Click Here to View the Table of Contents
"The imperial rulers of Shambhala, who are called the Rigden Kings, are inhabitants of the cosmic mirror. They are referred to as ultimate drala. When you contact the wisdom of the cosmic mirror, you are meeting the ultimate dralas, the Rigden kings of Shambhala. Their vast vision lies behind all the activities of mankind, in the open, unconditioned space of mind itself. In that way, they watch over and protect human affairs, so to speak. This is quite different from the notion that the Rigdens are living on some celestial plane, from which they look down at the earth." (Trungpa: 1984..pg 174-175)...
"One important difference between the Path of Shambhala and the Buddhist Path is that Shambhalians work more closely with higher beings."
Shambhala Shrine photo by Paul Felton....https://www.flickr.com/photos/dharmaguerilla/414270987/
"Venerate Me and Make offerings."
Veneration....
वन्दते { वन्द् }…..vandate { vand }….venerate
यशस्…..yazas….venerated
वन्द्यते { वन्द् }…..vandyate { vand }…..be praised or venerated
समादरणीय…..samAdaraNIya…..to be greatly respected or venerated
आयजते { आयज् }…..Ayajate { Ayaj }…..make an offering to gods
आयजते { आयज् }….Ayajate { Ayaj } ….do homage
ह्वयति , ह्वयते , ह्वा……hvayati , hvayate , hvA ….invoke
"The Gods and spirits of the Tibetan landscape are not necessarily favorably inclined towards human beings.....It is necessary to keep on good terms with the local gods to secure good fortune in this world of everyday life"...(Geoffrey Samuel..Civilized Shamans)
"There are many gods....They are always present everywhere.....the dieties of the indigenous traditions of Western Europe and The Americas especially were dismantled, suppressed, undermined, abused, forgotten...followers were not even allowed to mention them.....but they still have not been able to destroy them, even with the desecration of the entire planet...the drala principle exists everywhere, always."..(CTR)
ZHIDAG....."Tibetan Buddhists believe that there are countless types of beings other than humans and animals. Some are more powerful, happier, and more intelligent than humans, and others less so. Usually if there is no common karma or karmic connection, beings of different types will not encounter each other. Spirits are not necessarily births of the ancestors from a particular locality, but may have come from any kind of birth or realm." (Hidden Teachings of Tibet)
An ancient Tibetan Bonpo rite called Sang-sol, conducted by Lama Khemsar Rinpoche...http://www.yungdrungbon.com
The ancient Bön was shamanic. In other words, it was based on the belief that spirits residing within the earth's framework of mountains and rivers, trees and sky are sensitive to human action and therefore must not be harmed. Pollution and degradation of the natural world will provoke the spirits into creating illness and harm to humans. Shamans work to appease and communicate with these spirits, for instance, as in a prayer for rain.
SGRA 'OD ZER..."The entire account of the deeply encoded forms of the deities, their sequential appearances, and the reaction of the deceased to their appearances is a powerful drama presented not only in words, but also in 'sounds, lights, and rays (sgra 'od zer)." (Lopez; 1997...pg 459)...
DEITIES...."eight classes of non-human beings: dud, tsen, lu, lha, nyen, mamo, shinje, gyelpo, and then shaza, nodjin, sinpo"..(Nebesky: 1975..pg 254)..."divine and semi-divine beings such as lha, lu, nyen, sadag, dud, mamo, shinje, tenma, kyongma, etc."..(Norbu: 1995..pg 125)...
DEGYE..."there are nine cosmos creating deities. These may be regarded as principles since they have many local manifestations. The main iconographical feature is the PER, a kimono like tibetan garment. The main degye is called SE, who wears a white PER with crystal armor and helmet. He rides a white horse." (Trungpa:1978)....."Nine gods of light...nine brothers and nine sisters." (Stein: 1972..pg 242)..."The eight degyes are thought to descend from heaven on the smoke of the lhasang. (Trungpa: 1978)..."the primordial beings are described as a King and a Grandmother; while on the other hand, they are spoken of as nine brothers and nine sisters." (Paul: 1982..pg 55)..."the lineage descends from the 'gods of light' and especially from nine or ten Mu deities." (Stein: 1972..pg 242)..."The first 3 of the nine brothers are more important than the others. They are called phyva-srid-skos-gsum"...(Karmay:1975..pg 192)..."Most of the Tibetan gods whose origin is not Indian can be traced back to the parents and the eighteen brothers and sisters."..(Karmay: 1975)
NINE LHA....
1. A-kar O kyi Migchig
2. Tongchen Log gi Pumar
3. Tragpa Tung gi Thortsug
4. Chagnag Khyung gi Yangshul
5. Phuljung Ser gyi Tangmen (Fem)
6. Gung gi Thingring Ngampa
7. Marpo Me yi Shogchig
8. Ngampa Yu Lung Trug Bu
9. Ku Lha Ye Khyen
WERMA......."From the inner essence of the egg a miraculous man was born with a lion's head and lynx's ears, a fierce face with an elephant's trunk, the mouth of a chusin, and tiger's fangs. His feet were swords and his wings sabres, and between the flaming horns (rwa dbal) on the great Khyung's head he had the diadem of the wish-fulfilling jewell as an ornament. He was called 'heroic' WERMA NYINYA and was the fount of four distince ritual traditions. In fact from the union of the Werma with the Lha were born the 'Werma of the Lha that Subjugate the Dud'.......from the union with the Nyen, the 'Werma of the Nyen that Subjugate Enemies'......from the union with the Khyung, the 'Werma of the Khyung that Subjugate the Lu'....from the unioon with the divine Lions (seng) the 'Three Werma Brothers that Subjugate Heroes'.....From these four divine manifestations, which in turn emanated armed hordes of nine hundred and ninety thousand various Werma, originated the four systems of ritual practice devoted to the class of the Werma that, as is written in the Zijid, "all arose from the Lha, descended from the Se and are similar to the Wal.....and appeared in order to subjugate all hostile entities causing obstacles and disturbances." (Drung, Deu and Bon....1995..... page 55)
"The werma deities are extremely important because they are the special protectors who always accompany and protect the masters and practitioners. From an ancient ritual text called...The General Do of Existence....
To the masters the Werma are important. The Werma whirl like snow-storms, those they escort are the practitioners, those they assist are the practitioners, those they protect are the practitioners. We proffer the well-prepared offerings and confess errors if we have mingled with evil!" (Drung, Deu and Bon....1995..... page 55)
PROTECTIVE DEITIES...."In the practice of identifying yourself with a particular deity as a protector, you develop an awareness which throws you back to your true nature...It involves a leap."(Trungpa: 1973..pg 233)
TENMENOS....(Greek)...a consecrated and enclosed area surrounding the god's altar. Nemeton (Gallo-Brittonic) sacred grove, holy place. Fanum and Templum (Roman). (Piggott: 1985..pg 52)
WARRIOR...Pawo: "One who is brave, not afraid of being yourself." (Trungpa: 1975)...dpa' bo: male space farers...dgra bla: a warrior spirit....dgra lha: a warrior spirit...dpa mo: female warrior....sems dpa: heroic being...(sems: mind...pa: hero)......Pawo (fem: pamo) were used as the words for Medium in: (David-Neel: 1931..pg 41)....Viracarya means warrior teacher...."female wizards are called 'nyen jomo' (rNal hbyor ma: female hermit) and their male counterparts, known as 'pawo' (dpa bo: hero)." (Nebesky: 1952..pg 151)..."Warrior (artestar) is an 'order establisher' in a high crested helmet and carrying a spear. Corresponds to the Mithra tauroctonos motive." (Campbell: 1968..pg 332)..."To carry out the obligations of the sun god Huitzilopochtli the Aztecs had to make themselves into warrior people. Different orders were named Eagle Warriors or Jaguar Warriors and regiments were such as Day Sun Regiment and Night Sun Regiment." (Hawkes: 1962..pg 156)...
SOLAR GODS....Persia: Mithra....Babylon: Sham-ash....Greece: Helios and Apollo....Romans: Sol Invictus...(In Assyria, Persia and Egypt, the royal houses owed much to their solar divinity.) Hawkes: 1962..pg 78)...
ENLIGHTENMENT...."Enlightenment was seen as a higher goal than traditional devotion to gods and goddesses, although such deities could be invoked in support of that overriding goal. When divorced from that goal, then unqualified devotion to deities was at best foolish and at worst misleadingly erroneous." (Scott: 1990...pg 58)
GREEKS...Greek deities of the earth: cthonioi....greek deities under the earth: hypochtonioi....
PERSIA....Asuras and Devas are somewhat reversed in heirarchy in the Indo-Aryan and Iranian traditions. (Burrow: 1973...pg 128)..."In India, the term deva (shining one) had been used to denote gods, while in Zoroastrianism, daevas had been condemned as demonic." (Scott: 1990..pg 45)...
'DRE: demons...8 different classes...
bGEGS: ghosts...'if a bGegs (hindrances) (sk: vinayaka) hinders them, a gTo (something magic) comes to their assistance."..(Francke: 1950..pg 185).......(obstructing spirits) (bgegs rigs stong phrag brgyad cu)...are linked to the powerful Junpo deities who control these kinds of negative energies...(Norbu: 1995..pg 143)...." bgegs (tib) (Sk: vighna) derived from Indian mythology. Obstructors that straddle the border between supernatural and psychological. (Lopez: 1997..pg 255)
du (bDUD): demons inhabiting the dark cliffs and dangerous spots
BHUTA(Tib)...(Sk: byung po)...Beings derived from Indian mythology. ghosts or relementals. Supernatural beings. (Lopez: 1997..pg 255)...
LOKAPALAS.(Sk)......(Tib: phyogs skyong)...the directional guardians. supernatural beings. (Lopez: 1997..pg 255)...
SERAK: a type of mischievious spirit who consumes the potent essences of food and wealth. Is usually exorcised during rituals to promote wealth and prosperity.....
TSEN (btsan): one of the eight kinds of gods and spirits...
....
SOTOR: protective spirit of a locality. White rocks are their gateway into this world.
CELTS..."In France, over 400 different Celtic god names are recorded. (Green: 1997...pg 28)...A shrine for a Celtic warrior god is at Saluvii at Entremont in Southern France. Sacked by Rome in 150 BC." (Green: 1997..pg 26)..."The Celtic sky god carries a solar symbol." (Green: 1997...pg 25)...
DONS...."The etymological meaning of the term don (gdon) is 'to doubt'.....According to a tradition common to Tibetan Buddhists and Bonpos alike, all the dons can be classified into three fundamental categories....There are 60 thousand types of beings that demand payment through the provocations of negative energies. So it is written in the Zijid."....(Norbu: 1995...pg 143)...
SHINTO: "In Shinto, the gods are not pre-existing deities who existed before the coming into being of the universe; they are not creators of the universe. They are beings who were born and appeared naturally in this world." (Jinja: 1958..pg 14)....."In Shinto, all of the gods are gods of blessings and protection."...(Jinja: 1958..pg 28)....
DON JUAN...."God is rather an impersonal force in the universe, like light or gravity. It is a vibratory force that joins the conglomerate of energy fields that human beings are. This force is the factor that doesn't allow the entrance or exit of energy from the luminous egg." (Castaneda: 1998...pg 19)...
YIDAMS...."Yidams are different aspects of the 5 Buddha principles of energy. They are depicted as male herukas or female dakinis and can be wrathful or peaceful."..(Trungpa: 1973..pg 233)....."Yidams are timelessly enlightened beings. Among the major yidam of the Bon religion are Trowo Tsochok Khagying and his consort Khala Dugmo ( a form of Sridpa Gyalmo, one of the chief goddesses)."(Lopez: 1997..pg 395)
SPIRITUAL HERO...(gYun drun sems dpa)...(sk: bodhisattva)...Yungdrung Sempa: (Trungpa: 1978)
MAGICIANS...(ngakpa)...(sNgags.pa)..."Bonpo tantric yogin with a turban-like topknot." (Kvaerne:96)....
ANCESTOR...(a myes)
KAMI...."In Shinto, 'Kami' is a general term of respect for something holy and awesome, but it is not necessarily a word used specifically for a definite order of beings. Among the myriad things in the universe, sacred spirits and spiritual forces are recognized as existing and functioning, and these are termed specifically, 'kami'."...(Jinja: 1958..pg 15)...."Chammy is a term best left untranslated. Kami may refer to the divine, sacred, spiritual and numinous quality or energy of places and things...deities of imperial and local mythology...spirits of nature and place...divine heroes, ancestors, rulers, and statesmen. Any object, place, or creature may embody or possess the quality or characteristic of kami."..(Bocking: 1995..pg 85)...
ENLIGHTENED GODS...."Bon not only distinguishes 'peaceful' and 'wrathful' deities, it also makes a fundamental distinction between deities who are 'enlightened' and deities who are 'of this world'." (Kvaerne: 1996..pg 24)
TIBETAN GODS..."Padmasambhava travelled the whole of Tibet. He bound by oath all the powerful spirits under oath, among whom the foremost were the 12 goddesses of the earth, the 13 hunting gods, and the 21 genyen." (Dudjom: 1991..pg 513)
GODS OF THE WEEK..."These planetary gods are placed on the face of the arch so that they run counter clockwise from Luna (Monday) at the right through Mars (Tuesday) and Mercury (Wed) to Jupiter (Thurs) to Venus (Friday) to Saturn (Sat) and to Sol (Sunday) at the left end...(Campbell: 1968..pg 342)...
"33 gods, the Trayastrimsha of the Hindu pantheon." (David Neel: 1981..pg 52)...
"The Aryan terms for deity are borrowed from fire and light, for example, deva is from the root 'div' which means 'to shine'. In old Sanskrit, 'Athar' is 'fire'." James: 1963...pg 79)...
"The earlier Sky-Gods gradually lost their individuality in a 'henotheistic' process of the transference of attributes from one deity to another."..(James: 1963...pg 77)...
Non-Visible Beings.....drala, dgra lha, dralha, sGrabla...... Drala is actually a transliteration for two different Tibetan terms. Therefore it stands for two slightly different kinds of deity. One is spelled sgra bla, and the other is spelled in Tibetan, dgra lha. The first one with the element, sgra refers to a kind of energy; it is a vibrational entity. The second (dgra-) word ends in the syllable lha, and it is a kind of god.....Jamgon Kongtrul the Great used a third spelling .....
Drala spelt sGra bla begins with the syllable sgra which means sound, and continues with la that here means "a type of individual energy that is endowed with protective functions" (Norbu 1995.) For example, seng- ge'i sgra means the lion's roar. It is also possible to write and hence, refer to sgra'i lha since sGra means a sound or cry, but using lha here instead of la conveys the meaning of a sound deity.
SHIWA OKAR...the "Lha of Lha".. "God of Gods"......(Shiwa'i Od'kar....Peaceful White Light)
SHENLHA OKAR In the Bon tradition........"The body of the Bon Deity.... Shenlha Okar ("Great Lha White Light") ....is pure white...In the Bon tradition his ontological status is that of a bonku, 'unconditioned being' or 'supreme being', corresponding to the Buddhist category of dharmakaya...His association with light suggests Manichaean influences....The colour of his body is like the essence of crystal...his ornaments, attire, and palace are adorned by crystal light...".......
........."Shenlha Okar, the Bon deity who is the source of the lineage of teachings of the Dzogchen (rDzogs chen), the Great Perfection, in the lands of Lha, Nyen, and Lu". ....Kungtu Zangpo gave the teachings to Shenlha Okar who passed them to Shenrab Miwo who taught them in Zhang Zhung............From the white pure light arises the deity Shenlha Okar at the center of the mandala".........from a book by Lama Tenzin Wangyal
Thangka of the Bon Deity Shenlha Okar...... (English: the White Light God of Shen [Priests]): surrounded by 250 Enlightened Ones (Tibetan: sang gye), emanations of himself. He belongs to the set of Four Transcendent Ones....http://abhidharma.ru/A/Tantra/Content/Bon
"RIMAY TRADITION.... (Rime, Ris med) : "Jamgon Kongtrul The Great....(1813-1899) His background was Bonpo (his father was an illustrous lama of the Khyungpo, or Garuda clan..[Kongtrul: 1995..pg 15]) and both he and Jamyang Kyentse were particularly open to the Bon tradition. The most significant Bon teacher in the Rimay movement was Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-1935)..."HEART DROPS OF DHARMAKAYA.....Dzogchen Practice of the Bon Tradition". [Samuel:1993..p.542]....
"Since the second propagation on the Buddist doctrine in Tibet, in which teachings of non-Indian origin were dismissed, the ancient Nyingma teachings had been severely suppressed. Therefore the teachings of the Dzogchen system of the Nyingma [and Bonpo] traditions received the greater attention of the three great Rimay masters." (Kongtrul:1995..pg 28)..."The rimay movement began in Kham and leaned more to the shamanic and popular rather than to the centralized, clerical, heirarchical, and academic of the central Tibetan school. (Samuel: 1993..pg 543)..."
"Until the eighth century, the country of Zhang-zhung had been an independent kingdom with its own language and culture. It lay in what is now Western and Northern Tibet and the center of the country was dominated by the majestic presence of the sacred mountain of Mount Kailas........ Just to the west of Zhang-zhung there once existed the vast Kushana empire which was Buddhist in its religious culture. It was an area in which Indian Buddhism interacted with various strands of Iranian religion-- Zoroastrian, Zurvanist, Mithraist, Manichean, as well as Indian Shaivism and Nestorian Christianity. ...... All this suggests that certain trends within Bon actually do go back to a kind of syncretistic Indo-Iranian Buddhism that once flourished in the independent kingdom of Zhang-zhung before it was forcibly incorporated into the expanding Tibetan empire in the eighth century. This "Buddhism", known as gyer in the Zhang-zhung language and as bon in the Tibetan, was not particularly monastic........"
Shen Lha Okar......”In the Shamanic world we talk about inviting the Four Guests. The First Guests are enlightened Buddhas. In different traditions you have different enlightened beings. In the Tibetan Bon tradition we can invite Shenlha Okar...with ornaments representing enlightened qualities.....The essence of mind has completely eliminated all negativities and is perfected with all the qualities of a buddha. Shenlha Okar is one sambhogakaya form of an enlightened being.”....“The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism”...1998......Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
"We are working with iconography as a journey, rather than as entertainment or excitement or cultural fascination. We are talking about personal experience, how we actually see this world. There is a basic iconographic pattern in the universe, like the existence of the seasons and the elements, but how we react to that is individual.""....(Trungpa: Dharma Art.:1996...pg 94)
BASIC GOODNESS....."Küntu Zangpo is one of the peacful Bonpo deities, his name means "The All-Good" and he is seen as the supreme deity of all knowledge and has strong links to Shenla Okar in the sense that both are hierophanies of the bönku or "The body of Bon", the ultimate Truth..... Küntu Zangpo is Künzang Akor which means "The All-Good cycle of A", "A" being the last letter in the Zhan Zhung-alphabet ....the White A......Important Dzogchen Practice in the Bonpo Tradition"
"Texts that we commonly call the Shambhala teachings stem from the visions that the Druk Sakyong, the Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, had from an early age in Tibet......These visions came from the Rigden and from Shiwa Okar......the Vidyadhara often said that he was merely writing them down...." Sakyong Mipham......Public Letter....January 23, 2005
"In the shamanic world we talk about inviting the four guests......The first guests are the enlightened beings....we can invite for example, Shenlha Okar as an enlightened guest.......One's own master and yidam are in this category of First Guest.....This is the Shrine level....(Yidam examples: Shenlha Okar, Vajrakilaya, Meri, Vajrayogini, Sangchog Gyalpo, the Goddess Chamma...)...The other levels are not on the Shrine....#2 is Guest of Powerful Beings......not fully enlightened but can be close and are naturally very powerful....many different categories of the God realms....Shiva, etc.....Much more powerful than us in terms of mental ability, knowledge, speech and consciousness.....they can have "enlightened qualities" but are not fully enlightened.....in terms of healing you can invoke 1st and 2nd category of guests....They do not provoke too much......the #3 and #4 Guests can provoke sickness and cause other problems.....#3 Guest is the Karmic Guest..the #4 Guest is the Guest of Compassion...beings weaker and more helpless than you are......In the Shamanic world it is important to be generous rather than trying to get something......."(TW)
PEHAR.....the State Oracle attached to Nechung monastery, and he is usually possessed by the spirit Pehar, who is said to have been originally a deity of Turkish origin. The State Oracle continues to function in exile at Dharamsala in India, the seat of HH the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile. ,,,Pehar was originally a Nyingma protector, but was adopted into Gelugpa practice...Many eons ago, the dharma protector, Pehar, was a royal prince of the Ashuras called Damaraja.
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….November 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment