Interesting. Thanks for posting this, Vaj. I met Joni once in the context of a meeting with another spiritual teacher, a Yaqui brujo named Grandfather Cachora. Based on that short meeting, and my impression of her during it, if Trungpa was able to stop her self-analysis for three days, he was a powerful dude indeed. :-)
I've never *met* a person more addicted to self- analysis than Joni Mitchell. Writes great lyrics, though. --- In [email protected], Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > There was some discussion a few weeks back about Joni Mitchell & > lyrics to "Refuge of the Road." Just found an interview in which she > discusses several meetings with Trungpa & crazy wisdom pedagogy: > > Joni Mitchell > by Dimitri Ehrlich > Interview Magazine April 1991 > > > How's the art world treating you? > Well, the thing about the art world is that everyone wants to > pigeonhole the artists. And the problem I've run into is that to > align my myself with a gallery means to really curtail my freedom. I > paint in, like, four different styles, but they want you to get a > recognizable style going, like Lichtenstein or something. But in a > way, everything you appreciate goes into you and comes out sooner or > later. It creates the mulch for later work. > > I like that idea. Chogyam Trungpa, the Tibetan lame, once said that > everything in life is fertilizer: you scatter it on the field of > awakening. Rather than saying that everthing you hate about yourself > is shit and that you're going to get rid of it. > > He loved the word "shit," didn't he? > Trungpa did some very weird things. > Oh, yeah. He was the bad boy of Zen. I wrote a song about a visit I > made to him called "Refuge of the Road." I consider him one of my > great teachers, even though I saw him only three times. Once I had a > fifteen-minute audience with him in which we argued. He told me to > quit analyzing. I told him I couldn't - I'm an artist, you know. Then > he induced into me a temporary state where the concept of "I" was > absent, which lasted for three days. > > Wow, that's very rare. Immediate transmission. > Immediate, and from then on it was my decision whether to make that > my life. But you can't function from there as an artist. > > Did you ever tell him how much you learned from him? > Yes. At the very end of Trungpa's life I went to visit him. I wanted > to thank him. He was not well. He was green and his eyes had no > spirit in them at all, which sort of stunned me, because the previous > times I'd seen him he was quite merry and puckish - you know, saying > "shit" a lot. I leaned over and looked into his eyes, and I said, > "How is it in there? What do you see in there? And this voice came, > like, out of a void, and it said, "Nothing." So, I want over and > whispered in his ear, "I just came to tell you that when I left you > that time, I had three whole days without self conscious-ness, and I > wanted to thank you for the experience." And he looked up at me, and > all the light came back into his face and he goes, "Really?" And then > he sank back into this black void again. > > How would you sum up Trungpa's effect on your life? > Well, who knows? His particular lineage uses a teaching device that > involves shocking you. Trungpa stopped me in my tracks. Made a space. > Wham. He pushed back all this stuff, and it stayed pushed back for > three days. > > I once asked a Tibetan lama about duality. He just took my head in > his hand and smacked our heads together. It was, like, bonk. He said, > 'You think too much." > > You are a bright cookie, you know that? Your questions have almost > been too cerebral for me. > Sorry. They have been a bit dense. > But on the other hand, I like what most might consider stupid questions. > As in, What's it like to be a singer? > Um, that's not a bad one. I could answer that. > > Full interview cached at: http://72.14.203.104/search? > q=cache:KALBJTqVOXkJ:www.jmdl.com/articles/view.cfm%3Fid% 3D132+Joni > +Mitchell+Chogyam+Trungpa&hl=en > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
