Ekphrastic Tanka 7: Funeral of a Buddha

I spent weeks in Boudnath at the feet of the great master Dilgo Khentse, whose western students nick-named him “Mr. Universe” because of his imperturbably spacious manner. I believe he spent twenty years in yogic retreat when a young man. The photographer Matthieu Ricard is the son of a leading French intellectual and they have tustled over their contrasting philosophical views together on French television many a time. He is as accomplished a photographer as he is a monastic yogic practitioner. I never once saw Dilgo Khyentse without Matthieu at his side; they were inseparable for many years…