Pulling a Torch From the Sky

This biography of KEITH DOWMAN portrays his life as an unorthodox master of Tibetan dharma. He began as a pilgrim, became a translator, then a peripatetic teacher recognized by the elder lineage holders in the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions. Keith's teachings, drawing on his many translations and his extensive reading of Dzogchen philosophy, show how the language of Radical Dzogchen reprograms the mind. Keith, like the legendary Drukpa Kunley, is an unconventional teacher who, with unwavering confidence in his view of Radical Dzogchen, appears as a traveler on the road, independent of institutions and ceremonial conventions. These divine madmen carry the dharma, freely and fiercely, traveling, teaching and writing. They are not the tulkus or the geshes; they are the wisdom holders who have, as Keith says, pulled a torch from the sky.

Keith Dowman's life has been totally unconventional, and his role as an unorthodox master of Tibetan dharma has been recognized by traditional lamas and their adepts. He began as a pilgrim, became a translator, then a peripatetic teacher and finally a lineage holder. The Tibetans acknowledge Keith's role in the lineage of Drukpa Kunley in which the teacher appears as a traveler on the road, independent from institutions or ceremonial conventions. These are not the tulkus or the geshes; these are the wisdom holders, the divine madmen, the itinerant yogis, perpetually traveling, teaching, and writing. Keith's teachings draw on his many translations and his extensive reading of Tibetan Dzogchen philosophy. He is strikingly unadorned and one hundred percent himself. He is sharp, deep, humble, transparent and unwaveringly confident in his view of Radical Dzogchen. He has no institutional links, so there cannot be any institutional lineage or formal certification. There will be no transfer of a "title" in a formal ceremony. As Keith has stated, "It will be a matter of simply pulling the torch out of the sky".

J. M. White I have explored and written about esoteric and indigenous traditions around the world. I studied at Naropa Institute with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Harry Smith and Gregory Corso. I have written about the Paleolithic art in the caves of France, as well as travel journals about Tibet, Peru and Mexico. I have explored the ancient ruins of the prehistoric people of the Southwest and have attended the kachina dances at Zuni pueblo. I have compiled and edited the autobiography of Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and have ten books in print, five of prose and five of poetry. I did graduate study in Phenomenology at Duquesne University and hold an M.A. in philosophy from Vanderbilt. My poems, interviews, essays and book reviews have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Sewanee Review, Janus Head, Parabola and The Mirror as well as in magazines and journals in Canada, England, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and India. I continue to live in rural Middle Tennessee where I founded Anomolaic Press and publish my own work along with the novels and short stories of William Gay.