[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: The Boy without a Name

[Carolyn Gimian]

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Chogyam Trungpa's unpublished poetry.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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Carolyn Rose Gimian

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week: teachings by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications,  the Archive of 
his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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