Letter to James Keys (G. Spencer Brown)

OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA!

October 27, 1976

Dear James Keys,

We hope this note finds you happy and well. Such an aus­picious occasion. This is the first letter on the type­writer, marking my return to the world of letters after a year on sabbatical leave. For the sabbath, perhaps I should have waited four or five days for a consonnant date, but there is great energy here flowing in your direction, so a swift note seems to be in order. It is now over three and a half years since our meeting...but I have followed the correspondence with Walter. We and others find joy in the prospect, of your forthcoming visit and the programmed settling in California. When I write the name of this State, I remember reading Cervantes while a student in Madrid: the White Goddess California as the Man from La Mancha's Impossible Dream. Blessed Isles of western Amitabha realm and all the rest. It IS some sort of paradise here, con­taining as well labyrinthine aspects --like the first real English garden at Blenheim. Quail is the state bird, the grizzly (grey and brown) bear its beast, and the golden poppy its flower. With a governor named Brown in a capital named for the Sacrament. I was born in its jewel city, named for the most renowned heretic saint in Christendom, and California's largest city is of the angles--no, that should be angels. (I lost a bit of the touch for typing--apologies).

So much for orientation. I write now from the so-called Diamond Sufi Ranch, which for the last year or so has also been called Samten Chüling (bSam gTan Sho-sa gLing), or "Tranquility Meditation Dharma Place." The Tibetan bSam gTan is also translated "Utter distraction." We are surrounded by fields of grapes, in the Napa Valley. The finest outside the Bordeaux and Rhine-Moselle regions, for growing Cabernet Sauvignon and Johannisberger Riesling. This is a rich valley. A superb little gourmet grocery store 1/2 mile away; first-rate butcher who makes his own sausages (including boudin blanc) 3 miles in the other direction; excellent Mexican grocery store (with chorizo, cilantro, all the chiles, tortillas y cerveza). The wine we purchase from the makers. A cheese shop with extraordinary selections one mile away. And yet only half a dozen houses anywhere near the ranch. Open fields, the Napa river, trees and birds, and magnificent bamboo. Like a displaced Faulkner estate, the old place is certainly not what it once was--my mother's family bred racehorses here, when there was a stable and a quartermile track; but the indoor pool remains, charmingly primitive. We have one mare, an Arabian Quarterhorse, a compliment of ranch dogs, cats, and weekend visitors from the San Francisco Bay region, an hour's drive away. Now five young people live on the grounds: lively and bright, and mostly quite lovely. Walter lived here for 3 years and frequently visits. We can arrange space for you here.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I drive to California State University at Sacramento, where I teach in the Art Department. On December 21st a one month vacation period commences. My other time during the week is relatively free, and I have no definite plans for the year-end, although my fiancee, Polly and I have discussed holiday possibilities. So should you be arriving, we could expect to devote considerable energies toward the Work. I have read your Fables to some of my classes; and for the last few years have attempted to work with Laws of Form. As my professorship is in the Art Department, I enjoy latitude in my methodology and choice of subject matter, much of which related to communications systems--although in a poetic rather than technological way.

I used to write art criticism six or seven years ago, and have published little since then. It was not really very brilliant or witty work; thought it might be at the time though. The mild embarrassments of Karma. Ah well.... The stuff Walter and I have been working on is very high and amusing to us both and to a few others. But you know, as you have written, about publishers, it has not proven to be the hot salable item as yet. There is promise however. We have a quite good agent in New York: John Brockman. But he can't be that good if he hasn't sold anything. Walter is writing you about Mr. Francis Busco, who lives in Big Sur, and who has declared his interest in publishing. I attended a conference with John Lilly and Heinz von Foerster & their gang at Busco's home last month, just for one session; then Polly and I decided to walk on the beach. They do have good will among their own contradictions; perhaps Busco could stimulate support, or at least a paying appearance or two. There is the possibility of something at Sacramento, after campus politics and much paperwork to make arrangements. A one-shot University might be arranged.

There are many "consciousness move­ment" organizations in the Bay Area. Meetings with some of the groups might be in order. Tarthang Tulku has a Nyingma Tibetan Buddhist center in Berkeley and is building a monas­tery in near-by Sonoma county. His organization published and sponsors an active program, although I have not worked directly with him to date; but we do have friends in the camp. My own Dharma connections are with the Karma Kargyud-pa tradition, as the ranch has sponsored two retreats (Tsenjur Rimpoche from Vancouver and the Venerable Lama Chime Rimpoche who is in England at the Khams Tibetan House and who serves at the British Museum). Last month I had the opportunity to visit with Chime Rimpoche briefly in San Francisco; we renewed our friendship and agreed to correspond. It would be valuable if you had the chance to contact him in England--he is a sublimely delightful guiding spirit. Chögyam Trungpa has established the Naropa Institute in Colorado, which is possibly the most promising place for our visions to receive support if manifested as institutional teaching. I studied under Trungpa a few years ago, but have not developed a strong working basis with his lieutenants, nor have I been inspired yet to cut through the protocol. Friends who studied at Naropa last summer are encour­aging. Lama Kunga Rimpoche, of the Sakyapa order is also in Berkeley, at Ewam Chöden, and may listen intelligently.

I understand Laws of Form as the mathematical basis for the practical work of translating the teaching of the Dharma as preserved by the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism, and based upon the Heart Sutra (Prajnaparamita Hridya Sutra). This would seem to be in the great tradition of Marpa, the Translator. After all, the deepest, clearest, most precise indication of the basis for translation should be of some interest to the Tibetans at this time. Curious though, some of my questions about mathematics have led to citations from manuscripts apparently concerned with prediction and prognos­tication, said to be virtually unreadable or unintelligible save for the very few exceptional people. Sounds rather like the response of my students to Laws of Form. I am not so certain that the generation of our children will experience the same resistances. As Gertrude Stein has written, we write for ourselves and strangers.

This last summer I spent six weeks on Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands, doing the Arica 40-day training. My fantasy is that the "School" is in the Gurdjieffian tradition of Naqshbandi Sufism. Its leader, Oscar Ichazo, I have known for five years, but this is my first experience doing any of the work. The current basis of the school is a program called the Nine Systems, which represents a quite comprehensive and eloquent translation of ancient methods of meditation and relaxation. There are numerous and close correspondences between Arica and Vajrayana techniques, and I am working with both in lectures at the University. The exoteric custom of modern academe does rather limit the occasion I can provide indications for internal work, but bridgework is stimulating. This provides a way for me to see what is working, or what may work in the great wave of evolving consciousness. So far I have managed to retain my position--even to have been awarded tenure. The full professorship is hardly comparable to a post of the same title in Britain. Nevertheless, it seems to afford a hedge against Life and Security panic. My salary is modest, but my creditors are patient, so it flows well enough. We very nicely enjoy the riches of California fruit and vege­tables, the wine, the weather, the countryside, and assorted diversions such as the city provides, all of which we will be delighted to share with you, as our guest.

Walter intends to write concerning practical possibilities for lecturing and publishing. They are real, and you should be encouraged. Some may not pan out; other new ones may be developed by the time you arrive. We have an exhillarating network of close friends and associates--hard to say with whom it might go the best. Richard Miller at Wilbur spa is very positive. Peter Litt has a new, hand-built house in Men­docino for retreat. Christopher Wells in San Diego perhaps the most brilliant, working in process neuro-architecture & eager.

Lovely, enchanting ladies. Patroness? Investors? Serious Students? Quien sabe? May the blessings of ten thousand Buddhas, etc. rain down upon you (and may it simply rain on England).

Yours,
Kurt von Meier