Breath is Time: the Kalachakra and So Hum Breathing.....The Kālacakra tradition revolves around the concept of time (kāla) and cycles (chakra): from the cycles of the planets, to the cycles of human breathing, it teaches the practice of working with the most subtle energies within one's body on the path to enlightenment.
Yeshe kyi spyan, Buddha Wisdom Eyes and Miksang Arts.....Miksang is a Tibetan word meaning "good eye.....From the heart to the eyes there is a connecting vessel-path (maidao). It is the most secret duct (ji mimi guan) like crystal whose name is Kati.
Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra... Buddhist Breath Awareness Meditation (160 AD).....Breath-Mindfulness Discourse, a sutra that details the Buddha's instruction on using awareness of the breath (anapana) as a focus for meditation.
Sufi Prayer of the Heart & Breath Awareness Meditation (Khorasan: 1200 AD).....Zikr-i-Qalbi...Pas Anfas, in Persian, means guarding every breath..... Zikr is performed with the heart using breath as the medium: Be present at every breath. Do not let your attention wander for the duration of a single breath.
Reiki and Zhangzhung Bon Healing Practices..Tse Dup Yang Bod Soul Healing .....the similarities between Reiki and Bon healing are undeniably profound...many consider this to be the origins of Reiki.
The Tsewang Rigdzin Ritual.....The Tsewang Rikzin is the ritual of reinforcing the life force (chi bslu) and retrieving the soul (bla bslu) ... the practice belongs to the tantric vehicle of transformation.
Six Yogas of Naropa & The Bon Mother Tantras..... The six practices—inner heat, illusory body, clear light, consciousness transference, forceful projection, and bardo yoga—gradually came to pervade thousands of monasteries, nunneries, and hermitages throughout Central Asia over the past five and a half centuries.
Lucid Dreaming, Yoga Nidra and Dream Yoga.....The Yoga of the Dream State are a suite of advanced tantric sadhana of the entwined Mantrayana lineages of Dzogchen (Nyingmapa, Ngagpa, Mahasiddha, Kagyu and Bönpo).
Tapihritsa: Zhang Zhung Dzogchen Master (7th Century AD)..... a Bönpo who achieved the Dzogchen mastery of the rainbow body and consequently, as a fully realised Trikaya Buddha, is invoked as a yidam
Pas-Anfaas (Breath Watching) & Kashmiri Sufism/Shaivism.....What keeps Kashmiri mystics firmly anchored in the Indian soil is their meditative technique. By and large they use variations of pas-e-anfaas(watching the breath). This is similar to various techniques of pranayama widely practised in India's Hath-Yoga traditions. These meditative techniques were being practised initially by the Shaivaite yogis of Kashmir before the advent of Islam
Shinto: Shin Tao, Way of the Gods, Kami, Dralas, Deities.....Chögyam Trungpa incorporated elements from numerous traditions into the Shambhala Path that he thought would be beneficial to practitioners: From Shinto, the pantheon of kami (gods and spirits), the Sacred Mirror, the Kami shrine at RMSC, and the Chinza-sai Ceremony......."Shambhala vision applies to people of any faith, not just people who believe in Buddhism."...
NYIDA: Vegetarian Diet of Shambala.....Chogyam Trungpa...."NYIDA: The vegetarian diet of Shambhala. Nyi stands for yellow and green foods, primarily vegetables and fruits, and da for white foods such as milk, yogurt, cheese and tofu......enjoy as your provision only yogurt, milk, white butter, cheese, fresh vegetables, raw fish and white rice. You should refrain from garlic, onions, fat and other meats."
.Five Pure Lights ('od lnga) & The Six Lamps.....The Five Pure Lights (Tibetan: 'od lnga) is an essential teaching in the Dzogchen tradition of Bön and Tibetan Buddhism. For the deluded, matter seems to appear. This is due to non-recognition of the five lights. Matter includes the mahābhūta or classical elements, namely: space, air, water, fire, earth. Knowledge (rigpa) is the absence of delusion regarding the display of the five lights...
Blue Pancake, Blue Sky Mind & Dzogchen Realization....."There is a dimension of surprise that we never thought of, we never expected. We never expected the sky to drop on our head."......The Blue Pancake........A teaching on maha ati by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
The Six Lamps: Lhündrub Tögal & the Vima Nyingtik.....The Six Lamps brings us to a direct experience of the dimension of pure light: the luminous self-awareness of the mind, or rigpa. The practice of the Six Lamps directly introduces us first to our inner light - helping us to overcome the internal darkness of ignorance, doubt and negative emotions
Dzogchen: Fifteen Stages of A-Tri (A-Khrid) Meditation.....The A-Khrid teachings regarding the Ultimate Origin-(A) is believed to have a historical source in the great lama rMe'u dGongs-mdzod(1038-1096).
Twenty-One Nails: Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung.....The Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung is one of the three principal systems in the Bon tradition for the transmission of dzogchen or "great perfection" teachings.
Döné Sangwa: Basic Goodness: The Natural State.....Basic goodness is fundamental to the Shambhala tradition. It was a primary focus of the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s teaching toward the end of his life......The Tibetan for basic goodness, döné sangwa, appears in the Vidyadhara’s Shambhala terma. As far as the Translation Committee is aware, it is a term unique to the Vidyadhara’s terma. Thus far, we have not found it elsewhere, not in Tibetan literature in general."
Chöd: Cutting Through Attachments and Aversions.....As Chöd practitioners, we intentionally create situations for our demons to arise in order to practice cutting through attachments and aversions to both inner and outer objects, realizing the true nature of these phenomenon.
Milam: Dream Yoga, Perceived Reality, Yoga Nidra.....Dream Yoga are tantric processes and techniques within the trance Bardos of Dream and Sleep (Tibetan: mi-lam bardo) and are advanced practices similar to Yoga Nidra.
Ancient Ceremonies, Practices & Rituals.....PERSIAN FIRE RITUALS...."In the haoma fire ceremony, the celebrant is required to sit cross-legged, as close as possible to the good earth.
Ki So Cha'o: Phywa & the Sang Sol Ceremony....."Ki ki so so lha gyal lo" is the prayer a Tibetan will recite at the summit of a mountain pass. It can be translated as "victory to the gods"The Tibetans believe that it is at these high mountain passes that the good gods fight with the evil gods and that the lung-tar (coloured paper printed with prayers) and prayer are an offering to the good gods.
'Od zer ...Light Rays, Luminosity…Heart, Eyes, and Space.....This internal luminosity, projected outside the heart, manifests in external space as something apparently real and substantial, like a cinema show projected onto a great screen surrounding the individual. One then becomes lost in the fascinating display of the show, as if one were caught up in a dream where everything seems objective, solid and real....The individual wanders around in circles, becoming lost in this projection....Thus one comes to live in one's projections and not in their source.
Ancient Sexual Rituals from Greece to India....."Hieros gamos or Hierogamy (Greek ἱερὸς γάμος, ἱερογαμία "holy marriage") refers to a sexual ritual that plays out a marriage between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities. It is the harmonization of opposites."
Sadanga Yoga, Dark Retreat, Ratriyoga & Seven Cycles of Clear Light.....Drugyalwa Yungdrung wrote a practice manual for this system, and for over seven hundred years this has been the primary source of instruction on the practice of this system. Drugyalwa’s practice manual is quite extensive and contains instruction on preliminaries, actual practices of sky-gazing, sun-gazing and dark retreat
Ziji: dZi, Zi, Ji...Brilliance & Splendor.....The ancient Dzi absorbs cosmic energy from the universe. Tibetans generally believe that dZi beads are of divine origin and therefore not created by human hands. Some say they are dropped by the Gods to benefit those who have the good fortune to find them.
Jambhala & Kubera: Gods of Wealth in Central Asia..... In India the title of Yama is Dharmaraja (as that of the Shakya kings of Shambhala) and his city (identified with the world of the dead) is Yamapura (Jambul? - actually in Turkic it would be Jam Baliq which also resembles Shambhala)"
The Scorpion Seal & Ancient Shambhala....."Scorpion in Tibetan is digpa ratsa means negative- , or harmful action and also, menace. As in the symbolism of Beg-tse, it is evocative of the Buddha-dharma's power to transmute bad, even deadly, circumstances into beneficial ones. It is therefore used as a seal by the Vajrayana or tantric Buddhist masters who can effect transformations. The Ngak'chang Rinpoche has a scorpion seal, and the late Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s red scorpion seal may sometimes be seen on his calligraphies."
The Earth Witness Mudra & Sacred Earth Element.....Just before the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, realized enlightenment, it is said the demon Mara attacked him with armies of monsters to frighten Siddhartha from his seat under the bodhi tree. But the about-to-be Buddha did not move. Then Mara claimed the seat of enlightenment for himself, saying his spiritual accomplishments were greater than Siddhartha's. Mara's monstrous soldiers cried out together, "I am his witness!" Mara challenged Siddhartha--who will speak for you?.....Then Siddhartha reached out his right hand to touch the earth, and the earth itself roared, "I bear you witness!"
Natural Perfection ... Pristine Rigpa….Shenlha Okar.....Nine Ways..... Ati-yogins and yoginis, however, understanding that everything is unreal, are aware of the ZING of reality (de bzhin nyid), and their minds are released into the nameless matrix that is beyond both bondage and liberation."
Lamed Thegpa, bLa-med theg-pa ...The Ninth Stage of Dzogchen......The categories and ideas elaborated in this IXth Vehicle are usually referred to as the teachings of the 'Great Perfection' ( rdzog-chen )
Werma & Drala Deities & Shambala Terma Texts.....The Warrior God Werma Nyi-nya in the Musec Guimet in Paris.........horns of a garuda, lion's head, lynx ears, fearful face, crocodile mouth, tiger's teeth, feet and wings in the form of swords.
ASHE: The Powerful Existence Arising Out of Basic Goodness..... 'A' means "first" and "last"; it also means "the manifestation of nonexistence," and it can also mean "power" or "a storehouse of power." Such power is not the gift of external agents of any kind. It is reawakened power which exists naturally. Fire has power of its own; wind has power of its own; earth has power of its own; space has power of its own. Such power has neither beginning nor end, and such power exists in you, individually, inseparable from basic goodness. A is that fundamental, basic openness, space, imperturbable and peaceful. 'SHE' means "stroke" or "form" and it could also mean "visual manifestation." So ASHE altogether means "the powerful existence arising out of basic goodness."
The Great Eastern Sun: Sharchen Nyima....."Look at the sun. The sun is shining. Nobody polishes the sun. The sun just shines. Look at the moon, the sky, the world at its best. Unfortunately, we human beings try to fit everything into conditionality. We try to make something out of nothing. We have messed everything up. That’s our problem. We have to go back to the sun and the moon, to dragons, tigers, lions, garudas (mythical birds). We can be like the blue sky, sweethearts, and the clouds so clean, so beautiful. We don’t have to try too hard to find ourselves. We haven’t really lost anything; we just have to tune in. The majesty of the world is always there." Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
The Five Elements in Shamanism, Tantra & Dzogchen....."In many indigenous traditions, we relate with the raw elements. Fire Pujas, Earth Ceremonies, rituals near springs, Sky and Space rituals.....Basically we are relating with the raw elements and their related spiit realms.....If you do not have a reference place when we talk about spirits, do a little dzogchen practive and feel spacious......Inviting the four guests......The shrine is basically the house of the enlightened first guest....such as Shen Lha Okar."
The Five Elements: Atar: Sacred Fire....."Atari..... (Avestan ātar) is the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire"
Tantra in Central Asia (400 AD)....."Tantrism originated in the early centuries CE and developed into a fully articulated tradition by the end of the Gupta period. Tantric movements led to the formation of many esoteric schools of Hinduism and Buddhism. It has influenced the Hindu, Sikh, Bön, Buddhist, and Jain religious traditions and spread with Buddhism to East Asia and Southeast Asia."
Mithraism & The Eye of Mithra (1400 BC)....."Mithra is young. His eye is the sun. The rays of the sun are his arms. He wears glistening garments. His abode is golden. He is a king and a universal monarch. Mithra is ever waking and watches in darkness."
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Okar Research is an informal online review of published materials exploring the history, myths, legends, languages, geography, terms, practices, teachers and teachings of the ancient Central Asian 'Kingdom of Shambhala'.
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Click Here to view the Okar Research Index
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John Hopkins.....New Mexico
Email: okarresearch@gmail.com
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