DAKINIS: Sky Dancers, Khandroma

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"Dakini (Sanskrit: डाकिनी ḍākinī; Standard Tibetan: མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་ khandroma, Wylie: mkha' 'gro ma, TP: kanzhoima; Chinese: 空行母) The dakini is a tantric figure representing a female embodiment of enlightened energy. The Tibetan form of dakini, khandroma, translates as 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in space' or, more poetically, as 'sky walker' or 'sky dancer'.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakini

"Practices of the Wrathful Lion-Headed Dakini Simhamukha.......Generally, in terms of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dakini represents the autonomous feminine principle that is outside the control of patriarchal society and the rational male ego consciousness. For this reason, the Dakini may be represented as alluring and enchanting, but also as wrathful and terrifying. This seminar will look at the meditations, rituals, and magical practices associated with the wrathful lion-headed Dakini Simhamukha, mistress of enchantments, sorceries, and witchcraft, who brings all those beings who are difficult to subdue under her power, and who also vanquishes and subdues all obstacles, negativities, and evil spirits. Simhamukha was the personal practice of Guhyajnana Dakini, the female Guru of Padmasambhava in the Central Asian country of Uddiyana and he introduced the practice into Tibet. She remains a very popular practice in the Nyingmapa school of Tibetan Buddhism. For this purpose, we rely on the profound expositions of Jamgön Kongtrul, Jamyang Khyentse, and Dudjom Rinpoche regarding the practices for this Dakini, who is a manifestation of enlightened awareness.".....http://www.vajranatha.com/schedule.html

Dakinis dance and leap into the air performing acrobatic feats in a mandala on the upper floor of Jampa Lhakhang in Lo Manthang....http://www.mountainsoftravelphotos.com

"Judith Simmer-Brown (2001: p. 57).... when conveying the ambiguity of ḍākinīs in their 'worldy' and 'wisdom' guises conveys a detailed narrative that provides the origin of Lawapa's name:..."worldly ḍākinīs are closely related to the māras of India, who haunted the Buddha under the tree of awakening. In this role, they took whatever form might correspond to the vulnerabilities of their target, including beguiling and seductive forms of exquisite beauty. When that ruse failed, they again became vicious ghouls and demonesses. When the yogin Kambala meditated in an isolated cave at Panaba Cliff, the local mamo ḍākinīs plotted to obstruct his meditation. Noticing that he was particularly reliant upon a tattered black woolen blanket that also served as his only robe, they asked to borrow it. Sensing the power of the blanket, they tore it into shreds and devoured it, burning a final scrap in his cooking fire. In anger Kambala magically transformed the mamo ḍākinīs into sheep and sheared them, so that when they returned to their original forms their heads were shaven. Fearing the power of his realization, the mamos vomited up the shreds of blanket, and Kambala collected the pieces and rewove them. From that day, he was called Lvapa, or "master of the blanket".....Simmer-Brown, Judith (2001). Dakini's Warm Breath: the Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism. Boston, USA: Shambhala. ISBN 1-57062-720-7 (alk. paper): p.57

Sukhasiddhi Dakini ....instrumental in the transmission of the Mahamudra teachings, but is of especial importance to the Shangpa Kagyu lineage. She was one of the main teachers of their founder Khyungpo Naljor (khyung po rnal 'byor, 11/12th cent.).....http://rywiki.tsadra.org

KHYUNGPO NALJOR...(978-1127)..."In his work 'An Impartial History of the Sources of Spiritual Instruction', Jamgon Kongtrul had great praise for Khyungpo Naljor, who mastered both Ancient Tibetan lineages and had more than 150 teachers. He founded the Shangpa lineage."...(Jamgon Kongtrul's Retreat Manual..pg 87)...

SUKASIDDHI...Khyungpo Naljor considered her to be one of the greatest of his 150 teachers."..(Kongtrul's Retreat Manual..pg 86)...

Seljé Dö Drelma is the Dakini of sleep in the Bon Tradition.....She is invoked and visualized in sleep-yoga-practice in the Ma Gyu (Mothertantra)..... http://ligminchastore.org/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/img_deity_card_sleepkhandro_full265px.jpg

"According to the Blue Annals, Khyungpo Neljor asked his teachings whether anyone in India had met the Buddha Vajradhāra, the source of the Buddhist tantras. They replied that Niguma, reputedly the sister of Nāropa, had done so. Khyungpo Neljor sought her out, finding her in the Sosa charnal ground in East India. He requested her transmission, to which she replied “I am a flesh-eating ḍākinī!” When he pressed her, she demanded gold. Taking his gold and throwing it into the forest, her retinue of ḍākinī formed a maṇḍala, bestowing on Khyungpo Naljor the initiation of the Illusory Body (sgyu lus) and Dream Yoga, two sections that make up the Nigu Chodruk (ni gu chos drug), or Six Yogas of Niguma. Niguma then transported him to a golden mountain summit where she bestowed the complete Six Yogas, the Dorje Tsikang (rdo rje tshig rkang) and the Gyuma Lamrim (sgyu ma lam rim). She prophesied that the teachings should stay secret until the seventh lineage holder, she being the second after Vajradhāra.".......http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Khyungpo-Naljor/6285

"Khyungpo Naljor, a twelfth-century teacher in Tibet, once had a visionary experience in which a lion-headed dakini appeared to him and sang this song about working with dakini energy. Translated by western buddhist teacher, author Ken McLeod......http://www.mahakalaradio.org/resources/prayers/the-dakini-song-of-khyungpo-naljor/.....

"Kurukulla—The Dakini of Enchantment and Witchcraft......The Dakini or Khandroma, literally “she who moves through space” or “she who goes in the sky,” is a manifestation of energy in female form. There are worldly Dakinis who are human beings such as female spiritual teachers or else witches possessing psychic powers, but also non-human Dakinis such as goddesses and nature spirits in female form. In addition, there are Wisdom Dakinis who are transcendent or beyond Samsara and represent the manifestations of enlightened awareness in female form, such as the female Buddha Tara, or female Bodhisattvas such as Lakshmi and Sarasvati, or Guardians in female form like Ekajati. In the Tantric Buddhism of Tibet, the Dakini embodies the Wisdom Principle of Buddha enlightenment, for which reason she is said to be the Consort of all the Buddhas. More generally, in terms of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dakini represents the feminine principle that is outside the control of patriarchal society and the rational male ego consciousness. For this reason, the Dakini may be represented as alluring and enchanting, but also as wrathful and terrifying and dangerous to men. This course will look at the meditation and ritual practices associated with Kurukulla, the Dakini of enchantments and witchcraft, coming from the mystical land of Uddiyana, the land of the Dakinis. It is she who brings all those beings who are otherwise difficult to subdue under her power.".....http://www.vajranatha.com/schedule.html

"One Buddhist Dakini originating from the country of Uddiyana is the goddess Kurukulla. The name Kurukulla is translated into Tibetan as Rigjyedma (rig-byed-ma), “she who is the cause knowledge.” She is associated with a king of Uddiyana named Indrabhuti. But there were at least three Indrabhutis and this is most likely the second one. Moreover, there exists a sadhana text attributed to him for the red Kurukulla in her eight-armed form. But whether she had eight arms or four arms, she is generally known as the Uddiyana Kurukulla. Most modern scholars believe this indicates that Kurukulla was originally a tribal goddess, much like the Hindu goddess Durga had been in India, who later, because of her popularity, became associated with the Buddhist great goddess Tara. For this reason, Kurukulla is often called the Red Tara (sgrol-ma dmar-po) or Tarodbhava Kurukulla, “the Kurukulla who arises from Tara....More than any other figure in the Buddhist pantheon, Kurukulla becomes the Buddhist goddess of love and sex, corresponding to the Western gooddesses Aphrodite and Venus. ”.....http://vajranatha.com/teaching/Kurukulla.htm

"This course will survey the importance of the Dakini Principle in the Higher Tantra practice of Tibetan Buddhism and introduce some of the ritual and meditation practices connected with Dakini Yoga of Kurukulla. For this purpose, we rely on the profound expositions of Jamgön Kongtrul and Jamyang Khyentse regarding the practices for this Dakini who is a manifestation of enlightened awareness, as well as the ritual text of the Kurukulla Kalpa."....

Kun grol grags pa and the revelation of the Secret Treasury of the Sky Dancers on Channels and Winds an inquiry into the development of the New Bon tradition in Eighteenth century Tibet .... Aby Jean-Luc Achard...vajrayana.faithweb.com/Kundrol.pdf

"According to the Blue Annals, Khyungpo Naljor asked his teachers whether anyone in India had met the Buddha Vajradhara, the source of the Buddhist tantras. They replied that Niguma, reputedly the sister of Naropa, had done so. Khyungpo Naljor sought her out, finding her in the Sosa charnal ground in East India. He requested her transmission, to which she replied "I am a flesh-eating dakini!" When he pressed her, she demanded gold. Taking his gold and throwing it into the forest, her retinue of dakini formed a mandala, bestowing on Khyungpo Naljor the initiation of the Illusory Body (sgyu lus) and Dream Yoga, two sections that make up the Nigu Chodrug (ni gu chos drug), or Six Yogas of Niguma. Niguma then transported him to a golden mountain summit where she bestowed the complete Six Yogas, the Dorje Tsikang (rdo rje tshig rkang) and the Gyuma Lamrim (sgyu ma lam rim). She prophesied that the teachings should stay secret until the seventh lineage holder, she being the second after Vajradhara.".....http://www.himalayanart.org

http://www.kcc.org/support-kcc/scol-capital-campaign/member-fundraisers/tara-sullivans-niguma

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….February 2013

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Milam: Dream Yoga, Perceived Reality, Yoga Nidra

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"The sadhana of Dream Yoga as practiced in Dzogchen traditions such as the Kham, entered the Himalayan tantric tradition from the Mahasiddha, Ngagpa and Bonpo. Dream Yoga or "Milam" (T:rmi-lam; S:svapnadarśana), is one of the Six Yogas of Naropa."......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasiddha#Different_Mahasiddha_traditions

There are three requirements before a student may begin a practice:
1. the empowerment (Tibetan: wang)
2. a reading of the text by an authorized holder of the practice (Tibetan: lung)
3. instruction on how to perform the practice or rituals (Tibetan: tri).
An individual is not allowed to engage in a deity practice without the empowerment for that practice. The details of an empowerment ritual are often kept secret as are the specific rituals involved in the deity practice.

"Dream Yoga or Milam (T:rmi-lam or nyilam; S:svapnadarśana) — the Yoga of the Dream State are a suite of advanced tantric sadhana of the entwined Mantrayana lineages of Dzogchen (Nyingmapa, Ngagpa, Mahasiddha, Kagyu and Bönpo). Dream Yoga are tantric processes and techniques within the trance Bardos of Dream and Sleep (Tibetan: mi-lam bardo) and are advanced practices similar to Yoga Nidra. Aspects of Dream Yoga sadhana are subsumed within the practice suite of the Six Yogas of Naropa.....In a footnote on 'Zhitro' (Tibetan: zhi khro) Namdak & Dixey, et al. (2002: p. 124) identify that the 'dream body' and the 'bardo body' is the 'vision body' (Tibetan: yid lus): In the bardo one has...the yilu (yid lus), the vision body (yid, consciousness; lus, body). It is the same as the body of dreams, the mind body."... Lopön Tenzin Namdak and Dixey, Richard (2002). Heart Drops of Dharmakaya: Dzogchen Practice of the Bön Tradition. Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-172-3

"Yoga nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations. Yoga nidra, lucid sleeping is among the deepest possible states of relaxation while still maintaining full consciousness. Lucid dreaming is the Western term used to denote a practice similar to yoga nidra. The distinguishing difference is the degree to which one remains cognizant of the actual physical environment as opposed to a dream environment. In lucid dreaming, one is only (or mainly) cognizant of the dream environment, and have little or no awareness of our actual environment....Yoga nidra refers to the conscious awareness of the deep sleep state, referred to as prajna in Mandukya Upanishad....The Mandukya Upanishad is the shortest of the Upanishads – the scriptures of Hindu Vedanta. It is in prose, consisting of just twelve verses expounding the mystic syllable Aum, the three psychological states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep, and the transcendent fourth state of illumination. The Muktikopanishad, which discusses other Upanishads, says that the Mandukya Upanishad alone is enough for salvation."....Rama, Swami. Mandukya Upanishad: Enlightenment Without God.

"According to contemporary Dzogchen teachers Namkhai Norbu, Lopön Tenzin Namdak and Tenzin Wangyal, the perceived reality and the phenomenal world are considered to be ultimately "unreal" — an "illusion" (refer Mahamaya): a dream, a phantasmagoria, a thoughtform. All appearances and phenomena are a dream or thoughtform, inter- and intra- reflecting and refracting jewels and mirrors of possibility and potentiality, "arising in relationships" or "dependent co-arising". It is held by these lineages and due to the realisations of the sadhana, that the dream of life and regular nightly dreams are not dissimilar, and that in their quintessential nature are non-dual. The non-essential difference between the general dreaming state and the general waking experience is that the latter is generally more concrete and linked with attachments, samskara and skandha; whereas, standard non-lucid dreaming is ephemeral and transient, and generally culturally reinforced as baseless and empty. In Dream Yoga, living may become the dream, and the dream may become the living. Progressing the sadhana may be metaphorically likened to living the scientific hypothesis of a resolved superposition. The resolved superposition being a mindstream conflation of Dharmakaya with Shunyata and Indra's Net. The entwined Mantrayana lineages of Nyingmapa, Bonpo, Ngagpa and Mahasiddha are saturated with trance and dream transmissions of teachings, doctrine, etcetera that transcend constructs of time, place and space, these are often called "whispered traditions" and terma. "....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Yoga#cite_note-3

"Lawapa the progenitor of Dream Yoga sadhana was a mahasiddha....Lawapa or Lavapa (Tibetan: la ba pa; grub chen la ba pa; wa ba pa) was a figure in Tibetan Buddhism who flourished in the 10th century. He was also known as Kambala and Kambalapada (Sanskrit: Kaṃbalapāda). Lawapa, was a mahasiddha, or accomplished yogi, who travelled to Tsari.Lawapa was a progenitor of the Dream Yoga sadhana and it was from Lawapa that the mahasiddha Tilopa received the Dream Yoga practice lineage.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawapa

Seljé Dö Drelma is the Dakini of sleep in the Bon Tradition.....She is invoked and visualized in sleep-yoga-practice in the Ma Gyu (Mothertantra)..... http://ligminchastore.org/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/img_deity_card_sleepkhandro_full265px.jpg

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….February 2013

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BEYUL: Sacred Lands, Hidden Valleys & Non-Visible Dimensions

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Beyul are sacred environments...‘Beyuls’ or hidden valleys, are discovered when the planet is approaching destruction and the world becomes too corrupt for spiritual practice. Beyuls are inaccessible to all but realized beings or Siddhas. This land is said to be inhabited by Vidyadharas (rig-`dzin) or holders of esoteric knowledge. They exist on earth, but are not an ordinary country or nation which could be observed from an orbiting satellite, for they possess a special reality all their own. They are in this world, but not quite of it.

"Ölmo Lungring possesses a different ontological status than ordinary geographical regions and countries. In terms of our own age, it is a hidden land or “beyul” (sbas-yul), inaccessible to all but realized beings or Siddhas. This land is said to be inhabited by Vidyadharas (rig-`dzin) or holders of esoteric knowledge. It exists on earth, but it is not an ordinary country or nation which could be observed from an orbiting satellite or sighted from a high flying airplane, for it possesses a special reality all its own. It is in this world, but not quite of it. It is part of our physical geographical world because it is located in Tazig, yet it partly exists in another spiritual dimension, and although material, it is in a certain sense imperishable and indestructible. When, at the end of the kalpa, the world will be destroyed and consumed by fire, Ölmo Lungring will spontaneously rise up and ascend into the sky and there it will merge with its celestial archetype in the heavens which is called Sidpa Yesang (srid-pa ye-sangs). Ölmo Lungring is truly the imperishable sacred land."......http://bonchildren.tonkoblako-9.net/en/jewel2/03.tan

"The beyul are discovered when the planet is approaching destruction and the world becomes too corrupt for spiritual practice. They describe valleys reminiscent of paradise, which can only be reached with enormous hardship. Pilgrims who travel to these wild and distant places often recount extraordinary experiences....People who try to force their way in, may encounter failure and death. Beyul retreat time has concentrated benefits. The places originate from a faith which has traditional natural site respect. Life in beyul is sacred and protected......Earthly beyuls share significant characteristics with Shambhala."....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyul

Nghe-Beyul at Barun Valley.. Nghe in local Sherpa language means a 'Sacred place'....Barun Valley (बरुण उपत्यका) is a Himalayan valley situated at the base of Mt. Makalu in the Sankhuwasabha district Nepal. This valley lies entirely inside the Makalu Barun National Park......Barun Valley provides stunning contrasts, where high waterfalls cascade into deep gorges, craggy rocks rise from lush green forests, and colorful flowers bloom beneath white snow peaks. This unique landscape shelters some of the last pristine mountain ecosystems on earth. Rare species of animals and plants flourish in diverse climates and habitats, relatively undisturbed by human kind.

"Guru Padmasambhava forecasted beyul while in the presence of Tibetan King Trisong Detsen and others at Samye Monastery :– “in the future when there will be warfare, strife, and difficult circumstances in the world, good people and dharma practitioners should travel to ‘Beyuls’ or hidden valleys situated south of the Tibetan Himalayan range for refuge.”....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyul

"Sacred environments are places to deeply enter the world, and to avoid escaping it. The qualities inherent in such places reveal the interconnectedness of all life and deepen awareness of the spirit and mind's hidden regions. Visiting beyul with good motivation and appropriate merit, the person can learn to see the world differently from the way it commonly appears, developing and enhancing the virtues of wisdom and compassion. Inside beyul, people should abandon their negative actions. The lands embody protector deities and lords of the land, which are associated with the geographic features such as mountain, trees, rocks and water sources. In custom, ritual offerings are made to these spirits to appease their wrathful nature and with the symbolic unity that people share with them. The attitude affords a sustainable approach toward land stewardship.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyul

"The Beyul realm of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring is fabled to be located to the west of Mount Kailash and shaped like an eight-petaled lotus and divided into four regions: inner, middle, outer and boundary area. The sky of this realm is likened to an eight-spoked wheel and the land itself is fragrant and coloured by beautiful flora and landscaping, chorten and snow-capped mountains.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagzig_Olmo_Lung_Ring

"Barun Valley (बरुण उपत्यका) is a Himalayan valley situated at the base of Mt. Makalu in the Sankhuwasabha district Nepal. This valley provides stunning contrasts, where high waterfalls cascade into deep gorges, craggy rocks rise from lush green forests, and colorful flowers bloom beneath white snow peaks. This unique landscape shelters some of the last pristine mountain ecosystems on earth. Rare species of animals and plants flourish in diverse climates and habitats, relatively undisturbed by human kind.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barun_Valley

"In the ancient religious Buddhist books, seven Shangri-la ( Nghe-Beyul Khimpalung) situated in the Himalayan region are described as mystical and spectacularly beautiful evergreen places where no one gets old. It is told that, in case of great cataclysm, life will remain only in these areas of the world.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-la

"Because of their remote and isolated location, and the respect with which they have been treated by the communities that reside in or near them, the beyul contain high levels of biodiversity in a setting of tremendous beauty. However, outside influences like globalization, nationalization, cultural assimilation and tourism have begun to erode the power of the traditional beyul concept in many places, while development encroaches on the physical landscape. If modern conservation and management efforts are to be successful, they must find ways to preserve and integrate longstanding traditional beliefs and practices."... http://www.sacredland.org/beyul/#sthash.blH4TwVH.dpuf

"Beyul are religious conceptions, but because of the reverence with which they are treated by local residents, hunting, fighting and disturbing the natural landscape are considered inappropriate behaviors and are avoided. As a result, beyul have become significant oases of biodiversity as well. They typically have plentiful water coming from the surrounding mountains, and their terrain is covered with forests, lakes, alpine meadows, and snow and ice fields. These valleys cover large areas and have vast elevation ranges. Their size and topographic variations provide a home for a diverse array of plants and animals; their isolation and inaccessibility generally means low levels of human disturbance......Within the beyul, particular natural features such as lakes, rocks and patches of forest are often regarded as especially sacred because they are home to supernatural beings. Some gathering of plant resources, such as medicinal plants, firewood and timber, is allowed, but collectors make sure they have not harvested more than is needed. The animals in beyul are protected by the Buddhist taboo against killing. The residents of the Kharta and Rongshar areas in Tibet, for example, challenged British explorers who wanted to hunt when they arrived in 1921. Endangered species that live in beyul include the snow leopard, musk deer, red panda and Himalayan black bear......The sacredness of the beyul also means that human conflicts are spiritually discouraged. In Beyul Dremoshung in the Indian state of Sikkim, two groups, the Lepchas and Bhutias, hold an annual festival that commemorates the signing of a peace treaty. The festival celebrates the deity of the beyul’s Mount Kangchendjunga, who is supposed to have witnessed the treaty signing.".....http://www.sacredland.org/beyul/

"The Kashmir valley being sacred and called Rishi wari till now, abounds in sacred places, Tirthas and Asthans. Long ago at the dawn of civilisation when the sons of Rishi Kashyapa from plains came to settle here they brought with them their tradition....The valley of Kashmir is well known throughout the world for its Natural beauty. Here nature has been prodigal enough in crowning this ancient land with all its splendour and glory. Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Mughal gardens attract visitors from all over the world. Its lakes, green meadows, dancing and foaming streams, majestic forests full of fir and pine, snow-capped peaks are common attractions to the outsider as well as to the native......Besides this, the valley being sacred and called Rishi wari till now, abounds in sacred places, Tirthas and Asthans. Long ago at the dawn of civilisation when the sons of Rishi Kashyapa from plains came to settle here they brought with them their traditions, religion, mythology etc. etc. These early settlers named the confluence of river Sindh and river Jhelum as Prayag, equal to holy Prayag at the confluence of the Ganga and the Jamna in India. They named the tallest mountain peaks here after their Gods and deities such as Brahma, Vishnoo and Mahadev. These settlers must have felt surprised to see the hide and seek of water in the Spring of Trisandya; melting of snow around the spring of Bedaba Devi and other marvellous places. With the passage of time, these places became Tirthas or places of worship and has continued so upto the present time. The tradition being like this R. L. Stein who has translated Rajatarangini into English writes, "Kashmir is a country where there is not a place as large as a grain of seasam without a Tirtha. Time and conversion to Islam of greater portion of population has changed but little in this respect. " Pandit Kalhana while writing introduction to Rajatarangini names the miraculous springs of Trisandya Saraswati lake on the Bheda hillock, Self created fire at Soyambhu." .....http://ikashmir.net/temples/

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….February 2013

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Mahasiddha Lakshminkara: The Crazy Princess of Oddiyana

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Lakshminkara: the Crazy Princess.....(Abhayadatta Shri, mahasiddha #82)......The beautiful Lakshminkara was the sister of the great king Indrabhuti who ruled over the kingdom of Sambola in the land of Oddiyana....http://www.scribd.com/doc/94393016/James-B-Robinson-Buddha-s-Lions-The-Lives-of-The-Eighty-Four-Siddhas

"There are 84 Mahasiddhas in both Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist traditions......who flourished in India from the eighth to twelfth centuries. Basically, the lives of these eighty-four Indian men and women abound in episodes that demonstrate their conviction to perform any act contrary to convention.....The life story of Mahasiddha Laksminkara describes the kind of journey that is often required of those who seek ultimate truths.She was born into a royal family and had been delicately brought up in luxurious surroundings. She showed a grasp and understanding of tantric concepts even at an early age. All in all it was an idyllic life until she was betrothed to the king of Lanka as part of a deeper political alliance.....The princess despaired when she witnessed his inhuman treatment of animals. .....The next day, when she was finally invited into the palace, she locked herself into a chamber and refused to see anyone, discouraging visitors by throwing things at them. The princess then proceeded to unbound her hair, tore off her clothes and rubbed ashes on her body. She talked incoherently in a prattle, and to all appearances, she was hopelessly insane......One night, she crept out of the palace and fled to a cremation ground, renouncing the world to become a yogini, living by scavenging the food thrown out for dogs. She lived so for seven years until she attained siddhi. A sweeper of the royal latrines served her faithfully during this period. When she gained her realization, he was the first person to be initiated.".....http://www.exoticindiaart.com/product/paintings/mad-princess-who-became-mahasiddha-lakshminkara-WH78/

"Buddhist texts tell of the birth of the Buddhist Chinnamunda. A tale tells of Krishnacharya's disciples, two Mahasiddha sisters, Mekhala and Kankhala, who cut their heads, offered them to their guru and then danced. The goddess Vajrayogini also appeared in this form and danced with them. Another story recalls princess Lakshminkara, who was a previous incarnation of a devotee of Padmasambhava, cut off her head as a punishment from the king and roamed with it in the city, where citizens extolled her as Chinnamunda-Vajravarahi.".....Benard, Elizabeth Anne (2000), Chinnamasta: The Aweful Buddhist and Hindu Tantric Goddess, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1748-7

Chinnamasta

"Mahasiddha Skt., roughly “great master of perfect capabilities.” In the - Vajrayana, this term refers to an ascetic who has mastered the teachings of the - Tantras. He distinguishes himself through certain magical powers ( - siddhi), which are visible signs of his enlightenment. Best known is the group of eighty-four mahasiddhas. They represent a religious movement, which developed in India from the 8th to 12th centuries against the background of, and in opposition to, the monastic culture of Mahayana Buddhism. Among the eighty-four mahasiddhas were men and women of all social classes; their model of highly individual realization strongly influenced Tibetan Buddhism. Also of importance were their spiritual songs. The biographies of the eighty-four mahasiddhas, preserved in Tibetan translation, describe personalities like Chatrapa the beggar, Kantali the tailor, and Kumaripa the potter. However, King Indrabhuti and his sister Lakshminkara are also among them, as are scholars like Shantipa. What is common to all of them, regardless of background, is the manner in which, through the instruction of a master, they transformed a crisis in their lives into a means for attaining liberation. Then, through unorthodox behavior and the use of paradoxes, they expressed the ungraspability of ultimate reality.".....http://www.ese-an.org/m/612-mahashunya.html

"Indrabhuti & Oddiyana.... O-rgyān, U-rgyān, O-ḍi-yā-na, and (2) O-ḍi-vi-śā, with the first series connected with Indrabhūti, i.e., Oḍiyăna and Uḍḍiyāna, while the second series falls back on Oḍi and Oḍiviśa, i.e., Uḍra (Orissa) and has nothing to do with Indrabhūti. N.K. Sahu objects, however, and points out that these two sets of names are seldom distinguished in Buddhist Tantra literature, and opines that the words Oḍa, Oḍra, Uḍra, Oḍiviśa and Oḍiyāna are all used as variants of Uḍḍiyāna. In the Sādhanamālā, he further points out, Uḍḍiyāna is also spelt as Oḍrayāna while in the Kālikā Purāṇa, as indicated earlier, it is spelt either Uḍḍiyāna or Oḍra. There is also evidence, Sahu continues, that Indrabhūti is the king of Orissa rather than of the Swāt valley. The Caturāsiti-siddha-Pravṛtti, for example, mentions him as the king of Oḍiviśa while Cordier, in his Bṣtān-ḥgyur catalogue, gives sufficient indications of his being the king of Orissa. Also, in his famous work Jñānasiddhi, king Indrabhūti opens it with an invocation to Lord Jagannātha, a deity intimately associated with Orissa and with no other area of India.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indrabhuti

Click on the map to enlarge

"According to Nyingma tradition, King Ja (also known as Indrabhuti) taught himself intuitively from "the Book" of the Tantric Way of Secret Mantra (that is Mantrayana) that magically fell from the sky along with other sacred objects and relics "upon the roof of King Ja" .....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indrabhuti

..." it should be stated that the falling of Buddhadharma relics upon a Tibetan royal palace also happened in the case of Thothori Nyantsen and these two stories (i.e. the story of Thothori Nyantsen and the narrative of King Ja) may have influenced each other as they share a distinctive motif of magical realism.....Lha Thothori Nyantsen (Tib. ལྷ་ཐོ་ཐོ་རི་; Chinese: 佗土度) (also spelled Lha Tho tho ri Nyentsen or lHa-tho-tho-ri gNyan-btsan) was the 28th King of Tibet according to the Tibetan legendary tradition. The syllable Lha (divine, pertaining to the gods of the sky) is an honorary title."......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thothori_Nyantsen...

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico….February 2013

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Crazy Wisdom: Yeshe Chölwa…Craziness Gone Wise

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In Tibetan Buddhism Crazy wisdom or 'yeshe chölwa' (Tibetan: ཡེ་ཤེས་འཆོལ་བ, Wylie: ye shes 'chol ba, literally: "wisdom gone wild") refers to unconventional, outrageous, or unexpected behavior, being either a manifestation of buddha nature and spiritual teaching (enlightened activity, Wylie: phrin'las) on the part of the guru, or a method of spiritual investigation undertaken by the student. It is also held to be one of the manifestations of a siddha or a mahasiddha. Teachers such as the eighty four mahasiddhas, Marpa, Milarepa, the Nyönpa and Chögyam Trungpa have traditionally been associated with crazy wisdom."

"What is Crazy Wisdom?.....by Chögyam Trungpa.....I would like to continue from last night's talk. We have discussed the three levels of the teacher relationship in terms of the student's development. Tonight I would like to talk about whom we're relating to in the sadhana. We have a sense of relating with somewhat ideal, ethereal beings, who are known as Dorje Trolö or Karma Pakshi, people who have already existed, who have lived and died in the past. How can we relate those people to the present situation? And how is that different from worshipping Jesus Christ, for that matter? That is an interesting question. Dorje Trolö or Karma Pakshi represent the notion of the embodiment of the siddhas. Siddha is a Sanskrit word which refers to those who are able to overpower the phenomenal world in their own enlightened way. A siddha is a crazy wisdom person. Crazy wisdom in Tibetan is yeshe chölwa. Yeshe means "wisdom," and chölwa, literally, is "gone wild." The closest translation for chölwa that we could come up with is "crazy," which creates some further understanding. In this case "crazy" goes along with "wisdom"; the two words work together well. So it is craziness gone wise rather than wisdom gone crazy. So from that point of view, craziness is related with wisdom.".....http://www.shambhala.org/teachings/view.php?id=131

"Although the siddha's activity should not, therefore, be perceived as "crazy" on account of transgression of moral and social parameters, according to Maitripa uncontrolled emotivity as a result of inadequate training is authentic divine madness....
The thought-free yogin is like a child,
Like a bee in a flower garden tasting every bloom,
Like a lion roaring in the jungle,
And like the wind blowing where it listeth.
If his mind is trained in attention and discretion
His behavior is immaculate;
If there are no checks upon his mind's effusion
The yogin behaves like a divine madman...
The Eighty-four Mahasiddhas and the Path of Tantra by Keith Dolman

"Georg Feuerstein however, takes a perennialist approach in equating this originally Vajrayana term with the trickster-type behavior of teachers in other Dharmic Traditions such as Zen, Tantra and Sanatana Dharma. He claims that parallels to this may be found among other forms of spirituality as well, citing Sufism, Bonpo, Taoism, Russian Orthodoxy (Yurodivy) and shamanism as examples."

MASTER WARRIOR..."Those who have been fearless in their search and fearless in their proclamation belong to the lineage of master warriors, whatever their religion, philosophy, or creed...They are the fathers and mothers of Shambhala." (Trungpa: 1984..pg 179)...."The basic quality of the master warrior is that his presence evokes the experience of the cosmic mirror and the magic of perception in others." (Trungpa: 1984...pg 176)..."The master warrior has relaxed completely into the unconditional purity of the cosmic mirror." (Trungpa: 1984..pg 177)..."the birth of the master warrior takes place in the realm of the cosmic mirror. The master warrior is humble, extremely humble." ...(Trungpa: 1984..pg 176-178)

The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness (volume 3).....By Chogyam Trungpa

"...Before describing the yogas and the teaching of these spiritual adventurers and multi-facetted adepts called siddhas, it will be helpful to define several Sanskrit words that remain untranslated throughout the work, words that have no English equivalents. The first word is siddha itself. Literally a siddha is a practitioner of Tantra who is successful in attaining the goal of his meditation. This achievement is known as siddhi. Siddhi is two-fold: magical power (mundane), and the Buddha's enlightenment (ultimate). Thus siddha could be rendered "saint," "magus," "magician," "adept;" but these words are feeble, failing to evoke the originality of the siddhas' tantric life-style. For the uninitiated Indian the word siddha evokes magical power above all; if a yogin can walk through walls, fly in the sky, heal the sick, turn water into wine, or even levitate and read minds, he deserves the title siddha. If that same yogin has a crazy glint in his eye, smears himself with ashes, moves himself or others to tears with his song, calms street mongrels by his presence, tears a faithful woman from her family, wears a vajra - a symbol of immutability - in his yard-long hair-knot, eats from a skull-bowl, talks with the birds, sleeps with lepers, upbraids demagogues for moral laxity, or performs with conviction any act contrary to convention while demonstrating a "higher" reality, then he is doubly a siddha. Common people impressed by appearances have no conception of the siddha's esoteric aim - Mahamudra - and cannot know that a siddha may also be an inconspicuous peasant, an office worker, a king, a monk, a servant or a tramp."....The Eighty-four Mahasiddhas and the Path of Tantra by Keith Dolman

"If the siddha's action is concomitant with Mahamudra, what then of his craziness, his flaunting of social convention and his uninhibited emotivity? To a large extent those very prejudices, preconceptions and other limitations of his critic's blinkered vision which the siddha rejoices to see eradicated, determine the perception of him as crazy. For instance, when the critic interprets the siddha's act, or gesture, as a crazy irrelevancy, as the non-sequitur of a madman, it is probable that he is failing to intuit the level of response upon which the siddha is operating, and that his discursive analysis is precluding the soteriological effect in his own mind through which those open to the siddha's transmission of meaning by symbolical action or gesture benefit. Similarly, when a moralist of the Confucian type castigates a siddha for violating social conventions such as the rules of pure eating, or for immoral behavior such as sexual transgression, from the Buddha's point of view there is less virtue in the moralist's inflexible social and moral prescriptions than in the siddha's "sinful" attempts to induce awareness, with all the social and moral benefits that accrue, wherein enlightenment is the ultimate goal. Thus on the short-cut path of Tantra, disregard of social and moral discipline is the corollary of the compassionate skillful means employed by the adept to eradicate obstacles to liberation."....The Eighty-four Mahasiddhas and the Path of Tantra by Keith Dolman

Chogyam Trungpa: His Life and Vision.....By Fabrice Mida

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….February 2013

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KERESANI: Haoma & Indo-European Divine Beings

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Keresani....“Haoma temchit yim KERESANIM apa-khshathrem nishadhayat, yo raosta khshathro-kamaya. Yo davata noit me apam athrava aiwishtish veredhye danghava charat, ho vispe varedhanam vanat, ni vispe varedhanam janat.” (Hom Yasht Large – karda 1.24)
“Haoma dethroned KERESANI.....Haoma overthrew Keresani, who rose up to seize royalty"

"The struggle of Haoma against Keresani is an old Indo-European myth, Keresani being the same as the Vedic KWsanu, who wants to keep away Soma from the ......Keresani in this passage may primarily be identified with the Vedic Kri(,-anu, the guardian of the heavenly Soma, .......Krsanu = Keresani are divine beings connected with soma — haoma. ... of magical rites and the worship of inanimate objects still surviving in the Veda"....The Zend-Avesta: The Vendîdâd, translated by James Darmesteter

The identity of Mitra with Mithra .....is patent and undeniable, Iran seems to have known Dyaus, 1 and there are as clear identities in minor figures such as that of Apam Napat, and Apam Napat, Gandharva and Gandarewa, Kr^anu and Keresani, both of whom appear in connexion with the Soma.....http://archive.org/stream/religionandphilo030957mbp/religionandphilo030957mbp_djvu.txt

......it is recorded, ahura says, 'I maintain that sky there above, shining and seen afar and encompassing the earth all round. It looks like a palace that stands built of a heavenly substance firmly established with ends that lie afar, shining, in its body of ruby over the three worlds; it is like a garment inlaid with stars made of a heavenly substance that mazda puts on.' Yasht XIII. Like VaruNa, who is the lord of rhta, ahura is the lord of aSha. As VaruNa is closely allied with mitra, so is ahura with mithra, the sun-god. avesta knows verethragna who is vrhtrahan, the slayer of vrhtra. dyaus, apAmnapAt (apAm napAt), gandharva (Gandarewa), krhsAnu (KeresAni), vAyu (Vayu), yama, son of vivasvant (Yima, son of Vivanhvant) as well as yajna (Yasna), Hotrh (Zaotar), Atharva priest (Athravan). These point to the common religion of the undivided Indo-Aryans and Iranians. .....http://www.writespirit.net/indian-wisdom/upanishads/upanishadsradhakrishnan/relation/

The Indian priests ( 'Keresani' ) wish, that there may be no more of missionary work in their country by the Iranian Athravans.

"A further echo of the antl-Magian feelings may be heard In Yasna IX, 3: 'Haoma overthrew Keresani, who rose up to seize royalty, and he said, *" No longer shall henceforth the Athravans go through the lands and teach at their will/* * This Is a curious instance of how easily legendary history may turn myths to Its advantage. The struggle of Haoma against KeresSni is an old Indo-European myth, Keresani being the same as the Vedic Krt'sfixiu, who wants to keep away Soma from the hands of men. His name becomes in the Avesta the name of an anti-Magian king [it may be Darius, the usurper (?)]/ and ten centuries later it was turned into an appellation of the Christian Kaisars of Rflm (Kalasyfik*l*^Xi7a-ta[icds] ; ,Tarsfika)."......http://www.dli.gov.in/data/upload/0013/002/TXT/00000054.txt

".....there has been a great deal of speculation among scholars concerning the true identity of the mystery plant in the Rig Veda called Soma, the only plant known to have been deified in the history of human culture, (Furst, 1972:201). While the hymns about Soma have come down to us through time, the botanical identity of Soma remains a mystery. Theories abound as to Soma's forgotten identity, yet among Vedic and Hindu scholars Soma is believed to be a species of Ephedra. ....We know from the sacred texts called the Rig Veda, (Veda is a Sanskrit word meaning "to see") that Soma was an intoxicating plant worshiped as both a god and holy beverage by a people who called themselves Aryans. We are told that drinking Soma produces immortality, and that the gods drank Soma to make them immortal....the Aryans, who introduced their Vedic religion into the Indus Valley civilization around 1600 B.C., believed that sacrifices were necessary to keep the world in balance. This balance was maintained through the acts of ritual sacrifice and the offering of a hallucinogenic drink called Soma (Sanskrit), and Haoma (Avestan) among the ancient Persians of Iran.".... THE ORIGIN OF A MUSHROOM RELIGION IN THE NEW WORLD..... A New Road of Archaeological Inquiry......By Carl de Borhegyi

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John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….February 2013

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Rishis & Rishikas: Divine Human Beings & Kalachakra

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Rishis & Rishikas....."In the Vedas, the word denotes an inspired poet of Ṛgvedic hymns, who alone or with others invokes the deities with poetry. In particular, Ṛṣi refers to the authors of the hymns of the Rigveda. Post-Vedic tradition regards the Rishis as "sages" or saints, constituting a peculiar class of divine human beings in the early mythical system, as distinct from Asuras, Devas and mortal men."......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi

"As the first Kulika king, Manjushrikirti, preached the Kalachakra Tantra to his subjects, Suryaratha distanced himself from it, and his followers, the Rishis, joined him. They preferred to choose banishment from Shambhala than to follow the “diamond path” (Vajrayana). Nonetheless, after they had set out in the direction of India and had already crossed the border of the kingdom, Manjushrikirti sank in to a deep meditation, stunned the emigrants by magic and ordered demon birds to bring them back. This event probably concerns a confrontation between two religious schools. The Rishis worshipped only the sun. For this reason they also called their guru the “sun chariot” (suryaratha). But the Kulika king had as Kalachakra master and cosmic androgyne united both heavenly orbs in himself. He was the master of sun and moon. His demand of the Rishis that they adopt the teachings of the Kalachakra Tantra was also enacted on a night of the full moon. Manjushrikirti ended his sermon with the words: “If you wish to enter that path, stay here, but if you do not, then leave und go elsewhere; otherwise the doctrines of the barbarians will com to spread even in Shambhala.” (Bernbaum, 1980, p. 234). ..."........http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalachakra

"This ancient Tibetan shamanism and animism, the pre-Buddhist spiritual and religious culture of Tibet, was known as Bon, and a practitioner of these shamanic techniques of ecstasy and ritual magic, the methods of working with energy, was known as a Bonpo. Bonpo is still the designation for a shaman in many tribal regions of the Himalayas. But increasingly, over the centuries, the ecstatic shaman has been replaced by the priestly Lama or ritual expert, and so later Bonpos in Central Tibet also came to fill a role more ritualistic than ecstatic. There exists a parallel here to what occurried in ancient India where the Rishis or ecstatics of the early Vedic period, who communed directly with the celestial gods during ecstatic flights into the heavens, were later replaced by Brahman priests, experts in the performing of rituals and sacrifices in order to invoke the powers of the gods and ensure their cooperation for human benefit and prosperity.".....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/bonpo.html?start=1

"The notable female rishikas who contributed to the composition of the Vedic scriptures are: The Rig Veda mentions Romasha, Lopamudra, Apala, Kadru, Visvavara, Ghosha, Juhu, Vagambhrini, Paulomi, Yami, Indrani, Savitri, and Devajami. The Sama Veda adds Nodha, Akrishtabhasha, Sikatanivavari and Gaupayana.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi

"The seven Rishis .....According to the epic Mahabharata, composed in about 500 B.C., the stars of the Big Dipper were the seven sages called Rishis. These seven sages are said to be those who made the Sun rise and shine. They were happily married to seven sisters named Krttika. They originally all lived together in the northern sky.".....http://www.windows2universe.org/mythology/rishis_bigdipper.html

"Both tertons and Vedic or Bonpo rishis cognize wisdom by overthrowing dualistic limitations within consciousness and the wisdom that emerges emerges from a mandala, which emerges from a seed-syllable.".....http://www.mail-archive.com/fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com/msg232965.html

"Âthravan, the Fire Priest......Âthravans oratharvans, descendents of Atharvan, a legendary Indo-Iranian rishi who introduced the fire ritual and is the supposed author of Atharva Veda, are the fire-priests who performed the soma/haoma ritual in the Rig Vedic lore, and athrvangiras formed the sacerdotal class or race of men. This shows their pre-Zarathushtrian presence. However, the term has since declined in Hinduism. In Zoroastrianism, however, it has held the highest position. The term occurs almost 40 times in the later Avesta. It was the first of the four professions. (Y 19.18). The Hom Yasht (Y 9-11) says that Keresâni (a legendary ruler), who stopped âthravans from operating in his land, was dethroned by Haoma (here personified for the purpose). (Y 9.24). Paradoxically, Krshânu (Indic pronunciation of Keresani) of the Vedas is a guardian of soma in heaven. The two versions are a sign of Indo-Iranian schism in which the Iranian haoma priests seemed to have deposed the ruler of the original cult and to have established their supremacy."......http://www.zoroastrian.org/articles/Zoroastrian%20Priest%20in%20the%20Avesta.htm

KALACHAKRA...(dus kyi khor lo)...Taught by the Buddha to Dawa Sangpo in South India in 881 BC (Dudjom:1991 pg 947)...Appeared in India from 966 AD with Chilupa. (Jeffrey Hopkins:1985, pg 61)... Introduced into Tibet from India in 1026 AD.(Norbu:1995,pg 272)... "Shen Rab explained the mighty Kalachakra Tantra in the Palace called dBan chen sa bdag." (Kvaerne: 1971, pg 221).... [Was the Kalachakra taught in Zhang Zhung and Persia before India? before Tibet?]...."the 1047 verses of the Kalachakra Tantra used today (the original is 12,000 verses) was composed by the eighth King of Shambhala, the first Kulika (Kalki), Jampal Trakpa. The original 12,000 verses have never been translated into Tibetan." (Kongtrul: 1995..pg 271)..."The Kalachakra is one of the last Sanskrit works to have been written in a Central Asian land." (Geoffrey Hopkins: 1985..pg 60)..."King Sucandra wrote the 12,000 verse root text to the Kalachakra in an unknown tongue called the 'twilight language.' (Bryant: 1992..pg 68)..."Sixteen translations of the Sri Kalachakra from Sanskrit to Tibetan appeared between the 11th and 14th centuries." (Bryant: 1992..pg 71)...

Chogyam Trungpa on ultimate Shambhala: "the kingdom of Shambhala itself, is not some mysterious heavenly realm. It is the realm of the cosmic mirror, the primordial realm that is always available to human beings if they relax and expand their minds." (Trungpa: 1984..Pg 174)....

"The Kalachakra refers to many different traditions, for example the Hindu; Saivite, Samkya, Vaishnava, the Vedas, Upanisads and Puranas traditions, but also Jainism. For example, the Kalachakra mandala includes deities which are equally accepted by Hindus, Jainas and Buddhists.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalachakra

"...Enlightened yogis and meditation masters, who intentionally emanated for the sake of sentient beings through successive lives......In ancient India, these emanations included: Buddha Shakyamuni’s foremost disciple Shariputra; the mahasiddha, Saraha; Krishnadhara, the religious minister of King Indrabhuti; and Rishi Humkara.....

The Rise of Esoteric Buddhism in Tibet.....By Eva K. Neumaier-Dargyay, Eva M. Dargyay

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….February 2013

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Drung, Deu: Ancient Narrations & Symbolic Languages

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"Drung (ancient narratives), deu (symbolism).....the epic poems and legends of Tibet`s secular culture. & the mysteries of the ancient symbolic languages that conveyed wisdom inexpressible in conventional terms....Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche is believed to have been born in the land of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring (Shambhala), to the west of present day Tibet (which some scholars identify with the Persian Tajik)......considered an axis mundi, which is traditionally identified as Mount Yung-DRUNG Gu-tzeg ("Edifice of Nine Swastikas")....."

"The Mahabharata (Sanskrit Mahābhārata महाभारत, IPA: [məɦaːˈbʱaːrət̪ə]) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Ramayana.....Mahābhārata, structured as a narration by Ugrasrava Sauti who was a professional story teller, to an assembly of (rishis).....Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to Vyasa. There have been many attempts to unravel its historical growth and compositional layers. The oldest preserved parts of the text are not thought to be appreciably older than around 400 BCE, though the origins of the story probably fall between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE. The text probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century). The title may be translated as "the great tale of the Bhārata dynasty". According to the Mahabharata itself, the tale is extended from a shorter version of 24,000 verses called simply Bhārata."....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata

"An epic (from the Ancient Greek adjective ἐπικός (epikos), from ἔπος (epos) "word, story, poem") is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation.....Some of the most famous examples of epic poetry include the Ramayana, Mahabharata, the Ancient Greek Iliad and the Odyssey, the Old English Beowulf, or the Portuguese Lusiads.....The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral poetic traditions. In these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means......The hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society the epic originates from."....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_poetry

Aku Tonpa Stories....Folk Tale of Ancient Tibet ...A khu sTon pa (Akhu Tonpa).....Tibetans' natural skepticism is implicit in the tales of Agu (the name is derived from akhu, meaning “uncle") Tonpa....Tibet 's Nasreddin?......Aku-Tonpa is one of the most popular folk heroes in Tibetan folklore. His adventures are passed from generation to generation orally. Written material on the subject is very rare, especially in English. His exploits are full of laughter and humour......Aku-Tonpa was sent by Lord Chenresig (protector deity of Tibet) to teach the Tibetan art of being shrewd and witty. He is known throughout Tibet under same but little different names like Aku-Tonpa, Aku-Chang etc.......

H.H. the 17th Karmapa’s Portrait of King Gesar......http://www.kagyuoffice.org.tw/17th-karmapa/works/paintings

Gesar of Ling....The Epic of King Gesar (pron.: /ˈɡɛzər/ or /ˈɡɛsər/; Standard Tibetan: གེ་སར་རྒྱལ་པོ, Ge-sar rGyal-po, "King Gesar"; Mongolian: Гэсэр Хаан, Geser Khan, "King Geser"), also spelled Geser (especially in Mongolian contexts) or Kesar (/ˈkɛzər/ or /ˈkɛsər/), is an epic cycle, believed to date from the 12th century, that relates the heroic deeds of the culture hero Gesar, the fearless lord of the legendary kingdom of Ling (Standard Tibetan: gLing). It is recorded variously in poetry and prose, chantfable being the style of traditional performance, and is sung widely throughout Central Asia. Its classic version is to be found in central Tibet. Some 100 bards of this epic (sgrung: lit."tale") are still active today in the Gesar belt of China, Tibetan, Mongolian, Buryat, and Tu singers maintain the oral tradition and the epic has attracted intense scholarly curiosity as one of the few oral epic traditions to survive as a performing art. Besides stories conserved by such Chinese minorities such as the Bai, Naxi, the Pumi, Lisu, and the Yugur peoples, versions of the epic are also recorded among the Burushaski-speaking Burusho of Hunza and Gilgit, the Kalmyk and Ladakhi peoples, in Baltistan, in Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, and among various Tibeto-Burmese, Turkish, and Tunghus tribes. The first printed version was a Mongolian text published in Beijing in 1716.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_King_Gesar

Homer (pron.: /ˈhoʊmər/; Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος, Hómēros) is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest of ancient Greek epic poets. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature. When he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before Herodotus' own time, which would place him at around 850 BC, while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BC. Modern researchers appear to place Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer

The Shahnameh (pronounced [ʃɒːhnɒː'mɛ]) or Shah-nama (Persian: شاهنامه‎ Šāhnāmeh, "The Book of Kings") is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of the Iranian cultural continent. Consisting of some 60,000 verses, the Shahnameh tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of (Greater) Iran from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century. The work is of central importance in Persian culture, regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of ethno-national cultural identity of Iran.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahnameh

The Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from Mesopotamia, is amongst the earliest surviving works of literature. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five independent Sumerian poems about 'Bilgamesh' (Sumerian for Gilgamesh), king of Uruk. Four of these were used as source material for a combined epic in Akkadian. This first, "Old Babylonian" version of the epic dates to the 18th century BC and is titled Shūtur eli sharrī ("Surpassing All Other Kings"). Only a few fragments of it survived. The later, Standard Babylonian version dates from the 13th to the tenth centuries BC and bears the title Sha naqba īmuru ("He who Saw the Deep"). Fragments of approximately two thirds of this longer, twelve-tablet version have been recovered. Some of the best copies were discovered in the library ruins of the 7th-century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

"Originally the word Bonpo meant someone who invoked the gods and summoned the spirits. Thus a Bonpo was an expert in the use of mantra and magical evocation. Mantra or ngak (sngags) is sound and sound is energy. Mantra is the primordial sound that calls the forms of all things into being out of the infinite potentiality of empty space which is the basis of everything. Sound or word has a creative power. But this term Bonpo in ancient times appeared to cover a number of different types of practitioner, whether shaman, magician, or priest. Here there seems to be a strong parallel of the role of the Bonpo in ancient Tibet with that of the Druid in ancient pre-Christian Europe. Just as the Druidic order was divided into the three functions of the Bards, the Vates, and the Druids, who were singers, soothsayers, and magicians respectively, so the ancient pre-Buddhist kingdom of Tibet was said to be protected by the Drung (sgrung) who were bards and singers of epics, the Deu (lde'u) who were soothsayers and diviners, and the Bonpo (bon-po) who were priests and magicians. Another archaic term closely related to Bonpo was Shen or Shenpo (gshen-po), and this term may have originally designated the shaman practitioner in particular. The Shen system of practice was transmitted through family lineages, especially in Western and Northern Tibet, then known as the country of Zhang-zhung, so that Shen also came to designate a particular ancient clan or tribe.".....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/bonpo.html?start=1

"The Mahabharata (composed between 300 BC and 300 AD) has the honor of being the longest epic in world literature, 100,000 2-line stanzas (although the most recent critical edition edits this down to about 88,000), making it eight times as long as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey together, and over 3 times as long as the Bible (Chaitanya vii). According to the Narasimhan version, only about 4000 lines relate to the main story; the rest contain additional myths and teachings. In other words, the Mahabharata resembles a long journey with many side roads and detours."....http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/xeno.mahabsynop.htm

"The songs of the mahasiddhas, known as dohas, are rich in poetic imagery and speak directly to the power of imagination. The doha tradition was continued in Tibet by - Milarepa and - Drukpa Kunleg, among others. The greatest influence was exercised by the dohas of the arrowsmith Saraha, who expresses the spiritual experience ( - mahamudra) of the mahasiddhas in the following words: “Whoever understands that from the beginning mind has never existed realizes the mind of the buddhas of the three times.”......http://www.ese-an.org/m/612-mahashunya.html

"Drukpa Kunleg ('brug pa kun legs) [1455-1529] aka The Madman of Bhutan, Kunga Legpa ('brug smyon kun dga' legs pa)..... was a great master of Mahamudra in the Buddhist tradition, as well as a famous poet, and is often counted among the Nyönpa.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….February 2013

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