ལོ་གསར་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། Tomorrow is the Tibetan new year or Losar. It is the year of the male fire monkey. In honour of this fact, here is a picture of various kinds of Orchis simia, or monkey orchids, alongside a picture of Justin Bieber and his erstwhile pet Capuchin monkey named Mally which in 2013 he abandoned at customs in Munich because he could not produce vaccination papers or proof of legal purchase for the creature. JBiebz said he would come back with the necessary documents and retrieve his pet but he never did.
On the eve of Losar, Tibetans engage in various purifying and exorcistic practices. Accordingly, I offer this banishing prayer on the cusp of a fresh new year:
This male fire monkey year may our ordinary chattering monkey-mind unfurl as the bloom of pristine awareness which is its basic nature. Through this transformation of appearances may we appreciate the transient tropical flower that is our human life. May we recognize and honour the complicated and delicate conditions that allow this scent-less flower to blossom. May we like Biebz, abandon the illegitimate, diseased monkey of conceptual thought as we take to the boundless sky of our innate wisdom. May we cast aside childish diversions, may we lose interest in nurturing the poorly chosen pets of our Mally-adaptive and Mally-content behaviours. May we continue to beliebe we can be and do better. May it be auspicious.
A Perfumed Skull 