Thread by @Meaningness

Diane di Prima was one of the few poets I really like.

Thanks to @angelvsnovvs for RTing this to me, and to the several people who separately introduced me to her work decades ago.

https://twitter.com/venepoetics/status/1320521061117661184

@angelvsnovvs Diane di Prima’s _Seminary Poems_ were written during a 3-month Tibetan Buddhist study/meditation retreat at Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center.

They communicate the essence of Vajrayana. Many are also wryly funny (which is not separate from the essence of Vajrayana…)

@angelvsnovvs I did a similar one-month retreat program (dathün) at Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center a few years after her. It was one of the most significant events in my life. Diane di Prima’s descriptions of the place and time and life are highly evocative for me.

@angelvsnovvs Early in September, I read that Colorado was on fire. I immediately thought of Shambhala… but statistically, unlikely, right?

It burned later that month.

@angelvsnovvs Fortunately, although the surrounding forest burned, along with many minor buildings, fire-fighters managed to save the major ones—many of them architecturally extraordinary.

@angelvsnovvs Shambhala Mountain Center is an extraordinary place; sacred for tens of thousands of people. It’s been a quarter century for me, and it remains highly significant in my heart.

@angelvsnovvs Shambhala Mountain’s Center’s future was already in doubt before the fire. The organization that owns and operates it is imploding due to sexual misconduct by its spiritual head.

At a guess, the org will survive in greatly reduced form.

Will the retreat center?

@angelvsnovvs