BOOKer T(ibetan) Comin For You N!gga

Hoke Hogan, Exotic Buddhism & The Book of Running Wild, Brother

“HOKE HOGAN!!! WE COMIN’ FOR YOU NIGGA!!!”

-Booker T

The immortal words of the brawny Black brawler, Booker T, evokes thoughts of a classic Book from the “T” that stands for “Tibet.”

The BARDO THODOL is the Tibetan Book of Traversing the Planes of the Pre-Conscious Mind which has been mislabeled by presumptuous western scholars as the “Tibetan Book of the Dead.”

Nobody Ever Really Dies, and if they did, they’d probably have no use for a book telling them what they should do once it happens. The Bardo Thodol text gives the living practical guidance in comprehending their own minds so that they can live full lives while they still have breath in their lungs. It instructs us that spiritual liberation comes with attentive listening to the true self buried beneath the heaping spiritual debris of the ego.

In the photo above we have Mahakala. As the husband of the goddess Kali, he is one of the wrathful deities that appears in front of the disembodied soul traveling through the exotic terrains of mind once the soul and body disentangle. Mahakala is acknowledged in both Buddhism and Hinduism. In the latter, he moves with a trident and talking drum like Shiva.

His 3 eyes represent his simultaneous perception of the past, present, and future. His 3 pronged trident symbolize the perfect understanding he has about this 3 dimensional reality we occupy. He is the ancient Mr. “T” who challenges us to embrace the Thodol principle. His conceptual origins go further back in time than Terry Bollea’s receding hairline.

In Tibetan Buddhism, Mahakala’s Black skin exemplifies his eternal nature that extends beyond the finite constraints of space and time. When you close your eyes to meditate your reality is Black. You come out of this eternal blackness renewed and reinvigorated despite the efforts of war pigs and sado-sorcerers who would seek to terminate you in Black Sabbaths of trickery and deceit.

The 5 skulls on Mahakala’s head signify that he has mastered the 5 poisons of human existence: Anger, Pride, Ignorance, Jealousy and Desire.

Mahakala destroys the delusions that humans cling to. He’s kind of like the Brother Malcolm of Asian divinities. Rise in power Malcolm-Jamal Warner.

In many ways Mahakala is the dirt that we try to pretend doesn’t exist by conveniently sweeping it under the rug. Those who resent Black faces for no other reason than the fact that they are Black resent their own secret selves. The MAGA Man Terry Bollea is one such individual.

We can all bury several rounds of verbal clips into the bruised and battered legacy of Terry Bollea. To be honest, I may very well do so tomorrow. However today I’m gonna push a “T” and go full throttle with the Thodol. Take it or leave it. So be it, so be it. Bollea’s body caged Hogan’s soul so God helped him free it.

I remember watching Hoke Hogan on Betamax and VHS tapes from the local video store as a youth thinking that one day the man who entertained and inspired me was gonna die. But again, Nobody Ever Really Dies. Their terribly flawed humanity may kill you if you let it though.

Terry Bollea was a racist, a snitch, and a pathological liar. He hated Black men while simultaneously stealing the swagger of the “Real American” through his lingo and deep tan. When I learned of Bollea’s transition yesterday I was not terribly surprised or saddened. 1987 has long gone, and so has my childish perception of who Bollea was in real life.

Yet through his transition it immediately became shockingly clear to me why I had suddenly become obsessed with Mahakala and the Bardo Thodol since Monday morning out of nowhere. Some serious bardo portals are opening right now as you read this.

As a little boy Hoke Hogan inspired me to dig down deep into myself when faced with unfavorable odds through that Hulking Up routine he did in practically every match he had where he played “the good guy.”

And while he was a steroid junkie and drug misuser during his 1980s prime, the idea of training, saying my prayers, and “eating my vitamins” had me feeling like it was cool to be righteous and do the right things without taking shortcuts in life. So what if Bollea didn’t follow any of that in his own life. That’s his loss, but my gain.

The real Jewel is what the naive little boys across the globe took from the contrived 3 commandments of Hokeamania, and how that may have influenced personal virtue in them at some point in their adult lives. This thought Feels So Good to my soul which extends beyond my human identity.

This is why I say protect your precious memories and preserve your youthful innocence to the extent that you still can. It’s the only thing you can take with you from this life to confront Mahakala in the squared circle under the spotlights of your own pre-conscious mind.

I’ll be Mahakala’s Undertaker standing in the upper rafters of my mental plane.