Hello and welcome to the last 10th day of the lunar year, Water Rabbit. We wish and pray that everything of the old resolves smoothly; that we all have the opportunity to clean house, roll dumplings and cheer in the new year, Wood Dragon!
Part of wrapping up the old year for us is publishing one of the last major chunks from our archive on the subject of this newsletter: Scholar Prince, Earnest Priest.
The main subject of my independent study and final creative and critical manuscript at Naropa University was in Tibetan language and poetry. In particular, my manuscript focused on Gendun Chophel (1904-1951), the Tibetan modernist.
Gendun Chophel was perhaps one of the only Tibetans modernists: a prodigy of mind and religion, an artist, poet, and multidisciplinary writer. He lived and died before Tibetans at large were forced into post-modernity by the invasion of communist China.
Gendun Chophel, Earnest Priest disqualified his debate captains, discovered ancient manuscripts, traveled all the way to Sri Lanka and back to Lhasa to be imprisoned on the rumored charges of an Inji in the borderlands. Priest's black box of manuscripts was confiscated by his own government. Perhaps about half of the works of Earnest Priest are lost. And yet, with what we have, he's gone down in history as the brightest Tibetan mind of the 20th century!
Why "Earnest Priest," one might ask? For one, Tibetan names are never consistently spelled in English; so "Gendun Chophel" becomes a misnomer in and of itself. And besides, the Tibetan Lawful Kings decreed that everything in Sanskrit be translated to Tibetan, proper noun names and all. I believe their decrees are still relevant today and heed them in my process of translating sacred texts.
"Earnest Priest" is a name in transcreation that sounds (and spells) great in English. It's a name that resonates deeply with the real man's persona. It's a little more creative and a little less literal than "Sangha Dharma Flourish."
Perhaps if you've received an email from my personal account in the last few years you might have noticed this quote in my footer:
The one adept with proof of skillful means
The artisan who self-inscribed
Insignias of wheels on soles of feet
Will be the one to guard all living beings
This is Priest's opening quatrain to Treatise on Himalaya. It's an homage to Buddha as artisan who "self-inscribed" 32 major marks (through the perfection of virtuous deeds over eons), one of which is "wheels on soles of feet." While the Bodhisattva cultivated virtue in setting out to meet his guests on the road in order to escort them in (over the course of eons) Buddha spontaneously inscribed these "wheels on soles of feet."
Getting up and setting out to meet a guest who's coming on their way is virtuous indeed. It's kind, loving and emblematic of caring in so many ways. Naturally, Buddha met his disciples halfway in the context of the Sūtra, or Dharma talks addressing their questions and thus tantrically suturing their ignorance to his wisdom forever.
Earnest Priest's Outrider Literature Meets Kindred Souls Halfway
It's a deep dive into Tibetan culture, religion, mind, archaeology and anthropology. It's a cross section of classical forms in both poetry and prose. And "Alphacrostic Poetry" is just a taste of many more poems in translation to come!
S loves N like South loves North
Singularly as the golden daytime star
Infinitely as the platinum lights of night
Pinkies sworn like chainlinks bind this life, the next
