Gary Snyder the poet...later emerged in history as Japhy Ryder -- the Buddhist-beatnik hero of Kerouac's Dharma Bums -- in a characterization which hardly begins to do him justice. I am not Gary's teacher...but when I am dead I would like to be able to say that he is carrying on everything I hold most dear, though in a different style. To put it another way, my only regret is that I cannot formally claim him as my spiritual successor. He did it all on his own, but nevertheless he is just exactly what I have been trying to say. For Gary is tougher, more disciplined, and more physically competent than I, but he embodies these virtues without rubbing them in, and I can only say that a universe which has manifested Gary Snyder could never be called a failure.

from In My Own Way by Alan Watts (1915-1973)

SMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA

BY GARY SNYDER

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a great Discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings--even the grasses, to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a seed--assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.

"In some future time, there will be a continent called America. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form, to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger, and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."

And he showed himself in his true form of

SMOKEY THE BEAR.

A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.

Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances, cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;

His left paw in the Mudra of Comradely Display--indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;

With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;

Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great Earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;

Wrathful but Calm, Austere but Comic, Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him,

HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.

And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra shovel.

Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.

Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.

Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.

Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.

Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.

AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT

Thus we have heard.

(may be reproduced free forever)

The above is an abridged version of the Smokey the Bear Sutra. To read the full text click here -->Smokey the Bear Sutra

Vajra - thunderbolt, or diamond. Strong determination or willpower -- adamantine hardness.
Purity, clarity, clear insight and strength. Invincible, indestructible.

Mudra - A symbolic hand gesture -- paw gesture in this case.

Dharma - Broadly defined as the way of righteousness or "that which holds one's true nature." The fulfillment of an inherent nature or destiny.

Kali Yuga - An era or age of the world of which there are four: Satya Yuga, (the golden age); Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, and finally Kali Yuga, (the dark age -- which we are currently muddling our way through). The Yuga's repeat themselves in an endless cycle. Some people believe that the Kali Yuga will continue for many more years; others believe we are in the process of leaving the Kali Yuga, and entering the Dwapara Yuga (a much more benign era or age).
Regardless, as Ramana Maharishi (1879-1950) said, "A wise person lives in Satya Yuga all of the time." In other words -- any Yuga can be a "golden age" for you.

Gary Snyder's book Turtle Island won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Pine Tree Tops

In the blue night
frost haze, the sky glows
with the moon
pine tree tops
bend snow-blue, fade
into sky, frost, starlight.
The creak of boots.
Rabbit tracks, deer tracks,
what do we know.

Everybody Lying on Their Stomachs, Head Toward the Candle,
Reading, Sleeping, Drawing

The corrugated roof
Booms and fades night-long to

million darted rain
squalls and

outside

lightning

Photographs in the brain
Wind-bent bamboo
through

The plank shutter
set

Half-open on eternity

Regarding Wave

The voice of the Dharma
the voice
now

A shimmering bell
through all.

Every hill, still
Every tree alive. Every leaf.
All the slopes flow.
old woods, new seedlings,
tall grasses plumes.

Dark hollows; peaks of light.
wind stirs the cool side
Each leaf living.
All the hills.

The Voice
is a wife to

him still

______________

om ah aum

To find out more about Gary Snyder click Wikpedia.org/wiki/Gary_Snyder

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Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise

From outward things, whate'er you may believe.

There is an inmost center in us all,

Where truth abides in fullness; and around,

Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,

This perfect, clear perception which is truth.

A baffling and perverting carnal mesh

Binds it, and makes all error: and, to KNOW,

Rather consists in opening out a way

Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,

Than in effecting an entry for a light

Supposed to be without.

Robert Browning (1812-1889) from Paracelsus

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Robert Browning's pet name for his wife Elizabeth was "My Portuguese." This was due to her "mediterranean" complexion, which was darker than usually seen in England in those days.

Hence the title of her most famous book -- Sonnets From the Portuguese. The above poem is from that book.

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