Bodhi Goat Song

To the loveless gathered round

listen, I will scream and bleat a sound
by your sacrifices fed
I know where it is I'm led
but never why I am your lost and found

On this path of glory I will sing
the cruelty of gods and things
the painfulness of uncaused shame
the guiltiness of empty blame
the emptiness of endless circling

In the theater feel and kneel
listen to your manhood squeal
as I howl and shriek and die
or desert driven bleat my cry
know you too are on the Wheel

My shaggy form is Holiness's gain
my loss of blood —as if God were slain
my horned bleating is a holy rage
your spinning World ends on this bloody stage
sit still for once and know you are in vain

Infinite Bliss Piss

In the infinite bliss piss
of non-dual awareness

anything can happen
sweaty underarms smell fragrant or foul

Ever seeking the illusion of the arcade
the cheapo chintzy thrill of this against that
I fall into the nonsense of Hell
or ascend to the sense-non of Heaven

Deep pillows are soft
marbles are hard
but the Mind of My Teacher
has never come to be
and will never pass away

From the One Greater than All the Gods

 སྲི་ལོ་༢༠༢༦ ལོ་ལ་བཀྲིས་པ་དང་དམ་ཆོས་གྲུབས་པའྲི་བར་ཆད་ཞྲི་ཞྲིང་་བསམས་དོན་ཆོས་བཞྲིན་གྲུབ་པའྲི་སོན་དུན་ཅས
This year of 2026, with aspiration of fulfilling the wishes according to the Dharma and subside all the obstacles to Dharma practice, these are the wishes of my aspiration prayer.
འཁོར་བའྲི་ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅདསྡུག་བསྔལ་རང་་བཞྲིན་ཡྲིན་པ་ལ་ཡྲིན་པར་མ་ཤྱེས་པས་རང་གཞན་་ཐམས་ཅད་འཁོར་བ་ཁམས།
The nature of all samsara is suffering. It is this way, even if we don't know it as it is. In all the samsaric phenomenon, the nature is suffering. By not knowing this, myself and others wander in the cycles of existence.
ག་ཞྲིག་ཆོས་པ་ཡྲིན་ཁུལ་་བྱེད་ཀྱང་་ཆོས་མཚུལ་བཞྲིན་དུ་བྱེད་མ་ཐུབ་པ་ང་དང་
Someone pretending to be a Dharma practitioner is not yet able to practice according to Dharma - they are not able to carry the Bardo as a path to liberation and can only wander in samsara.
ངའད་བ་མང་པོ་ཞྲིག་་བར་དོ་ལ་ཆོས་ལམ་དུ་མ་འགོ་བ་འཁོར་བ་ལས་མཐར་མ་ཐུབ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་སྱེམས་སོ་བའྲི་ཆད་དུ་གླུ་ཆུང་འདྲི་བླངས་སོ་།
Many of them like me are not able to liberate from Samsara, so I sing this little song to encourage us to be aware of the situation which will happen, sooner or later.
 ༄། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀུན་དངོས་་རོར་་རྱེ་་འཆང། དུས་གསུམ་སངས་རྒྱས་མྲི་གཟུགས་ཅན།

Vajradhara is the essence of all Buddhas. The three times Buddhas manifested in human form.
ཀ་དག་་ཆོས་སྐུ་འྲི་་ཀོངས་ཡང་ལས། གགས་མྱེད་ཐུགས་རྱེ་རྩལ་ཆྱེན་རོགས།
From the infinite luminosity, the Dharmakaya is pure from the beginning – Guru with unimpeded, completely perfected great skill of Compassion:
སྐལ་མྱེད་ལས་ངན་ང་འད་ལ། ཐུགས་རྩྱེ་་ཆྱེན་པོ་གཟྲིགས་སུ་གསོལ།
In this unfortunate kalpa, filled with all  these negative karmic people like me, I supplicate you to look at us with your skillful compassion.
ཚི་འདྲི་དང་བར་དོ་་ཕྲི་མགསུམ། མྲི་ང་ལ་རྱེ་ས་ཁྱེད་ལས་མྱེད་།
In this life, the Bardo and the following life, these three, I have no hope other than you.
འདྲིར་འདུས་་བུ་སོབས་དད་ཅན་རྣམས་། གསལ་འདྱེབ་མོས་གུས་གྲིས་བསྐུལ་ནས།
Devoted disciples who are gathered here, we beseech with supplication, yearning and devotion.
ལོ་སར་གྲིས་བརྱེན་བྱེལ་དྱེ་གས་མཆོག ཆོས་བཞྲིན་གྲུབས་པ་དོན་མྲི་ཟ།
May this Auspicious New Year be excellent! Do not have any doubt that you can accomplish according to the Dharma.

རྒྱལ་ཁམས་་མྱུལ་བའྲི་མྲི་རྒན་བློ་གོས་་ནས་རང་ལ་ཆོས་་བྱེལ་ཡོད་པའྲི་སོབས་ཕྲུགས་་རྣམས་ལ་སྱེང
Composed by the old man wandering between different countries by the name of Lodru, I am sending this to you students with a Dharma connection to me.

Red River Bridge

Nothin really seemed out of place

just me and my ride and the wide open space
and the thought of her smile
when the whole thing was done

In the blink of an eye, it didn't take long
I thought I went right, maybe I shoulda gone wrong
but the road looped around, I don't know what I did
All the signs said things were fine
but the only ride on that road was mine
I got lost on that Red River Bridge

There was no way to turn my ride
for a second I thought somethin inside of me died
but I had no choice—I did what I did
the lights behind me were fading
the ones in front of me waiting
I had crossed on that Red River Bridge

I saw a phone booth by a sign
man, I ain't seen one of them in a long long time!
I stopped to call my baby, tell her what I did
I said honey, I'm late comin home
She said, I can hear lonely comin right through the phone
you got lost on that Red River Bridge

American Highway, roll forever

cuz Forever's where I'm goin

I'm gonna cross that old Red River

till you roll me to my Home

I said, gal, I'll be back in a while
She didn't say nothin, but I could hear her smile
I said, I got my ride turned around, I know what I did
I'll be back before too long
I thought I went right, maybe I shoulda gone wrong

I'll get back cross that Red River Bridge

The signs were confusing as hell
I stopped for the night in a Dallas motel
and I asked this girl at the bar how I did what I did
she said, Oklahoma's at your back
you're in Texas, that's a fact
you got lost on that Red River Bridge

Well I called my gal next day
From some dive in Santa Fe
She didn't pick up, but she smiled, I know she did
that gal smiles bright as day
I will call her from LA
I got lost on that Red River Bridge

American Highway, roll forever

cuz Forever's where I'm goin

I'm gonna cross that old Red River

till you roll me to my Home

Sonnet for the Illuminous

Some confuse the New Moon with the Bright
but refuse their True Moon ever to consult
Some live in safely Luminous Night
and call Truth's dangerous Daylight "the Occult"
Some call their little fragments Wholeness
while fragging Memory to pure Morass
Some call their Weak Defenses their Great Soulness
while they whip poor Balaam's precious Ass
Some call their use of others "Sacrifice"
Friends are Shafts — Enemies are Staffs
Some are only nice to get The Nice
but John? he watches waits... and laughs

That Brooding Silence bought by scorning
might pray in darkness — but can't talk in the morning

fuck off, demons

 “mortal, but once we enjoyed the masquerade
  now we see clearly, all things perishing”

                          - the vidyadhara, chökyi gyatso 

listen up, john, you stupid motherfucker
go ahead
go beat your stupid head against your stupid wall

everywhere children die of your idiot compassion
eyeless in Gaza?
you wish, you bleeding bag of gas

confess
you murdered your dad
and slept with your mom
you plotted extermination of jews and palestinians
soccer moms and bankers
masters of war
your ex-wives' lovers and therapists
and your own pathetic heart

meditating à l'ermitage du ressentiment
on the Guru of Revenge
you made this whole charade up, pal

live in it

but in the real hermitage he gave me with a smile
my Teacher laughs:

“gather the six senses and offer them to Me
I will conquer the ugly heart of America
your ugly heart, john
tsokdruk rangdrol
I will turn the bloody gaze of your 5 Eyes backward”

fuck off demons

 
       - tsokdruk rangdrol
                  aka
         crazy stoner john

I bow down to the Lord of the Universe

I bow down to YOU my dear friends and enemies

I bow to everyone like you who has ever lived or ever will
I bow to your reactive patterns
I bow to your distractions
I bow to your emotions and complex thoughts and stories
I bow to your dream of a permanent happy self
I bow to the knots in your stomach, the choking in your throat
I bow to the contraction in your heart
I bow to the tears in your eyes
I bow to your anger, your hunger without end
I bow to your stupidity, your busy silly life
I bow to your fearful arrogance and blissed out pride
I bow to you who know them all

I bow down to the Lord of the Universe!
the Hermaphroditic King and Queen of Great Compassion
with as many faces as the Stars
as many arms as the rays of the Sun

Please look here!
I wander the Six Realms
lost and confused with my enemies and friends
Please let me never forget them!

When you place Your Certainty in the soles of my feet
let me never forget we are hesitant, doubtful and indecisive

When you nest in the Palace of Bliss in my loins

let me never forget we are pained, frustrated and obsessed

When you take your Seat of Power and satisfaction in my gut

let me never forget we are hungry, weak and helpless

When you sit on the warm Flower of Peace and Love in my heart

let me never forget we are angry, bitter cold and resentful

When you sing the Angelic Chorus in my throat

let me never forget we are hoarse, tongue-tied and stupid

When you gaze from the Not-Two Eye of insight in my forehead

let me never forget we are duped by division and decision

When you open the Clear Sky above my forehead

let me never forget I must stay here with my enemies and friends

Radiant Lord, Kind Heart of my Teacher
once more I touch my forehead to the ground
Please visit me here
please look on us all with your eyes of Love
and please grant your Grace
that I might live and die for the benefit of others

OM MANI PADME HUNG

[edited from The Universal Bow for my own daily practice. - john o.]