🥔 ⚡️Deadly Potato Transmission + 🌝Jampa Check-in
What happens when a Yogi makes potatoes to D.I.E. for? A poetic recipe and an existential craving make love. I transmit it to you ~ if you dare.
Dear friends, Benefactors & Potato eaters,
You know those cheesy Inspiration posters you see in waiting rooms?
Well one of my kinks, seems to be hanging Dharma posters around this cabin. Usually with a slight Bodhisattva masochistic (renunciative) flare1. That's just how Milarepa and Shantideva play.
And so after taking an empowerment this January, I celebrated with a post fast of roasted local potatoes. Divine salty fat melted into existential angst and this poem poured out. People always wanted me to have a Papa Jampa Cooking channel. Not sure why- it would basically be me yelling at people to “Salt your onions. Listen to your onions….Make love to your onions..”
Onion foreplay aside, here is a Poetic Recipe of sorts.
Yesterday, was Milarepa's parinirvana. As one of my poster gods, I intuit he would like these potatoes (poetry debatable). I pray they nourish some part of you too.
May you be connected to my heart and stomach and may all beings swim in irreversible joy, wisdom and 'deadly potatoes'.
**Disclaimer : this poem was written on January 6 and auto scheduled in January before phase II of my retreat. A prayer also follows.
FYI: I suggest horizontal/landscape mode on Mobile for formatting. Poetry is a rhythmic dance, and Jampa is attached to indents and em dashes more than ever — 🤷.
🥔 ⚡️ Deadly Potato Transmission
Who knew, In this bloodless desert valley, encircled by white crowned kings, where the deafening silence sings, and the wind still dances with echoes of Hopi prayers, a land where only stocky Pinion trees and this golden rabbit bush seem to thrive, And somehow, I am continuously emptying sand out of my shoes, Who knew, that this would be a Pureland of Potatoes! Baby mixed medley are best, Purple Golds work too, organic and local of course — for karma bears fruit, especially with potatoes. The secret is simple, to cut them length wise into purple and gold oval gems, a bit thicker than the wide part of your chef's knife, Four babies will birth a 40 cent feast. Into the blessing bowl, with extra virgin olive amrita, Stir diligently — not sloppily, then with a 3 finger mudra, rain salt, oregano and rosemary, a flick of garlic and chili flake, stir and pray, Spread the Love impartially, like a true Bodhisattva, lay them like cold children on a pan, and into the hot (toaster) oven a blessing in disguise it seems, 20 minutes or so, I dont really know, the sizzle and smell whisper to me, But if it's not sticking to the pan, they are definitely not done, Finish with few min on the Broiler, not brown but Golden like Shakyamuni, Not a chip nor a home-fry, but a salty and divine manifestation of mind and sand, Finish with a dusting of salt, because that oil needs loving too. At 8,000 feet, these potatoes sure do ground, until they don't. Crunch, snap, chomp chomp salt shimmy aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, gone, gone gone Crunch, smack smack, pop, salty fat ting aghhhhhhh gone, gone gone aching tension in the chest a puddle and memory, yet I keep eating anyway, gone gone gone It's all gone! ping pang pong labels come, labels go, Gone gone gone! I swore i tasted you, yet were you ever even here? No where to stand, Potatoes and sand, falling through my hands, From the ground, to the ground, It's potatoes all the way down So darn tasty, yet never truly found, Potatoes, Potatoes, All the way down! Potatoes and sand falling through my hands Where did you go? Were you ever here? I can't find you! Potatoes and Potatoes All the way down, Soon these potatoes and this chomping mouth-anus, will be sand again too. While the groundless ground, eats us all. I worry you all hear me, But don't taste my Potatoes! It's not just 'impermanent man', it's potatoes potatoes all the way down! Satisfied but not, seduced by recipes once again, something nags me, Were you ever here? it's all a dream the sages say, but my darn white t-shirt is stained, so whose gonna clean that? Ohh yea, they need ketchup, But I guess that's just the flavor of life, and another recipe for another day. Divinely gone, it's potatoes I tell ya — potatoes all the way down! Bon Apetitite!
Impermanence & Death Prayer
I was hesitant to share my Dharma Snuff, but why should I reinforce our culture's shadow and phobia with death and interfere with your Karma and a publicly available book.
This is a prayer on Impermanence and Death from Dudjom Rinpoche from “A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom” (a commentary on the Dudjom Terser preliminaries). Dudjom Rinpoche was the 1st & former head of the Nyingma lineage in Tibetan Buddhism (1904-1987) and an emanation of Terton Dudjom Lingpa, a 19th century master, renegade and treasure revealer who achieved Rainbow Body along with 13 of his disciples. In Buddhism that's what you call a humble brag of skilfull means.
And yes, Impermanence was ironically impermanent on that initially misspelled poster.
Dedication Prayer
May these empty cute words,
of a middle aged fool,
somehow — someway,
be of benefit to all beings.
May we learn how to die,
so we can learn how to live,
May we clearly see rebirth,
so we can truly love all our mothers now,
May the sweet flavor of Bodhicitta,
and the Salty enlivener of death,
forever coat our pallets and hearts.
🌕 Howls of Crestone 🌕
An unofficial collection of monthly Poems and reflections while on solitary retreat:
Sacred Songs of a Fool (audio)
Exploring sound, prayer and the sacred in a cynical world.
How Views create our worlds, Rebirth & Intuitive Wisdom.
A spicy poem & exposition Where we tackle a phoenix rising from debauchery, Boundless Impartiality, Radical Love, & Woke Culture's anti-love.
A true story of Karma and Grace shining in the desert.
Eating Potatoes to D.I.E. for we go down the potato hole of impermanence + Emptiness via Jampa's killer potatoes.
technically masochist take pleasure in pain where a Bodhisattva sees the emptiness of suffering but due to great compassion wants to relieve or take on others sufferings to benefit other beings.