"When Sorrowful hearts have been hurt by scorn or something else..." Maxine the Dear One: The heading line is from "Patience," from the Poems of the Pearl Manuscript , ed. by Malcolm Andrew and Ronald Waldron (York Medieval Texts, 2nd series, U.C. Press, 1980), p. 185 (re: a poetic re-tale-ing of the Old Testament Book of Jonah).  Though I'm certain that I've communicated with you on this subject before, well, no matter...   "Patience is a point [noble virtue],  though it may often displease. When sorrowful hearts have been hurt by scorn or something else, sufferance may assuage them and ease the swelling, For she quells everything bad and quenches malice; For anyone who can suffer sorrow, grace would follow..." Another gem, from Thubten Jigme Norbu and Colin Turnbull, Tibet (Simon and Schuster, 1968): "For none of us, except the most brutal, is man's relationship with woman only one involving physical contact and pleasure.  But few have raised the relationship to such heights as Tsangyang Gyatso, the man of many loves as he was known in Sho.  His poetry tells more than anything how different was his feeling for women." (p. 285) Now, before turning to another interesting text that I "found" in sans non droit of "how I be sometimes," a cite from that overlooked but fascinating play of your man Shakespeare, Pericles (albeit in collaboration with John Gower): "And make a battery through his deafened ports..." (5.1.44-46, where Lysimachus, the governor of Mytilene, sends Marina, the daughter of Pericles, to "cure the King's fistula," e.g., Helena in All's Well That Ends Well...) "Lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me O'erbear the shores of my mortality." (Pericles, 5.1.94-97)   This reunion of Pericles and Marina sets off "the music of the spheres," those pure, ethereal sounds ringing clear in the realm of the angels from the heavenly bodies in circular motion around the earth, according to the Ptolemaic system--and made use of extensively by the writers of "The Renaissance" Age, especially ones like my old favorite, Dante. "But hark, what music? Rarest sounds..." (5.1.234) "I hear most heavenly music. It nips me into listening..." (as Maurice Charney notes, All of Shakespeare, "nips" connotes being "drawn into the experience by magic," i.e., as in a "shamanic initiation," a matter not "voluntary")   I must say that here I, like our friend "Senator" Bill Bradley is finding out one must do, will deploy "counter-propaganda" (one of the more fascinating criticisms that I've read of that ancient warrior Marc--as really in "Marcellus," in the olde days conveying no other meaning except a possible implication of Jewish ancestry--Antony is that he never did so, thus, the calumniation's that he expected "the common voice" to disregard became the sinking sands of "public opinion" spin-editor'ed into tacit "approval" of his "take-down" by the goose-stepping minions of "Imperial Bureaucracy").  About this "latest" bizarre enoch greis "insulting" not only of myself but, too, per the "same-old, same-old" Scht-too-pid Gestapo Trick(s), of our "Knowledge Women" (i.e., females)--i.e., the mishtakenly "ignorant" satan-the-false-accuser claim that "[myself] done ripped off our culture-hero, Ralph Ellison, and Invisible Man." (The matter referring, I'm presuming, to an alleged similarity in his opening segment, "Battle Royale," wherein after being beaten in a boxing ring by an older, bigger youngster--for the amusement of some "deep South" good ole boys who were supposedly gathered to grant the young Mr. Ellison a scholarship to [a "Negro"] college--Mr. Ellison, in somewhat of a "timeless narrator" mode, the strength of any "first person narrator" usage (think Kerouac or Ken Kesey, for two of the best moderns), bemuses on how he can still hear his grandfather's "laughter ringing in my ears" about keep that boy arunnin'... Now, I have to admit that I read Mr. Ellison's book years ago, for an English 1a class my first year at SUNY Buffalo (1972-73), and, upon re-reading, I'll confess that I don't remember much from the first read (I was into more militant stuff then, like reading a passage from George Jackson's Soledad Brother, in which he describes desert firings of a Browning 9 mm handgun as "holding the Cadillac of guns in my hand," and being "young man" impressed). This reading of Mr. Ellison I was impressed by the quiet, dignified (perhaps "subtle") strength of character embodied in his words (I especially like the description of the "resigned to terror" look on the features of the naked blonde woman in the boxing ring when the "fans got in on the act" and tried to paw her). But I must tell, you, in all "speaking truth against the world [if necessary]" mode, that  my use of a similar metaphor in "ringing" is vastly more complex... On a strictly literary level, to start: John Lennon and Yoko Ono's composition, "Starting Over" begins with (Tibetan, I believe) wedding bells ringing very purely and sweetly three (mystical) times. The subtle allusion (for those "in the know") is then contrasted with that snake-oil slickly obnoxious Howard Cosell--the "fight ring" confere deliberate, as per "common knowledge" of how corrupt and "realm of Mara" delusions-as-entertainment the pro boxing "sphere of influence" is in this country... Now "jump-cut" to my ending, written several years ago (the 'bull's-eye" of my novel's "target" towards which I tossed "darts" until finding that mot juste (exactly right one, Fr.?). Marcello slips and falls on the slick ice--as he tends to be a "Romantic" too much off in the "clouds of cuckoo-land," as the Rudolph Steiner allusion to Aristophanes goes--he looks up and sees the "Christmas Bells" on top of that accursed "Sheriff's broadcasting tower" that not only wrecked the downtown's classification as an "Historical District" (no new structures within the last fifty years) and then entitlement to federal and state moneys as an "Arts and Culture  District" (the old, dilapidated "River Row" buildings renovated into a pedestrian "Showcase" mall).  The bells are blinking, silently.  To Marcello, always complaining about "how Christianity is a dead religion," with everyone dependent upon extrinsic approval from a "priest/authority figure," his "peals of laughter ringing through the night" not only symbolic of his intrinsic awareness "dawning in full," but too like a "Liberty Bell" signifying his "independence" from worn-out ways of thinking, and his being involuntarily drawn, as was his "mentor," Buck, further into the "intuitiveness" of shamnaic initiation...(In the beginning, the night, as with Hemingway's old man in a "Clean, Well-Lighted Cafe," something of dread...Hmmn, yes?) As to my "authority" to use this admittedly complex metaphor (in simple and straightforward "dressage"), why, do not we have the wonderful teaching tale of  Buddha and Ananda, about the "Temple Bell."  Buddha holds the bell--without ringing it--and slyly implies that Ananda must learn to "Solitary Hearer" realize the bell's ringing within...If one must limit one to "Western Civ," well, then we have the Dante-loving Marcello and the "Music of the Spheres" (foundation well-laid within the novel...) So, now we turn to a most fascinating book by Geoffrey Samuel, Civilized Shamans, Buddhism in Tibetan Society (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993); the intro. notes that this book was written following his 1981-82 research associate work at U.C. Berkeley's Dept. of Anthropology. Here he's quoting our old friend Tulku Thondup, Hidden Teachings of Tibet (1986): "Among the false terton there are many who are harmonious with people, who seem to have disciplined conduct, and are fortunate and charismatic.  At the same time, among the authentic terton there are many who are loose in speech and behavior and who, without the least hesitation, get involved in many activities that people will condemn.  In that way, the terton take many grave obstructions of the doctrine on themselves in the form of infamy and ill-repute and they use them for the practice of taking every experience in the great equal taste." (Samuels, at 157) Now, as can be plainly seen, yes, I most certainly will "die" without the female "waters of love...Yes I need a little water of love" (Dire Straights, late 70's/early 80's album); any "fool" professing otherwise is most certainly not-wise... Samuels makes a wee bit of a contrast--Pema Lingpa (1450-1521), with Migyur Dorje (17th century).  Pema, who claimed (most "erroneously," a tip-off for "those who know")to have had a female life in that of Pema Sel, a daughter of King Trisong Detsen and disciple of Guru Je Rinpoche (albeit a "clever ruse," as little attention was historically paid then to "female tulkus," one could "palm oneself off" as one--and if any criticism arose, scream from the "politically advantageous" point-of-view" at one's questioner).  Samuels cites the late Michael Aris, Hidden Treasures and Secret Lives. A Study of Pema Lingpa (1450-1521) and the Sixth Dalai Lama (1988) [with his wife, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, he edited a book on Tibetan Studies (1980); I was bemusedly thinking that his prostate cancer may have been a "payback" for his inadvertently undermining these "compounds strange" deployed by those "Whose ways are crooked and they are lewd in their paths" (Proverbs 2:12-19), those--like that new movie ("Magnolia" something) in which Tom Cruise plays a King Richard III-type of sadistic "est" Initiator OverLord--that have conned the United Sheeple of America into "paying for the privilege of being fleeced"...As "we all know," one of the "cleverly Clown Prince of da devil!" little "color-of-law" tricksies is adulterating my food and drink with "heavy metals" like mercury and selenium (the prostate gland being one of the first organs in the "line of defense" in said matter)...] Anyway, the late Mr. Aris's conclusion about this Pema fakir is that he's indeed a faker; an "outright fraud even if he and his fellows 'did no harm to anyone' and 'made a lasting contribution to the cultural and spiritual life of their regions' (Aris, 5)...[Samuels thinks a bit harsh, but concedes that Pema] probably used his skills as an artisan to dress up and stage manage the production of his revealed texts." (Samuels, p. 298). Now, Mingyur acquired literary skills after a vision of Loden Chogsed, one of Padmasambhava's primary eight forms, and , after 'hearing' many dakini tell him (at age 7, no less) the importance of relying on a guru, had a vision of the great scholar and siddha karma Chagmed Rimpoche, who he then (a tage 10) met--Karma finding the youth to be an emanation of Padmasambhava. Without "belabouring" the point, I think the comparison is well-taken and self-evident. I would note, too, that this "emanation" business means "connected to [that] Guru by the Sacred Heart of Refuge, lifetime after lifetime."  The matter does not mean that the "Tulku" has "split oneself up in little pieces to redistribute the spiritual wealth" (as I've heard these cocksuckingly ingorant and hare-brained "bliss is ignorance" ninnies of ole Hosie "Call Me Dagonet the Fool/Hangdog" Canseco in his "Oakland A's incarnation" as ole Jackie/Jonnie Reston the World-Famous Id-jeet outta Norman--yeah, exactamundo as in "Bates Motel"--Oklahoma and his "widdle sidekick of a relative," falsely "meek and pious" Linda Reston, Herr "Ick-ah Dah-link" married-to-the-KGB Reston, a.k.a. "Lisa Baxter/Lissa Tyler Renaud" (and  perhaps, having misappropriated "any aor all" of my "intellectual property" by the 1990-91 movie Total Recall (I noticed a few "psychics" portrayals and plot similarities to mine own "Some Enormous Fiction" that I'd been attempting to pitch then) the "Linda Renaud" listed in the "screen credits"...  enuf said for one day, your "sweetheart" Tom Noonan

Tom Noonan, "Globe of Dharma Enterprises"
2124 Kittredge St.#110, Berkeley, Ca 94704
(510)-549-8828#540

"When you do dance, I wish you
a wave o' the sea...
To unpathed waters, undreamed shores."

Sweet Will Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale

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