anniversary of the passing of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

Licking honey from a razor blade,

Eyes of the learned gouged out by books,
The beauty of maidens worn by display,
The warrior dead from not knowing fear―
It is ironical to see the dharma of samsara:
Celebrities deafened by fame,
The hand of the artist crippled by rheumatism.

The moth flew into the oil lamp,
The blind man walks with a torch,
The cripple runs in his wheelchair,
A fool’s rhetoric is deep and learned,
The laughing poet has run out of breath and died.
The religious spin circles, in accordance with religion;
If they had not practiced their religion, they could not spin.
The sinner cannot spin according to religion;
He spins according to not knowing how to spin.
The yogis spin by practicing yoga;
If they don’t have chakras to spin, they are not yogis.
Chögyam is spinning, watching the spinning/samsara;
If there is no samsara/spinning, there is no Chögyam.

Cynical Letter

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

22 May 1972

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