Kapila and the Samkhya School (6th c. BC)

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"Kapila (Drang-srong Ser-skya).....was a Vedic sage credited as one of the founders of the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy. He is prominent in the Bhagavata Purana, which features a theistic version of his Samkhya philosophy..... He is estimated to have lived in the 6th-century BC....Samkhya is called one of the several major atheistic schools of Hinduism by some scholars..... Others, such as Jacobsen, Samkhya is more accurately described as non-theistic.."

"Rishi Kapila is credited with authoring the influential Samkhya-sutra, in which aphoristic sutras present the dualistic philosophy of Samkhya..... Kapila's influence on Buddha and Buddhism have long been the subject of scholarly studies.....While he pre-dates Buddha, it is unclear which century he lived in, with some suggesting 6th-century BC.... Others place him in the 7th century BC.....Kapila is credited with authoring an influential sutra, called Samkhya-sutra (also called Kapila-sutra)....Buddhist sources present Kapila as a well-known philosopher whose students built the city of Kapilavastu....Some Buddhists texts claim the Buddha was Kapila in a previous life.....Scholars have long compared and associated the teachings of Kapila and Buddha....It has been said that Buddha and Kapila were both atheists, and that Buddha borrowed his atheism from Kapila......Kapila, when accused of atheism, is not accused of denying the existence of an Absolute Being. He is accused of denying the existence of an Ishvara....(Max Muller et al, Studies in Buddhism)....

"Jain philosopher, Vijayasena Suri in the court of Akbar the Great (1542 - 1605 AD) when accused of preaching atheism declared that Jainism's belief is not atheistic and is similar to the Samkhya....The existence of God or supreme being is not directly asserted, nor considered relevant by the Samkhya philosophers....."

"Ishvara (Sanskrit: ईश्वर, Īśvara) is a concept in Hinduism, with a wide range of meanings that depend on the era and the school of Hinduism.... In ancient texts of Indian philosophy, Ishvara means supreme soul, Brahman (Highest Reality), ruler, king or husband depending on the context..... In medieval era texts, Ishvara means God, Supreme Being, personal god, or special Self depending on the school of Hinduism.....In Shaivism, Ishvara is synonymous with "Shiva", as the "Supreme lord over other Gods" in the pluralistic sense, or as an Ishta-deva in pluralistic thought. In Vaishnavism, it is synonymous with Vishnu. In traditional Bhakti movements, Ishvara is one or more deities of an individual's preference from Hinduism's polytheistic canon of deities. In modern sectarian movements such as Arya Samaj and Brahmoism, Ishvara takes the form of a monotheistic God.... In Yoga school of Hinduism, it is any "personal deity" or "spiritual inspiration".... In Advaita Vedanta school, Ishvara is a monistic Universal Absolute that connects and is the Oneness in everyone and everything......The word Īśvara never appears in Rigveda.....Samkhya is called one of the several major atheistic schools of Hinduism by some scholars..... Others, such as Jacobsen, Samkhya is more accurately described as non-theistic.... Isvara is considered an irrelevant concept, neither defined nor denied, in Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy....... In Mahayana Buddhism it is used as part of the compound "Avalokiteśvara" ("lord who hears the cries of the world"), the name of a bodhisattva revered for her compassion. ....Ishvara is similar in some ways to Adi Buddha of Madhyamika Buddhists...."

"The Kalachakra system is clearly related to the ancient Vedic tradition in India which existed long before Buddhism appeared.....The Kalachakra refers to many different traditions, for example the Hindu; Saivite, Samkya, Vaishnava, the Vedas, Upanisads and Puranas traditions, but also Jainism. For example, the Kalachakra mandala includes deities which are equally accepted by Hindus, Jainas and Buddhists."

David Reigle , "Among the many traditional ideas which must be mastered to understand Kalachakra are several which are not found within Buddhism.... These include .... the Sankya system .... the Mandukya Upanisad .... and even the Jaina tradition."...The Lost Kālacakra Mūla Tantra on the Kings of Śambhala, Talent, Oregon: Eastern School, 1986

"In ancient times Kapilavastu (historical location unknown) was the capital city of the Shakya kingdom. King Śuddhodana and Queen Māyā are believed to have lived at Kapilavastu, as did their son Prince Siddartha Gautama until he left the palace at the age of 29.....The 19th-century search for the historical site of Kapilavastu followed the accounts left by Faxian and later by Xuanzang, who were Chinese Buddhist monks who made early pilgrimages to the site."....

"Ruzsa in 2006, states, "Sāṅkhya has a very long history. Its roots go deeper than textual traditions allow us to see. The ancient Buddhist Aśvaghoṣa (in his Buddha-Carita) describes Arāḍa Kālāma, the teacher of the young Buddha (ca. 420 B.C.) as following an archaic form of Sāṅkhya"....Ruzsa, Ferenc (2006), Sāṅkhya.

"Alara Kalama (Ārāḷa Kālāma) was a hermit saint and a teacher of yogic meditation. According to the Pāli Canon scriptures, he was one of the teachers of Gautama Buddha......After Gotama became an ascetic, he went to Alara Kalama, who was a teacher that taught a kind of early samkhya at Vessali. Alara taught Gautama Buddha meditation, especially a dhyānic state called the "sphere of nothingness" (Pali: ākiñcaññāyatana)......Gotama eventually equalled Alara, who could not teach him more, saying, "You are the same as I am now. There is no difference between us. Stay here and take my place and teach my students with me." Gautama was not interested in staying. After leaving, Buddha found a new teacher, Uddaka Ramaputta."

"The dualistic metaphysics of various Tantric traditions illustrates the strong influence of Samkhya on Tantra. Shaiva Siddhanta was identical to Samkhya in its philosophical approach, barring the addition of a transcendent theistic reality..... Knut A. Jacobsen, Professor of Religious Studies, notes the influence of Samkhya on Srivaishnavism. According to him, this Tantric system borrows the abstract dualism of Samkhya and modifies it into a personified male–female dualism of Vishnu and Sri Lakshmi..... Dasgupta speculates that the Tantric image of a wild Kali standing on a slumbering Shiva was inspired from the Samkhyan conception of prakṛti as a dynamic agent and Purusha as a passive witness. However, Samkhya and Tantra differed in their view on liberation. While Tantra sought to unite the male and female ontological realities, Samkhya held a withdrawal of consciousness from matter as the ultimate goal....According to Bagchi, the Samkhya Karika (in karika 70) identifies Sāmkhya as a Tantra, and its philosophy was one of the main influences both on the rise of the Tantras as a body of literature, as well as Tantra sadhana."....Bagchi, P.C. (1989), Evolution of the Tantras

"The purpose of this chapter is to reconcile three different views of the Universe proposed by the philosophies of Samkhya, Vedanta and Tantra. ...The ancient sages sought to capture these stark oppositions through distinctive dualities: Samkhya called it Purusha-Prakriti, Tantra defined the dual Ishwara-Shakti, and Vedanta called it Atman-Maya...."....https://auromere.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/reconciling-samkhya-vedanta-and-tantra/

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January 2016

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Barak Baba & the Il-khanid (Tibetan Buddhist/Muslim) Rulers of Persia (1257-1307 AD)

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"Barak Baba..........(1257-1307 AD), a crypto-shamanic Anatolian Turkman dervish close to two of the Mongol rulers of Iran, the Īlkhānid period.......http://www.iranicaonline.org

"Ahmet Karamustafa, Ph.D., associate professor of Islamic thought and Turkish literature in Arts and Sciences......his treatise on the Qalandars, a 13th-century Islamic dervish movement that also favored tambourines and psychoactive drugs, not to mention drums and naked revelry.....Among dervishes, he explains, such bizarre anti-establishment behavior was considered an intensely spiritual act of pious self-denial, an outward sign of disdain for earthly societal norms. It's an intellectual tidbit that might prove useful to anyone seeking answers to social unrest in the '60s......In his 1994 book, "God's Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Islamic Later Middle Period, 1200 - 1500," Karamustafa tells of Barak Baba, who led about 100 dervishes into Syria in 1306. Baba, who made a point of thumbing his nose at authority, liked to wander around nearly naked, wearing only a red cloth around his waist and a reddish turban on his head. His turban sported buffalo horns protruding from either side......Baba's dervishes were renowned for their "immoral" ways, which included consumption of illegal foods and drugs and failure to observe the ritual Islamic fast. Like the free-spirited flower children of this century, dervishes were castigated as no-account beggars, idiots, lunatics and impostors, both by contemporary church leaders and waves of subsequent religious scholars."....http://home.earthlink.net/~drmljg/id1.html

"Barāq Bābā left Sarï Saltūq and traveled to the Il-khanid court, probably because of a reverse his master’s forces had suffered. When Barāq Bābā came into the presence of Ḡāzān Khan in Tabrīz, a tiger was unleashed on him to test his occult powers; a cry from him was sufficient to halt it in its tracks. Thereafter he enjoyed the trust both of Ḡāzān and of his successor, Moḥammad Ḵodā-banda Oljāytū (Öljeytü)..... it is possible to see in Barāq Bābā an early exponent of the potent mixture of Turkic shamanism, Sufism, and ḡolāt-Shiʿism that some two centuries later brought the Safavids to power."....http://www.iranicaonline.org/

"In 1306 AD Barāq Bābā arrived in Damascus, carrying the Il-khanid banner and a letter of appointment. His outlandish appearance aroused both disgust and amusement: He was naked except for a red loincloth (fūṭa) and extremely filthy, wearing a kind of felt turban to which cowhorns were attached on his head. His companions were similarly dressed and carried with them an assortment of bones and bells, to the accompaniment of which Barāq Bābā would dance, imitating the antics of monkeys and bears....Tapdūq Emre, the preceptor of the celebrated mystical poet Yūnos Emre, were both regarded as Barāq Bābā’s successors....Qoṭb-al-ʿAlawī’s interpretation of the ecstatic utterances contained in the resāla in conformity with the classical Sufism of Iran suggests that no clear line of demarcation separated the crypto-shamanic Sufism of Barāq Bābā and his peers from its established and orthodox counterpart. Barāq Bābā is said, indeed, to have been one of those whom Ḡāzān Khan consulted concerning the life and teachings of Mawlānā Jalāl-al-Dīn Rūmī".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/

"ḠĀZĀN KHAN......(1271-1304 AD), oldest son of Arḡūn Khan and his eventual successor as the seventh Il-khanid ruler of Persia......he was appointed governor of the eastern provinces, i.e., Khorasan, Māzandarān, Qūmes and Ray..... Ḡāzān was a Buddhist who converted to Islam.....Once firmly on the throne, Ḡāzān launched a campaign against the non-Muslims in his kingdom. Particularly affected were the Buddhists, to which the Khan had belonged before his conversion to Islam. The Buddhist baḵšīs (lamas or scholars, q.v.) were given the option either to become Muslims or to leave the country. Buddhist temples were destroyed as were many churches and synagogues.....In spite of his conversion to Islam, Ḡāzān remained loyal to different aspects of Mongol tradition, most notably the yāsā, or law code attributed to Čengīz Khan." ....http://www.iranicaonline.org/

"The Ilkhanate, a khanate that formed the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire, ruled by the Mongol House of Hulagu...The founder of the Ilkhanate dynasty was Hulagu Khan, (1218-1265 AD).....grandson of Genghis Khan....... It was founded in the 13th century and was based primarily in Iran as well as neighboring territories......Hulagu's descendants ruled Persia for the next eighty years, tolerating multiple religions, including Shamanism, Buddhism, and Christianity, and ultimately adopting Islam as a state religion in 1295......The Ilkhanate was originally based on the campaigns of Genghis Khan in the Khwarazmian Empire in 1219–24 and was founded by Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan. With the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire after 1259 it became a functionally separate khanate. At its greatest extent, the state expanded into territories that today comprise most of Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Turkey, western Afghanistan, and southwestern Pakistan. Later Ilkhanate rulers, beginning with Ghazan in 1295, would convert to Islam......

Click on the map to enlarge

"In the period after Hulagu, the Ilkhans increasingly adopted Tibetan Buddhism. Christian powers were encouraged by what appeared to be an inclination towards Nestorian Christianity by Ilkhanate rulers, but this was probably nothing more than the Mongols' traditional even-handedness towards competing religions. The Ilkhans were thus markedly out of step with the Muslim majority they ruled. Ghazan, shortly before he overthrew Baydu, converted to Islam, and his official favoring of Islam as a state religion coincided with a marked attempt to bring the regime closer to the non-Mongol majority of the regions they ruled. Christian and Jewish subjects lost their equal status with Muslims and again had to pay the poll tax. Buddhists had the starker choice of conversion or expulsion.".....

"In Sufism, teachers of ‘crazy wisdom’ are termed ‘Malamati’ or followers of the ‘Path of Blame.’ They may find it necessary in their teaching function to incur feelings of opposition in others, in order to challenge fixed ideas and assumptions......Individuals who follow the ‘Malamati’ approach do not worry about appearances, image or the impression made on others. They incur reproach, take no care of their repute, and simplydo and say what they consider right.".....http://www.lightwinnipeg.org/Crazy%20Wisdom.pdf

"The Qalandariyyah (Qalandaris or Kalandars)..... are wandering Sufi dervishes. The term covers a variety of sects, not centrally organized.......Starting in the early 12th century, the movement gained popularity in Greater Khorasan and neighbouring regions.....Particular to the qalandar genre of poetry are terms that refer to gambling, games, intoxicants......The Qalandariya may have arisen from the earlier Malamatiyya and exhibited some Buddhist and Hindu influences."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

December 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Chöd: Cutting Through Attachments and Aversions

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"Machig Labdrön (Tibetan: མ་གཅིག་ལབ་སྒྲོན་, Wylie: Ma-gcig Lab-sgron, English translation: Unique Mother Torch of Lab) (1055 - 1149[1]) was a renowned 11th century Tibetan Tantric Buddhist practitioner and teacher. Machig Labdrön was a great Tibetan yogini who originated several Tibetan lineages of the Indian tantric practice of Chöd. Machig may have come from a Bon family and, according to Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, developed Chöd by combining native Tibetan Bönpo shamanism with the Dzogchen teachings.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machig_Labdrön

The word Chöd is usually translated as “cutting through”. Jamgon Kongtrul defined Chöd as “The Chöd that aims at cutting through demons.”.... In other words we deliberately evoke the objects of thoughts and emotions and use them on the path of meditation to “cut through” our 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, Luminous/Emptiness, the Dharmakaya. Part of the unique genius of Chöd is that in the practice we harness our imaginations to skillfully offer our demons everything they desire, selflessly giving them our bodies and our egos with the intention to end their suffering. This compassionate approach to working with our demons has a positive psychological effect on us, allowing us to let go of old hurts, freeing trapped energies and experiencing greater freedom in our lives. In the practice we feed our ego to our demons and we become our demons, our emotional pain. This may seem counter-intuitive at first. Why would anybody want to go near something that psychologically painful? When we do this work, we let go of our sense of self as an individual “I”, and gain understanding. At this moment, as if by alchemy, our demon transforms into an ally and we experience liberation. We free our demon and free ourselves, blessing them and instructing them to do Bodhisattva activity throughout the six realms of existence.

Chödpa with damaru and kangling

There are three requirements before a student may begin a practice:
1. the empowerment (Tibetan: wang)
2. a reading of the text by an authorized holder of the practice (Tibetan: lung)
3. instruction on how to perform the practice or rituals (Tibetan: tri).
An individual is not allowed to engage in a deity practice without the empowerment for that practice. The details of an empowerment ritual are often kept secret as are the specific rituals involved in the deity practice.

"The Kāpālika tradition was a non-Puranic, tantric form of Shaivism,whose members wrote the Bhairava Tantras, including the subdivision called the Kaula Tantras. These groups are generally known as Kāpālikas, the "skull-men," so called because, like the Lākula Pāsupata, they carried a skull-topped staff (khatvanga) and cranium begging bowl. Unlike the respectable Brahmin householder of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Kāpālika ascetic imitated his ferocious deity, and covered himself in the ashes from the cremation ground, and propitated his gods with the impure substances of blood, meat, alcohol, and sexual fluids from intercourse unconstrained by caste restrictions. The Kāpālikas thus flaunted impurity rules and went against Vedic injunctions. The aim was power through evoking deities, especially goddesses."......Flood, Gavin. 2003. The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Malden: Blackwell. pg. 212

"Kāpālika (Skt., ‘skull-wearer’). A sect of Śaivism which flourished from the 7th to 14th cents. CE, also called the Somasiddhānta. The Kāpālikas were cremation-ground (śmaśāna) dwellers who covered themselves with the ashes of corpses and carried a skull which they used as a bowl. The terrifying form of Śiva as Bhairava, Mahākāla, or Kāpālabhṛt (‘skull-carrier’) was the central deity of the cult. Kāpālika practice aimed at a vision of, and possession (aveśa) by, a deity or power (śakti), in order to achieve perfection (siddhi). Practice included the consuming of corpse-flesh and scatalogical substances, meditation whilst seated on a corpse, sexual rites with low-caste women, and animal, human, and self-sacrifice. The Kāpālikas were scorned and feared by orthodox Brahmanism, and if a brahman saw one, he would stare into the sun to purify himself. The Kāpālikas were absorbed into the Nāthas and Aghorīs.".....The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1997)...by JOHN BOWKER

The Wheel of Time: The Kalachakra in Context......By Geshe Lhundub Sopa

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John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….March 2013

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Kashmir Shaivism & Kāpālika Tantra (8th C. AD)

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Acharya Abhinavagupta....(c. 950 – 1020 AD was one of Kashmir's greatest philosophers, mystics and aestheticians.He was also considered an important musician, poet, dramatist, exegete, theologian, and logician – a polymathic personality who exercised strong influences on Indian culture. Abhinavagupta was strongly influenced by Buddhist logic....He was born in the Valley of Kashmir in a family of scholars and mystics and studied all the schools of philosophy and art of his time under the guidance of as many as fifteen (or more) teachers and gurus. In his long life he completed over 35 works, the largest and most famous of which is Tantrāloka, an encyclopaedic treatise on all the philosophical and practical aspects of Trika and Kaula (known today as Kashmir Shaivism)."

"The Kāpālika tradition was a non-Puranic, tantric form of Shaivism, whose members wrote the Bhairava Tantras, including the subdivision called the Kaula Tantras. These groups are generally known as Kāpālikas, the "skull-men," so called because, like the Lākula Pāsupata, they carried a skull-topped staff (khatvanga) and cranium begging bowl. Unlike the respectable Brahmin householder of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Kāpālika ascetic imitated his ferocious deity, and covered himself in the ashes from the cremation ground, and propitated his gods with the impure substances of blood, meat (Note: including charnel ground human flesh), alcohol, and sexual fluids from intercourse unconstrained by caste restrictions. The Kāpālikas thus flaunted impurity rules and went against Vedic injunctions. The aim was power through evoking deities, especially goddesses."....Flood, Gavin. 2003. The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Malden: Blackwell. pg. 212

"The practice of Yoga and Tantra was common to the Vajrayana Buddhism and (the Kapalika, Kaula and other) Shaiva cults. Natha cult was the result of the fusion of the two streams of rival cults, based on the common factor of Tantric yoga. Occult sexual practices and experiments were integral part of the Vajrayana and Kapalika Tantra philosophies."....http://tulu-research.blogspot.com/2008/01/80-macchendra-goraka-and-pingala.html

"Kapalika and Buddhism.....Beer (2003: p. 102) relates how the symbolism of the khatvanga that entered esoteric Buddhism was a direct borrowing from the Shaivite kapalikas who frequented places of austerity such as charnel grounds as a form of left-hand path (Sanskrit: vamamarga) spiritual practice (Sanskrit: sadhana): The form of the Buddhist khatvanga derived from the emblematic staff of the early Indian Shaivite yogins, known as kapalikas or 'skull-bearers'. The kapalikas were originally miscreants who had been sentenced to a twelve-year term of penance for the crime of inadvertently killing a Brahmin. The penitent was prescribed to dwell in a forest hut, at a desolate crossroads, in a charnel ground, or under a tree; to live by begging; to practice austerities; and to wear a loin-cloth of hemp, dog, or donkey-skin. They also had to carry the emblems of a human skull as an alms-bowl, and the skull of the Brahmin they had slain mounted upon a wooden staff as a banner. These Hindu kapalika ascetics soon evolved into an extreme outcast sect of the 'left-hand' tantric path (Skt. vamamarg) of shakti or goddess worship. The early Buddhist tantric yogins and yoginis adopted the same goddess or dakini attributes of the kapalikas. These attributes consisted of; bone ornaments, an animal skin loincloth, marks of human ash, a skull-cup, damaru, flaying knife, thighbone trumpet, and the skull-topped tantric staff or khatvanga."....Beer, Robert (2003). The handbook of Tibetan Buddhist symbols. Serindia Publications. ISBN 1-932476-03-2

"Kalamukha or Kālāmukha (from the Sanskrit black-face) refers to a member of a medieval Shaivite sect noted for its asceticism. Scholars have commonly been associated the Kalamukhas with the Kāpālikas, or skull-bearers, another group of ascetics who undertook ascetic practices common to both Buddhist and Hindu Tantra. Like the Kapalikas, the Kalamukhas are often described as employing disturbing imagery of death and even cannibalism in their rituals. More recent scholarship on the Kalamukhas suggests they may not have had as much in common with the Kapalikas as has typically been thought; while the Kapalikas embraced horrific imagery, the Kalamukhas seem to have been a less extreme, favouring instead a temple-based approach."....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalamukha

"Kashmir Shaivism arose during the eighth or ninth century CE. in Kashmir and made significant strides, both philosophical and theological, until the end of the twelfth century CE."....

"The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra (Sanskrit: विज्ञान भैरव तन्त्र, Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra) is a key text of the Trika school of Kashmir Shaivism. Cast as a discourse between the god Shiva and his consort Devi or Shakti, it briefly presents 112 meditation methods or centering techniques (dharanas). These include several variants of breath awareness, concentration on various centers in the body, non-dual awareness, chanting, imagination and visualization and contemplation through each of the sense organs."

Shiva or Siva....Lord SHIVA Shiwa ... Siva (Shiva, Shiwa) as the main deity of Mt Kailas....According to Hinduism, Lord Shiva, the destroyer of ignorance and illusion, resides at the summit of a legendary mountain named Kailās, where he sits in a state of perpetual meditation along with his wife Pārvatī.... The 360 Werma Deities dwell in Mt Kailas.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….March 2013

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Khyungpo Naljor (978-1172 AD)

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KHYUNGPO NALJOR...(978-1127)... (khyung po rnal 'byor)......Jamgon Kongtrul the Great regarded him as the greatest master ever to have graced Tibet after Guru Padmasambhava and the 25 disciples, was born in a year of the Tiger in the southern part of Tibet, into a distinguished family, the clan of the Khyung, being the same extended family clan from which the lord of yogins Jetsun Milarepa hailed somewhat later. Thus, his own name meant "the Yogin of the Garuda clan." ......http://rywiki.tsadra.org

T I B E T A N S A C R E D A R T.....Thangka Paintings by Sanje Elliott......http://www.sanje.net/khyungpo-2.jpg

..."In his work 'An Impartial History of the Sources of Spiritual Instruction', Jamgon Kongtrul had great praise for Khyungpo Naljor, who mastered both Ancient Tibetan lineages and had more than 150 teachers. He founded the Shangpa lineage."...(Jamgon Kongtrul's Retreat Manual..pg 87)...

"By the age of ten he excelled in reading, writing, arithmetic and both Chinese and Indian astrology. At twelve, in accordance with the tradition on his father's side of the family, he studied the Bon teachings. Later on he practiced Dzogchen, and finally Mahamudra.".....http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Khyungpo_Naljor

"Khyungpo Neljor (khyung po rnal 'byor) was born into the Khyungpo clan in Nyemo Ramang (snye mo ra mangs), in Eastern Tsang. His father was Khyunggyel Takye (khyung rgyal stag skye), also called Takla Kye (stag la skye), and his mother was named Goza Tashi Kyi (mgo gza' bkra shis skyid). ....At the age of thirteen Khyungpo Neljor studied Bon with Yungdrung Gyelwa (g.yung drung rgyal ba), and soon after studied Dzogchen with Jungne Sengge ('byung gnas seng ge), supposedly accumulating seven hundred disciples. He also studied with Kong / Kor Nirupa (kong / skor nu ru pa) in Shamora (sha mo ra) in Tolung (stod lung). According to Tsukla Trenwa (gtsug lag 'phreng pa, 1504-1564/66), Nirupa taught him the Amanasei Chokor Nyernga (a mA na sa'i chos skor nyer lnga), a Dzogchen cycle allegedly invented by Sheuton Jang (she'u ston byang).......http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Khyungpo-Naljor/6285

Matthew Kapstein, 'Chronological Conundrums in the Life of Khyung po rnal ’byor: Hagiography and Historical Time', JIATS 1

"The Blue Annals contains an interesting passage that suggests Khyungpo Neljor faced a certain amount of resistance to his teaching. Khyungpo Neljor accused “the monks” of focusing too much on books, and conjured apparitions of various peaceful and wrathful deities to propel them to practice. However, jealous monks took up arms and Khyungpo Neljor had to conjure phantom troops to defeat them. He then went on to subjugate numerous non-human entities who were obstructing his teaching."......Roerich, George, trans. 1996. The Blue Annals. 2nd ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, pp. 728-

"....the siddha khyung po rnal 'byor. He belonged to the khyungpo clan, and was born at snye mo ra mangs% in the Tiger year (stag lo 1086 A.D.) as son of father stag skye and mother bkra shis skyid. Soon after his birth, the Indian siddha Amogha came there, and uttered an auspicious prophecy about him. At the age of ten, he mastered reading, and the Indian and Tibetan alphabets. He became proficient in the Kalacakra. At the age of 13, he studied with the ācārya g.yung drung rgyal ba the Bon doctrine, and preached it to others, and about 700 scholars (possessing manuscripts of the text) attended his class." (R:728, Chapter 9)."...https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/wiki/renaissanceold/Bon%20in%20the%20Blue%20Annals.html

"Khyungpo Naljor, a twelfth-century teacher in Tibet, once had a visionary experience in which a lion-headed dakini appeared to him and sang this song about working with dakini energy. Translated by western buddhist teacher, author Ken McLeod......http://www.mahakalaradio.org/resources/prayers/the-dakini-song-of-khyungpo-naljor/.....

MASTER WARRIOR..."Those who have been fearless in their search and fearless in their proclamation belong to the lineage of master warriors, whatever their religion, philosophy, or creed...They are the fathers and mothers of Shambhala." (Trungpa: 1984..pg 179)...."The basic quality of the master warrior is that his presence evokes the experience of the cosmic mirror and the magic of perception in others." (Trungpa: 1984...pg 176)..."The master warrior has relaxed completely into the unconditional purity of the cosmic mirror." (Trungpa: 1984..pg 177)..."the birth of the master warrior takes place in the realm of the cosmic mirror. The master warrior is humble, extremely humble." ...(Trungpa: 1984..pg 176-178)

The Autobiography of Jamgon Kongtrul: A Gem of Many Colors

".... the Josays (Descendents of Noblemen) Sept of the Khyungpo (Eagle) Clan.....

"The Shangpa Kagyu lineage (shangs pa bka' brgyud) developed independently and is not counted among the Four Greater and Eight Lesser Dagpo Kagyu schools....The lineage was established by the great scholar and accomplished master Khedrub Khyungpo Naljor (11/12th cent.)".....http://rywiki.tsadra.org

"According to the Blue Annals, Khyungpo Naljor asked his teachers whether anyone in India had met the Buddha Vajradhara, the source of the Buddhist tantras. They replied that Niguma, reputedly the sister of Naropa, had done so. Khyungpo Naljor sought her out, finding her in the Sosa charnal ground in East India. He requested her transmission, to which she replied "I am a flesh-eating dakini!" When he pressed her, she demanded gold. Taking his gold and throwing it into the forest, her retinue of dakini formed a mandala, bestowing on Khyungpo Naljor the initiation of the Illusory Body (sgyu lus) and Dream Yoga, two sections that make up the Nigu Chodrug (ni gu chos drug), or Six Yogas of Niguma. Niguma then transported him to a golden mountain summit where she bestowed the complete Six Yogas, the Dorje Tsikang (rdo rje tshig rkang) and the Gyuma Lamrim (sgyu ma lam rim). She prophesied that the teachings should stay secret until the seventh lineage holder, she being the second after Vajradhara.".....http://www.himalayanart.org

"Traditional sources attribute to Khyungpo Nenjor, the founder of the Shangpa Kagyü lineage, a lifespan of 150 years beginning in a tiger year, usually thought to be 978 or 990. A careful examination of the chronological indications given in his rnam thar, however, suggest that it is implausible to hold that Khyungpo Nenjor was born prior to the middle years of the eleventh century."......Chronological Conundrums in the Life of Khyung po rnal ’byor: Hagiography and Historical Time by Matthew T. Kapstein,

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….March 2013

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DAKINIS: Sky Dancers, Khandroma

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"Dakini (Sanskrit: डाकिनी ḍākinī; Standard Tibetan: མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་ khandroma, Wylie: mkha' 'gro ma, TP: kanzhoima; Chinese: 空行母) The dakini is a tantric figure representing a female embodiment of enlightened energy. The Tibetan form of dakini, khandroma, translates as 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in space' or, more poetically, as 'sky walker' or 'sky dancer'.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakini

"Practices of the Wrathful Lion-Headed Dakini Simhamukha.......Generally, in terms of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dakini represents the autonomous feminine principle that is outside the control of patriarchal society and the rational male ego consciousness. For this reason, the Dakini may be represented as alluring and enchanting, but also as wrathful and terrifying. This seminar will look at the meditations, rituals, and magical practices associated with the wrathful lion-headed Dakini Simhamukha, mistress of enchantments, sorceries, and witchcraft, who brings all those beings who are difficult to subdue under her power, and who also vanquishes and subdues all obstacles, negativities, and evil spirits. Simhamukha was the personal practice of Guhyajnana Dakini, the female Guru of Padmasambhava in the Central Asian country of Uddiyana and he introduced the practice into Tibet. She remains a very popular practice in the Nyingmapa school of Tibetan Buddhism. For this purpose, we rely on the profound expositions of Jamgön Kongtrul, Jamyang Khyentse, and Dudjom Rinpoche regarding the practices for this Dakini, who is a manifestation of enlightened awareness.".....http://www.vajranatha.com/schedule.html

Dakinis dance and leap into the air performing acrobatic feats in a mandala on the upper floor of Jampa Lhakhang in Lo Manthang....http://www.mountainsoftravelphotos.com

"Judith Simmer-Brown (2001: p. 57).... when conveying the ambiguity of ḍākinīs in their 'worldy' and 'wisdom' guises conveys a detailed narrative that provides the origin of Lawapa's name:..."worldly ḍākinīs are closely related to the māras of India, who haunted the Buddha under the tree of awakening. In this role, they took whatever form might correspond to the vulnerabilities of their target, including beguiling and seductive forms of exquisite beauty. When that ruse failed, they again became vicious ghouls and demonesses. When the yogin Kambala meditated in an isolated cave at Panaba Cliff, the local mamo ḍākinīs plotted to obstruct his meditation. Noticing that he was particularly reliant upon a tattered black woolen blanket that also served as his only robe, they asked to borrow it. Sensing the power of the blanket, they tore it into shreds and devoured it, burning a final scrap in his cooking fire. In anger Kambala magically transformed the mamo ḍākinīs into sheep and sheared them, so that when they returned to their original forms their heads were shaven. Fearing the power of his realization, the mamos vomited up the shreds of blanket, and Kambala collected the pieces and rewove them. From that day, he was called Lvapa, or "master of the blanket".....Simmer-Brown, Judith (2001). Dakini's Warm Breath: the Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism. Boston, USA: Shambhala. ISBN 1-57062-720-7 (alk. paper): p.57

Sukhasiddhi Dakini ....instrumental in the transmission of the Mahamudra teachings, but is of especial importance to the Shangpa Kagyu lineage. She was one of the main teachers of their founder Khyungpo Naljor (khyung po rnal 'byor, 11/12th cent.).....http://rywiki.tsadra.org

KHYUNGPO NALJOR...(978-1127)..."In his work 'An Impartial History of the Sources of Spiritual Instruction', Jamgon Kongtrul had great praise for Khyungpo Naljor, who mastered both Ancient Tibetan lineages and had more than 150 teachers. He founded the Shangpa lineage."...(Jamgon Kongtrul's Retreat Manual..pg 87)...

SUKASIDDHI...Khyungpo Naljor considered her to be one of the greatest of his 150 teachers."..(Kongtrul's Retreat Manual..pg 86)...

Seljé Dö Drelma is the Dakini of sleep in the Bon Tradition.....She is invoked and visualized in sleep-yoga-practice in the Ma Gyu (Mothertantra)..... http://ligminchastore.org/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/img_deity_card_sleepkhandro_full265px.jpg

"According to the Blue Annals, Khyungpo Neljor asked his teachings whether anyone in India had met the Buddha Vajradhāra, the source of the Buddhist tantras. They replied that Niguma, reputedly the sister of Nāropa, had done so. Khyungpo Neljor sought her out, finding her in the Sosa charnal ground in East India. He requested her transmission, to which she replied “I am a flesh-eating ḍākinī!” When he pressed her, she demanded gold. Taking his gold and throwing it into the forest, her retinue of ḍākinī formed a maṇḍala, bestowing on Khyungpo Naljor the initiation of the Illusory Body (sgyu lus) and Dream Yoga, two sections that make up the Nigu Chodruk (ni gu chos drug), or Six Yogas of Niguma. Niguma then transported him to a golden mountain summit where she bestowed the complete Six Yogas, the Dorje Tsikang (rdo rje tshig rkang) and the Gyuma Lamrim (sgyu ma lam rim). She prophesied that the teachings should stay secret until the seventh lineage holder, she being the second after Vajradhāra.".......http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Khyungpo-Naljor/6285

"Khyungpo Naljor, a twelfth-century teacher in Tibet, once had a visionary experience in which a lion-headed dakini appeared to him and sang this song about working with dakini energy. Translated by western buddhist teacher, author Ken McLeod......http://www.mahakalaradio.org/resources/prayers/the-dakini-song-of-khyungpo-naljor/.....

"Kurukulla—The Dakini of Enchantment and Witchcraft......The Dakini or Khandroma, literally “she who moves through space” or “she who goes in the sky,” is a manifestation of energy in female form. There are worldly Dakinis who are human beings such as female spiritual teachers or else witches possessing psychic powers, but also non-human Dakinis such as goddesses and nature spirits in female form. In addition, there are Wisdom Dakinis who are transcendent or beyond Samsara and represent the manifestations of enlightened awareness in female form, such as the female Buddha Tara, or female Bodhisattvas such as Lakshmi and Sarasvati, or Guardians in female form like Ekajati. In the Tantric Buddhism of Tibet, the Dakini embodies the Wisdom Principle of Buddha enlightenment, for which reason she is said to be the Consort of all the Buddhas. More generally, in terms of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dakini represents the feminine principle that is outside the control of patriarchal society and the rational male ego consciousness. For this reason, the Dakini may be represented as alluring and enchanting, but also as wrathful and terrifying and dangerous to men. This course will look at the meditation and ritual practices associated with Kurukulla, the Dakini of enchantments and witchcraft, coming from the mystical land of Uddiyana, the land of the Dakinis. It is she who brings all those beings who are otherwise difficult to subdue under her power.".....http://www.vajranatha.com/schedule.html

"One Buddhist Dakini originating from the country of Uddiyana is the goddess Kurukulla. The name Kurukulla is translated into Tibetan as Rigjyedma (rig-byed-ma), “she who is the cause knowledge.” She is associated with a king of Uddiyana named Indrabhuti. But there were at least three Indrabhutis and this is most likely the second one. Moreover, there exists a sadhana text attributed to him for the red Kurukulla in her eight-armed form. But whether she had eight arms or four arms, she is generally known as the Uddiyana Kurukulla. Most modern scholars believe this indicates that Kurukulla was originally a tribal goddess, much like the Hindu goddess Durga had been in India, who later, because of her popularity, became associated with the Buddhist great goddess Tara. For this reason, Kurukulla is often called the Red Tara (sgrol-ma dmar-po) or Tarodbhava Kurukulla, “the Kurukulla who arises from Tara....More than any other figure in the Buddhist pantheon, Kurukulla becomes the Buddhist goddess of love and sex, corresponding to the Western gooddesses Aphrodite and Venus. ”.....http://vajranatha.com/teaching/Kurukulla.htm

"This course will survey the importance of the Dakini Principle in the Higher Tantra practice of Tibetan Buddhism and introduce some of the ritual and meditation practices connected with Dakini Yoga of Kurukulla. For this purpose, we rely on the profound expositions of Jamgön Kongtrul and Jamyang Khyentse regarding the practices for this Dakini who is a manifestation of enlightened awareness, as well as the ritual text of the Kurukulla Kalpa."....

Kun grol grags pa and the revelation of the Secret Treasury of the Sky Dancers on Channels and Winds an inquiry into the development of the New Bon tradition in Eighteenth century Tibet .... Aby Jean-Luc Achard...vajrayana.faithweb.com/Kundrol.pdf

"According to the Blue Annals, Khyungpo Naljor asked his teachers whether anyone in India had met the Buddha Vajradhara, the source of the Buddhist tantras. They replied that Niguma, reputedly the sister of Naropa, had done so. Khyungpo Naljor sought her out, finding her in the Sosa charnal ground in East India. He requested her transmission, to which she replied "I am a flesh-eating dakini!" When he pressed her, she demanded gold. Taking his gold and throwing it into the forest, her retinue of dakini formed a mandala, bestowing on Khyungpo Naljor the initiation of the Illusory Body (sgyu lus) and Dream Yoga, two sections that make up the Nigu Chodrug (ni gu chos drug), or Six Yogas of Niguma. Niguma then transported him to a golden mountain summit where she bestowed the complete Six Yogas, the Dorje Tsikang (rdo rje tshig rkang) and the Gyuma Lamrim (sgyu ma lam rim). She prophesied that the teachings should stay secret until the seventh lineage holder, she being the second after Vajradhara.".....http://www.himalayanart.org

http://www.kcc.org/support-kcc/scol-capital-campaign/member-fundraisers/tara-sullivans-niguma

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….February 2013

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Terma Traditions & Shambala Texts

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"Certain Shambhala practices derive from specific terma texts of Trungpa Rinpoche's such as Letter of the Black Ashe, Letter of the Golden Key that Fulfills Desire, Golden Sun of the Great East, and the Scorpion Seal of the Golden Sun, in long and short versions."..(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala_Buddhism)

"Dorje Lingpa considered himself an incarnation of Vairocana, the eighth century Tibetan adept who is considered to have concealed both Buddhist and Bon treasures and figures prominently in the Dzogchen lineage of both traditions....Dorje Lingpa originated the practice known as “public revelation” (khrom gter), in which an audience is invited to witness the extraction of the treasure object. In 1371, with three hundred people in attendance, he revealed treasure at Orgyen Yiblung Dekyiling (O rgyan yib lung bde skyi gling), and again at Pungtang (spungs thang)."....http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Dorje-Lingpa/8750

"The Collected Tibetan Works (sungbum) of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche includes three kinds of terma: mind treasure, earth treasure, and pure vision. It also contains a “terma address book” for his various terma.....The Vidyadhara’s tertön name is Trakthung Rigdzin Tsalchang (“Heruka Vidyadhara Holder of Power”). Every tertön has a particular sacred site where the terma are found. Even when there are many sites, there is always a primary hub at the center. The site for Trungpa Rinpoche’s terma is a mountain called Kyere Shelkar (“White Face”), where Karma Senge Rinpoche lives. According to the address book, Guru Rinpoche visited this sacred place and blessed it; he called it Ösel Namkhe Photrang (“Palace of Luminosity Sky”). Guru Rinpoche declared that it was inseparable from other great holy sites, such as Uddiyana, Shambhala, and Five Peaked Mountain (Wu Tai Shan) in China.".....http://nalandatranslation.org/projects/articles/trungpa-rinpoches-early-days-as-a-terton/

"It is impossible to know the complete intention of Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye when he decided to create the Rinchen Terdzö. Because of Padmasambhava’s prophecies that the dharma would suffer a great setback in Tibet during the 20th century, it is conceivable that the five major collections of texts gathered by Jamgön Kongtrül (the Rinchen Terdzö being just one of these) were created in part so that the teachings would not be lost during the difficult times that continue to threaten the continuity of the teachings in our era. Whatever the reason, the Rinchen Terdzö provides a major link to many extraordinary practice traditions that strengthened not only the Nyingma, but all lineages from the 11th century onward. It is a great wonder that the transmission continues. It is said that only one complete copy of the final edited version of the Rinchen Terdzö made it out of Tibet during the Cultural Revolution. There is nothing else like it in the Buddhist world."..http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Great-River-Of-Blessings.pdf

" .....important connections between the Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Namkha Drimed Rinpoche. For example, the Vidyadhara and His Eminence shared visions of Akar Werma, the deity whom the Vidyadhara called Shiwa Ökar. Shiwa Ökar is an important figure in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s Shambhala termas and in the New Treasures termas discovered by His Eminence.".....The Great River Of Blessings....by Walker Blaine

The Five Pure Lights are also evident in the terma traditions of the Bardo Thodol (Gyurme, et al. 2005) where they are the "coloured lights" of the bardo for example, associated with the different "families" (Sanskrit: gotra) of deities. There are other evocations of the rainbow lights as well in the Bardo Thodol literature such as Namkha Chokyi Gyatso (1806-1821?), the 3rd Dzogchen Ponlop's "Supplement to the Teaching revealing the Natural Expression of Virtue and Negativity in the Intermediate State of Rebirth", entitled Gong of Divine Melody (Tibetan: སཏྲིད་པའི་བར་དོའི་ངོ་སྤྲོད་དགེ་སྡིག་རང་གཟུགས་སྟོན་པའི་ལྷན་ཐབས་དབྱངས་སྙན་ལྷའི་བཎཌཱི, Wylie: strid pa'i bar do'i ngo sprod dge sdig rang gzugs ston pa'i lhan thabs dbyangs snyan lha'i gaND-I[4]), wherein the "mandala of spiralling rainbow lights" Gyurme et al. (2005: p. 339) is associated with Prahevajra. Dudjom, et al. (1991: p. 337) ground the signification of the "mandala of spiralling lights" (Tibetan: འཇོའ་འོད་འཁིལ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་བཧོར, Wylie: 'ja' 'od 'khil ba'i dkyil khor) as seminal to the visionary realization of tögal.

Apauruṣeya....."The Vedas (Sanskrit वेदाः véda, "knowledge") are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. The Vedas are apauruṣeya ("not of human agency"). They are supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called śruti ("what is heard"), distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called smṛti ("what is remembered").

"In order to understand the nature of Bon terma (hidden treasures) it is best to understand the nature of the texts that were hidden. These texts are considered to be supernatural and sacred in origin. They are considered to have been taught and transmitted by an earlier Buddha who founded the lineage, Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, and propagated by the sages. Bon history can viewed in a manner that is similar to the great epics such as the Shah Namah, the Ramayana, and the Gesar Tales. These works are historical epics that take on mythic proportions. The sages of these histories were not mere mortals. These were great heroes of superhuman abilities. These were persona possessing magical skills and extremely long lives. The greatest of these was the teacher and founder Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche. He is said to have always been enlightened. Out of compassion He incarnated into the world system in order to liberate all sentient beings."....http://synchchaos.com/?p=1584

" On the Bonpo Terma tradition, see Samten Karmay, The Treasury of Good Sayings, op. cit. All of the early Terma discoveries of the Bonpos were sa-gter, that is, the actual physical texts written in previous times and concealed in various places of Tibet and Bhutan. Most of the actual discovers of these collections of Terma texts were not learned Lamas, but simple farmers and hunters, who could not have possibly forged these texts. Among the most famous of these early "Tertons" were three Nepali thieves known as the three Atsaras, who in the year 961 CE stole a heavy locked chest from the Cha-ti dmar-po temple at Samye monastery. Escaping into the mountains with their loot, thinking that it contained gold they broke into the chest, but when they opened it, they found only some old texts. Greatly disappointed, they sold these old books to some local village Bonpo Lamas for some gold and a horse.".....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/dzogchen.html?start=5

"Both tertons and Vedic or Bonpo rishis cognize wisdom by overthrowing dualistic limitations within consciousness and the wisdom that emerges emerges from a mandala, which emerges from a seed-syllable.".....http://www.mail-archive.com/fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com/msg232965.html

" Near Sera Gompa (Nubri Monastery) is the mountain of Tashi Palsang where heart treasures are hidden. These discovered treasures (Ter)** were then reconcealed in the mountain and there continued presence is a protection against war, Terdak Lingpa [Minling Terchen, 1646-1714] discovered Ter here as did Terton Garwang Dorje, who took six scriptures as Ter practices from the mountain before replacing them. The Mirror of the Enlightened Mind of Vajrasattva*** and The Heart Tantra of Padma[sambhava] on Dzogchen**** were both discovered in Kyimo Lung.....According to one of the greatest Tertons, Rigdzin Goddem, many Termas still remain in the mountains of Nubri. Karma Tulku has listed a few: The original 18 Dzogchen Tantras in 5 cycles written in Lapis given by Vajrapani to King Ja."....http://www.mahasiddha.org/nubri/beyul.html

"Rig-dzin Jig-med Ling-pa said in his Explanation of the Empowerment of Troling; “In the concealing of the Termas there are four great purposes; to prevent the doctrine from disappearing, the teaching from being adulterated, and the power or blessing from disappearing, and to shorten the lineage of transmission.” The results are fewer obstructions to practice and accomplishments are easy and swift......Some termas are concealed for the auspiousness of the land. If the ter remains in its geographical location “it will repair the decay of the energy or spirit of the area, and will prevent wars, and cut off the path that is frequented by harmful spirits.”.....From Hidden Teaching of Tibet by Tulku Thondup

Tulku Thondup..."Hidden Teaching of Tibet: An Explanation of the Terma Tradition"...1997

"Apauruṣheyā.....In Hinduism, Apaurusheya (IAST: Apauruṣeya), Sanskrit, meaning "not the work of man", is used to describe the Vedas, the main scripture in Hinduism. This implies that the Vedas are not authored by human but were divine creation. Apaurusheya shabda ("words not created by mankind") is an extension of apaurusheya which refers to the Vedas."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2012

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Tantra in Central Asia (400 AD)

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Tantra is the name scholars give to a style of religious ritual and meditation that arose in Central Asia no later than the fifth century CE. The earliest documented use of the word Tantra is in the Hindu text, the Rigveda (X.71.9).......

"Tantra and Dzogchen in the Buddhist and Bonpo Traditions of Tibet....."Meditation practice has always been at the core of Buddhism everywhere in Asia, and this is also true of the related Bonpo tradition of Tibet. Accordingly, the teachings and the practices revealed by the Buddha may be classified into the three levels of Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen, corresponding to the three dimensions of human existence of body, energy, and mind. Sutra is mainly concerned with the nature of human existence in the world, especially one’s ethical conduct and behavior towards other living beings in this present life. Nevertheless, meditation practice at the Sutra level is fundamental and is decidedly psychological in its approach. Tantra is more concerned with the individual’s dimension of energy, that is to say, how to access energy and then how to direct and channel it for specific purposes, such as healing. Dzogchen, however, represents the discovery of the nature of mind in one’s immediate experience at the core of one’s being. All three approaches aim at the attaining of liberation from suffering in Samsara and the realizing of enlightened awareness as the essence of one’s being. We shall investigate the foundations of meditation practice in both the Buddhist and the Bonpo traditions of Tibet and in the weekend workshop the emphasis will be on actual meditation practice.".....http://www.vajranatha.com/schedule.html

There are three requirements before a student may begin a practice:
1. the empowerment (Tibetan: wang)
2. a reading of the text by an authorized holder of the practice (Tibetan: lung)
3. instruction on how to perform the practice or rituals (Tibetan: tri).
An individual is not allowed to engage in a deity practice without the empowerment for that practice. The details of an empowerment ritual are often kept secret as are the specific rituals involved in the deity practice.

Tantric Shaivism was known to its practitioners as the Mantramārga,
Tantric Buddhism has the indigenous name of the Vajrayana,
Tantric Vaishnavism was known as the Pañcarātra.

"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.".....White, David Gordon (ed.) (2000). Tantra in Practice. Princeton University Press. p. 7. ISBN 0-691-05779-6.

Padmasambhava....The site of His Holiness the Karmapa wrote, “If born in the year 732, then he would have been 54 years of age when he made the difficult journey into the Land of Snow” - a moment in history that denotes the first coming of Buddhism to the Himalayan region. Furthermore, “One may conclude that a major reason for so many Indian Buddhist sages coming to Central Tibet from Kashmir, and notably, the famous Padmasambhava from Uddiyana (Bactria), was the simple fact that Tibet then ruled much of this region. Nothing is really reported concerning Padmasambhava’s life in Kashmir. He lived, some say, with wandering yogis and sadhus, in exile from his homeland. Others report that it was during this period that he acquired knowledge and skill in various crafts. In Kashmir he earned the name Sthiramati, ‘the Youthful Genius.’

Kashmir Shaivism was a householder religion based on a strong monistic interpretation of the Bhairava Tantras (and its subcategory the Kaula Tantras), which were tantras written by the Kapalikas.

The Kāpālika tradition was a non-Puranic, tantric form of Shaivism in India, whose members wrote the Bhairava Tantras, including the subdivision called the Kaula Tantras. These groups are generally known as Kāpālikas, the "skull-men," so called because, like the Lākula Pāsupata, they carried a skull-topped staff (khatvanga) and cranium begging bowl. Unlike the respectable Brahmin householder of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Kāpālika ascetic imitated his ferocious deity, and covered himself in the ashes from the cremation ground, and propitated his gods with the impure substances of blood, meat, alcohol, and sexual fluids from intercourse unconstrained by caste restrictions. The Kāpālikas thus flaunted impurity rules and went against Vedic injunctions. The aim was power through evoking deities, especially goddesses.

The early Buddhist tantric yogins and yoginis adopted the same goddess or dakini attributes of the kapalikas. These attributes consisted of; bone ornaments, an animal skin loincloth, marks of human ash, a skull-cup, damaru, flaying knife, thighbone trumpet, and the skull-topped tantric staff or khatvanga.

The kapalikas may also have been related to the Kalamukhas ("black faces") of medieval South India (Lorenzen 1972). .... center their secretive rituals around an object known as a kapparai (Tamil "skull-bowl," derived from the Sanskrit kapala), a votive device garlanded with flowers and sometimes adorned with faces, which is understood to represent the begging-bowl of Shiva (Meyer 1986).

Beer (2003: p. 102) relates how the symbolism of the khatvanga that entered esoteric Buddhism was a direct borrowing from the Shaivite kapalikas who frequented places of austerity such as charnel grounds as a form of left-hand path (Sanskrit: vamamarga) spiritual practice (Sanskrit: sadhana):.....The form of the Buddhist khatvanga derived from the emblematic staff of the early Indian Shaivite yogins, known as kapalikas or 'skull-bearers'. The kapalikas were originally miscreants who had been sentenced to a twelve-year term of penance for the crime of inadvertently killing a Brahmin. The penitent was prescribed to dwell in a forest hut, at a desolate crossroads, in a charnel ground, or under a tree; to live by begging; to practice austerities; and to wear a loin-cloth of hemp, dog, or donkey-skin. They also had to carry the emblems of a human skull as an alms-bowl, and the skull of the Brahmin they had slain mounted upon a wooden staff as a banner. These Hindu kapalika ascetics soon evolved into an extreme outcast sect of the 'left-hand' tantric path (Skt. vamamarg) of shakti or goddess worship. The early Buddhist tantric yogins and yoginis adopted the same goddess or dakini attributes of the kapalikas. These attributes consisted of; bone ornaments, an animal skin loincloth, marks of human ash, a skull-cup, damaru, flaying knife, thighbone trumpet, and the skull-topped tantric staff or khatvanga.

The Sammoha Tantra speaks of the Tantric culture of foreign countries like Bahlika, Kirata, Bhota, Cina, Mahacina, Parasika, Airaka (Iraq), Kamboja, Huna, Yavana, Gandhara and Nepal.....according to the Sammoha-tantra, goddess Nila-Sarasvati was worshipped at a place supposed to have been included in Mongolia....

The origin and development of the Tantras as a special class of literature and as a special mode of sadhana are ultimately connected with the rise of Saivism, and the Pancaratra, the ancient Samkhya-Yoga supplying them with a philosophical background...The Shakta orientation of Tantric culture had become firmly established by the 13th Century. The Sammoha Tantra deals with various traditions and mantras, the geographic classification of the Tantras (into four areas -- Kerala, Kashmira, Gauda and Vailasa), and a detailed account of the Vidyas or cults belonging to different ..

In the Shakta Tantras, the nerve on the right (Upaya of the Buddhists) is known as the pingala, and that of the left (Prajna of the Buddhists) as ida. These two represent the principle of duallity, and the middle one (variously known as susummna, avadhutika or sahaja) represents absolute unity......The Kundalini Shakti is the original Female Principle, the Devi, whom the aspirant has to send from the lower extremity of the spinal cord to the highest cerebral point where she meets Shiva, and their union produces the liquor of immortality. Wine is the nectar which flows from the union of the Kundalini Shakti with Shiva at the Sahasrara in the head. Maithuna, one of the five tattvas, symbolized by the concept of unity behind all duality, is brought into harmony with the concept of the union of Shiva and Shakti, which takes place in the sahasrara....... (Excerpted from Bhattacharyya, Narendra Nath, "The Indian Mother Goddess," 2nd Edition. South Asia Books, New Delhi, 1977.)

"Abhinavagupta (Kashmiri: अभिनवगुप्त) (Urdu: ابھینوگپتا ‎) (c. 950 – 1020 ADwas one of India's greatest philosophers, mystics and aestheticians. He was also considered an important musician, poet, dramatist, exegete, theologian, and logician - a polymathic personality who exercised strong influences on Indian culture. He was born in the Valley of Kashmir in a family of scholars and mystics and studied all the schools of philosophy and art of his time under the guidance of as many as fifteen (or more) teachers and gurus. In his long life he completed over 35 works, the largest and most famous of which is Tantrāloka, an encyclopedic treatise on all the philosophical and practical aspects of Trika and Kaula (known today as Kashmir Shaivism). Another one of his very important contributions was in the field of philosophy of aesthetics with his famous Abhinavabhāratī commentary of Nāṭyaśāstra of Bharata Muni.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhinavagupta

"This also explains why sadhanas used in Shaivism are similar (or the same) to those used in the Inner Tantras or Atiyoga. They're triggering the same visionary process within different contexts or ways of seeing.".....http://www.mail-archive.com/fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com/msg232965.html

"The second stream of modern Kashmir Shaivism was inspired by Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa (1908-1982) who toured the world teaching the principles of Shaivism. Since his approach focused heavily on sadhana and spiritual experience it can be called the revelatory. Lakshmanjoo approached Shaiviam via knowledge first, then experience; Muktananda’s Shaivism began with experience and then found understanding in the Shaivite scriptures. Muktananda had a significant impact among thousands of spiritual seekers because he transmitted the experience of Shaivism through the spiritual awakening of shaktipat. There is no doubt that he achieved the widest dissemination of Shaivite learning in history, both in his own work and in the still growing impact of his students."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….November 2012

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Kingdom of Zhang-zhung & Shambhala

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Just to the west of Zhang-zhung there once existed the vast Kushana empire ....... an area in which Indian Buddhism and the Bon teachings interacted with various strands of the great Iranian and Central Asian religions-- Zoroastrian, Zurvanist, Mithraist, Manichean, as well as Indian Shaivism and Nestorian Christianity.

Shangshung was destroyed by the Tibetans in the 8th Century AD.

In the Bon myth, Olmolungring was northwest of Mt Kailas, twice as far from it as the peak is from Shigatse, a major town in central Tibet. (Newman, 1985).....(i.e.. 1200 Miles?)

"The Chinese-pilgrim monk, Xuanzang, c. 634 CE, describes a journey from Chuluduo (Kūluta, Kulu) to Luohuluo (Lahul) and then states that, "[f]rom here, the road, leading to the north, for over one thousand, eight hundred or nine hundred li by perilous paths and over mountains and valleys, takes one to the country of Lāhul. Going further to the north over two thousand li along a route full of difficulties and obstacles, in cold winds and wafting snowflakes, one could reach the country of Marsa (also known as Sanbohe)."The kingdom of Moluosuo, or Mar-sa, would seem to be synonymous with Mar-yul, a common name for Ladakh. Elsewhere, the text remarks that Mo-lo-so, also called San-po-ho borders with Suvarnagotra or Suvarnabhumi (Land of Gold), identical with the Kingdom of Women (Strirajya). According to Tucci, the Zhangzhung kingdom, or at least its southern districts, were known by this name by the 7th-century Indians. In 634/5 Zhangzhung acknowledged Tibetan suzernaity for the first time, and in 653 a Tibetan commissioner (mnan) was appointed there. Regular administration was introduced in 662, and an unsuccessful rebellion broke out in 677.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ladakh

The organized Bon religion traces itself from Shenrab (gShen-rab), a teacher from the fabled land of Olmo-lungring (‘Ol-mo lung-ring) on the eastern edge of Tagzig (sTag-gzig), who brought it to Zhang-zhung (Zhang-zhung) in the remote, distant past. Zhang-zhung was an ancient kingdom with its capital in western Tibet near the sacred Mount Kailash. Some modern Russian scholars, basing themselves on linguistic analysis, identify Olmo-lungring with Elam in ancient western Iran and Tagzig with Tajik, referring to Bactria.

SILVER PALACE OF THE GARUDA VALLEY....Capital of Shang Shung...."Khyunglung Nulkhar, the Silver Palace of the Garuda Valley, the ruins are to be found in the Sutlej Valley southwest of Mount Kailash." (80E 31N)...(Wangyal: 1993..pg 31)....Khyunglung Nulkar..(Khyung lung dngul mkhar)..."the Silver Palace of Khyung-lung (80E 31N) in the upper Sutlej Valley of Zhang-Zhung (Hoffman: 1979..pg 103)...

MT YUNGDRUNG GUTSEG..."old Bonpo texts describe how the 'nine story swastika mountain' had to be moved from the north to the present location at Kailas." (Allen: 1982..pg 30)..See: Flying Mountains..."To the west of Tibet in a larger country called Tazig is Mount Yungdrung Gutseg. At its bas springs 4 rivers flowing in the four directions. The mountain is surrounded by temples, cities and parks."...

Until the seventh century, Zhang-zhung existed as a separate state which comprised the land to the west of the Central Tibetan Provinces of U and Tsang and generally known as Western Tibet. The historical evidence is incomplete but there are some reliable indications that it may have extended over the vast area from Gilgit in the west to the lake of Namtsho in the east, and from Khotan in the north to Mustang in the south. The capital of Zhang-zhung was a place called Khyunglung Ngulkhar - 'The Silver Palace of the Garuda Valley' - the ruins of which are to be found in the upper Sutlej Valley to the south-west of Mount Kailash. The people of Zhang-zhung spoke a language which is classified among the Tibeto-Burmese group of Sino-Tibetan languages.

Bon religious historical identity. Investigated are: the creation of the myth of the Zhang zhung Empire of the Bon po-s (the Zhang zhung royal myth and the ‘location’ of Zhang zhung culture) and the development of the myth of the founder of Bon, Ston pa gShen rab(s) mi bo.....(The Three Pillars of Bon’: Doctrine, ‘Location’ & Founder—Historiographical Strategies and their Contexts in Bon Religious Historical Literature.)

"Zhang Zhung.....also Shang Shung, or in modern Chinese: Xanxun....Name of an ancient Himalayan kingdom that existed before (ca. 500 years earlier) and during the rise of the kingdom known as Bod (Tibet). .....Zhang Zhung roughly covered the area now known as West Tibet, specifically Guge and the region around Mt. Kailas (Tib., ti se) and Lake Manasarovar (Tib., ma-pham tsho), and Ladakh (now a part of Indian controlled Kashmir).....Once the Bod-kingdom had expanded into all directions - to the borders of Turkestan (north) and Persia (west) to parts of Nepal (south) and to Amdo (east) - also Zhang Zhung became a part of Bod, which by then had grown into what we are now accustomed to call Tibet......Although there is no exact history (yet) of Zhang Zhung and its cultural development, it seems that Buddhist and Tantric teachings have reached this area and merged with the indigenous tradition - a development that occurred way before the so-called first diffusion (of Buddhism into Tibet)......This is also indicated by the title of a genealogy of the Dzogchen teachings within the Bon tradition: Dzogchen Zhang Zhung Nyangyud (Tib., rdzogs-pa chen-po zhang-zhung snyan-brgyud) translates as The Oral Transmission of the Great Perfection of Zhang Zhung; also known in a short form as Zhang Zhung Nyangyud....(http://yoniversum.nl/dakini/zhangzhung.html)

SHANG-SHUNG..."Was an intermediary between historical periods and peoples." (Kuznetsov: 1970..pg 568)...Three regions: sGo-ba (outer), phug-pa (inner), bar-ba (middle)...King Trigum Tsenpo (1st century AD King of Shang Shung)...Shangshung was conquered by the expanding Tibetan empire in the 7th Century AD.

SHANG SHUNG...Information on the language and culture of Shang Shung (Zhang Zhung, Zan Zun). Until the 7th century, an independent, non-Tibetan kingdom, with its own language and history..... Especially the Zhang-zhung terms: WER RO (king), NYI RI (sun), SHE TUN (heart)(Kvaerne: 1996).... The Zhang-zhung dialect is somewhat related to Tibetan, but it is closer to the modern Kanauri language of the western Himalayas. (Reynolds:1996)... Translations on the early history of Zhang Zhung from the Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud (See Wangyal:1993 p 209)..."The Tibetan script U-Med is based on the ancient script of Zhang-Zhung. This script is called sMar-yig or Lha-bab-yi-ge, which means "script descended from the heavens" and is possibly 3000 years old. (Ngakpa:1986..pg 178)....Article in Montreal Gazette (December 12, 1997): The French explorer Michel Peissel announced that he has found remnants of Shangshung in the remote region of Tibet. (Reuters)..."Thirty three generations of Shang-Shung Kings reigned from Nyatri Tsenpo to Songtsen Gampo who died in 649 A.D.) (Norbu: 1995..pg xvi)....."The Dzogchen teachings of the 'Oral Transmission of ShangShung' have enjoyed direct and uninterupted transmission from ancient times to the present, whereby apart from the inherent value of the teachings themselves, they are also extremely precious as historical sources." (Norbu: 1995, pg 218)...See "The Zhang Zhung Language", A Grammar and Dictionary of the Unexplored Language of the Tibetan Bonpos" by Eric Haarh, Kobenhaven: 1968"..

According to Bon history there were six great translators who were responsible for translating and spreading the doctrines of Bon in the surrounding countries. The disciples of Mu cho ldem drug of sTag gzig translated the teachings into the language of Zhang zhung, and it was from here that the teachings were brought to Tibet during the reign of the legendary first King of Tibet, gNya’ khri btsan po9. Zhang zhung plays the same role for the Bon religion as India does for Tibetan Buddhists. According to Bon sources, Zhang zhung was a large kingdom stretching from Gilgit in the west and encompassing all of western Tibet. Its capital was Khyung lung dngul mkhar in the region of Mt Ti se (Kailash). Tradition maintains that the second king of Tibet Mu khri btsan po, invited 108 Bon scholars from Zhang zhung to Tibet, and 37 religious centres were established during his reign (Cech 1987). The Bonpo claim that most of their texts were originally written in the language of Zhang zhung.

dMu tsha tra he was an important scholar from sTag gzig. He studied under the guidance of gYung drung gTsug shen rgyal ba, Drang srong rgyal ba, rMa lo, g.Yu lo and Mu cho Idem drug, the sucessor of sTon pa gshen rab. Among his numerous disciples were rDzu 'phrul ye shes who brought the teachings of monastic discipline to Zhang zhung and Tibet. (BonPo Hidden Treasures...by jean-Luc Achard

"Until the 8th century Zhang Zhung existed as a separate kingdom, comprising the land to the west of the central Tibetan provinces of U (dBus) and Tsang (gTsang) and generally known as Western Tibet, extending over a vast area from Gilgit in the west to the lake of Namtsho (gNam mtsho) in the east and from Khotan in the north to Mustang in the south. The capital was called Khyunglung Ngulkhar (Khyung lung dngul mkhar), the “Silver Palace of Garuda Valley”, the ruins of which lie in the upper Sutlej valley southwest of Mount Kailash. Its people spoke a language classified among the Tibeto-Burmese group of Sino-Tibetan languages. The country was ruled by a dynasty of kings which ended in the 9th century A.D. when the last king, Ligmincha, (Lig min skya) was assassinated by order of the king of Tibet and Zhang-Zhung militarily annexed by Tibet. Since that time Zhang-Zhung has become gradually Tibetanized and its language, culture and many of its beliefs have been integrated into the general frame of Tibetan culture. Due to its geographical proximity to the great cultural centres of central Asia such as Gilgit and Khotan, it was through Zhang-Zhung that many religious concepts and ideas reached Tibet.

"The Bonpos came to identify this Shambhala with Olmo Lungring itself. All this suggests that certain trends within Yungdrung Bon, rather than being later plagiarisms and imitations of Indian Buddhism concocted in the tenth century, actually do go back to a kind of syncretistic Indo-Iranian Buddhism that once flourished in the independent kingdom of Zhang-zhung before it was forcibly incorporated into the expanding Tibetan empire in the eighth century. This "Buddhism", known as gyer in the Zhang-zhung language and as bon in the Tibetan, was not particularly monastic, but more Tantric in nature and its diffusion was stimulated by the presence of various Mahasiddhas in the region such as the illustrious Tapihritsa and his predecessors dwelling in caves about Mount Kailas and about the lakes to the east in Northern Tibet. Even into this century, Kailas remained an important site of pilgrimage drawing Hindu sadhus and yogis from India. Such a mixed "Buddhist" culture, being both Tantric and shamanic, was suppressed in the eighth century when, at the instigation of the Tibetan king Trisong Detsan, the last king of independent Zhang-zhung, Ligmigya, was ambushed and assassinated when he left his castle of Khyung-dzong on the Dang-ra lake in Northern Tibet. Zhang-zhung and its people were absorbed into the Tibetan empire and disappeared as an independent entity. The Zhang-zhung-pas were pressed into the service of the Tibetan army as it expanded westward into Ladakh and Baltistan. Today the Zhang-zhung-pas survive as the nomad people of Western and Northern Tibet, often possessing the same ancient clan names. But having been converted to the Drigung Kagyudpa school of Buddhism, they have forgotten their ancient heritage. The old caves, once the dwelling places of the Bonpo Mahasiddhas, are now thought to be the domain of ghosts, places to be shunned and avoided. Yet ancient ruins, believed to antedate the Tibetan empire, are still to be seen at Khyung-lung (Khyung-lung dngul-mkhar) west of Kailas and on the shores of the Dang-ra lake to the east in Northern Tibet.".....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/dzogchen.html?start=3

"The first Bön scriptures were translated from the language of Zhang-zhung into Tibetan. The works contained in the Bonpo canon as we know it today are written in Tibetan, but a number of them, especially the older ones, retain the titles and at times whole passages in the language of Zhang-zhung. Until the 8th century Zhang-zhung existed as a separate kingdom, comprising the land to the west of the central Tibetan provinces of (dBus) and Tsang (gTsang) and generally known as Western Tibet, extending over a vast area from Gilgit in the west to the lake of Namtsho (gNam-mtsho) in the east and from Khotan in the north to Mustang in the south. The capital was called Khyunglung Ngulkhar (Khyung-lung dngul-mkhar), the 'Silver Palace of Garuda Valley', the ruins of which lie in the upper Sutlej valley south-west of Mount Kailash. Its people spoke a language classified among the Tibeto-Burmese group of Sino-Tibetan languages. The country was ruled by a dynasty of kings which ended in the 9th century A.D. when the last king, Ligmincha (Lig-min-skya) was assassinated by order of the king of Tibet and Zhang-zhung militarily annexed by Tibet. Since that time Zhang-zhung has become gradually Tibetanized and its language, culture and many of its beliefs have been integrated into the general frame of Tibetan culture. Due to its geographical proximity to the great cultural centres of central Asia such as Gilgit and Khotan, it was through Zhang-zhung that many religious concepts and ideas reached Tibet."......http://shenten.org/en/yungdrung-bon/history

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