tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919167141648467219.post3214975683084915033..comments2024-01-22T11:39:29.619-08:00Comments on Okar Research: Ösel and Śūnyatā ...Luminosity EmptinessOkarReviewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08409630373552801244noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919167141648467219.post-42793905663939104542013-10-17T06:51:34.021-07:002013-10-17T06:51:34.021-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.OkarReviewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08409630373552801244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919167141648467219.post-53376637935385308212013-10-17T02:59:21.244-07:002013-10-17T02:59:21.244-07:00Yes, that's it. Which reminds me that Shah (an...Yes, that's it. Which reminds me that Shah (and his cohorts) wrote at great length about hidden places of esoteric power in Afghanistan --- sometimes with a hyperbole that makes one a bit skeptical. Nevertheless, those lands do seem to have been the birthplace of Mahayana and Vajrayana, right? Joseph Rowehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16060800602848639949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919167141648467219.post-54585116605528298702013-10-14T04:45:37.742-07:002013-10-14T04:45:37.742-07:00From Idries Shah's book "The Sufis."...From Idries Shah's book "The Sufis."….. Jalaluddin Rumi, who founded the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, bears out in his career the Eastern saying, "Giants come forth from Afghanistan and influence the world." He was born in Bactria, of a noble family, at the beginning of the thirteenth century.OkarReviewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08409630373552801244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919167141648467219.post-50626860164755268842013-10-12T03:49:55.859-07:002013-10-12T03:49:55.859-07:00Thanks for this posting. I enjoyed reading it, and...Thanks for this posting. I enjoyed reading it, and am impressed by your scholarship. For many years, I've been intrigued by trying to imagine (and research if possible) what Oddiyana was like, and the little-known nature of early Mahayana tantric Buddhism. I first learned from Henry Corbin, to my surprise, that the Persian Mazdean mythos was extremely influential in the birth of Mahayana, and that a lot of this took place in those extraordinary lands known now as Afghanistan/ Pakistan/Kashmir. But I never heard of a specifically Manichean influence on Buddhism (normally one thinks of influence as going the other way between those two), until you mentioned it. Also, there are some geo-synchronicities about this area that excite the imagination: Balkh is the birthplace of Rumi, as well as the locus of that marvelous syncretism of Greco-Indian art and religion of Ghandara, etc. It reminds me of a quote whose origin I've forgotten: "From Afghanistan, giants come forth and influence the world." Joseph Rowehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16060800602848639949noreply@blogger.com