Take Me Back to the Bamboo Grove
(sadness at spiritual materialism): Lyrics
Take me back to that small moonlit court
Some fifty lives ago
Yogis gathered round a sacred ashram fire
Eyes sparkling in its glow
The Indian night wrapped around us like a shawl
Of living stars, its cloth composed
In the name of God, what have we humans done
With their threads of truth, made a hangman’s noose
With selfish clouds, blotted out their sun
Take me back to the Bamboo Grove
Or to the hills of Galilee
Take me up to the floating clouds
That are the only place to be
Take me back to the innocence
And to the great simplicity
In the name of God, what have we humans done
With their threads of truth, made a hangman’s noose
With selfish clouds, blotted out their sun
Your laughter pealed like a thousand bells
Across the hills and valleys of time
Your smile soothed a million broken hearts
And your words brought sweet warmth like wine
Karmapa, your name is burned into my bones
By your loving presence’s white-hot iron
There must come a day when all will see
The gifts you gave so resplendently
In that magic window of time
Take me back to the Bamboo Grove
Or to the hills of Galilee
Take me up to the floating clouds
That are the only place to be
Take me back to that innocence
And to the great simplicity