Friday, January 28, 2011

"Widerstehe doch der Sünde" Stand Firm Against Sin (or something like that)

I broke out of my Vajrasattva retreat in 1975 to sneak into the city.  My plan was to go to Ira Cohen's pad and listen to Glenn Gould on those supernatural head-phones.  A friend of mine was (I hoped) still pad-sitting Ira's place and I felt that I required tonal rehabilitation and, at least, a spigot that would offer hot water.  Ira was off doing some kind of psychedelic poem/play written by Greg Corso.  They all knew me; Corso, Ginsberg, Cohen, et al, because of the intricate mutual connections of New York Dharma Bums.  I was, however, very young, not at all city-wise and certainly not qualified to be a real bum.  My only claim to possible Bum candidacy derived from an early encounter I'd had with Kerouac when I was about five years old.  The details of that encounter made for an interesting story and they were all rather amused by it.  Greg called me white-phantom-cake-boy or maybe it was white-cake-phantom-boy.

It didn't work out however.  My retreat master caught me, sent me off to the store to buy some stuff, made me some soup, and returned me to my cell with a prescription for atonement.  The atonement for breaking retreat is to practice Vajrasattva.

(I regret not knowing how to chain these videos together)
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SDpIyVhZKA
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1GrX32kpH4&feature=related

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