- Lama Jigme Gyatso
“Dark Side” and Ten other Spiritual Poems
Updated: Mar 1, 2020

While attending university
I found myself
in an authoritative, fundamentalist,
religious organization.
And, like most facets of patriarchy,
they demanded that I relinquish my personal power
promising that in return they would make me
a fisher of men.
Years passed, and a time came
when I explained that their schedule was so demanding
that it did not give me the opportunities
I required to study
and that when I finally did find the time to do so
I would promptly nod off into my texts.
Their solution
was not to adjust my schedule
but to send me outside to study
in the dead of winter
assuring me that the shivering
would keep my “whiney ass” awake.
I was already disabled when I first encountered
that authoritarian organization
and after years under their thumb
all my disabilities worsened;
like the corruption of a Jedi’s flesh
when traversing the path of the dark side.
If your teacher does not help you thrive
find a new one!
Today’s second poem:
“Trick Question”
What are the four
bases of mindfulness
from the Theravadan perspective?
FIRST – form or body,
SECOND – sensations, both physical and emotional
THIRD – mind, both coarse and subtle as well as
FOURTH – phenomena, our conventional circumstances
as well as their subtle attributes of: sometimes being stressful,
and changing, and not being the identity that we should cling to.
What then is the identity
that we should embrace?
That is a trick question
for the Buddha invites us
to let-go of all,
and simply flow from a place
of centered spontaneity.
Today’s third poem
“In this Universe”
When performing the Met-ta
or loving-kindness meditations
why do we begin by wishing good things
for ourselves?
Because, evolutionarily speaking,
the oldest parts
of the three pounds of meat
we call a brain
are utterly
self serving.
By starting with the oldest
and deepest parts of our brains
we could create a kind of momentum
that makes it easer to cultivate the ability
to give a flying fuck
about our neighbors,
the denizens of this planet
(whether they walk, or crawl, or swim, or fly
{so please stop exploiting them})
and the real or imagined beings
of all the worlds in this universe.
For just as little kids
first learn to share
by aping their parents behavior
and feeding the food on their plate
to their table companions
likewise the more we wish good things for ourselves
the easier it could become
to wish good things for others.
Today’s fourth poem:
“Know”
The test of a technique
may be how effective it is,
but you will never know
until you apply it consistently;
once every morning,
and once every evening,
for six and a half consecutive days.
Today’s fifth poem:
“Self-pity”
He invited me to come visit
his palatial home
come Malibu way.
I thanked him and tried to explain
that this body
like a soufflé
does not travel well.
He asked me how I could bear to live
as a prisoner in a disabled shell.
I explained, “My neighborhood is beautiful
my neighbors are lovely
and my Dharma work
is interesting and fulfilling.”
Few things are as effective
at squandering a life
as resentment, self-pity
and despair.
Let us forsake self-pity
and choose to be easy going
like Brad Pitt’s character Cliff Booth
in “Once upon a Time in Hollywood.”
Today’s sixth poem:
“Returned”
I was in junior high
and when mother and father went on vacation
they left sister and myself behind
and hired a woman to stay with us,
an employee of the private school
we attended.
Her boyfriend had a motorcycle
and mother explicitly told me and her
that I was not to ride it.
Parents left
and baby sitter arrived
with her boyfriend in tow.
The night came
when she ordered pizza
and asked her boyfriend and myself
to pick it up,
as she handed him
the keys to her car.
I walked through the cold evening air
to babysitter’s sedan
and noticed that her boyfriend
was walking toward his motorcycle.
He told me to climb on.
When I explained I was not allowed to
he asked me if I was scared.
Clearly that question
was manipulative,
and inappropriate…
and rather quite effective.
For I obediently got on the back
of his motorcycle.
If I was honest with myself
no less him
I would have explained
that I was terrified of my parents disapproval.
But I had neither the self-knowledge
nor the self-possession
for such insight
no less confession.
When we returned home
the pizza’s toppings had sloshed to one side
and it soon became clear to the house sitter
that I had ridden on the back
of her boyfriend’s motorcycle.
In her world view,
clearly her boyfriend, an adult,
was not to blame,
for coercing me.
So she wasted no time
the following day
to gossip about me at school
and tell my step-father
as soon as he returned.
Today’s seventh- poem:
“Edgar Allan Poe”
In his novel:
“Fall of the House of Usher,”
Edgar Allan Poe explored the horror
of waking up in one’s coffin,
six feet underground,
to realize one had been buried alive
with NO means of escape.
How many of our talents
are buried alive,
by circumstances, or society,
or work?
And to what degree
could the exploration
of our talents and interests,
or lack thereof,
effect our happiness, and fulfillment,
and resilience, and wellbeing?
Today’s eighth- poem:
“Pollen”
It is a bright and beautiful winter’s morn
and the pollen is inundating my sinuses
like X-wing fighters converging upon the death star
at the battle of Yavin.
Today’s ninth poem:
“The Efficacy of Complexity”
One of patriarchy’s many lies
is that the more complex something is
the more beneficial it is.
But that is just a false bill of goods,
expensive, and ineffective.
Leonardo de Vinci taught
that simplicity
was the height of elegance.
One of the many gifts of matriarchy
is the commitment to finding and teaching
the easiest and most effective ways of doing things.
More than the quickest path to enlightenment
it is the only path.
For it is never
machinations, or manipulations, or power
that redeem a force user from the dark side
but rather the simplicity and ease
of wisdom and love.
Today’s tenth poem:
“Full Accomplishment”
Accumulating a million recitations
of the twelve syllable mantra of Padmasambhava
over the course of a seven year retreat
does NOT a fully accomplished teacher make.
Collecting ten thousand hours
spent in formal meditation
over the course of a seven year retreat
does NOT a meditation master make.
Collecting an additional ten thousand hours
of formal study
over the course of a seven year retreat
does NOT a dharma master make.
But applying these recitations
and meditations, and study
toward the mastery of one’s heart and mind…
that is the path to full accomplishment.
Let us not make the mistake of Anakin
who in thirst for power and recognition
forgot to train his heart upon the path
of wisdom, and love, and peace.
Today’s eleventh and final poem:
“Mother’s quips”
On picture day
at my elementary school
a younger kid asked me for help
with his tie.
I did a dreadful job of tying it
and thought it a lark
until my mother quipped,
“That was not very nice.”
As a child of the seventies
I would gather with my family
in the darkened living room
around our glowing television
and watch crime shows
produced by Quin Martin.
We would watch Manix, and Cannon,
and the Streets of San Francisco
and whenever a fictional villain
would derail his own life
with a tragic choice
mother would mutter
“I feel so bad for him!”
Mother had feet of clay;
and a great saint
she was not
but her occasional quips
watered the seeds of compassion
sleeping in my midbrain
like cicadas laying dormant
or holocrons waiting to be found.
Let us conclude
with a simple
call to action
Share this on social media.
Feeling generous?
Then support us on PayPal
Download FREE practice materials at:
Register for the next series of 16 weekly webinars
These spiritual poems are also available on
the “Meditate Like a Jedi” podcast.
6 views0 comments