MJ Walker wrote:
> Could you clarify, Ken - I don't have the Weinberger, and so I checked
> on the net with a vague memory of something in Miles' Ginsberg
> biography: it seems from what I read that it was Trungpa who did all
> the damage by inciting his disciples, while G., absent at the party in
> question, later blessed his actions as proceeding from faultless guru
> teaching - bad enough, certainly, but not exactly helping. All idols
> have clay feet, as we know.
> Martin
I don't have the book here, either; it's at home. Somehow or other,
Merwin and his female companion at the time were at Naropa for some
instructional purpose. Ginsberg was not the only Trungpa acolyte who was
hanging around, but he was the most noticeable. I believe Trungpa
ORDERED Merwin to appear at some soiree, the evening dancing bear, but
Merwin was tired and therefore declined. So he and his companion were
seized, dragged by force to the main hall, and stripped naked. Ginsberg
may not have laid hands on Merwin but he was vocal in his support of the
great guru and was ordering Merwin to comply. Okay, drop the Abu Ghraib
thing: try O'Brien in 1984. Ginsberg was never my idol, not nearly, but
before I read about this atrocious episode I'd come to like some of his
poetry. Now I will not read it. A principle that won't do a damn thing
to Ginsberg but makes me feel a bit better: and I don't sense that I'm
cutting myself out of anything immortal. As for Merwin, his writing
(apart from the translations) leaves me unmoved, but the treatment he
received at the hands of that lushed-up Tibetan ersatz monk makes him
instantly and permanently sympathetic.
Clarify, please--did Weinberger himself ever teach at or study at Naropa?
Ken
--
Kenneth Wolman
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