Friday, January 3, 2014

Invoking Elemental Drala & Sacred Ground

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Invoke…..in·voke….
….To call on (a higher power) for assistance, support, or inspiration: "Stretching out her hands she had the air of a Greek woman who invoked a deity" (Ford Madox Ford).
….To appeal to or cite in support or justification.
….To call for earnestly; solicit: invoked the help of a passing motorist.
….To summon with incantations; conjure.

”The Red Garuda’s Cry to the Kalkins of Shambala….
Imperial Drala of all dralas, Kalki Lord of Life, you are primordial existence. You hold in your left hand the crystal mirror, the living storehouse consciousness of all. ki
Imperial Drala of all dralas, Kalki Lord of Life, you are primordial aspiration. In your right hand you brandish a crystal sword, the inner nature of the seventh defiled consciousness. so
Imperial Drala of all dralas, Kalki Lord of Life, you are primordial power. You wear the blazing golden armor of life and the snow-white pennants on your helmet flutter in the wind.

Riding on the great horse of moving wind itself, releasing and binding the elements and space with your firm command, like the roar of thunder,

ki ki so so ashe lha gyel lo tak seng khyung druk di yar kye
"Kunchen Dolpopa’s Mountain Dharma and other Jonang texts were banned in the 17th century, they became extremely rare. In the 1970s and 1980s a few of these texts were re-discovered and re-printed, notably through the agency of His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche."…./......Supplied by Tashi Nyima.……http://khyung.com/garuda-buddhist-sadhanas

"The Avestan term Fravashi….. is made up of two parts, Fra which has been interpreted as "to go forward" and, vashi which comes from the root vaksh, meaning "to grow". So Fravashi is that power in a substance which enables it to move forward i.e. to progress. The Avesta tells us that the Fravashi is inherent in every animate and inanimate object of Nature and helps in its development. The Fravashis constitute the internal essence of things……from the very beginning by forming the spiritual essence of all objects before their creation. The earth, sun, moon stars, trees and human beings, all have their Fravashis and the duty of the Fravashis is to watch over the orderly growth of the world and to make it prosper."…. http://www3.sympatico.ca/zoroastrian/fravar.htm

"There are many other examples of invoking external drala. I have read, for instance, that some American Indians in the Southwest grow vegetables in the desert sands. The soil, from an objective standpoint, is completely infertile. If you just threw a handful of seeds onto that earth, nothing would grow. But the Indians have been cultivating that soil for generations; they have a deep connection to that earth and they care for it. To them, it is sacred ground, and because of that, their plants grow. That is real magic. The attitude of sacredness toward your environment will bring drala."….Chögyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

"Fravashis are the divine, spiritual essence and guarding sprits……From zravana akarena (from time unlimited) Ahura Mazda conceived a most complete, harmonious and orderly system of universe and the Fravashis in the natural objects helped the universe to evolve and will lead it to perfection. The Fravadin Yasht mentions that the Fravashis help the waters to flow, the trees to grow, the winds to blow and the sun, moon and stars to move in their orbits."…..http://www3.sympatico.ca/zoroastrian/fravar.htm

"Sometimes a stone, a tree, a teacup or a violin processes an intangible presence, a numinousity, that cannot be explained. The presence might not always be there, or only be there for a short period of time, but that presence may refer to another dimension of the drala principle. Just as our tangible world is populated - and sometimes densely populated - with people and other sentient creatures, the intangible or "invisible world" (invisible to most of us) is densely populated as well, and among these beings, entities, or spirits are classes of beings, or qualities of being, called dralas. Katumblies, kachinas, kami, gnomes, elves, angels, gods. Any being who acts on behalf of the non-dualistic and compassionate nature of existence could be considered a drala. The dralas are not really part of some other world, but latent everywhere. The dralas, as Chögyam Trungpa so often said, want very much to meet us."…..http://westernmountain.org/dralaprinciple.html

"Amitābha…… is frequently invoked in Tibet either as Buddha Amitābha – especially in the Phowa practices or as Amitāyus – especially in practices relating to longevity and preventing an untimely death."

"A fravashi /frəˈvɑːʃi/ (Avestan fravaši; Middle Persian fravard, fravahr, fravash, fravaksh) is the guardian spirit mentioned in the Avesta …..The concept of the fravashis, unlike that of many of the other yazatas, does not appear to have an equivalent in other Indo-Iranian religions. Although there are parallels with the Indian pitaras and Greek Prythani, the historical development of the concept is unclear, and there are several conflicting theories as to when and why fravashis received the role they play in the texts of the Avesta. Boyce speculates that perhaps the fravashis are the remnants of the hero-cult of the "Iranian Heroic Age" (c. 1500 BCE onwards)…."….Mary Boyce….1991, A History of Zoroastrianism

PITÁRAS……Two Vedic hymns (x. 15 and 54) are addressed to the Pitaras or Fathers, the blessed dead who dwell in the third heaven, the third or highest step of Visnu. The term as a rule applies to the early or first ancestors, who followed the ancient paths, seers who made the paths by which the recent dead go to join them. Various groups of ancestors are mentioned, such as the Angirases and Atharvans, the Bhrgus and Vasisthas, who are identical in name with the priestly families associated by tradition with the composition of the Atharvaveda and of the second and seventh Mandalas of the Rigveda. The Pitaras are classed as higher, lower, and middle, as earlier and later, who though not always known to their descendants, are known to Agni. They revel with Yama and feast with the gods. They are fond of Soma, and thirst for the libations prepared for them on earth, and eat the offerings along with him. They come on the same car as Indra and the goods. Arriving in their thousands they range themselves on the sacrificial grass to the south, and drink the pressed draught. They receive oblations as their food. They are entreated to hear, intercede for, and protect their worshippers, and besought not to injure their descendants for any sin humanly committed against them. They are invoked to give riches, children, and long life to their sons, who desire to be in their good graces. The Vasisthas are once collectively implored to help their descendants. Cosmical actions, like those of the gods, are sometimes attributed to the Fathers. Thus they are said to have adorned the sky with stars, to have placed darkness in the night and light in the day; they found the light and generated the dawn. The path trodden by the Fathers (pitryána) is different from that trodden by the gods (devayána)."……http://www.vedarahasya.net/vedrea14.htm

"Lares …..archaically Lases, were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries or fruitfulness, or an amalgam of these….Lares were believed to observe, protect and influence all that happened within the boundaries of their location or function. The statues of domestic Lares were placed at table during family meals; their presence, cult and blessing seem to have been required at all important family events. Roman writers sometimes identify or conflate them with ancestor-deities, domestic Penates and the hearth. Because of these associations, Lares are sometimes categorised as household gods but some had much broader domains. Roadways, seaways, agriculture, livestock, towns, cities, the state and its military were all under the protection of their particular Lar or Lares….Despite official bans on non-Christian cults from the late 4th century AD onwards, unofficial cults to Lares persisted until at least the early 5th century AD."….Beard, M., North, J., Price, S., Religions of Rome, vol. 1, illustrated, reprint, Cambridge University Press, 1998

"Kami (かみ in Hiragana) (神 ?) are the spirits or phenomena that are worshipped in the religion of Shinto. They are elements in nature, animals, creationary forces in the universe, as well as spirits of the revered deceased. …..In Shinto, Kami are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, good and evil characteristics. They are manifestations of Musubi (結び), the interconnecting energy of the universe, and are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards. Kami are believed to be “hidden” from this world, and inhabit a complementary existence that mirrors our own, shinkai (the world of the Kami). To be in harmony with the awe inspiring aspects of nature is to be conscious of Kannagara [the way of the Kami] (随神の道 or 惟神の道). Though the word Kami is translated in multiple ways, no one definition expresses its full meaning. In this way, the ambiguity of the meaning of Kami is necessary, as it conveys the ambiguous nature of Kami themselves. As Shinto is an inclusive religion, Kami has been expanded to include Buddhas and the Judeo-Christian God."….Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. 1991. "The Emperor Of Japan As Deity (Kami)." Ethnology 30.3.

Kachina ……also katchina, katcina, or katsina; Hopi: katsina /kətˈsiːnə/, plural katsinim /kətˈsiːnɨm/) is a spirit being in western Pueblo cosmology and religious practices…… The western Pueblo, Native American cultures located in the southwestern United States, include Hopi, Zuni, Tewa Village (on the Hopi Reservation), Acoma Pueblo, and Laguna Pueblo……Kachinas are spirits or personifications of things in the real world. A kachina can represent anything in the natural world or cosmos, from a revered ancestor to an element, a location, a quality, a natural phenomenon, or a concept. There are more than 400 different kachinas in Hopi and Pueblo culture. The local pantheon of kachinas varies in each pueblo community; there may be kachinas for the sun, stars, thunderstorms, wind, corn, insects, and many other concepts. Kachinas are understood as having humanlike relationships; they may have uncles, sisters, and grandmothers, and may marry and have children. Although not worshipped, each is viewed as a powerful being who, if given veneration and respect, can use their particular power for human good, bringing rainfall, healing, fertility, or protection, for example……The central theme of the kachina [religion] is the presence of life in all objects that fill the universe. Everything has an essence or a life force, and humans must interact with these or fail to survive.""….. Barton, Wright (2008). "Hopi Kachinas: A Life Force". Hopi Nation: Essays on Indigenous Art, Culture, History, and Law.

"Using metaphors in the form of words, names and especially mantras or seed-syllables traditionally plays a central part in calling to the dralas, announcing our interest in meeting them, our availability. One example of the fertility of the drala principle is the Ganges River, perhaps historically home to the world's largest population of dralas! Itself a drala. This river, so long adored (and now like most rivers, so under siege by pollution and human disregard of its essential sacredness) traditionally has one-hundred and eight names, each of them a form of praise and, in that it speaks of a specific quality, the name of a drala(s) as well:…"….http://westernmountain.org/dralaprinciple.html

"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?showall=1

The Buddhist Conception of Spirits…..By Bimala Churn Law

Waites, Margaret C., The Nature of the Lares and Their Representation in Roman Art, American Journal of Archaeology,

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….January 2014

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