Okar Research: January 2014

Thursday, January 30, 2014

The Conflation of Mahāmudrā & Dzogchen

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"CONFLATION occurs when the identities of two or more individuals, concepts, or places, sharing some characteristics of one another, seem to be a single identity — the differences appear to become lost. In logic, it is the practice of treating two distinct concepts as if they were one, which produces errors or misunderstandings as a fusion of distinct subjects tends to obscure analysis of relationships which are emphasized by contrasts."….Haught, John F. (1995). Science and Religion: From Conflict to Conversation, p. 13.

"CONFLATE: to fail to differentiate (a thing) from something similar or related…
Synonyms of conflate: confound, mistake, mix (up), amalgamate, combine, comingle, commingle, commix, composite, concrete, conflate, fuse, homogenize, immingle, immix, incorporate, integrate, interfuse, intermingle, intermix, meld, merge, mingle, mix
http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/conflate

"In his work on Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso's Beacon of Certainty: Illuminating the View of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, John Pettit clarifies the various usages and implications of the term Dzogchen that are often CONFLATED:
"Great Perfection" variously indicates:
- the texts (āgama, lung) and oral instructions (upadeśa, man ngag) that indicate the nature of enlightened wisdom (rdzogs chen gyi gzhung dang man ngag)
- the verbal conventions of those texts (rdzogs chen gyi chos skad)
- the yogis who meditate according to those texts and instructions (rdzogs chen gyi rnal 'byor pa)
- a famous monastery where the Great Perfection was practiced by monks and yogis (rdzogs chen dgon sde)
- and the philosophical system (siddhānta, grub mtha') or vision (darśana, lta ba) of the Great Perfection.
—Pettit, John Whitney (1999). Mipham's beacon of certainty: illuminating the view of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection. Somerville, MA, USA: Wisdom Publications

Biographical CONFLATION of Indrabhuti related to conflation of Oddiyana…."The matter of the conflation of Indrabhuti and at least one evocation of the historicity of a particular personage by that name is intimately connected with the location of 'Oddiyana' (the locality denoted by the term 'Oddiyana' whether in each case cited is Swat Valley or Orissa or some other location)….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indrabhuti

Geographical CONFLATION…."In his argument, P. C. Bagchi states that there are two distinct series of names in Tibetan:
(1) O-rgyān, U-rgyān, O-ḍi-yā-na, … with the first series connected with Indrabhūti, i.e., Oḍiyăna and Uḍḍiyāna
(2) O-ḍi-vi-śā, while the second series falls back on Oḍi and Oḍiviśa, i.e., Uḍra (Orissa) and has nothing to do with Indrabhūti.
Studies in the Tantras. Calcutta. University of Calcutta, 1939
"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."…. Donaldson, Thomas E. (2001). 'Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa:

"….There is a difference between tantric Buddha Nature of Mahamudra and sutric Buddha Nature of Tathāgatagarbha Sutras….this point is confusing for many people. It is made more confusing when scholars like Longchenpa regularly invoke the Uttaratantra in order to introduce concepts in Dzogchen causing people to CONFLATE sugatagarbha teachings as they appear in Dzogchen and sūtra. "….http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=14626&start=260

"…one thing which concerns me is a throwing around of the word Rigpa, particularly if the equation of Presence and the Witness earlier on this thread is accurate (seems to be!) and the further equation of Presence and Rigpa on the link you just gave accurately reflects Aziz's teaching. If these equations are accurate, then the word Rigpa has just been used to refer to the Witness which is simply false. The Witness is the eighth vijnana, not Rigpa. Dzogchen could be looked at as an ontological critique of epistemological Yogachara; it specifically critiques mahayana doctrines of awakening as involving a transformation or conversion of the eighth consciousness. That's not to say that the Tibetans aren't confused about this too, they clearly are. Partly to blame is the conflation of Completion Stage in the Tantric System and Great Completion, i.e., Dzogchen and the CONFLATION of Madhyamika, Mahamudra and Dzogchen by many contemporary teachers. All of this can be traced through the history of the Early and Later translations in Tibet and the social effects of the accompanying shifts in institutional power-- i.e, the coming to power of a monastic (non)theocracy!"…. http://jaytek.net/KFD/KFDForum/thread/3098625/Aziz%2B(Anadi)%2BKristoff11f.html?offset=20

"In John Reynolds…Golden Letters: The Three Statements Of Garab Dorje….The chapters on the history of Dzogchen are historically interesting to those who like to trace lineages. In the chapter,`Is Dzogchen An Authentic Buddhist Teaching?' Reynolds plots what was and was not acceptable to the clerical establishment over the course of centuries, as Dzogchen and its possible antecedents move in and out of being ecclesiastically recognised as authentic Buddhist teaching…..If Dzogchen has always primordially been in them and they in it - as the primordial dharma from which all dharma arises, it is very difficult to definitively formalize where All emptiness is form/ All form emptiness is a sutra teaching and where a Dzogchen teaching. This lies both already in the mantra and in its interpretation, the two being non-different and a necessary CONFLATION in non-duality."

"Natural Perfection, Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen…..These days there is a real danger of people CONFLATING Dzogchen teachings with the teachings of other so-called "non-dual" traditions such as Advaita, Kashmir Shaivism and so on. It is important to understand that "rig pa" is not some sort of over-arching uber-consciousness like the cit of sat cit ananda in Vedantic teachings…..Instead, rigpa is just the accurate knowledge of our own state, that deepens as we become more accustomed to the Dzogchen view."….http://thetaobums.com/topic/27308-natural-perfection-longchenpas-radical-dzogchen-clear-light/page-2

CONFLATING Mahāmudrā & Dzogchen….."Namdrol wrote: I can offer citations by masters who have trained in both systems who assert the presentation of the basis in Dzogchen and Mahāmudra are not the same, and that it is an error to CONFLATE them based in superficial similarities……Could you please do so? Please don't get me wrong: I don't have doubts, you can. But it would help to see things from this perspectice by someone well trained in both systems as I've read (maybe too) much from the 'other' side (i.e. dzogchen and mahamudra being the same)."….http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=6459&start=80

"Recognizing Effulgent Rigpa….We must be careful not to confuse and take the realization of the alaya for habits to be the realization of rigpa. Further, we need to be careful not to confuse and take to be the realization of rigpa a decisive awareness (nges-shes) of either the conventional nature (the mere producing and perceiving of cognitive appearances) or the deepest nature (voidness) of the alaya for habits. To do so would be confusing Dzogchen meditation with Gelug/Kagyu Mahamudra."….http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=6459&start=80

"This sort of idea is very prevalent among those with no training in Dzogchen, in the "tradition" of those who conflate the so-called non-dualist traditions together, based on mere reading of texts in translation."….http://thetaobums.com/topic/27308-natural-perfection-longchenpas-radical-dzogchen-clear-light/page-2

"The third kind of perspective is fuzzy in Wilber’s writings. It occurs most explicitly in Integral Spirituality, although it has precursors in some of his earlier writings. This is the meaning of perspective that Wilber attempts to correlate or CONFLATION with the Dzogchen meaning of view. Here Wilber incorporates the concepts of emptiness and form and their non-dual integration, with the notion of emptiness and view-as-perspective and their non-dual integration…..The deepest Buddhist teachings—Mahamudra and Dzogchen—maintain that the nature of the mind is not in any way different from the forms arising in it. It is not just that there is Emptiness and View, but that Emptiness and View are not two—exactly as the Heart Sutra maintained, when Form now means Forms in the mind, or View: That which is Emptiness is not other than View; that which is View is not other than emptiness."…..http://integralreviewofbooks.com/tag/perspective/

"…Gabriel Garcia Marquez once said that people who think that he's on drugs when he's writing know nothing about drugs, and know nothing about writing. The same could be said for those who CONFLATE anything Buddhist with a pot high -- they know nothing of Buddhism, and have misinterpreted their drug experience. When it comes to pot and Buddhism, I've done a lot of the latter and enough of the former to know that they are as different (to steal a line from Mark Twain) as lightening and a lightening bug. At a meditation seminar I attended, the teacher, Reggie Ray, told a guy who claimed he was experiencing "vertigo" during sitting: "Do you smoke pot?" Startled, the guy nodded. Reggie Ray said, "Don't. Meditation grounds you."….http://shambhalasun.com/sunspace/?p=19125

"The term Shambhala-Buddhism was introduced by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in the year 2000 to describe his presentation of the Shambhala teachings, originally conceived by Chögyam Trungpa as secular practices for achieving enlightened society, in concert with the Tibetan Buddhist Kagyu and Nyingma lineages."….. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala_Buddhism

"Some sources hold that it was Kukuraja who prophesied the birth of Garab Dorje, the founder of the human lineage of the Nyingmapa Dzogchen Tantra teachings though the chronology is problematic. The tradition holds that there may be multiple Kukaraja's which are CONFLATED... (a view also propounded by modern scholarship)….."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukuraja

Oddiyana …a small country in early medieval (?) ….., ascribed importance in the development and dissemination of Tantric Buddhism. The physical location of is disputed and open to conjecture….In later Tibetan traditions, is either CONFLATED or identified with Shambhala,"….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddiyana

"….maybe something should be said, as part of a background, about different Eastern religions, so they do not become CONFLATED into a single entity."….http://travismay108.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/portrait-of-a-shambhala-buddhist/

"The idea that anyone would CONFLATE Buddhism with new Age ideas – only in America."…..http://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/commentary-on-the-great-living-masters-and-presenters-appearing-at-dzogchen-beara/

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

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

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Mahasiddha Kukuraja: the Dog King

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Kukuraja…"Kukuraja was a mahasiddha within the lineages of Esoteric Buddhism and he was contemporaneous with Indrabhuti in Oddiyana (also known as King Ja) and Kambalapada (also known as Lawapa)…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukuraja

"Some sources hold that it was Kukuraja who prophesied the birth of Garab Dorje, the founder of the human lineage of the Nyingmapa Dzogchen Tantra teachings though the chronology is problematic. The tradition holds that there may be multiple Kukaraja's which are conflated (a view also propounded by modern scholarship) or the different Kukkaraja according to Nyingma tradition may be understood as a lineage of mindstream emanations."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukuraja

"…"Then King Ja taught the book to master Uparaja, who was renowned as a great scholar, but he could not understand their symbolic conventions and meaning. The king then taught them to the master Kukkuraja. He intuitively understood the chapter on the "Vision of Vajrasattva", from the Tantra of the Magical Net of Vajrasattva [Wylie: rdo rje sems dpa' sgyu 'phrul drva ba (also known as the Guhyagarbha Tantra)], and practiced it, whereupon Vajrasattva revealed himself and predicted that the Lord of Secrets would reveal the meanings of this tantra thereafter. When he had practised more, the Lord of Secrets actually appeared and granted him [Kukkuraja] the complete empowerment of the authentic teaching and of all vehicles. Then he told him to request the verbal teaching from the Licchavi Vimalakirti. It is said that, following the transmitted precepts of the Lord of Secrets, master Kukkuraja divided [the Mahayoga tantras] into the Eighteen Great Tantrapitaka (tantra chen-po sde bco-brgyad) and taught them to King Ja."…… The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History. Boston, USA: Wisdom Publications.

Kukuraja (ku ku ra dza / ku ku ra tsa – the Mahasiddha who lived with a cohort of dogs.) Another Kukuraja was one of the teachers of Marpa Lotsawa.

Kukuraja—the Dog King—lived on an island in the midst of a swamp of poison. He was known also as Kukkuripa—the Dog Lover—he is famous for these lines:…
"Where deliberate effort and self-conscious striving are present – Buddha is absent….
In view of this all chanting, rituals, and offerings are futile….
Within the peak experience of the Lama’s inspired transmission however, Buddha is ever-present – but who is there who wishes to see that?"
…..http://arobuddhism.org/words/the-year-of-the-dog.html

Kukkuraja; Kukuraja – Kukkuraja; the Dog King (khyi'i rgyal po ku ku ra' dza); [khyi yi rgyal po] . Early master in the sems sde lineage. ….http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Kukuraja

Kukkuraja the Younger (khyi'i rgyal po phyi ma) aka Dhahuna the Dog King aka Kukku Dhahuna …. Early master in the sems sde lineage….. http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Kukkuraja_the_Younger

"Kukuripa [Tib. Shiwa Sangpo] (ca. 1000) was one of the Mahasiddhas (one of the 84 greatest yogis) and one of Tilopa's teachers. He stayed not far from Pullahari in western Magadha, where he lived on an island "in a poison lake," surrounded by dogs. One of the females reveals herself as a dakini, and she is instrumental in his Realization, for . . . he descended from paradise to rejoin her in the cave…….The dog leaped and pranced with joy when she caught sight of her beloved master. But no sooner did he sit down and begin to scratch her favorite spot, just behind the ears, than she vanished from sight! There before him, wreathed in a cloud of glory, stood a radiantly beautiful Dakini. " ~ Keith Dowman's Masters of Enchantment. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1988. [link is to newer edition]

"Kukuraja was a Buddhist of brahmin origins who practiced in a cave in the company of a dog. In the legends of Guru Rinpoche, after some tantric scriptures landed on the palace roof, King Indrabodhi brought them to Kukuraja for interpretation."….http://www.khandro.net/animal_dog.htm

"Mahasiddhas: Nagarjuna, Shantideva, Mahasiddha, Dampa Sangye, Luipa, Saraha, Milarepa, Indrabhuti, Naropa, Kukuraja, Gorakshanath, Tilopa, Matsyendranath, Marpa Lotsawa, Kukkuripa, Geshe Lama Konchog"…http://www.amazon.com/Mahasiddhas

Kukkuraja the Elder, the son of Kukkuraja Gatu and his wife Crescent Moon….Wellsprings of the Great Perfection: The Lives and Insights of the Early Masters……edited by Michael Tweed, Marcia Binder Schmidt

"Aa monk, Acarya Pramodavajra lived a purely monastic, disciplined life for many years. His discipline as a monk prepared him for the contemplative life. With time he more and more turned away from scholastic studies, to sit in quiet meditation. He meditated in his monastery cell and in the caves and forests of the Kingdom of Uddiyana……At some point in the maturation of his spiritual evolution, he received the blessed Empowerment and Transmission of the profound Mahayoga teachings of the Secret Matrix Tradition (Guhyagarbha-tantra) from the renowned personal guru of the King of Uddiyana, the great white-robed saint Mahasiddha Kukkuraja. After that he retired into retreat on the slopes of Mount Suryaprakasa in the north, where he performed mantra practice in a small grass hut…….Kukkuraja's instruction had been very direct. "Everything without exception is the Divine Body-Speech-Mind," he had said. "The Divine Body-Speech-Mind is all-encompassing. Thus know your ultimate identity to be Vajrasattva, the Divine Body-Speech-Mind." As the Tibetan text of the Kulaya-raja Sutra (Kun.byed.rgyal.po'i .mdo) states: "When everything is seen as the Great Self-identity (bdag.nyid.chen.po), it is known as Atiyoga." Therefore Acarya Pramodavajra's spiritual practice (sadhana) consisted of meditating on the core of his being as ultimately the Absolute itself. For many years the meditation and mantra practice of the one divine Vajrasattva became his sole activity."….http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1766

Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde……by Namkhai Norbu

http://www.keithdowman.net/lineage/lineage_trees.htm

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

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

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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The Dzogchen Lineages of Shambala & Oḍḍiyāna

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Sri Simha, the Lion of Dzogchen.......Sri Samha, or Simhaprabha as he may have been known, was born in a noble family in the Cina Valley near Mt Kailas..... He lived during the 8th century..... Cina—the land from whence Sri Simha came— definitely is the Kinnaur Valley, also known as the Kunnu Valley; a Himalayan district, today within India. Suvarnadwipa lay to the north of this valley, in what now is Western Tibet. "So-khyam" is the Tibetan rendering of the name "Su-gnam", the latter a prosperous village at the nine thousand foot level, deep in the Kinnaur Valley."...The Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa

"Sri Simha, or Simhaprabha as he may have been known, was born in a noble family in the "Land of Cina" near the Kinnaur Valley.......even Dudjom Rinpoche's The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism perpetuates the error of stating that Sri Simha came from China. Evans-Wentz, just as incorrectly, described Sri Simha as a Burmese guru. Dr. Hanson-Barber places Sri Simha in Central Asia, while Dowman has suggested that he was Khotanese. Tulku Thondup, author of Masters of Meditation and Miracles, describes Sri Simha birthplace as "a city called Shokyam on Sosha Island in China." None of these allocations are correct. To fully appreciate Sri Simha's background we must briefly digress into the geography of a mysterious seventh century Himalayan country called Suvarnadwipa and its southern neighbour, the Kinnaur Valley."....http://www.ogyenling.com/Lineage.aspx

The Dzogchen teachings are mainly found only in the old unreformed Tibetan schools of the Buddhist Nyingmapas and the non-Buddhist Bonpos. In both cases, these teachings are substantially the same in meaning and terminology, and both traditions claim to have an unbroken lineage coming down to the present time from the eighth century and even before. Both of these schools assert that Dzogchen did not originate in Tibet itself, but had a Central Asian origin and was subsequently brought to Central Tibet by certain masters known as Mahasiddhas or great adepts….

The tradition of Dzogchen known as the Zhang-zhung Nyan-gyud is especially important for research into the historical origins of Dzogchen because it claims to represent a continuous oral tradition (snyan-rgyud) from the earliest times coming from the Kingdom of Zhang-zhung.

Website of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje………."Legend reports that Vasubandhu came from the "Kingdom of Shambhala' (approximately, modern Begram, otherwise known as the ancient kingdom of Kapisha, north of Kabul) located in the Afghanistan region, north-west of Peshawar....Bagram (بگرام Bagrám), founded as Alexandria on the Caucasus and known in medieval times as Kapisa, is a small town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers north of the capital Kabul….in the old tradition of the 84 Mahasiddhas that the Kingdom of Uddiyana (Oḍḍiyāna…Od-i-ana) was divided between two countries, to the North and South. To the North, it bordered on the land of Shambhala (i.e., the Kingdom of Kapisa)…….….http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm"….

"Garab Dorje was born in and taught Dzogchen in the land of Uddiyana……(Garab Dorje, Garap Dorje, Vajraprahe, Prahevajra, Pramodavajra)……he transmitted the teachings to Manjushrimitra, who was regarded as his chief disciple……Prahevajra received the empowerment and transmission of the Mahayoga teachings of the Secret Matrix Tradition (Guhyagarbha tantra) from Mahasiddha Kukuraja…Garab Dorje began Mañjuśrīmitra's re-education by instructing him as follows: "The nature of your own mind-essence is, from the very beginning, none other than buddha. This mind, in and of itself, is birthless and deathless. It is simply like the sky. If the intrinsic truth of the nonduality of all phenomena is understood in its totality, and if this view is merely sustained in faith, without making any kind of effort, then that is how one should practice meditation."…."Illuminating Sunlight", ….Eric Pema Kunsang (translator) : Wellsprings of the Great Perfection. Rangjung Yeshe Publications, Hong Kong, 2006.

"Guhyagarbha Tantra (Skt.; Tib. རྒྱུད་གསང་བ་སྙིང་པོ་, Gyü Sangwé Nyingpo; Wyl. rgyud gsang ba'i snying po), The Essence of Secrets Tantra is the main tantra of the Mahayoga. It contains twenty-two chapters….aka: Glorious Web of Magical Illusion, The Secret Essence Definitive Nature Just As It Is ."…The Guhyagarbha Tantra was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan on four occasions"….Gyurme Dorje, Guhyagarbha Tantra: Introduction, PhD….http://www.wisdom-books.com/FocusDetail.asp?FocusRef=36

Manjushrimitra….Manjushrimitra, Jampal Shenyen….. A master in the Dzogchen lineage and the chief disciple of Garab Dorje…. Mañjuśrīmitra (fl. 55 CE)(Tibetan: Jampelshenyen, ཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་, Wylie: 'Jam-dpal-bshes-gnyen) was an Indian Buddhist scholar, the main student of Garab Dorje and a teacher of Dzogchen…..he received many teachings and empowerments from Garab Dorje, Lalitavajra, and other masters….. his chief recipients of this teaching were Hungkara, Padmasambhava, and Hanatela….During their seventy five years together, he received the entire Dzogchen transmission from Garab Dorje ….He was one of the eight Vidyadharas of India.....http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Manjushrimitra

Lalitavajra… the Indian mahasiddha Lalitavajra …Lalitavajra's Manual of Buddhist Iconography Hardcover by Lokesh Chandra ….Manjushrimitra (jam dpal bshes gnyen, pron. Jampal Shenyen). An Indian master in the Dzogchen lineage and the chief disciple of Garab Dorje. In his role as a master in the lineage of the Sadhana Section of Mahayoga, he received the transmission of Yamantaka in the form of the Secret Wrathful Manjushri Tantra and other texts. Manjushrimitra was born in the Magadha district of India and was soon an adept in the general sciences and the conventional topics of Buddhism. After having become the most eminent among five hundred panditas, he received many teachings and empowerments from Garab Dorje & Lalitavajra….Masters of Mahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eighty-Four Buddhist Siddhas by Abhayadatta

Padmasambhava (Skt.), or Padmakara (Skt. Padmākara; Tib. པདྨཱ་ཀ་ར་, པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་, Pemajungné; Wyl. pad+ma 'byung gnas, in Sanskrit transliteration པདྨ་སམྦྷ་ཝ་) means ‘Lotus-Born’, which refers to Guru Rinpoche's birth from a lotus in the land of Oddiyana, in the north-western part of the land of Oddiyan (Pakistan/Afghanistan), in the 8th century AD.,…Padmasambhava is said to have been born in a village near the present day town of Chakdara in Lower Dir District, which was then a part of Oddiyana...…Mañjuśrīmitra (fl. 55 CE)(Tibetan: Jampelshenyen, ཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་, Wylie: 'Jam-dpal-bshes-gnyen) was an Indian Buddhist scholar, the main student of Garab Dorje and a teacher of Dzogchen…. his chief recipients of this teaching were Hungkara, Padmasambhava, and Hanatela

Hungkara….Mañjuśrīmitra (fl. 55 CE)(Tibetan: Jampelshenyen, ཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་, Wylie: 'Jam-dpal-bshes-gnyen) was an Indian Buddhist scholar, the main student of Garab Dorje and a teacher of Dzogchen…. his chief recipients of this teaching were Hungkara, Padmasambhava, and Hanatela….Hungkara (hung mdzad), (hung chen ka ra). One of the Eight Vidyadharas; receiver of the tantras of Vishuddha Mind including Heruka Galpo. …..at first he was erudite in a non-Buddhist religion and gained some attainments but later awakened to faith in the Buddhist teachings, took ordination from Buddhajnana and studied both the outer and inner aspects of Secret Mantra. His name derives from the chief deity of the mandala into which he was first initiated. At some point he took an outcaste girl as consort and practiced for six months the four aspects of approach and accomplishment. Through that practice he had a vision of the entire mandala of Vajra Heruka and reached the attainment of the supreme accomplishment of mahamudra. He wrote the Golden Garland of Rulu, the Vishuddha …. He was associated with Rolang Sukhasiddhi, Kukuraja and Buddhaguhya, while his lineage was transmitted to Padmasambhava and Namkhai Nyingpo the latter of whom spread his teachings in India. Also known as Hungchen, Hungchenkara."….http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Hungkara

Hanatela….Mañjuśrīmitra (fl. 55 CE)(Tibetan: Jampelshenyen, ཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་, Wylie: 'Jam-dpal-bshes-gnyen) was an Indian Buddhist scholar, the main student of Garab Dorje and a teacher of Dzogchen….. his chief recipients of this teaching were Hungkara, Padmasambhava, and Hanatela….http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/འཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན།

Kukuraja…"Kukuraja was a mahasiddha within the lineages of Esoteric Buddhism and he was contemporaneous with Indrabhuti of Sahor in Oddiyana (also known as King Ja) and Kambalapada (also known as Lawapa)……Some sources hold that it was Kukuraja who prophesied the birth of Garab Dorje, the founder of the human lineage of the Nyingmapa Dzogchen"…. Kukuraja (ku ku ra dza / ku ku ra tsa – the Mahasiddha who lived with a cohort of dogs.) Kukuraja was one of the teachers of Marpa Lotsawa. Kukuraja—the Dog King—lived on an island in the midst of a swamp of poison. He was known also as Kukkuripa—the Dog Lover—he is famous for these lines:…"Where deliberate effort and self-conscious striving are present – Buddha is absent….In view of this all chanting, rituals, and offerings are futile….Within the peak experience of the Lama’s inspired transmission however, Buddha is ever-present – but who is there who wishes to see that?"…..http://arobuddhism.org/words/the-year-of-the-dog.html

King Dza…..According to Nyingma tradition, King Ja 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" according to Dudjom (1904–1987), et al. (1991: p. 613 History) took place on the Tibetan calendar year of the Earth Monkey, which Dudjom et al. identify as 853 BC….. Kukuraja received instruction drawn from "the Book" on what may be understood as the Outer Tantras from King Ja, then King Ja received instruction on what may be understood as the Inner Tantras from Kukuraja (Kukkuraja taught King Ja after Kukkuraja received a direct revelation of Vajrasattva wherein Vajrasattva prophesied the imminent esoteric transmission of Vajrapani, the Lord of Secrets, to Kukuraja which was only made possible through the quickening of Kukuraja by King Ja with his intuitive knowledge drawn from "the Book") as Dudjom (1904–1987), et al. (1991: p. 460) of the principally Nyingma view relates:…."Then King Ja taught the book to master Uparaja, who was renowned as a great scholar throughout the land of Sahor, but he could not understand their symbolic conventions and meaning. The king then taught them to the master Kukkuraja. He intuitively understood the chapter on the "Vision of Vajrasattva", from the Tantra of the Magical Net of Vajrasattva [Wylie: rdo rje sems dpa' sgyu 'phrul drva ba (also known as the Guhyagarbha Tantra)], and practiced it, whereupon Vajrasattva revealed himself and predicted that the Lord of Secrets would reveal the meanings of this tantra thereafter. When he had practised more, the Lord of Secrets actually appeared and granted him [Kukkuraja] the complete empowerment of the authentic teaching and of all vehicles. Then he told him to request the verbal teaching from the Licchavi Vimalakirti. It is said that, following the transmitted precepts of the Lord of Secrets, master Kukkuraja divided [the Mahayoga tantras] into the Eighteen Great Tantrapitaka (tantra chen-po sde bco-brgyad) and taught them to King Ja."…..The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History. Boston, USA: Wisdom Publications

Shenrab Miwoche (Shenrab Miwo Kunle Nampar Gyalwa) was born in the land of Olmo Lungring ('Ol mo lung ring), (otherwise known as Shambala)….Shenrab was born in the Barpo Sogye Palace to the south of Mount Yungdrung….a part of a larger country called Tazig (sTag gzigs: Central Asia). Shen rab was born in Sam bha la (sTag gzigs) in the west in the town called Yans pa can, in the dwelling place of the 33 Gods, ….situated to the west of Tibet….. Three brothers studied under a great teacher named Tobumtri Log Gi Che Chen. After completing their studies, they went to Shen Lha Odkar, the Enlightened One of Compassion, and asked how they could be of the greatest assistance in liberating sentient beings from the suffering of the cyclic world. He advised them to take human birth in three different ages so that each brother could help the sentient beings of that age achieve liberation. Following Shen Lha Odkar’s advice, the second son, Salway, was born in this present age as Tönpa Shenrab…..he manifested as a blue cuckoo and along with his two disciples, Malo and Yulo, went to the top of Mount Meru, where he deliberated as to where and to what parents he should be born. Through his wisdom, he foresaw that he would be born in the heart of Olmo Lung Ring in a place called Barpo Sogyed, located on the south side of Mount Yungdrung Gutsek…… Tonpa Shenrab taught Bon in three successive cycles of teachings. In the final cycle of teachings the secret cycle is the path of self-liberation, or dzogchen teachings…..http://bon-encyclopedia.wikispaces.com/Tonpa+Shenrab

Meu Gongjad Ritro Chenpo …..In Bon, Dzogchen has traditionally been divided in three streams known collectively as A-rdzogs-snyan-rgyud, i.e. A-krid, Dzogchen and Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud. The first two are terma traditions based on rediscovered texts while the third is an oral tradition based on continuous transmission by an uninterrupted lineage of masters……The A-krid system was founded in the 11th century by Dampa (Holy Man) Meu Gongjad Ritro Chenpo (rMe’u dGongs-mdzod) (1038-1096), who extracted the original teachings from the Khro rgyud cycle of teaching by Tonpa Shenrab, the founding teacher of Bon.…..http://www.cstone.net/~ligmin/html/bon_dzogchen.html

"Tapihritsa was the disciple of the previous master (Tsepung Dawa Gyaltsan), ….. his father was Rasang Lugyal (Ra-sangs klu-rgyal) and his mother was Sherigsal (Shes-rig-gsal). When he was born as their son, he was given the name of Tapihritsa, which means "king" in the Zhan-zhung language just as the word rgyal-po does in the Tibetan language.. He was born in Zhang-zhung…..from the master Tsepung Dawa Gyaltsan (Tshe-spungs zla-ba rgyal-mtshan) that Tapihritsa received all four cycles of precepts from the Zhang-zhung Nyan-gyud…. form John Myrdhin Reynolds - Vajranatha....http://www.yungdrungbon.net

Gyerpung Nangzher Lodpo…..The chief disciple of the master Tapihritsa was the great Gyerpung Nangzher Lodpo. He was also born in Zhang-zhung, in the lake district of Darok. He began to study the Nine Ways of Bon became very proficient in all of these practices. Then at the age of forty-seven, he met Tsepung Dawa Gyaltsan who had previously been the master of Tapihritsa…..The third stream comprises the Dzogchen teachings of the Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud, the Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung, the oldest and most important Dzogchen tradition and meditation system in Bon. This series of teachings was systematized the Zhang Zhung master Gyerpung Nangzher Lodpo, who received them from his master Tapahritsa in the eighth century….http://www.cstone.net/~ligmin/html/bon_dzogchen.html

Ratna Lingpa….In the early fifteenth century, Ratna Lingpa (Ratna gling-pa) compiled the Nyingma Gyubum (rNying-ma rgyud-'bum, Lakhs of Nyingma Tantras), the collection of all dzogchen texts and all the Old Transmission translations of tantras, expanding on Longchenpa's work….Ratna Lingpa (Tib. རཏྣ་གླིང་པ་, Wyl. rat+na gling pa) (1403-1478) — a Tibetan tertön, who compiled the Nyingma Gyübum, Collected Tantras of the Nyingmapas in the fifteenth century. He is also known by the names of Shikpo Lingpa (ཞིག་པོ་གླིང་པ་, zhig po gling pa) and Drodul Lingpa (འགྲོ་འདུལ་གླིང་པ་, 'go 'dul gling pa)"……Dudjom Rinpoche, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Wisdom Publications, 1991,

Jigmey Lingpa (' Jigs-med gling-pa mKhyen-brtse 'od-zer), in the late eighteenth century, revised Longchenpa's Zabmo Nyingtig and made it into Longchen Nyingtig (Klong-chen snying-thig, Longchenpa's Heart Essence Teachings), the main Nyingma dzogchen system practiced today. His disciple, the First Dodrubchen (rDo-grub chen 'Jigs-med 'phrin-las 'od-zer), wrote a ritual text of preliminary practices for it, Longchen ngondro (Klong-chen sngon-'gro)….Jikme Lingpa (Tib. འཇིགས་མེད་གླིང་པ་, Wyl. 'jigs med gling pa) (1729-1798) is regarded as one of the most important figures in the Nyingma lineage. Also known as ‘Khyentse Özer’, ‘Rays of Compassion and Wisdom’, he was a great scholar and visionary, and discovered the Longchen Nyingtik cycle of teachings and practice through a series of visions from the great fourteenth century master, Longchenpa. With the patronage of the Dergé royal family, Jikme Lingpa published the compilation of Nyingma tantras known as the Nyingma Gyübum"….http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Jikme_Lingpa

"Dza Patrul Rinpoche (Tib. རྫ་དཔལ་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wyl. rdza dpal sprul rin po che) aka Orgyen Jikmé Chökyi Wangpo (ཨོ་རྒྱན་འཇིགས་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་, o rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po) (1808-1887) — an enlightened master, who, though he lived the life of a vagabond, was one of the most illustrious spiritual teachers of the nineteenth century. His principal teacher was Jikmé Gyalwé Nyugu, a great master who was one of the foremost students of Jikmé Lingpa. From Jikmé Gyalwé Nyugu he received no less than twenty five times the teachings on the preliminary practices of the Longchen Nyingtik, as well as many other important transmissions. From time to time he would write a text of his own and these treatises were later collected into six volumes of his writings. Among them is The Words of My Perfect Teacher, Kunzang Lama’i Shyalung…..Peltrul (rDza dPal-sprul 'O-rgyan 'jigs-med dbang-po; Patrul Rinpoche) wrote Guideline Instructions from My Totally Excellent (Samantabhadra) Spiritual Mentor (Kun-bzang bla-ma'i zhal-lung, Perfect Words of My Excellent Teacher, Kunzang Lamey Zhellung). This is the most elaborate Nyingma text on the equivalent of lam-rim (graded stages of the path) and on the preliminaries for the Longchen Nyingtig."…..Tulku Thondup, Masters of Meditation and Miracles, edited by Harold Talbott, Boston: Shambhala, 1996 …..‘Disgusting old dog’ was the epithet employed by DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje of Dza Paltrül and the secret name which betokened his understanding of the nature of Mind. The story behind DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje reviling Dza Paltrül as a disgusting old dog is usually employed to illustrate the nature of informal symbolic transmission. DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje takes hold of Dza Paltrül’s hair and throws him to the ground – for no apparent reason. Dza Paltrül smells alcohol on DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje’s breath – and conceptualises ignominiously in puritanical vein – at which DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje rebukes him thus: “You disgusting old dog – how does this wretched thought enter your mind!” At that moment Dza Paltrül realises his egregious error and lies exactly in the position DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje cast him loose. It is then that he recognises the nature of Mind. Thereafter—whenever Dza Paltrül gave transmission of the nature of Mind to his own disciples—he told them that he first realised the nature of Mind through receiving informal symbolic transmission from his Tsawa’i Lama DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje and that the secret name he received at that time was ’Disgusting Old Dog’."…..http://arobuddhism.org/words/the-year-of-the-dog.html

Tenzin Wangyal….…"when I received the Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud teaching, Lopon Sangye Tenzin maintained that although keeping the Dzogchen teaching secret may have been suitable in ancient times, in our own troubled times it is better to give them more openly and freely (but without lessening their value in this way) otherwise there is the danger that they will die out….There are also many points in common between Bon and Nyingmapa Buddhism. As noted, both uphold and propagate in an official way the transmission of the Dzogchen teachings, which are found only sporadically in gifted individual practitioners of the other Tibetan traditions that do not have specific lineages of Dzogchen masters. Both worship Kuntuzangpo as the supreme primordial AdiBuddha, while the other three schools of Tibetan Buddhism worship Vajradhara as AdiBuddha; and both have a terma tradition of concealed spiritual treasures rediscovered by tertons (personages prophesied to reveal the terma in propitious times). In fact many famous tertons belongs to both traditions……Furthermore, the Nyingmapas are the only Tibetan Buddhists openly to acknowledge as Buddhist those teachings of non-Indian origin that were spread during the first introduction of Buddhism into Tibet during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo and later in the eighth century by the charismatic master Padmasambhava and his associates. These teachings include currents of Buddhist teaching coming from China and central Asia as well as from India. In the second spread of Buddhism in Tibet in the tenth and eleventh centuries, all Buddhist teachings of which an Indian origination could not be verified were excluded from the Buddhist canon rendered official by the other, later, three schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Bonpos maintain that, as Buddha Sakyamuni was a disciple of Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, all Buddhist teachings, whether originating in India or elsewhere, are in fact teachings of everlasting Bon"……http://www.cstone.net/~ligmin/html/bon_dzogchen.html

"The first buried Bon treasure texts were recovered by accident at Samyay in 913 AD……in the eleventh century, Nyingma and more Bon dzogchen texts were found…..Bon codified its equivalent of the Kangyur in the second half of fourteenth century, which includes dzogchen."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

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

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Monday, January 27, 2014

Kabul Shahis & Kapisa (3rd-9th C. AD)

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"The Shahi (Devanagari: शाही), Sahi, also called Shahiya dynasties ruled Kabulistan and the old province of Gandhara , from the decline of the Kushan Empire in the 3rd century to the early 9th century. The kingdom was known as "Kabul Shahi" (Kabul-shāhān or Ratbél-shāhān in Persian کابلشاهان یا رتبیل شاهان) between 565 and 879 AD when they had Kapisa and Kabul as their capitals, and later as Hindu Shahi. The Shahis of Kabul/Gandhara are generally divided into the two eras of the so-called Buddhist-Shahis and the so-called Hindu-Shahis, with the change-over thought to have occurred sometime around AD 870."…. Sehrai, Fidaullah (1979). Hund: The Forgotten City of Gandhara, p. 2.

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"Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, was a dynasty south of the Hindu Kush in southern Afghanistan. They ruled from the early 7th century until the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan in 870 AD. The Zunbils are believed to be an offspring of the southern-Hephthalite rulers of Zabulistan and culturally connected to Greater India. The dynasty was related to the Kabul Shahis of the northeast in Kabul. "It follows from Huei-ch'ao's report that Barhatakin had two sons: one who ruled from after him in Kapisa-Gandhara and another who became king of Zabul…"The Zunbils of the early Islamic period and the Kabulshahs were almost certainly epigoni of the southern-Hephthalite rulers of Zabul."….. Andre Wink, Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol.1, (Brill, 1996)"

"Hsuen Tsang (c. 602–664), clearly describes the ruler of Kapisa/Kabul, whom he had personally met, as a devout Buddhist and a Kshatriya and not a Tu-kiue/Tu-kue (Turk). The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang knew well enough what a Turk was since he had come to Kabul through their country….The Shahi rulers of Kapisa/Kabul who ruled Afghanistan from the early 4th century till AD 870 were Hindu Kamboj Kshatriyas. The Shahis of Afghanistan were discovered in 1874 to be connected to the Kamboja "race" by E. Vesey Westmacott…..E. Vesey Westmacott, Bishan Singh, K. S. Dardi, et al. connect the Kabul Shahis to the ancient Indian Ksatriya clans of the Kambojas/Gandharas. George Scott Robertson writes that the Kators/Katirs of Kafiristan belong to the well known Siyaposh tribal group of the Kams, Kamoz and Kamtoz tribes. (The Kafirs of the Hindukush, 1896, pp 75–85;) But numerous scholars now also agree that the Siyaposh tribes of Hindukush are the modern representatives of the ancient Iranian cis-Hindukush Kambojas"….Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya History of Mediaeval Hindu India, 1979,

"The name (Katorman or Lagaturman) of the last king of the so-called first Shahi line of Kabul/Kapisa ….

"…Commenting on the rise of Shahi dynasty in Kabul/Kapisa, Charles Frederick Oldham observes: "Kabulistan must have passed through many vicissitudes during the troublous times which followed the overthrow of the great Persian empire by the Alexander. It no doubt fell for a time under the sway of foreign rulers (Yavanas, Kushanas, Hunas etc). The great mass of the population, however, remained Zoroastrian and Polytheists. And probably too, the Kshatriya chiefs from India retained great shadow of authority, and conquered Kabulistan when the opportunity arose."…..Charles Frederick Oldham The Sun and the Serpent: A Contribution to the History of Serpent-worship, 1905, pp. 113-126,

" According to Sata-pañcāśaddesa-vibhaga of Saktisamgma Tantra, Book III, Ch VII, v 24–28 (a medieval era Tantra text), the Kambojas are said to be located to west of South-west Kashmir (Pir-pañcāla), to South of Bactria, and to east of Maha-Mlechcha-desa (Mohammadan countries i.e Khorasan/Iran). Likewise verse 42–44 of the same reference locates the medieval Huna-desa to the north of Maru-desa (Rajputana) and to the south of Kama-giri (Kama hills) (Geography of Ancient and Medieval India, 1971, p 100-102, 108, Dr D. C. Sircar). The Kama/kamma is the name of hilly territory of eastern Afghanistan, lying between Jalalabad and Khyber pass. Hence, the general location of Huna-desa may indeed have comprised south-western Punjab and parts of Southern and Central Afghanistan which territory again was same as the Zabulistan of Arab writers."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabul_Shahi#cite_ref-24

"Barhatigin is said to be the founder of the dynasty which is said to have ruled for 60 generations until AD 870. This, if true, would take Barhatigin and the founding of the early Shahi dynasty back about 20x60=1200 years, i.e., to about the 4th century BC if we take the average generation of 20 years; and to the 7th century BC if an average generation is taken as 25 years. It is well nigh impossible that a single dynasty could have ruled for 1200 (or 1500) years at a stretch. Moreover, King Kanik (if Kanishaka) ruled (AD 78 – 101) not over Kabul but over Purushapura/Gandhara and his descendants could not have ruled for almost 900 years as a single dynasty over Kapisa/Kabul especially in a frontier region called the gateway of India. Pre Islamic Hindu and Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan is well established in the Shahi coinage from Kabul of this period."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabul_Shahi

"Based on fragmentary evidence of coins, there was one king named Vrahitigin (Barhatigin?) who belonged to pre-Christian times as Alberuni's accounts would tend to establish. If Kanik is same as Kanishaka of Kushana race as is often claimed…It appears that from start of the 5th century till AD 793-94, the capital of the Kabul Shahis was Kapisa. As early as AD 424, the prince of Kapisa (Ki-pin of the Chinese) was known as Guna Varman. The name ending "Varman" is used after the name of a Ksahriya only.Thus the line of rulers whom Hiuen Tsang refers to in his chronicles appears to be an extension of the Ksatriya dynasty whom this Guna Varman of Ki-pin or Kapisa (AD 424) belonged. Thus this Ksatriya dynasty was already established prior to AD 424…."…..Ancient Indian History and Culture, 1974, p 149

"It appears more than likely that, rather than the Kushanas or Hunas or the Turks, the Shahi rulers of Kabul/Kapisa and Gandhara had a descent from the neighbouring warlike Ksatriya clans of the Kambojas known as Ashvakas , who in the 4th century BC, had offered stubborn and decisive resistance to Macedonian invader, Alexander, and later had helped Chandragupta Maurya found the Mauryan empire of India. They were the same bold and warlike people on whom king Asoka Maurya had thought it wise and expedient to bestow autonomous status and to whom he gave eminent place in his Rock Edicts V and XIII. They were fiercely independent warlike people who had never easily yielded to any foreign overlord. They were the people who, in the 5th century AD, had formed the very neighbours of the Bactrian Ephthalites of Oxus and whom Chandragupta II of Gupta dynasty had campaigned against and had obtained tribute from about the start of the 5th century AD……Dr V. A. Smith says that this epic verse is reminiscent of the times when the Hunas first came into contact with the Sassanian dynasty of Persia. And the Monghyr grant of king Devapala of the Pala dynasty of Bengal attests that the great king had led his war expedition (AD 810–850) into the northwest against the Hunas (in western Punjab) and then the Kambojas (in the Kabul/Gandhara valleys."….The Sun and the Serpent: A Contribution to the History of Serpent-worship, 1905, p 125, Charles Frederick Olmsted.

" Sata-pañcāśaddesa-vibhaga of the medieval era Tantra book Saktisamgma Tantra locates Kambojas (Kabul Shahis?) to the west of southwest Kashmir (or Pir-pañcāla), to the south of Bactria and to the east of Maha-Mlechcha-desa (=Mohammadan countries i.e Khorasan/Iran) and likewise, locates the Hunas (Zabul Shahis?) to the south of Kama valley (or Jallalabad/Afghnaistan) and to the north of Marudesa (or Rajputana) towards western Punjab."

"Archeological sites of the period, including a major Hindu Shahi temple north of Kabul and a chapel in Ghazni, contain both the pre-dominant Hindu and Buddhist statuary, suggesting that there was a close interaction between the two religions. When the Chinese visitor Hsuan-tsang visited Kapisa (about 60 km north of modern Kabul) in the 7th century, the local ruler was a Kshatriya King Shahi Khingala. A Ganesha idol has been found near Gerdez that bears the name of this king, see Shahi Ganesha. Several 6th- or 7th-century AD Buddhist manuscripts were found from a stupa at Gilgit. One of the manuscripts reveals the name of a Shahi king Srideva Sahi Surendra Vikramaditya Nanda."….The Shahi Afghanistan and Punjab, 1973, pp 1, 45–46, 48, 80, Dr D. B. Pandey;

"In the wake of Muslim invasions of Kabul and Kapisa in second half of the 7th century (AD 664), the Kapisa/Kabul ruler called by Muslim writers Kabul Shah (Shahi of Kabul) made an appeal to the Ksatriyas of the Hind who had gathered there in large numbers for assistance and drove out the Muslim invaders as far as Bost. This king of Kapisa/Kabul who faced the Muslim invasion was undoubtedly a Ksatriya."…..The Sun and the Serpent: A Contribution to the History of Serpent-worship, 1905, p 126, Charles Frederick Oldham

"In AD 645, when Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang was passing through the Uttarapatha, Udabhanda or Udabhandapura was the place of residence or secondary capital of emperor of Kapisa which then dominated over 10 neighboring states comprising Lampaka, Nagara, Gandhara and Varna (Bannu) and probably also Jaguda. About Gandhara, the pilgrim says that its capital was Purushapura; the royal family was extinct and country was subject to Kapisa; the towns and villages were desolate and the inhabitants were very few. It seems that under pressure from Arabs in the southwest and the Turks in the north, the kings of Kapisa had left their western possessions in the hands of their viceroys and made Udabhanda their principal seat of residence. The reason why Udabhandapura was selected in preference to Peshawar ais at present unknown but it is possible that the new city of Udabhanda was built by Kapisa rulers for strategic reasons……..In AD 671 Muslim armies seized Kabul and the capital was moved to Udabhandapura, where they became known as the Rajas of Hindustan."…..André Wink, Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam: 7th-11th Centuries, (Brill, 2002),

"In subsequent years, the Muslim armies returned with large reinforcements and Kabul was swept when the Shahi ruler agreed to pay tribute to the conquerors. For strategical reasons, the Shahis, who continued to offer stubborn resistance to Muslim onslaughts, finally moved their capital from Kapisa to Kabul in about AD 794. Kabul Shahis remained in Kabul until AD 879 when Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari, the founder of the Saffarid dynasty, conquered the city. Kabul Shahis had built a defensive wall all around the Kabul city to protect it against the army of Muslim Saffarids. The remains of these walls are still visible over the mountains which are located inside the Kabul city."….. Kohzad, Ahmad Ali, "Kabul Shāhāni Berahmanī", 1944, Kabul

"The first Hindu Shahi dynasty was founded in AD 870 by Kallar. Kallar is well documented to be a Brahmin. The kingdom was bounded on the north by the Hindu kingdom of Kashmir, on the east by Rajput kingdoms, on the south by the Muslim Emirates of Multan and Mansura, and on the west by the Abbasid Caliphate……According to the accounts recorded by Alberuni which are chiefly based on folklore, the last king of the first Shahi dynasty, Lagaturman (Katorman) was overthrown and imprisoned by his Brahmin vizier Kallar, thus resulting in the change-over of dynasty. The Hindu Shahi, a term used by history writer Al-Biruni to refer to the ruling Hindu dynasty that took over from the Turki Shahi and ruled the region during the period prior to Muslim conquests of the 10th and 11th centuries."….The Afghans, 2002, p 183, W. Vogelsang;

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

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

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Sunday, January 26, 2014

Zunbil, Zhun, Surya, Zabul

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"in Sanskrit, alternatively, you may write "s instead of z"…(Zun/Sun…..Shang Shung-Zan Zun?)… Initial s in Sanskrit is changed in the Avesta into h…..haoma/soma….

…."In 624 AD, a Moslem invasion weakened the Kingdom of Shambhala."……..(The Blue Annals …George Roerich: 1974..pg 753) ……In 653-4 AD, an army of around 6,000 Arabs were led by General Abdur Rahman bin Samara arrived at the shrine of Zun in Zamindawar."

"….the god Zun or Zhun whose shrine lay in Zamindawar before the arrival of Islam, set on a sacred mountain….Zamindawar had become a famous pilgrimage center devoted to Zun…..In China the god's temple was known as the temple of Su-na…..may also be related to the sun-god Aditya at Multan…..the cult of Zun was primarily Hindu, not Buddhist or Zoroastrian….However it appears to originally have been brought southward by Indo European Hephthalites, displacing an earlier god on the same sacred site….parallels have been noted with the pre-Buddhist Bonpo monarchy of Tibet, next to Zoroastrian influence in its ritual.(Bosworth, Sistan, page 35)…..Tucci concluded from Chinese sources that Zun/Sun was a northern mountain form of Shiva or an adaptation of Shiva to a local god…Whatever the origin of Zun, it was certainly superimposed on a mountain and on a pre-existing mountain god while merging with Shaiva doctrines of worship….Gandhara and the neighboring countries in fact represent a prominent background to calssical Shaivism… ….

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"Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, was a dynasty south of the Hindu Kush in southern Afghanistan. They ruled from the early 7th century until the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan in 870 AD. ….The Zunbils worshipped a deity named Zun (Zoon) from which they derived their name. Their territory included between what is now the city of Zaranj in southwestern Afghanistan and Kabulistan in the northeast, with Zamindawar and Ghazni serving as their capitals. Although the rulers of the Zunbil dynasty were worshippers of the sun, many inhabitants practiced Buddhism and other ancient religions before the Islamization of the region. The title Zunbil can be traced back to the Middle-Persian original Zūn-dātbar, 'Zun the Justice-giver'. The geographical name Zamindawar would also reflect this, from Middle Persian 'Zamin-i dātbar' (Land of the Justice-giver)."…..Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. 2002. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill. Zamindawar. p.439.

"According to Anthony McNicoll, "the Zunbils ruled in the Kandahar area for nearly 250 years until the late 9th century AD".Their main capital Zamindawar was located in the present-day Helmand Province of Afghanistan. The shrine of Zoon (sun god) was located about three miles south of Musa Qala in Helmand, which may still be traced today. Some believe that the Sunagir temple mentioned by the famous Chinese traveller Xuanzang in 640 AD pertains to this exact house of worship……In 653-4 AD, an army of around 6,000 Arabs were led by General Abdur Rahman bin Samara and they arrived to the shrine of Zoon in Zamindawar. It is reported that General Abdur Rahman "broke of a hand of the idol and plucked out the rubies which were its eyes…."….

"Andre Wink Professor of History at University of Madison, Wisconsin writes: “…Qandahar [modern Kandahar]…. was the religious center of the kingdom where the cult of the Shaivite god Zun was performed on a hilltop…” “…the god Zun or Zhun ... shrine lay in Zamindawar before the arrival of Islam, set on a sacred mountain, and still existing in the later ninth century …. [The region was]… famous as a pilgrimage center devoted to Zun. In China the god's temple became known as the temple of Su-na. …[T]he worship of Zun might be related to that of the old shrine of the sun-god Aditya at Multan. In any case, the cult of Zun was primarily Hindu, not Buddhist or Zoroastrian. “[A] connection of Gandhara with the polymorphic male god Shiva and the Durga Devi is now well-established. The pre-eminent character of Zun or Sun was that of a mountain god. And a connection with mountains also predominates in the composite religious configuration of Shiva, the lord of the mountain, the cosmic pivot and the ruler of time… Gandhara and the neighboring countries in fact represent a prominent background to classical Shaivism.”……(source: How 'Gandhara' became 'Kandahar' - By Rajiv Malhotra and The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Volume I – Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th-11th Centuries - By Andre Wink. Oxford University Press, New Delhi 1999. p.112 -193).

"Zhang Zhung, Shang Shung, or Tibetan Pinyin Xang Xung, was an ancient culture and kingdom of western and northwestern Tibet, which pre-dates the culture of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet. Zhang Zhung culture is associated with the Bon religion, which in turn, has influenced the philosophies and practices of Tibetan Buddhism. The Zhang Zhung are mentioned frequently in ancient Tibetan texts as the original rulers of central and western Tibet. Only in the last two decades have archaeologists been given access to do archaeological work in the areas once ruled by the Zhang Zhung…..Shenlha Okar literally means "wisdom deity of white light;" ….....The colour of his body is like the essence of crystal...his ornaments, attire, and palace are adorned by crystal light..." ….. for the host of Rigden Drakpo, all these, after all the host of the Lalos has been conquered, Shiva, etc. and their retinues, attaining rigden-hood, on the mountain Kailasha, going to the god-built city Kaalaapa……KAILAS region: Khyunglung Naljor (Silver Palace of the Garuda Valley), the ruins of the ancient Shang Shung capital are located at the base of Mt Kailas in the Sutleg Valley. Strong ancient Irano-Persian influences. Siva (Shiva, Shiwa) as the main deity of Kailas. The 360 Werma Deities dwell in Mt Kailas. w/ Shenlha Okar."

"Sun god.....Sham -ash, Ash-Sham.......rises from the mountains with rays out of his shoulders. He enters and exits the underworld through a set of gates in Mt. Mashu guarded by scorpion-people. ….Ash-Sham in Syriac means "goodness"…The ancient Solar Temple at Balkh, also known as 'Sams-i-Bala', (Sams:Sun….Bala:Elevated)…..

" It is reported that the Hephthalites were fervent followers of medieval Hinduism, and that they worshipped Hindu gods known as Shiva and Vishnu as well as a sun god of their own.."….Chinese Travelers in Afghanistan". Abdul Hai Habibi. alamahabibi.com. 1969.

"The Temple of Zoor or Zoon (Zun/Sun) in Zamindawar…………..The temple of Zoor or Zoon is a remnant of the pre-Islamic period and represented the sun worshipping faith which was destroyed after the conquest of Islam during the 7th century. …..the actual location of the temple was not known until recently….. In historical books the name has been changed and written as dawoon and zooz. …In Al Kamel, published in 1869 (vol. 3, p. 129) dawar and zoor have been erroneously written as Balad-al-dawoon and Jabel-al-zoor. In hand written manuscripts it has also been written as Jebel-al-rooz, al-roor, and al-rood…. the area laying in the western part of the Helmand river, which is adjacent to the southern Ghor mountains, is called Zamindawar and it contains extensive archeological sites. The agricultural lands in this area are irrigated by the rivers flowing through the land and it is inhabited by the Pashto speaking Ghalzai tribes. The present administrative center of this area is Musa Qala. Two to three miles to the south of Musa Qala there are two locations by the names of Deh Zoor Awlia and Deh Zoor Sufla (the large and small Deh Zoor). The ancient and dilapidated ruins found at this location have been named Kafir Qala by the people of the area…..Musa Qala ('Fortress of Moses') sits at 32.4433°N 64.7444°E and at 1043 m altitude in the valley of Musa Qala River in the central western part of the district. Its population has been reported in the British press to be both 2,000 and is in a desolate area."….From this appellation and location we can say with confidence that the correct form of the two words is dawar and zoor and through archeological digging this old temple can be excavated.…..Afghanistan After Islam…by Abdul Hai Habibi….. (Kabul 1966, pages 11-15)

" For all practical purposes Greek polytheism was entirely dead by the time Islam came onto the scene. Indeed, even Arabian polytheism, though still vigorous when Muhammad began his prophetic career, died out within three decades of the proclamation of Islam. Pious Muslims might be offended by the icons in Christian churches, but the temples of the Greek gods were gone these three centuries or more, their statues broken up and their stones stolen to build churches. The other forms of polytheism with which Islam came into contact -- Zoroastrianism (the most important), Buddhism, Hinduism, and gnostic religions like Manichaeism and Harranian Sabianism -- could rightly be understood as forms of monotheism (or dualism). Only the occasional idol temple in some out-of-the-way place -- the shrine of the god Zun or Zur in Zamindawar in Afghanistan, for example -- might illustrate pure idol worship, but such institutions were soon destroyed and posed little intellectual challenge. Thus, by the time highly intellectual forms of Islam came into being in the eighth and ninth centuries, there was no real idol-worshipping paganism to oppose. Despite the uncompromising monotheism of Islam, polytheism aroused little emotion for the generations of Muslims born after the passing of the Prophet's companions."…..Explaining Away the Greek Gods in Islam by John Tuthill Walbridge…..From: Journal of the History of Ideas …..Volume 59, Number 3, July 1998

"Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, was a dynasty south of the Hindu Kush in southern Afghanistan. They ruled from the early 7th century until the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan in 870 AD. The Zunbils are believed to be an offspring of the southern-Hephthalite rulers of Zabulistan and culturally connected to Greater India. The dynasty was related to the Kabul Shahis of the northeast in Kabul. "It follows from Huei-ch'ao's report that Barhatakin had two sons: one who ruled from after him in Kapisa-Gandhara and another who became king of Zabul"….. Andre Wink, Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol.1, (Brill, 1996), 115;""The Zunbils of the early Islamic period and the Kabulshahs were almost certainly epigoni of the southern-Hephthalite rulers of Zabul."

"In the relics of the sun worshippers we also find the great temple of Khair Khana, which lies 12 km north of Kabul. Archeologists consider this to be the temple of Surya, the sun god, where the marble statue of Surya was excavated. Two companions of the sun god are also seen beside the god. All three are in a chariot which is being drawn by two horses and the driver of the chariot is seen wearing a felt Nuristani hat with a long whip in his hand.……the word zoon or zoor is not an Arabic term as the author of Arabic Language clarifies that the word ak-zoon with the addition of za is the zoon of Farsi language. Before him Muwhoob bin Ahmad Jawaleqi (1014-1145) has written al-zoor and al-zoon meaning an idol.xiii Thus zoon is an Arabic form of soon which has been recorded as sunagir by Huen Tsang. It is the sun god whose upper torso is presented with flames radiating from its head and has been depicted in some of the Hepthalite coins. These were local people who were against the Buddhist religion and worshipped the sun. Dr. Jonker has found the names of some families of Dawar and Zabulistan on some of these coins.xiv From this we see the relationship between sun worshipping and Dawar. The word gerad and sunagir of Huen Tsang is the ghar of Pashto which has roots in the names of places of this land such as Ghor, Gharistan, Spinghar and others."….http://www.alamahabibi.com/English%20Articles%5CZoor_or_zoon_temple.htm

History of civilizations of Central Asia…… Boris Abramovich Litvinovskiĭ

Al-Hind: Early medieval India and the expansion of Islam, 7th-11th centuries By André Wink……..Published by BRILL, 2002

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Saturday, January 25, 2014

Kingdom of Zunbil & the Temple of Zun (653 AD)

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"…."In 624 AD, a Moslem invasion weakened the Kingdom of Shambhala."……..(The Blue Annals …George Roerich: 1974..pg 753)

"In 653-4 AD, an army of around 6,000 Arabs were led by General Abdur Rahman bin Samara arrived at the shrine of Zun in Zamindawar."

"...Huen Tsang has mentioned this famous temple twice, once in the year 630 while he was on his way from Kapisa to India"…..The Temple of Zoor or Zoon in Zamindawar….by Abdul Hai Habibi

"….in the old tradition of the 84 Mahasiddhas, the Kingdom of Uddiyana was divided between two countries…to the North, it bordered on the land of Shambhala (i.e., the Kingdom of Kapisa)…… ….http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm"….

"Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, was a dynasty south of the Hindu Kush in southern Afghanistan. They ruled from the early 7th century until the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan in 870 AD. The Zunbils are believed to be an offspring of the southern-Hephthalite rulers of Zabulistan and culturally connected to Greater India. The dynasty was related to the Kabul Shahis of the northeast in Kabul. "It follows from Huei-ch'ao's report that Barhatakin had two sons: one who ruled from after him in Kapisa-Gandhara and another who became king of Zabul"."…History of Civilizations of central Asia, B A Litivinsky Zhang Guang-Da, R Shabani Samghabadi, p.376

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"The Zunbils worshipped a god named Zun (Zoon) from which they derived their name. Their territory included between what is now the city of Zaranj in southwestern Afghanistan and Kabulistan in the northeast, with Zamindawar and Ghazni serving as their capitals. Although the rulers of the Zunbil dynasty were worshippers of the sun, many inhabitants south of the Hindu Kush practiced Buddhism and other ancient religions before the Islamization of the region. The title Zunbil can be traced back to the Middle-Persian original Zūn-dātbar, 'Zun the Justice-giver'. The geographical name Zamindawar would also reflect this, from Middle Persian 'Zamin-i dātbar' (Land of the Justice-giver)."…..Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. 2002. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill. Zamindawar. p.439.

"…Zamindawar is a historical district of Afghanistan, situated on the right bank of the Helmand River to the northwest of Kandahar….Zunbils ruled Zamindawar before Islamization of the area. The title Zunbil can be traced back to the Middle-Persian original Zūn-dātbar, 'Zun the Justice-giver'. The geographical name Zamindawar would also reflect this, from Middle-Persian 'Zamin-i dātbar' (Land of the Justice-giver)…..Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. 2002. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill. Zamindawar. p.439.

C.E. Bosworth….."One of the most important aspects of early Saffarids policy of significance for the spread of Islam in Afghanistan and on the borders of India long after their empire had collapsed was that of expansion into east Afghanistan. The early Arab governors of Sistan had at times penetrated as far as Ghazna and Kabul, but these had been little more than slave and plunder raids. There was a fierce resistance from the local rulers of these regions, above all from the line of Zunbils who ruled in Zamindavar and Zabulistan and who were probably epigoni of the southern Hepthalite or Chionite kingdom of Zabul; on more than one occasion, these Zunbils inflicted sharp defeats on the Muslims. The Zunbils were linked with the Kabul-Shahs of the Turk Shahi dynasty; the whole river valley was at this time culturally and religiously an outpost of the Indian world, as of course it had been in the earlier centuries during the heyday of the Buddhist Gandhara civillization."…..The Tahirids and Saffarids, C.E.Bosworth,The Cambridge History of Iran:From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs

"Zamindawar is a historical district of Afghanistan, situated on the right bank of the Helmand River to the northwest of Kandahar, bordering the road which leads from Kandahar to Herat via Farah. The historic region of Zamindawar is located in the greater territory of northern Helmand and encompasses the approximate area of modern day Baghran, Musa Qala, Naw Zad, Kajaki and Sangin districts. It was a district of hills, and of wide, well populated, and fertile valleys watered by important tributaries of the Helmand. The principal town was Musa Qala, which stands on the banks of a river of the same name, about 60 m, north of Girishk……This region was headquarters to the Durrani Pashtun tribe of the Alizai. The region is also home to Nurzai, Barakzai and Alakozai tribes, as well as other Durrani tribes and Kuchis. It was from Zamindawar that much of the strength of the force which besieged Kandahar under Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1880 was derived; and it was the Zamindawar contingent of tribesmen who so nearly defeated Sir Donald Stewart's force at the Battle of Ahmed Khel previously. The control of Zamindawar was regarded by the British-Indian forces as the key to the position for safeguarding the route between Herat and Kandahar during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Zunbils ruled Zamindawar before Islamization of the area. The title Zunbil can be traced back to the Middle-Persian original Zūn-dātbar, 'Zun the Justice-giver'. The geographical name Zamindawar would also reflect this, from Middle-Persian 'Zamin-i dātbar' (Land of the Justice-giver)."….http://جلیل-زندی.wrd.ir/Zamindawar

"In southern and eastern Afghanistan, the regions of Zamindawar (Zamin I Datbar or land of the justice giver, the classical Archosia) and Zabulistan or Zabul (Jabala, Kapisha, Kia pi shi) and Kabul, the Arabs were effectively opposed for more than two centuries, from 643 to 870 AD, by the indigenous rulers the Zunbils and the related Kabul-Shahs of the dynasty which became known as the Buddhist-Shahi. With Makran and Baluchistan and much of Sindh this area can be reckoned to belong to the cultural and political frontier zone between India and Persia. It is clear however that in the seventh to the ninth centuries the Zunbils and their kinsmen the Kabulshahs ruled over a predominantly Indian rather than a Persian realm. The Arab geographers, in effect commonly speak of that king of "Al Hind" ...(who) bore the title of Zunbil."…..http://جلیل-زندی.wrd.ir/Zamindawar

Pre-Islamic Hindu and Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan……."Before the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan communities of various religious and ethnic background lived in the land. South of the Hindu Kush was ruled by the Zunbil and Kabul Shahi rulers. When the Chinese travellers (Faxian, Song Yun, Xuanzang, Wang-hiuon-tso, Huan-Tchao, and Wou-Kong) visited Afghanistan between 399 and 751 AD, they mentioned that Buddhism was practiced in different areas between the Amu Darya (Oxus River) in the north and the Indus River in the south. The land was ruled by the Kushans followed by the Hephthalites during these visits. It is reported that the Hephthalites were fervent followers of medieval Hinduism, and that they worshipped Hindu gods known as Shiva and Vishnu as well as a sun god of their own. The invading (often pillaging) Muslim Arabs introduced Islam to a Zunbil king of Zamindawar (Helmand Province) in 653-4 AD, then they took the same message to Kabul before returning to their already Islamized city of Zaranj in the west. It is unknown how many accepted the new religion but the Shahi rulers remained non-Muslim until they lost Kabul in 870 AD to the Saffarid Muslims of Zaranj. Later, the Samanids from Bukhara in the north extended their Islamic influence into the area. It is reported that Muslims and non-Muslims still lived side by side in Kabul before the arrival of Ghaznavids from Ghazni.....Hindu (or Hindustani) has been historically used as a geographical term to describe someone who was native from the region known as India, and Afghan as someone who was native from a region called Bactria."….Chinese Travelers in Afghanistan". Abdul Hai Habibi. alamahabibi.com. 1969.

"The Temple of Zoor or Zoon in Zamindawar…………..The temple of Zoor or Zoon is a remnant of the pre-Islamic period and represented the sun worshipping faith which was destroyed after the conquest of Islam during the 7th century. …..the actual location of the temple was not known until recently….. In historical books the name has been changed and written as dawoon and zooz. …In Al Kamel, published in 1869 (vol. 3, p. 129) dawar and zoor have been erroneously written as Balad-al-dawoon and Jabel-al-zoor. In hand written manuscripts it has also been written as Jebel-al-rooz, al-roor, and al-rood…. the area laying in the western part of the Helmand river, which is adjacent to the southern Ghor mountains, is called Zamindawar and it contains extensive archeological sites. The agricultural lands in this area are irrigated by the rivers flowing through the land and it is inhabited by the Pashto speaking Ghalzai tribes. The present administrative center of this area is Musa Qala. Two to three miles to the south of Musa Qala there are two locations by the names of Deh Zoor Awlia and Deh Zoor Sufla (the large and small Deh Zoor). The ancient and dilapidated ruins found at this location have been named Kafir Qala by the people of the area…..Musa Qala ('Fortress of Moses') sits at 32.4433°N 64.7444°E and at 1043 m altitude in the valley of Musa Qala River in the central western part of the district. Its population has been reported in the British press to be both 2,000 and is in a desolate area."….From this appellation and location we can say with confidence that the correct form of the two words is dawar and zoor and through archeological digging this old temple can be excavated.…..Afghanistan After Islam…by Abdul Hai Habibi….. (Kabul 1966, pages 11-15)

"Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, was a dynasty south of the Hindu Kush in southern Afghanistan. They ruled from the early 7th century until the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan in 870 AD. The Zunbils are believed to be an offspring of the southern-Hephthalite rulers of Zabulistan and culturally connected to Greater India. The dynasty was related to the Kabul Shahis of the northeast in Kabul. "It follows from Huei-ch'ao's report that Barhatakin had two sons: one who ruled from after him in Kapisa-Gandhara and another who became king of Zabul"….. Andre Wink, Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol.1, (Brill, 1996), 115;""The Zunbils of the early Islamic period and the Kabulshahs were almost certainly epigoni of the southern-Hephthalite rulers of Zabul."

"The “sun chariot” of the Rishis…..Shambhala….there is an event which shows that this country was not entirely free of historical conflict. This concerns the protest of a group of no less than 35 million (!) Rishis (seers) led by the sage Suryaratha ("sun chariot”)…..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."…..http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Part-1-10.htm

History of civilizations of Central Asia…… Boris Abramovich Litvinovskiĭ

Al-Hind: Early medieval India and the expansion of Islam, 7th-11th centuries By André Wink……..Published by BRILL, 2002

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

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

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Thursday, January 23, 2014

Manene…..Gesar’s Goddess and Guide

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MANENE...the mother lineage of Warrior Manene...."Manene means grandmother. More of a title than a deity. Dolma, the principle goddess in the Lamist pantheon. Tara of the Hindus. Gesar epic."(David-Neel: 1981 Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects....pg 147)...

Manene, the spiritual guide of the King Gesar, descends from the rainbow and predicts to Gesar that the kingdom of the Ling will face the Cannibal-Demon from northern country Chang, who is the leader of all great demons of four directions….Queen Ani Khungmen: In Tibetan, the word ani also translates as aunt.

"sgra…..sound, voice, noise……..bla….soul, spirit………..sgra-bla….comparable to the Greek muses, a "voice" separate fem the poet or king, an audible manifestation of his vital spirit that he was dependent on for advice and inspiration……….Gesar, the hero of the epic was probably imported to Tibet at the time of Tibet's military expansion….….R.A. Stein (1959)………..the female counterpart of Gesar as "dgra-'duo-ma"….Todd Gibson.....http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/jts/pdf/JTS_05_03.pdf

The Goddess Manene….the anima figure of Gesar……Women, Myth, and the Feminine Principle…..By Bettina Liebowitz Knapp

Manene, the spiritual guide of the King Gesar,... par Ling Lhamo…http://www.tibetjustice.com/manene-the-spiritual-guide-of-the-king-gesar Manene, the spiritual guide of the King Gesar, descends from the rainbow and predicts to Gesar that the kingdom of the Ling will face the Cannibal-Demon from northern country Chang, who is the leader of all great demons of four directions. Among heroes and yogis of all the Ling, only Tripon Paseng has the power to eliminate him. The war between Chang and Ling is however inevitable as the army of Chang will attack Ling. Tulku Tsultrim Namgyal is the director, script writer, designer and supervisor of this wonderful new film about Ling Gesar, made in Tibet, at Golok Gabde, on July 2012, with local actors, bard singers and dancers from "Nyen Ngak Drongtso", Ling Gesar's Epical Culture Village of Mayul. My Ling Gesar teacher, Tongnyi Dhontok Rinpoche, the President of Abroad Ling Gesar's Nyan Ngak Drongtso Association, had the great kindness to entrust me with the honour to present to you this masterpiece. To repay this kindness of Tulku Tongnyi Dhontok, I asked my professor of Tibetan language, Chung Tsering, to translate in English, and I slightly rewrite it and made subtitles. I also insured the direct communication between my translator, Chung Tsering, and the script writer, Tulku Tsultrim Namgyal. We were also helped several times by Tulku Tongnyi Dhontok, the official consultant for this film. So, soon, on Youtube with English subtitles. For instant, just the original :), for my professor, Chap Lha. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdl4jAn8pNU

Manene's prediction by Dakini Kunsang Lhamo….by Ling Lhamo …..Here is the first video on Ling Gesar with English subtitles. "Manene's prediction" is the first song of the new film "Great war between Chang and Ling" made in Tibet, Golok, last summer…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d03Nl5Ix0ck&feature=share&list=PLW7Yk3T_QVX3Ji-6VriTS7x1L0ZsaaLnJ&index=10

"Manene's Song to Her Brother, Gesar:
"Now, Gesar, Hero of a thousand battles,
Conqueror of a thousand kinds of corruption,
Healer of a thousand kinds of poisonous disease,
(http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/manene-s-song-to-her-brother-gesar/comments.asp)
This is one of several songs that the goddess, Manene sings to encourage Gesar of Ling. These verses come from CROSSING ON A BRIDGE OF LIGHT- by Douglas Penick ….Mountain Treasury Press. PP.15-16

"Gesar’s principle goddess and guide, Manene, as you know, is the the White Sky sman, gNam sman dkar mo, also known as Queen of the Sky sman (dGung sman rgyal mo)……What you say about such categories not requiring taming or management in the context of Bonpo Phurpa, to me indicates the absorption into Bonpo buddhism of the earlier frames of primordial dualism between the white side and the dark side, which works seamlessly as an expression of buddhist ideas without the necessity of ‘taming’ paradigms. In Gesar, his helpers – which include sman, gnyan, and all kinds of zoomorphic combat spirits such as dgra bla and wer ma) aren’t presented as ‘tamed’ or converted forces, but are just his forces – so they can be seen (and in gesar they are indeed pretty much presented as) , like you say, “direct emanations of the …enlightened..[hero/deity]“…..http://blogs.orient.ox.ac.uk/kila/2012/04/27/the-great-khu-tsha-zla-od/

"Similarities with motifs in Turkic heroic poetry….."Chadwick and Zhirmunsky consider that the main outlines of the cycle as we have it in Mongolia, Tibet and Ladakh show an outline that conforms to the pattern of heroic poetry among the Turkic peoples. (a) Like the Kirghiz hero Bolot, Gesar, as part of an initiation descends as a boy into the underworld. (b) The gateway to the underworld is through a rocky hole or cave on a mountain summit. (c) He is guided through the otherworld by a female tutelary spirit (Manene/grandmother) who rides an animal, like the Turkish shamaness kara Chach. (d) Like kara Chach, Gesar's tutelary spirit helps him against a host of monstrous foes in the underworld. (e) Like Bolot, Gesar returns in triumph to the world, bearing the food of immortality and the water of life.(f) Like the Altai shamans, Gesar is borne heavenward on the back of a bird to obtain herbs to heal his people. They conclude that the stories of the Gesar cycle were well known in the territory of the Uyghur Khaganate."….Chadwick, Nora Kershaw; Zhirmunsky, Viktor (2010) [1968]. Oral Epics of Central Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-14828-3. Retrieved 14 July 2011.

sgra bla……."sound soul", type of individual energy that is also endowed with a protective function, Drala, a class of divine manifestations….http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/sgra_bla

"Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche elaborates on the traditional understanding and etymology of drala:…..In many ancient Bön texts the name 'Drala' is spelt sgra bla, which literally means 'la of sound', where la (soul or vitality) stands for a type of individual energy that is also endowed with a protective function…… In more recent texts, notably those of the Buddhist tradition, we find the spelling dgra lha, 'deity of the enemy', a term which has been interpreted to mean a warrior deity whose task is to fight one's enemies. [...] Other authors, interpreting the term in the sense of 'deity that conquers the enemy's la' have instead spelt it dgra bla, 'enemy's la'."…. Namkhai Norbu, Drung De'u and Bön, translated by Adriano Clemente, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1995 pp.61-62

"The spelling sgra bla ('la of sound') found in the ancient texts as a matter of fact is based on a very deep principle characteristic of the most authentic Bön tradition. Sound, albeit not visible, can be perceived through the sense of hearing and used as a means of communication, and is in fact linked to the cha (the individual's positive force, the base of prosperity), wang tang (ascendancy-capacity), and all the other aspects of a person's energy, aspects that are directly related with the protective deities and entities that every person has from birth. Moreover, sound is considered the foremost connection between the individual himself and his la. From all this we can easily understand the deep meaning of the word sgra bla."… Namkhai Norbu, Drung De'u and Bön, translated by Adriano Clemente, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1995 pp.61-62

http://books.google.com/books?id=-OeX3WCs9cIC&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&dq=tibet+manene&source=bl&ots=GU2qKPcslC&sig=Bfhi_NFrZh6YBxJmAqXnyikeV08&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ds7fUvuFKJS4yAH0koCgBA&ved=0CEcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=tibet%20manene&f=false Manene….powerful folk-religion deity with non-Buddhist associations…..

Recalling Chögyam Trungpa…..edited by Fabrice Midal…..A native Tibetan goddess called simply Auntie (Manene) must appear to him constantly as his close adviser.

Not until the 35-minute mark, when the song of the goddess Manene ‘is heard only by Gesar’ (and so not by us), does a sequence of exquisitely written duets suggest how Lieberson’s undoubted talent might have been put to more persuasive use…..http://www.classical-music.com/review/lieberson

Buddhist Insight: Essays….By Alex Wayman… the meaning of the mirror held by Manene, the goddess of the Tibetan epic Gesar of Ling, who was continually making prophecies

Women, Myth, and the Feminine Principle…..By Bettina Liebowitz Knapp….Gesar's anima figure, the goddess Manene, appears to him amid rays of light. Her energy (she is a part of nature) flows directly into the man whose projection ...

Religion and Biography in China and Tibet…. By Benjamin Penny….He is protected by the female sky-goddess Manene. Machen Pomra and Manene are both defenders of Buddhism but also powerful folk-religion deities with ...

"Ani": Aunts, Nieces, and Himalayan Nuns’ Traditional Education in North Indian Vajrayana Buddhism Linda LaMacchia, American University, Washington, DC March 2006

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

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

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Okar Research

Pages

Pages

Thursday, January 30, 2014

The Conflation of Mahāmudrā & Dzogchen

Mahasiddha Kukuraja: the Dog King

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The Dzogchen Lineages of Shambala & Oḍḍiyāna

Monday, January 27, 2014

Kabul Shahis & Kapisa (3rd-9th C. AD)

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Zunbil, Zhun, Surya, Zabul

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Kingdom of Zunbil & the Temple of Zun (653 AD)

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Manene…..Gesar’s Goddess and Guide