Allen Ginsberg’s July 20 1979 Naropa Institute William Blake class continues from here
AG: I don’t think it’d be too hard to pick up in the middle of things. If you’ve not read any Blake at all, I don’t think it’d make much difference. Or it’d be interesting to see whether it makes any difference or not. Probably it won’t make too much difference. It’d probably be more interesting if you don’t know any Blake at all than if you do.
So, for the moment, what are these Four Zoas or four basic principles? First of all, there’s the body – we’ve got a body. Then there is mind, reason, the rational mind. Then there is some kind of imagination or dream or prophecy; but imagination, let us say. It’s not reason, but it’s still the mind. But it escapes from reason and gets beyond that. And then there’s emotions also. So we do have emotions, we do have reason, we do have a body and we do have imagination. So nobody needs to argue about that. There may be other elements in our nature, but at least those are pretty clear and there’s not too much doubt about them. Does that make sense?
So Blake calls these his Four Zoas, and he gives them names and he assigns them colors, vocations, artifacts of their own, metals, elements, directions, and, for those of you who were listening to the Dharma Art lectures by Trungpa in which he was explaining the basic principles of Mandala, it’s amazingly – in fact startlingly- close to the traditional Tantric Buddhist system. The basic elements are there, actually. Almost exactly the same structure.
The Tantric Mandala structure (is) a map of the psychological universe – A Mandala is a map of the psychological universe, maybe even the physical universe. (It’s) exactly what Blake was doing – a similar thing. The Tibetan one, as I remember it as it was explained very clearly all this last week by Trungpa, was east was blue, was a circle, represented by a sapphire, the entrance to the palace to the east, the first glimpse, the open sky, equanimity, space. South was amber-yellow, expansion, richness, growth, givingness, generosity, solidity, I think (it) was square instead of circle – a square form resting on earth – earth increase. West was blood-colored red, passion, activity, growing out of the space and then expansion and then there’s energy and passion. So that was red. It was symbolized by an uncompleted circle, symbolizing letting go, not necessarily finishing to perfection and eliminating it, but allowing things to go, to become born, to be on their own. Allowing yourself to come, to give birth. So it was a truncated circle, an uncompleted circle. And those are some of the basic forms. And the north was total activity; that is, from blue space to yellow expansion to red blood passion to green growth birth activity. So that was green, was north. It was karmic action, or cause-and-effect in action and nature and the phenomenal world of trees, grass, mountains. And that was a triangle, I think. Kind of interesting. So that’s the rudiments of the Buddhist system. Ancient – real old.
Now, Blake made his own, amazingly, not very different. And if you will check (it) out, he finally finishes it, gets it all together in the last prophetic book, Jerusalem.
to be continued