Longchenpa ( 1308-64) - The Story Of The Wild Woods

[goldenlangur]

This is an English rendering of this great mystic's poetical teachings. Longchenpa belonged to the Tibetan Buddhist Dzongchen School of Mystics and his writings are visionary and ecstatic. Longchenpa uses the Indian Tantric Doha poetical style which comprises of song like stanzas which are declaimed. In terms of meter, Longchenpa uses stanzas of nine syllables (2:2:2:3). A stanza is a complete unit of a particular sense/moment of thought and it is not necessarily linked to the next stanza.

 

I'm unable to work out a simpler system of Tibetan/Bhutanese sounds in Romanized form yet. For example Longchenpa's name in Tibetan is Klong-chen rab'byams-pa.

 

For what it's worth here it is - a few stanzas from his collection of Doha verses titled The Story of the Wild Woods:

 

Homage to the Supreme Teacher and the Three Jewels. (No. 1).

....

 

Homage to the wondrous wild wood, never seen before,

The unique panacea to ease the pain of persons who have

suffered a long time.

Whose edges (conjure) the contours of the Buddha's

body, alight with fresh flowers of inner calm,

Together with the cool moonlight of compassion, gladden

your heart. (No. 2).

 

This story of my retreating to the edges of the wild wood

of inner calm,

After my mind has been filled with grief in the city of

samsara,

Duty-bound to search for the meaning of life from

the depths of the heart. (No. 3).

...

As far as you can see here and there in your external world

Everything is impermanent and cannot be relied upon;

Having seen (all this) to be fleeting like autumn clouds

With all my heart I am intent on going to the wild wood

of inner calm. (No. eight)

 

 

 

 

Notes:

Three Jewels: The Buddha, Dharma (His Teachings) and Sangha (The monastic community).

samsara: The illusory world.

 

 

 

goldenlangur

[Aleksandra]

Golden, thank you for participating in this forum. I loved what you shared here. And can you find the origin of this too? I want here to have how it looks poems written in origin I mean in native language of the poets. and in another topic the same but included our poetry, and yes translation on English can be shared too, of course.

 

Thank you for sharing all of this. It is worth to read.

 

Alekasndra

[goldenlangur]

Hi Aleksandra,

 

Thank you for taking a look at this. An excellent idea to post the "original" in the local language. But for now I haven't got the Classical /Dzongkha (Bhutanese) font to post the poem in that form:

 

^{aleksandra wrote:}

 

And can you find the origin of this too? I want here to have how it looks poems written in origin I mean in native language of the poets. and in another topic the same but included our poetry, and yes translation on English can be shared too, of course.

 

 

Alekasndra

 

 

And transliterating in Roman Tibetan/Dzongkha is something I have yet to do satisfactorily. Frustrating but there it is!

 

 

goldenlangur