Collected Poems 1947-1997 - Ginsberg Allen - Страница 204

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: Chogyam 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.

602 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 Chogyam 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.