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COMMAND
Nuclear catastrophe is imminent;
Man's aggression to kill himself or others is imminent;
Tiger hates his or her stripes and is going to untiger;
Yet Karmapa never left a declaration of independence.
The Kagyu kingdom is intact,
If not totally packaged by Vajradhatu of North America.
I am so sad, so devastated,
I feel I have lost my head;
But I have gained a new head, a Karmapa head.
For better or worse I will rule according to Karmapa's imperial command:
I will remain as the Emperor of Kalapa.
We still allow people to smile and grin:
Human beings' habitual patterns are obviously the best of their ability to
create a society of their own,
Whether they are tiger, lion, yak or buffalo.
We like America in its buffaloness:
Let America be buffalo kingdom, in spite of the unicorns.
Cheerio, as we say in Britain.
You deserve your cheerfulness, nonetheless.
20 December 1981
Boulder, Colorado
Composed during a ceremony marking the cremation of the Sixteenth Karmapa.
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