THE BOY WITHOUT A NAME or THE BOY WHO LIVED BY HIMSELF

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

December 24, 2007

[It's Christmas Eve, so I thought a story might be in order as a gift
to Ocean of Dharma readers. This one appears in the archives of
Chogyam Trungpa's unpublished poetry. There is no date given for when
it was composed, and I don't know the circumstances behind the
writing of this story! Because the story is long, I'm sending part
one today and part two on Boxing Day, December 26.
The story appears to be unfinished. If you find yourself
with extra time in the next week and you'd like to finish the story
-- or at least a chapter of it -- please send me your work. I'll post
all the endings to the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project blog in the new
year. Let me know if I can use your name or if you want to remain
anonymous. If you know anything about the history of this little
story, please write and share it with us. Wishing you all a good
holiday and end of the year, however you celebrate it. Carolyn
Gimian, Moderator]


THE BOY WITHOUT A NAME or THE BOY WHO LIVED BY HIMSELF

I am the boy who lives by himself. I don't do anything in
particular, I just live that's the way I am. I spend my life playing
and I make up my own toys. I have no one to play with. The sort of
things that interest me are stones and rivers and trees and clouds.
Since long ago I have had no parents or brothers and sisters, so I
just live alone. Sometimes I want to do like the grown-ups, but then
I realize there's no point in that. I have my own world to live
in, and I'm known as "the boy who lives by himself."
When I was born, no one gave me a name. Perhaps my
parents did give me a name, but somehow it never entered my mind. So
I remain nameless. Grown-ups like giving each other names. And they
like inventing names for objects as well, without stopping to
consider whether the name really fits the thing or not. They learn
these names by heart and write them down.
Once a friend of mine was given a name by his father and
a different name by his mother. His father's friends called him by
one name and his mother's friends called him by the other, and this
rather confused him. As a result he wasn't quite sure which was his
real self. This bothered him for a long time, until one day I
suggested to him that he should be nameless like me. At first he
didn't like the idea. He said, "If I didn't have a name, how would I
know who I am?" I found it difficult to explain to him in words, so
I just said "Well, why don't you give it a try and see what it's
like?" So he did. But this upset his parents
very much because he no longer answered to the names they had given him.
Now he was able to see what his nameless self was really
like and he became like a tiger who has broken his chain....

End of Part One.


From the archive of the unpublished poetry of Chogyam Trungpa.

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo and used
by permission.

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Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week: teachings by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
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