Yu Zurpuchen: The Crystal Youth of the gZermig Terma Text

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"Accounts of Tonpa Shenrab's life are to be found in the Zermik (Wylie: gzer mig....Clear Eye), and Ziji (Wylie: gzi brjid). The gZermig was a terma text discovered by tertön in the 10th century AD.........Tulku Loden Nyingpo (1360-1385) discovered the famed Zibji (gzi brjid), the longest version of Tonpa Shenrab’s biography in the 14th Century AD...... "....Karmey, Samten G. (1975). A General Introduction to the History and Doctrines of Bon, pp. 175-176. Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko, No. 33. Tokyo.

"The Bon Master Shenrap and the Redemption of Tobu Dode:......In the opening sceses of chapter 5 of the Zermik or 'Clear Eye'....a young boy named Yu Zurpuchen , who has crystal skin and sports a magical coat of mail, arrives in the Bonpo holy land of Olmo Lungring riding a turquoise dragon....the boy reveals himself to be an emanation of Sangpo Bumtri, a creator deity in the Bonpo pantheon of Gods:...At that time there came from the void sky....the little boy Yui Zurpuchen....of a complexion as clear as crystal, arrayed in a coat covered with magic writ, riding on the blue horse of the turquoise dragen....He came to Olmo Lungring, the Land of the Shen, where the savior Shenrap Miwo...before innumerable disciples preached the Bon tenets of the three Peutse....."I am Zurpuchen, the little boy of your heart....on my body whose tint is clear as crystal, I am clothed with a coat full of magic writ, I ride on the blue horse of the swift thunder dragon, that is laden with the small light bag of the To......I am an emanation of Sangpo Bumtri, I come to you, oh Shenrab....speaking thus he dismantled his dragon horse quickly.....".........A.H. Francke...gZermig: A book of the Tibetan Bonpos....Asia Major (1927) 206-213.

"August Hermann Francke (Gnadenfrei, Silesia, 5 November 1870 – Berlin, 16 February 1930) was a German Tibetologist.....He was a Moravian Church missionary in the Himalayas serving in that capacity in Ladakh, a major region of Jammu and Kashmir Province from 1896 until 1909. He was subsequently appointed professor of Tibetan languages at Berlin University.....After Yoseb Gergan produced the first draft of the Tibetan Bible in 1910, Francke corrected it and then sent it to David Macdonald, the British trade agent in Yatung. Also involved was his Moravian colleague Heinrich Jäschke who produced A Tibetan-English dictionary."....

Click on the map to enlarge

A.H. Francke...gZermig: A book of the Tibetan Bonpos....Asia Major (1927) 206-213......Sources of Tibetan Tradition.....Page 252.....By Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Matthew Kapstein, Gray Tuttle....https://books.google.com/books?id=VmkMBcsXxdkC&pg=PA251&lpg=PA251&dq=bonpo+dragon&source=bl&ots=c_ldKUq1tF&sig=izPCNlU__ufl89W1mm5v3kE-jLY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiai8v8mMDLAhWJKGMKHZ26A8A4ChDoAQgbMAA#v=onepage&q=bonpo%20dragon&f=false

Asia Major was founded in Germany in 1923 by Bruno Schindler, and soon became the leading German outlet for scholarship on East Asia...Asia Major. Editores Bruno Schindler et Friedrich Weller.......https://www.jstor.org/journal/asiamajor

"... sTon-pa ggen-rab, "The Teacher Shen-rab", and his biography is to be found, as any bon-po knows, in the two volumes of "gZer-mig". sTon-pa gSen-rab lived in the country of sTag-gzig which is generally placed rather vaguely somewhere to the west or north-west of Tibet .....The first seven of the eighteen chapters of "gZer-mig" have been published and translated by A. H. Francke in Asia Major 1924, I926, 1927, 1930 and 1939. The contents of the whole book have been summarized by H. Hoffmann The Religions of Tibet, London i96I, p. 85-96. ".....ASPECTS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE BUDDHIST TRADITION IN TIBET by PER KVERNE......University of Bergen, Norway

Bellezza, John Vincent. (2010). "gShen-rab Myi-bo, His life and times according to Tibet’s earliest literary sources." Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines Number 19 October 2010, pp. 31–118.

"The gZer-mig and gZi-brjid are both published by the Bonpo Foundation, Dolanji, 1965 and 1967-69, respectively. Extracts from the gZi-brjid have been edited and translated by D.L. Snellgrove, The Nine Ways of Bon, London Oriental Series, vol. 18, London 1967. The first seven chapters of gZer-mig and part of the eighth have been translated into English by A.H. Franke, 'A Book of the Tibetan Bonpos', Asia Major, Leipzig 1924, 1926, 1927, 1930; Asia Major (New Series) 1, London 1949. A summary of the contents of gZer-mig has been made by H. Hoffmann in The Religions of Tibet, London 1961, 85-96."

Sources of Tibetan Tradition......By Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Matthew Kapstein, Gray Tuttle

"There are three biographies of Tonpa Shenrab. The earliest and shortest one is known as Dodu (mDo-'dus: 'Epitome of Aphorisms'); the second is in two volumes and is called Zermig (gZer-mig: 'Piercing Eye')......These two accounts were rediscovered as terma in the 10th and 11th centuries respectively ......In the year 1017 AD, Shenchen Luga (gShen-chen klu-dga') came from eastern Tibet and discovered two large wooden boxes containing many Bonpo texts in the Tibetan language, which had been buried at Drigtsam Thakar ('brig-mtsham mtha' dkar) in Tsang Province, near the ancestral seat of the Shen clan...... It was principally this discovery that led to the revival of Bon in central Tibet in the eleventh century...."....http://www.drjameshenley.us/sutra-system/shenchen-luga-and-the-revival-of-bon.html

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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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A Cavern of Treasures and Shenchen Luga (1017 AD)

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"A Cavern of Treasures (Tibetan: མཛོད་ཕུག, Wylie: mdzod phug) is a terma uncovered by Shenchen Luga (Tibetan: གཤེན་ཆེན་ཀླུ་དགའ, Wylie: gshen chen klu dga') in the early eleventh century. ...Dan Martin identifies the importance of this scripture for studies of the Zhang-Zhung language....'For students of Tibetan culture in general, the mDzod phug is one of the most intriguing of all Bon scriptures, since it is the only lengthy bilingual work in Zhang-zhung and Tibetan (some of the shorter but still significant sources for Zhang-zhung are signalled in Orofino 1990.'...."...https://en.wikipedia.org/

"Shenchen Luga was born in 996 in the Dringtsham (‘bring ‘tshams) region of Tsang, to a father of the sga clan and a mother who was the sibling of a Bonpo. Not much about his early years is known, but he did not seem to be formally engaged in religious pursuits until his massive corpus of treasure revelation appeared in 1017 AD, when he was 21. He spent the rest of his life teaching and debating, and perhaps established a seat at Darding (dar lding) near the town of Geding (dge lding). His greatest disciple was Zhuyé Legpo (zhu yas legs po), who eventually became the progenitor of his own lineage. In 1035 AD, the Buddhist monk Lotön Dorjé Wangchuk (lo ston rdo rje dbang phyug) allegedly poisoned and thus murdered Shenchen near the latter’s birthplace.".....https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/wiki/renaissanceold/Biography%20of%20Shenchen%20Luga.html

Shenchen Luga Writings (rtsom yig):
Innermost Treasury of Life......(g.yung drung las rnam par dag pa srid pa’i phug gi mdo), text written in both Tibetan and Zhangzhung...... revealed in 1017 AD....

"Shenchen Luga was perhaps the greatest and most popular Bönpo of the Tibetan Renaissance period, if not in all of the modern history of Bön. Adepts and supporters trace the religion back to Shenrab Miwo (gshen rab mi bo) and beyond, but there’s no question that the actual religion of Bön, in the admittedly trendy sense of an established and systematized tradition, was founded by Shenchen Luga. His treasure revelations of 1017 and the years that followed (though Shenchen’s own narrative and those of his biographers attribute almost all of his texts to this one year) forged a uniquely Bönpo identity with the very instruments (mature doctrinal, ritual, and narrative texts), strategies (treasure revelation), and sensibilities (lineal autonomy, historical validity) that worked so effectively for the Nyingma Buddhists of the same period. Around the scholarship and personality of Shenchen, the Bön tradition coalesced for the first time, blossoming into a widespread and internally consistent religious system that would inspire polemical publications and considerable anxiety on the part of the more dominant Buddhist traditions for many hundreds of years to come.".....https://collab.itc.virginia.edu

"There were at least fifteen treasure revealers before Shenchen.."........https://collab.itc.virginia.edu

"The Tibetan word, terma, literally means “treasure” and refers to Buddhist (or Bon) scriptures and relics retrieved from the distant past through a process of revelation. There are two principal types of treasures: earth terma, discovered in the Tibetan and Himalayan landscape, and mind terma, discovered in the mind of the terton or “treasure revealer.” The latter should be distinguished with pure visions, or daknang, which appear in the mind of realized masters, but do not necessarily claim ancient origins. Though its source is located in the distant past, a terma is intended for the time and place of its discovery. "......http://shambhalatimes.org/2010/07/01/what-is-terma/

"The year 1017 AD marks the resurgence of Bön, which began with the discovery by Shenchen Luga (gShen-chen klu-dga’, 996-1035 AD) of a number of important concealed texts. With his discoveries Bön re-emerged as a fully systematized religion. Shenchen Luga was born in the Shen clan, descended from Kontsha Wangden (Kong-tsha dbang-ldan), one of Tonpa Shenrab’s sons. The descendants of this important family still live in Tibet......Shenchen Luga had a large following. To three of his disciples he entrusted the task of continuing three different traditions. To the first, Druchen Namkha Yungdrung (Bru-chen nam-mkha’ g.yung-drung) born in the clan of Dru which migrated to Tibet from Druzha (‘Bru-zha, i.e., Gilgit), he entrusted the studies of cosmology and metaphysics (mDzod-phug and Gab-pa)......The second disciple, Zhuye Legpo (Zhu-yas legs-po), was assigned to maintain the Dzogchen teachings and practices. He founded the monastery of Kyikhar Rizhing (sKyid-mkhar ri-zhing).....The third disciple, Paton Palchog (sPa-ston dpal-mchog), took responsibility for upholding the Tantric teachings..".....http://gyalshen.org/history-of-bon-2/

Sources of Tibetan Tradition......Page 259.....By Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Matthew Kapstein

"In the year 1017 AD, Shenchen Luga (gShen-chen klu-dga') came from eastern Tibet and discovered two large wooden boxes containing many Bonpo texts in the Tibetan language, which had been buried at Drigtsam Thakar ('brig-mtsham mtha' dkar) in Tsang Province, near the ancestral seat of the Shen clan...... It was principally this discovery that led to the revival of Bon in central Tibet in the eleventh century...."....http://www.drjameshenley.us/sutra-system/shenchen-luga-and-the-revival-of-bon.html

http://ravencypresswood.com/category/zhang-zhung-language/

"Zhang-zhung Language.......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 Buddhist king of Tibet (Trisong Detsen)......and Zhang-zhung militarily annexed by Tibet.....The Queen of Ligmincha was later able to avenge the death and likewise murdered King Trisong Detsen...... 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://www.acbon.org/ACB/index.php/yungdrung-boen

"Zhang-zhung Tapihritsa or Tapahritsa (c 7th ~ 8th century) was a Bon practitioner who achieved the Dzogchen mastery of the rainbow body and consequently, as a fully realised trikaya Buddha, is invoked as a iṣṭadevatā (Classical Tibetan: yi dam) by Dzogchen practitioners in both Bon and Tibetan Buddhism. He famously achieved the rainbow body achievement.....The historical Tapihritsa was born in Zhangzhung to a family of nomads. Tapihritsa's principal teacher was Dawa Gyaltsen.....Tapihritsa was contemporaneous with Ligmincha, King of Zhangzhung, and Trisong Detsen, Emperor of Tibet."....Karmay, Samten G; Watt, Jeff, eds. (2007). Bon, the magic word : the indigenous religion of Tibet

"The Bön religion.....during the reign of King Drigum Tsenpo (Gri-gum btsan-po') in the 7th century B.C.E. All but the 'Bön of Cause' (rgyu'i bon: the first four of the Nine Ways) was abolished, and most of its practitioners banished. They were, however, able to conceal many texts as terma (gTer-ma, 'treasure') that were rediscovered at a later date by tertons (gTer-ston, 'treasure discoverers').....From the 8th to 11th centuries the practice of Bön went mainly underground. The year 1017 AD marks the resurgence of Bön, which began with the discovery by Shenchen Luga (gShen-chen klu-dga', 996-1035) of a number of important concealed texts.".....http://www.acbon.org/ACB/index.php/yungdrung-boen

"One of the most renowned descendants of the Zhu family lineage is the holy lama Zhu Ye Lekpo. Born into the divine Zhu family, he heard of the Great Shen who had discovered Bön texts and who was the catalyst for a resurgence of the Yungdrung Bön tradition. This Great Shen was Shenchen Luga. Zhu Ye Lekpo went to Shenchen Luga and requested teachings. Shenchen Luga tested his faith by having him act as an attendant for eight years before giving him any teachings or transmissions. However, Zhu Ye Lekpo became Shenchen Luga’s main disciple and responsible for the dzogchen teachings and practice. He founded Ri Zhing Monastery in the eleventh century. This monastery became very famous. At one time, the Tibetan government donated to it more than a dozen estates and it housed over three hundred monks. It was completely destroyed during the Chinese cultural revolution. In the 1980’s, members of the Zhu family began restoring one of the hermitages connected with the monastery. The descendants of the Zhu family now live in India."......http://ravencypresswood.com/category/uncategorized/

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March 2016

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The Nine Ways of Bon & Iranian Central Asia

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"The teachings of Yungdrung Bon did not solely originate in Zhang-zhung, but were said to have been brought from Tazik, that is, Iranian speaking Central Asia, to Zhang-zhung in Western and Northern Tibet by a number of mysterious white-robbed sages long before the political events of the seventh and eighth centuries.........".....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/bonpo.html?showall=1

"..... it now appears likely that before Indian Buddhism came to Central Tibet in the seventh and eighth centuries, Zhang-zhung had extensive contacts with the Buddhist cultures that flourished around it in Central Asia and in the Indo-Tibetan borderlands. Just to the west of Zhang-zhung there once existed the vast Kushana empire which was Buddhist in its religious culture. It was an area in which Indian Buddhism interacted with various strands of Iranian religion-- Zoroastrian, Zurvanist, Mithraist, Manichean, as well as Indian Shaivism and Nestorian Christianity. This was also true of the oasis cities of the Silk Route to the northeast of Zhang-zhung .... the Kalachakra Tantra is said to have been brought from Shambhala in Central Asia to Nalanda in India ....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 "......http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/dzogchen.html?showall=1

"Nine different ways, or vehicles..... even though one is a practitioner of a higher ‘Way’, this does not exclude the practice of one or more of the lower ‘Ways’ should the need arise. Although the methods differ, all of the Nine Ways have compassion as their base..... three different classifications of the Nine Ways of Bön according to the region in which the texts were found after being hidden. These three are referred to as The Southern Treasures (terma texts revealed in Bhutan and the southern area of Tibet)...... The Northern Treasures (terma texts revealed in Zhangzhung and northern Tibet)...... and The Central Treasures ( terma texts revealed in central Tibet close to Samye)......The Nine Ways of Bön"...http://texts.drupal-test.shanti.virginia.edu/node/11463#

"It is held that Tonpa Shenrab first studied the Bon doctrine in Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, at the end of which he pledged to Shenlha Okar, the God of Compassion, that he would guide the peoples of this world to liberation....The ultimate souce of their teachings is sTag-gzigs , a country situated rather vaguely still further to the west... "....https://collab.itc.virginia.edu....Nine Ways of Bon

The Nine Ways of Bon according to The Southern Treasures: (David Snellgrove’s 1961 translation remains the only extended translation of the Nine Ways that is available!)

IX. THE SUPREME WAY (bla-med theg-pa)..... The Unsurpassed Way: This Way is primarily focused upon the practice of Dzogchen, or The Great Perfection. This Way does not rely upon antidotes of any kind, ritual or practice with a meditational deity. It is concerned with the realization of the true nature of one’s own mind.....The categories and ideas elaborated in this IXth Vehicle are usually referred to as the teachings of the 'Great Perfection' ( rdzog-chen ).....the Way of Dzogchen (khyad par chen po'i theg pa or rdzogs pa chen po, abbreviated rdzogs chen) .....In general, the Dzogchen teachings are found only in the old unreformed Tibetan schools of the Buddhist Nyingmapas and the non-Buddhist Bonpos...

VIII. THE WAY OF THE PRIMEVAL SHEN (ye-shen theg-pa)......The Way of the Primordial Shen: This Way is primarily focused upon higher tantric practice......This deals with the need for a suitable master, as suitable partner, and a suitable site. The preparation of the mandala is then described in detail together with important admonitions not to forget the local divinites ( sa-bdag ). The process of mediation (known as the 'Process of Emanation'-in Sanskrit utpattikrama) is recounted. The last Part of this section describes the 'Proces of Realisation' (Sanskrit nispannakrama), which is the 'super-rational' state of the perfected sage. His behaviour might often be mistaken for that of a madman....(ye gshen theg pa) renders the guidelines for seeking a true tantric master and the commitments (dam tshigs, parallel to the Sanskrit samaya) that bind a disciple to his tantric master

VII. THE WAY OF PURE SOUND (a-dkar theg-pa)......The Way of the White AH: This Way is primarily focused upon tantric practice using visualization..... It gives a very good account of the tantric theory of 'transformation' through the mandala......It then goes on to refer briefly to the union of Method and Wisdom as realized by the practiser and his feminine partner.....Way of Primordial Sound (a dkar theg pa) charts the integration of an exalted practitioner into the mandala of highest enlightenment;

VI. THE WAY OF THE GREAT ASCETICS (drang-srong theg-pa).....specifies the proper conduct for those who are fully ordained practitioners.....drang-rong translates rsi which in India refers to the great seers of the past.......Drang-rong is used by bonpos to refer to fully qualified monks, corresponding to the buddhist term dge-slong (= bhiksu ). This is the way of strict ascetic discipline....... The Way of the Fully Ordained: This Way specifies the proper conduct for those who are fully ordained practitioners.....Way of a Monk (drang srong theg pa) codifies monastic rules and regulations;

V. THE WAY OF THE VIRTUOUS ADHERERS (dge-bsnyen theg-pa).......specifies the proper conduct of lay person taking vows.....dGe-bsnyen is the normal Tibetan term for upasaka which in India referred to the Buddhist layman. Similarly, here it refers to those who follow the practice of the ten virtues and the ten perfections, and who build and worship stupas....... The Way of the Virtuous Lay Practitioners: This Way specifies the proper conduct of lay person taking vows....Way of a Lay Follower (dge bsnyen theg pa) contains the ten principles for wholesome activity...

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The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ways are classified as The Causal Ways, or the Bön of Causes. ....Tibetan Shamanism is found in the first four causal ways. Shamans in Tibet take a very earthy and dualistic approach to life, healing the disturbances and illnesses in this life without being concerned about the next life.....These first four causal ways of the native Tibetan shamans’ paths, are called: Chashen (The way of the Shen of Prediction), Nangshen (The Way of the Shen of the Visible World), Trulshen (The Way of the Shen of ‘Magical’ Illusion), and Sichen (The way of the Shen of Existence).....shamanism, healing, magical rites of exorcism, astrology, and divination (these practices belong to the four lower or Causal Ways among the Nine Ways of Bon

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IV. THE WAY OF THE SHEN OF EXISTENCE (srid-gshen theg-pa)...... This Way is primarily focused upon rituals for the dead and methods to promote longevity for the living......This deals with beings in the 'Intermediate state' ( bar-do ) between death and rebirth, and ways of leading them towards salvation......Way of Existence (srid gshen theg pa) details funeral and death rituals....Working with the soul of the living and the dead is the most important feature of the fourth way, Sichen, which contains a detailed explanation of the principle of the la (soul), yid (mind), and sem (thinking mind). “The la is the karmic trace, which is stored in the kunzhi namshe, (or base consciousness). The sem follows the karmic trace and produces blissful, painful and neutral experiences which are experienced by the yid....When a living person’s soul is lost, shattered, or disordered, there are practices to recall and reinforce its energy, such as soul retrieval. In relation to the dead, there are explanations of 81 different types of death, such as accidental death, suicide, murder, and sinister death....following these kinds of death, it is very important to perform appropriate rites....one of the most important practices performed by Tibetan shamans of the sichen path is soul retrieval – Lalu (literally redeeming, or buying back the soul), and Chilu, (redeeming the life-energy)..”

III. THE WAY OF THE SHEN OF ILLUSION (hprul-gshen theg-pa).....This Way includes venerating a deity or master and then applying mantra and mudras in order to accomplish a goal such as requesting assistance from natural energies.....This is concerned with rites for disposing of enemies of all kinds. The rites described here are to be found in the bon tantras, e.g. those of dBal-gsas and the khro-bahi rgyud drug .....Similar practices are referred to in Buddhist tantras, e.g. Hevajra -Tantra...... The Way of the Shen of Manifestation...Way of Illusion ('phrul gshen theg pa) explains the rites for the dispersal of adverse tulpas, entities and energies.....Shamans of the third way, Trulshen, go where there is strong, wild energy, where they perform practices to conquer the spirits and demons that inhabit those places, subjugating them into their service. One achieves this through practising mantra (words of magic power), mudra (meaningful hand gestures to communicate with gods and spirits), and samadhi (meditation), while performing sadhanas (devotional practices) to engage various wrathful goddesses such as Walmo and Chenmo."

II. THE WAY OF THE SHEN OF VISUAL WORLD (snang-gshen theg-pa).....The Way of the Shen of the Phenomenal World: This Way includes rituals dealing with communication with external forces such as rituals of protection, invocation, ransom of the soul and life-force, and of repelling negative or harmful energies.....It is concerned with overpowering or placating the gods and demons of this world...Way of the Visual World (snang shen theg pa) details the psychophysical Universe....Nangshen, comprises various rituals for purification to summon energy and enhance prosperity, to suppress and liberate negative forces, and to invoke and make offerings to powerful deities and pay ransoms to demonic spirits.... In ransom rites, an effigy is prepared which represents the beneficiary of the rite, or the shamanic practitioner who is performing it....people often make life-size effigies dressed it in her clothes, so that it was very lifelike and resembled her closely.....

I. THE WAY OF THE SHEN OF THE PREDICTION (phyva-gshen theg-pa)......This Way includes divination, astrology, various rituals, and medical diagnosis.....four methods of prediction: (a) divination, sortilege (mo)......(b) astrological calculation (rtsis).....(c) ritual (gto).....(d) medical diagnosis (dpyad)....Way of Prediction (phyva gshen theg pa) codifies ritual, prognostication, sortilege and astrology....Chashen, the first way, comprises medical diagnosis and healing, as well as various ancient divination and astrological rites performed by the shaman to determine whether the person who needs to be healed has an energetic imbalance, or is being provoked by a demonic spirit, or negative energy.....

"... if the causal means of shamanism were practiced widely in the world, it would be of great benefit for the environment and the world community......It would be of even greater benefit if all nine vehicles were practiced.".......Shamanism in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet-By Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.....http://entheology.com/peoples/shamanism-in-the-native-bon-tradition-of-tibet/

http://ravencypresswood.com/2013/02/24/what-are-the-nine-ways-of-bon/

"In 1961, Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, Geshe Lungtok Tenpa’i Nyima Rinpoche, the future abbot of Menri Monastery, and Geshe Samten Karmey were invited to England by David Snellgrove. During this time, Yongdzin Rinpoche suggested the translation of excerpts of the Nine Ways based upon the Southern Treasures. Yongdzin Rinpoche personally selected the passages that David Snellgrove translated. In 1967, these excerpts were published as The Nine Ways of Bön. At that time, very little was known about the Yungdrung Bön tradition among Western scholars. There was a great deal of theorizing and conjecture. So, although Snellgrove’s translation of the text is quite accurate, his own personal conclusions as to the origins and influences of the Yungdrung Bön should be taken within the context of the time in which he was writing. However, to-date, his translation remains the only extended translation of the Nine Ways that is available."

"The ultimate souce of their teachings is sTag-gzigs , a country situated rather vaguely still further to the west... " ......The Nine Ways of Bon: Excerpts from Gzi-brjid". Edited and Translated by D.L. Snellgrove, pp.1-23 London Oriental Series , Vol 18, Oxford University Press 1968......http://paganscholarscorner.homestead.com/The-Nine-Ways-of-Bon.html

"In the Tibetan Bon traditon.....the first 4 of the Nine Ways are Shamanic Levels of Ordinary Elemental Magic.......the the next 3 are Tantric Transformation Levels.....and the highest 2 are Dzogchen Direct Experience Levels...in all nine levels of Bon the connecting deity is Shenlha Okar."

"Tibetan Bonpo in ancient times appeared to cover a number of different types of practitioner, whether shaman, magician, or priest. Here there seems to be a strong parallel of the role of the Bonpo in ancient Tibet with that of the Druid in ancient pre-Christian Europe. Just as the Druidic order was divided into the three functions of the Bards, the Vates, and the Druids, who were singers, soothsayers, and magicians respectively, so the ancient pre- Buddhist kingdom of Tibet was said to be protected by the Drung (sgrung) who were bards and singers of epics, the Deu (lde'u) who were soothsayers and diviners, and the Bonpo (bon-po) who were priests and magicians."(John M.Reynolds)

"The Nyingma classifies the teachings into 9 yanas or vehicles for realisation. These are all equally precious and each is complete within itself with a ground, a path and a fruit." ...http://www.nyingma.com/The%20Nine%20Yanas.htm

"According to the Nyingmapa school, the various systems of teachings are subdivided into the following nine paths or “vehicles” culminating in purified Maha Ati awareness. The first three generally teach the way of renunciation (spong lam), the second three teach purification (sbyong lam), and the last three the way of transformation (sgyur lam):
1. The worldly vehicle of divinities and men (‘jig rten Iha mi’I theg pa), including all non-Buddhist religions.
2. The vehicle of the shravakas (listeners) and of the pratyekabuddhas –those who seek enlightenment solely for their own sake, i.e.; Hinayana Buddhism.
3. The vehicle of the bodhisattvas, consisting of the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism.
Next appear the three vehicles known as the External Tantras. These teachings and practices are concerned with purification and preparation to receive the wisdom teachings of realized beings that follow. These vehicles are known as: 4. Kriya Tantra; 5. Ubhava Tantra; and 6. Yoga Tantra. Concerning the next three vehicles, strictly speaking only 7. Maha-yoga, and, 8. Anu-yoga, are known as Internal Tantras. Classed as tantras, they are teachings and practices involved primarily with the transformation of the individual into the pure dimension of realization.
9. Ati-yoga, the self-liberated state, is based on the direct experiential knowledge of the primordial state, the joining (or realization of the inseparability) of what is known as the Path (or: Child) and Mother Luminosity.".....http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2010/05/maha-ati-natural-liberation-through-primordial-awareness/

http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/dzogchen.html?showall=1

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March 2016

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Uttarakuru and Uttaramadra in the Aitareya Brahmana (c.1000 BC)

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"Uttarakuru (Sanskrit: उत्तर कुरु) is the name of a dvipa ("continent") in ancient Hindu and Buddhist mythology......Uttarakuru country and its people are sometimes described as belonging to the real world, whereas at other times they are mythical or otherworldly spiritual beings.....Aitareya Brahmana makes first reference to Uttarakuru and Uttaramadra as real-life Janapadas. According to Aitareya Brahmana, these two nations lay beyond the Himalayan ranges (Hindukush). The Aitareya Brahmana adduces these two people as examples of republican (vairajiya) nations, where whole Janapada took the consecration of rulership.......Aitareya Brahmana again notes that Uttarakuru was a deva-kshetra or divine land......Uttarakuru also finds numerous references in Buddhist literature, sometimes as a real land and other times as a mythical region.....Ramayana testifies that the original home of the Kurus was in Bahli country. Ila, son of Parajapati Karddama was a king of Bahli, where Bahli represents Sanskrit Bahlika (Bactria)....Bahlika or Bactria may have constituted the Uttarakuru. Mahabharata and Sumangalavilasini also note that the people of Kuru had originally migrated from Uttarakutru. Bactria is evidently beyond the Hindukush.....".....Geographical Data in Early Puranas, 1972, Dr M. R. Singh

"Uttara Madra is a kingdom grouped among the western kingdoms in the epic Mahabharata. It is identified to be located to the northwest of eastern Madra with Sagala as its capital. It was situated along the ancient route called Uttarapatha extending from Vanga Kingdom in the eastern sea shore through the Gangetic Plain, Punjab, mountain passes of the Western Mountains, to the city of Balkh in Afghanistan and to the far western countries. In some parts of the epic, Uttara Madra and Bahlika are considered as the same country. Arjuna collected tribute from Uttara Madra during his northern military campaign for Yudhishthira's Rajasuya sacrifice."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttara_Madra_Kingdom

"The Aitareya Brahmana (Sanskrit: ऐतरेय ब्राह्मण) is the Brahmana of the Shakala shakha of the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of sacred hymns.....The Aitareya Brahmana is dated variously from 1000 BC to 500 BC."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Brahmana

"Jean Przylusky has shown that Bahlika (Balkh) was an Iranian settlement of the Madras who were known as Bahlika-Uttaramadras....The Kambojas, the neighbors of the Uttaramadras, here obviously refers to the Parama-Kambojas branch the Kambojas located in Trans-Hindukush regions."....An Ancient People of Panjab, The Udumbras, Journal Asiatique, 1926, p 11, Jean Przylusky showing that Bahlika (Balkh) was an Iranian settlement of the Madras who were known as Bahlika-Uttaramadras.

"The Uttaramadra was the northern branch of the Madra people who are numerously referenced in ancient Sanskrit and Pali literature. In Aitareya Brahmana (VIII.14), the Uttarakuru and the Uttaramadra tribes are stated to be living beyond Himalaya.

"Since Uttarakuru of the Aitareya Brahmana is said to lie beyond Himalaya, the Bahlika or Bactria is also beyond Hindukush (i.e ... Kurus, the Madras were also originally a people living in/around Bahlika as is suggested by Vamsa Brahmana of the Sama Veda which text refers to one Madragara Shaungayani as ... In Aitareya Brahmana, the Uttarakurus and Uttaramadras are stated as living beyond Himalaya (paren himvantam) ..."....http://www.liquisearch.com/what_is_aitareya_brahmana

"The Ramayana seems to localize the Uttarakurus in Bahlika country. According to it, Ila, son of Prajapati Karddama, king of Bahli (Bahlika) country, gave up Bahli in favor of his son Sasabindu and founded the city of Pratisthana in Madhyadesa. The princes of the Aila dynasty (which is also the dynasty of Kurus) have been called Karddameya. The Karddameyas obtained their names from river Kardama in Persia and therefore, their homeland is identified with Bahlika or Bactria. This indicates that Bahlika or Bactria was the original home of the Kuru clans.... According to Jean Przylusky, the Bahlika (Balkh) was an Iranian settlement of the Madras who were known as Bahlika-Uttaramadras...in the remote antiquity (Vedic age), the (Iranian settlement of) the Madras was located in parts of Bahlika (Bactria)--the western parts of the Oxus country. These Madras were, in fact, the Uttaramadras of the Aitareya Brahmana (VIII/14). However, in 4th c BC, this Bahlika/Bactria came under Yavana/Greek political control and thus the land started to be referenced as Bahlika-Yavana in some of ancient Sanskrit texts..".....http://www.liquisearch.com/bahlikas/kurus-bahlikas-kambojas-madras_remote_connection

".... the Uttarakurus, Uttaramadras and Kambojas-- all were located beyond the Himalaya/Hindukush ranges. Probably, the Uttarakurus were located in the northern parts of Bahlika, the Uttaramadras were in the southern parts of it and the Kambojas (=Parama Kambojas) were to the east of Bahlika, in the Transoxiana region. The ancient Bahlika appears to have spanned a large expanse of territory. The commentator of Harsha-Carita of Bana Bhatta also defines the Kambojas as Kambojah-Bahlika-Desajah i.e. the Kambojas originated in/belonged to Bahlika. Thus, it seems likely that in the remote antiquity, the ancestors of the Uttarakurus, Uttaramadras and the Parama Kambojas were one people or otherwise were closely allied and had lived in/around Bahlika (Bactria)."............http://www.liquisearch.com/bahlikas/kurus-bahlikas-kambojas-madras_remote_connection

"Astronomy played a significant role in Vedic rituals, which were conducted at different periods of a year. The Aitareya Brahmana (4.18) states the sun stays still for a period of 21 days, and reaches its highest point on vishuvant, the middle day of this period...".....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Brahmana

"This work, according to the tradition, is ascribed to Mahidasa Aitareya.".....Arthur Berriedale Keith (1920). Rigveda Brahmanas: The Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas of the Rigveda. Mot

"The Aitareya Aranyaka is undoubtedly a composite work, and it is possible that the Aitareya Brahmana also had multiple authors."

"The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rigveda: Translation, edited by Martin Haug...(1827-1876)..... Oriental scholar and one of the founders of Iranian studies. His contributions to Old and Middle Iranian studies remained influential well into the twentieth century....His intimate, cordial, and affable manner of communicating with Hindu brahmans and Parsi priests (dasturs) enabled him to obtain the most extended and accurate information concerning their beliefs, rites, and customs ever vouchsafed to any European....He also bought Avesta, Pahlavi, and Vedic manuscripts for his own private collection.....His lectures on Indo-Iranian philology, linguistics, and Oriental studies....Haug published his Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings and Religion of the Parsis (Bombay, 1862), which offered the first grammatical description of the Avestan language in comparison with Sanskrit.....Haug argued that Zarathushtra taught a pure, ethical monotheism and a philosophical dualism, that there was no evidence for rituals in the Gathas, and that the prophet’s teachings were corrupted by later generations."...http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/haug-martin

The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rigveda: Translation, edited by Martin Haug.....http://www.wilbourhall.org/pdfs/vedas/aitereya/the_aitareya_brahmanam_of_the_rigveda__s.pdf

Studies in Vedic and Indo-Iranian Religion and Literature....by Kshetresh Chandra Chattopadhyay.... 1978....The University of Virginia

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January 2016

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Shams Al-Marif & the Cabbalistic Sufi Ahmad al-Buni (1200 AD)

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Shams Al-Marif....(The Sun of Great Knowledge)......is the leading text of Islamic Occultism, written by the mysterious Cabbalistic Sufi Ahmad al-Buni...... The Shams al-Ma’arif rivals the Picatrix in importance. Most of the "time-tested" books on sorcery in the Muslim world are simplified excerpts from the Shams al-Ma’arif......http://www.antiochgate.com/9_buni_shams.htm

Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Buni (Arabic: أحمد البوني‎), his complete name is Sharaf al-Din or Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Yusuf al-Buni al-Maliki al-ifriqi...... (died 1225) was a well known Sufi and writer on the esoteric value of letters and topics relating to mathematics, sihr (sorcery) and spirituality, but very little is known about him. .....A contemporary of Ibn Arabi, he is best known for writing one of the most important books of his era; the Shams al-Ma'arif, a book that is still regarded as the foremost occult text on talismans and divination. It was to be banned soon after as heretical by followers of the Islamic orthodoxy.

"Shams al-Ma'arif or Shams al-Ma'arif wa Lata'if al-'Awarif (Arabic: كتاب شمس المعارف ولطائف العوارف‎, lit. "The Book of the Sun of Gnosis and the Subtleties of Elevated Things") is a 13th-century grimoire written on Arabic magic and a manual for achieving esoteric spirituality. It was written by quasi-Qabalistic Sufi Sheikh Ahmad bin Ali Al-buni in Egypt, who died around 1225 AD. The Shams al-Ma'arif is generally regarded as the most influential textbook of its type in the Arab and Muslim worlds, and is arguably as important as, if not more than, the Picatrix in both hemispheres. .....the book consists of two volumes; Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra and Shams al-Ma'arif al-Sughra, the former being the larger of the two. The first few chapters introduce the reader to magic squares, and the combination of numbers and the alphabet that are believed to bring magical effect, which the author insists is the only way to communicate with genies, angels and spirits......While being popular, it also carries a reputation for being suppressed and banned for much of Islamic history......Modern Sufi circles such as the Balkan-based Naqshbandi-Haqqani order have recognised its legitimacy and use as a compendium for the occult, and hold it in high regard........Another title by the same author, namely Manba' Usool al-Hikmah ("The Source of the Essentials of Wisdom"), is considered its companion text.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shams_al-Ma%27arif

"Picatrix is the name used today, and historically in Christian Europe, for a 400-page book of occult magic and astrology originally written in Arabic under the title غاية الحكيم Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, which most scholars assume was originally written in the middle of the 11th century.....it is a composite work that synthesizes older works on magic and astrology. One of the most influential interpretations suggests it is to be regarded as a "handbook of talismanic magic" & "the most thorough exposition of celestial magic in Arabic"......as indispensable as the Corpus Hermeticum or the writings of Albumasar for understanding a conspicuous part of the production of the Renaissance, including the figurative arts."......The Spanish and Latin versions were the only ones known to Western scholars until Wilhelm Printz discovered an Arabic version in or around 1920.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picatrix

The Bunî Pamphlet....Whereabouts: In an unknown private manuscript collection in Istanbul, according to some rumors this collection is in Beyazit Library.

"Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn Yusuf al-Buni....(died 1225 AD).... was a well known Sufi and writer on the esoteric value of letters and topics relating to mathematics, sorcery and spirituality, but very little is known about him. Al-Buni lived in Egypt and learned from many eminent Sufi masters of his time. He wrote one of the most famous books of his era, the Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra (Sun of the Great Knowledge) which is one of the most widely read medieval treatises on talismans, magic squares and occult practices. This work rivals the Picatrix in importance. This book was later banned by orthodox Muslims as heretical, but continues to be read and studied......His another infamous work is called Bunî Risalesi(the Bunî Pamphlet), which is kept hidden from public and academic knowledge because of its contents. It is told that the 1208 page Bûni Pamphlet explains how to summon and dominate a djinn or a demon with charms and spellsi, the preparations of these spells and charms are also included with every detail. Only a few pages of the manuscript have leaked in 800 years and the very few people, which had the chance to see the original manuscript, has never(or according to some rumors could never) spoke about it."......http://artifactsofistanbul.blogspot.com/

Qalam al-tabli.....The Egyptian Magician al-Buni and His Work... ......http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/mekka-angawi/Witkam-2007-Buni-Gazing.pdf

"Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Buni (Arabic: أحمد البوني‎), his complete name is Sharaf al-Din or Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Yusuf al-Buni al-Maliki al-ifriqi (born in Bône (Annaba), Algeria died 1225) was a well known Sufi and writer on the esoteric value of letters and topics relating to mathematics, sihr (sorcery) and spirituality, but very little is known about him. Al-Buni lived in Egypt and learned from many eminent Sufi masters of his time......A contemporary of Ibn Arabi, he is best known for writing one of the most important books of his era; the Shams al-Ma'arif, a book that is still regarded as the foremost occult text on talismans and divination. It was to be banned soon after as heretical by followers of the Islamic orthodoxy...Al-Buni also made regular mention in his work of Plato, Aristotle, Hermes, Alexander the Great, and obscure Chaldean magicians.."

Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra ..... The Sun of Great Knowledge

Ahmad al-Buni .......Shams al-Ma'airf al-Kubra (the Great Sun of Gnoses), Cairo, 1928.

Magic and the Occult in Islam: Ahmad al-Buni (622H/1225CE?) and his Shams Al-Ma'arif .......https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTdWHuBexmc......A lecture by Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad (Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilizations, American University in Cairo) delivered at the Warburg Institute, University of London, School of Advanced Study, on 1 May 2013.

JINN in Islam: "Beings of airy bodies, intelligent, imperceptible, capable of appearing under different forms and of carrying out heavy labours. They were created of smokeless flame, while mankind and the angels (the other two classes of intelligent beings) were created of clay and light.".....
"The caravan... came at last, at the fall of a certain night, to a column of stone to which a strange being was chained, one half of whose body was visible and the other half deeply hidden in the ground. The upper half seemed to be that of something of monstrous birth imprisoned there by some infernal powers. It was black and large as the trunk of an old and naked palm-tree; it had two great black wings and four hands, of which two were like the taloned feet of lions. A shaggy covering of rude onager-tail hairs moved savagely upon the terrible head, while under the roofs of the sockets flamed two red eyes, and a third shone immovable green like that of a tiger or a panther, between the twin horns of the bull-like brow."....The Book of the Thousand and One Nights

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June 2015

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The Vedas, Upanishads, the Avesta & Proto-Indo-Iranic Languages (2100 BC)

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"Grammatically there is little difference between the languages of the Avesta and the Vedas. Both languages underwent systematic phonetic change. However, according to Thomas-Burrow, in his book, The Sanskrit Language: ' It is quite possible to find verses in the oldest portion of the Avesta, which simply by phonetic substitutions according to established laws can be turned into intelligible Sanskrit.' ....The languages of the Avesta and the Vedas shared some vocabulary that is not shared with the other Indo-European languages....."...http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sanskritavestan.htm

"The Vedas are perhaps the oldest written text on our planet today. They date back to the beginning of Indian civilization and are the earliest literary records of the whole Aryan race. They are supposed to have been passed through oral tradition for over 100,000 years. They came to us in written form between 4-6,000 years ago......The Vedas are divided into four groups, Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda. Each group has an original text (Mantra) and a commentary portion (Brahmana).....The Brahmana again has two portions, one interpreting ritual and the other the philosophy. The portions interpreting the philosophy of the original texts constitute the Upanishads......There are also auxiliary texts called Vedangas. Vedic literature refers to the whole of this vast group of literature. The whole of Rgveda and most of Atharvaveda are in the form of poetry, or hymns to the deities and the elements......Samaveda is in verses that are to be sung and Yajurveda is largely in short prose passages. Both Samaveda and Yajurveda are concerned with rituals rather than philosophy - especially Yajurveda."....http://www.crystalinks.com/vedas.html

"The Vedic forms of belief are one of the precursors to modern Hinduism. Texts considered to date to the Vedic period are mainly the four Vedas, but the Brahmanas, Aranyakas and the older Upanishads as well as the oldest Shrautasutras are also considered to be Vedic.....The rishis, the composers of the hymns of the Rigveda, were considered inspired poets and seers (in post-Vedic times understood as "hearers" of an eternally existing Veda, Śrauta means "what is heard")."

"The Upanishads are regarded as part of the Vedas and as such form part of the Hindu scriptures. They primarily discuss philosophy, meditation, and the nature of God; they form the core spiritual thought of Vedantic Hinduism. Considered as mystic or spiritual contemplations of the Vedas, their putative end and essence, the Upanishads are known as Vedanta ("the end/culmination of the Vedas"). The Upanishads do not belong to a particular period of Sanskrit literature. The oldest, such as the Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads, may date to the Brahmana period (roughly before the 31st century BC; before Gita was constructed), while the youngest, depending on the canon used, may date to the medieval or early modern period......The word Upanishad comes from the Sanskrit verb sad (to sit) and the two prepositions upa and ni (under and at). They are sacred tests of spiritual and philosophical nature. Vedic literature is divided into karmakanda containing Samhitas (hymns) and Brahmanas (commentaries), and gyanakanda containing knowledge in the form of the Aranyakas and Upanishads. Thus each Upanishad is associated with a Veda, Isha-upanishad with Shukla Yajurveda, Kena-upanishad with Samaveda, and so on.......The earliest Upanishads may have been composed between B.C. 800 and 400.........There have been several later additions, leading to 112 Upanishads being available today. But the major Upanishads are ten, Isha, Kena, Kattha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Shwetashwatara, Chhandogya and Brihadaryanyaka. The teachings of the Upanishads, and those of the Bhagavat Gita, form the basis of the Vedanta philosophy......The Isha-upanishad emphasizes the identity of the human soul with the divine soul. The Kena-upanishad discusses the qualities of the divine essence (Brahman) and the relationship of the gods to the divine essence. The Katha-upanishad, through the story of Nachiketa, discussed death and the permanence of the soul (Atman). The fairly long Chhandogya-upanishad develops the idea of transmigration of souls. The rihadaryanaka -upanishad, the longest of the Upanishads, bears the message of the completeness of the divine essence, and the associated peace. As literary remnants of the ancient past, the Upanishads - both lucid and elegant - have great literary value. ".....http://www.crystalinks.com/vedas.html

“Avesta” is the name the Mazdean (Mazdayasnian) religious tradition gives to the collection of its sacred texts. The etymology and the exact meaning of the name (Pahlavi ʾp(y)stʾk/abestāg) can not be considered established...... The twenty-one nasks “books” of the Avesta, which were created by Ahura Mazdā, were brought by Zaraθuštra to king Vištāspa....... The Avestan texts can not be dated accurately, nor can their language be located geographically.....Avesta is the collection of texts in Avestan, and Zand their translation and commentary ..... The interest of the book of Avesta is twofold; on the one hand, it transmits to us the first Mazdean speculations and, on the other hand, it contains the only evidence for Avestan, an Old Iranian language which together with Old Persian constitutes the Iranian sub-division of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. The Avesta is a compilation of ancient texts, which we owe to the collaboration of the Mazdean priesthood and the Sasanian political power, but of which, unfortunately, only a fraction has been transmitted to us by the Parsi communities of India and Iran, which still remain true to the old religion. The corpus which Western scholarship has reconstituted is found in manuscripts that all date from this millennium; the most ancient dates from A.D. 1288."....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/avesta-holy-book

"The languages of the two scriptures, the Zoroastrian Avesta and Hindu Rig Veda, are similar but not identical, indicating that at the time of their composition, the people of the Avesta and the Rig Veda were related and close neighbours - in a fashion similar to two provinces within one country - provinces where the people spoke two dialects of the same language.....The following is an example of the closeness of the Avestan Old Iranian and Rig-Vedic (Sanskrit) languages:
Old Iranian/Avestan: aevo pantao yo ashahe, vispe anyaesham apantam (Yasna 72.11)
Old Indian/Rig Vedic: abade pantha he ashae, visha anyaesham apantham
Translation: the one path is that of Asha, all others are not-paths.
...At the time the earliest sections of the Avesta and Rig Veda were composed, the Aryans were residents of the Aryan lands or Aryan nation, called Airyana Vaeja or Airyanam Dakhyunam in the Avesta and Arya Varta in the Hindu scriptures. In the Avestan and Hindu texts, Airyana Vaeja or Arya Varta was a beautiful but mysterious mountainous land..... While the precise location of the original Aryan homeland is lost to us, we have been left with ample clues which allow us to draw reasonable conclusions about its likely location, the mountain regions of Central Asia.......The name Airyana Vaeja was contracted over the years to Airan Vej, Iran Vej (in Middle Persian texts) and finally to Iran.......The two Indo-Iranian Aryan groups eventually ceased to be close neighbours. They separated and migrated to present day India and Iran, becoming Indians and Iranians in the process.".......http://heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/index.htm

"Indo-Iranian migrations.......The Indo-Iranian language and culture emerged in the Sintashta culture (c. 2100–1800 BCE), where the chariot was invented. The Indo-Iranian language and culture was further developed in the Andronovo culture (c. 1800–1400 BC), and influenced by the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (c. 2300–1700 BC). The Indo-Aryans split off around 1800–1600 BC from the Iranians,[ whereafter Indo-Aryan groups moved to the Levant (Mitanni), northern India (Vedic people, c. 1500 BC), and China (Wusun)..... Thereafter the Iranians migrated into Iran.."....Anthony, David W. (2007). The Horse The Wheel And Language. How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped The Modern World. Princeton University Press.

Mipham's commentary on the Shambhala sections of the Kalachakra Tantra......Page 9......https://www.scribd.com/doc/220888297/Mipham-Commentaries-About-Kalachakra-Tantra#scribd

"The Rigdens other than Rigden Raudrachakrin are of the Asura family because of bestowing fear. If one thinks this explanation is not suitable, Palden Raudrachakrin having a short spear bestows fear in the asura family. So it is taught.... The linguistic history indicates that the Aryans ("Indo-Europeans"....."Iran") originally formed a single people until the beginning of the 2nd millenium BC when the Deva worshipping Indian Aryans and the Asura worshiping Iranian Aryans went separate ways....... ... The Kalachakra discusses the expulsion of the Deva worshippers from Shambhala and refers to the Rigden kings as Asura." (Ehsan Yarshater: 1987..pg 684..... Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III/2, 1987. ) .....Ehsan Yarshater is the founder and director of The Center for Iranian Studies, and Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Columbia University. He is one of the 40 editors of the Encyclopædia Iranica.

"Sir William Jones reveals his admiration for the eldest son of Shah Jahān, the scholar prince Dārā Šokōh, who had inherited the syncretic mantle of his great-grandfather, Akbar, composing a Persian text entitled Majmaʿ al-baḥ-rayn (The Mingling of the Two Oceans) that maintained that the fundamental tenets of Hinduism were essentially monotheistic and identical with those of Islam. Jones also followed Dārā Šokōh’s lead in being drawn to the late Vedas, the Upanishads. Dārā Šokōh had assembled a team of pandits from Benares to translate the Upanishads into Persian, producing in 1657 the Serr-e akbar (The Great Secret). Jones also loved revealing great secrets and, although Anquetil-Duperron had translated four of the Upanishads from the Serr-e akbar into French in 1787, and later published the influential Oupnek’hat (1802) which included the entire fifty-one Upanishads of the Serr-e akbar, Jones’s Isa-Upanishad was the first direct translation of an Upanishad from the Sanskrit into a Western language....." Sir William Jones (1746-1794), orientalist and judge, noted for his enduring commitment to a syncretic East-West synthesis and unshakeable belief in cultural pluralism.

"The Vedic period (or Vedic age) (ca.1750–500 BC) was the period in Indian history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed.....During the early part of the Vedic period, the Indo-Aryans settled into northern India, bringing with them their specific religious traditions. The associated culture (sometimes referred to as Vedic civilization) was initially a tribal, pastoral society centred in the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent; it spread after 1200 BC to the Ganges Plain, as it was shaped by increasing settled agriculture, a hierarchy of four social classes, and the emergence of monarchical, state-level polities.....The end of the Vedic period witnessed the rise of large, urbanized states as well as of shramana movements (including Jainism and Buddhism) which challenged the Vedic orthodoxy.".....Samuel, Geoffrey (2010), The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press

"Stephanie W. Jamison and Michael Witzel in Arvind Sharma, editor, The Study of Hinduism. University of South Carolina Press, 2003, page 65: "... to call this period Vedic Hinduism is a contradiction in terms since Vedic religion is very different from what we generally call Hindu religion - at least as much as Old Hebrew religion is from mediaeval and modern Christian religion. However, Vedic religion is treatable as a predecessor of Hinduism."

"Rishi (Sanskrit: ṛṣi, Devanagari: ऋषि) originates from the ancient Hindu culture of the Indus region earth-based cultures. Rishis were the scribes of the large body of nature hymns and spiritual science known as the Vedas….A Rishi (or rishika, when referring to female rishis) is a sage of insight, one who practices self-cultivation as a Yogini or Yogi and attains asamprajñata Samadhi. ....…In the Kalachakra…..there is an event which shows that this country was not entirely free of historical conflict. This concerns the protest of a group of no less than 35 million (!) Rishis (seers) led by the sage Suryaratha ("sun chariot”). As the first Kulika king, Manjushrikirti, preached the Kalachakra Tantra to his subjects, Suryaratha distanced himself from it, and his followers, the Rishis, joined him. They preferred to choose banishment from Shambhala than to follow the “diamond path” (Vajrayana)…….The Rishis worshipped only the sun. For this reason they also called their guru the “sun chariot” (suryaratha). But the Kulika king had as Kalachakra master and cosmic androgyne united both heavenly orbs in himself. He was the master of sun and moon." ….. (Bernbaum, 1980, p. 234).

Map of northen India in the later Vedic Period

"The Upanishads are sometimes referred to as Vedanta, variously interpreted to mean either the "last chapters, parts of the Veda" or "the object, the highest purpose of the Veda". The concepts of Brahman (Ultimate Reality) and Ātman (Soul, Self) are central ideas in all the Upanishads......The Upanishads are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and its diverse traditions. Of the Vedic corpus, they alone are widely known, and the central ideas of the Upanishads are at the spiritual core of Hindus.......More than 200 Upanishads are known, of which the first dozen or so are the oldest and most important and are referred to as the principal or main (mukhya) Upanishads. The mukhya Upanishads are found mostly in the concluding part of the Brahmanas and Aranyakas and were, for centuries, memorized by each generation and passed down verbally. The early Upanishads all predate the Common Era, some in all likelihood pre-Buddhist (6th century BC), down to the Maurya period. Of the remainder, some 95 Upanishads are part of the Muktika canon, composed from about the start of common era through medieval Hinduism. New Upanishads, beyond the 108 in the Muktika canon, continued to being composed through the early modern and modern era, though often dealing with subjects which are unconnected to the Vedas."....

"The Upanishads (Sanskrit: उपनिषत्, IAST: Upaniṣat, IPA: [upəniʂət̪]; plural: Sanskrit: उपनिषदः) are a collection of texts in the Vedic Sanskrit language which contain the earliest emergence of some of the central religious concepts of Hinduism, some of which are shared with Buddhism and Jainism."

"Avestan language.....Avestan /əˈvɛstən/, formerly also known as "Zend", is an Iranian language of the Eastern Iranian division, known only from its use as the language of Zoroastrian scripture, i.e. the Avesta, from which it derives its name. Its area of composition comprised ancient Arachosia, Aria, Bactria, and Margiana, corresponding to the entirety of present-day Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Yaz culture of Bactria-Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early Eastern Iranian culture described in the Avesta.....Avestan's status as a sacred language has ensured its continuing use for new compositions long after the language had ceased to be a living language. It is closely related to Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language.".....Witzel, Michael. "THE HOME OF THE ARYANS" Harvard University. "Since the evidence of Young Avestan place names so clearly points to a more eastern location, the Avesta is again understood, nowadays, as an East Iranian text, whose area of composition comprised -- at least -- Sīstån/Arachosia, Herat, Merw and Bactria."

Click on the map to enlarge

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

May 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Sovereign King of Sutras, the Sacred Golden Light (500 AD)

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"During the third turning of the wheel, the Buddha is said to have taught the gser 'od dam pa'i mdo (Supreme Golden Rays Sutra)...The Golden Light Sutra or Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra (Sanskrit: सुवर्णप्रभासोत्तमसूत्रेन्द्रराज, IAST: Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājaḥ), also known by the Old Uygur title Altun Yaruq, is a Buddhist text of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the full title is The Sovereign King of Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light."

"The sutra was originally written in Sanskrit and was translated several times into Chinese ....and later translated into Tibetan and other languages.....The name of the sutra derives from the chapter called "The Confession of the Golden Drum", where the bodhisattva Ruchiraketu dreams of a great drum that radiates a sublime golden light, symbolizing the dharma or teachings of Gautama Buddha....its fundamental message, which teaches that the Four Heavenly Kings protect the ruler who governs his country in the proper manner.....the sutra also expounds the vows of the goddesses Sarasvatī (Lakṣmī ) and Dṛḍhā (the earth goddess Sthāvarā or Dṛḍhā) to protect any bhikṣu who will uphold and teach the sutra...."

"On a linguistic rampage through the etymology of "magic" (Old Persion maguš) I stumbled across something fascinating. Acc. to Wiki, maguš denoted followers of Zoroaster (Persian Zaratuštra), whom the Greeks believed had the ability to "read the stars, and manipulate the fate that the stars foretold." …..The "zar" in Zaratuštra is from old Eastern-Iranian zar, meaning "gold." That was an eyebrow-raiser - gold in Tibet is gser (pronounced "ser"). …..Turns out a folk etymology of Zaratuštra is zaraϑa, "golden", plus *uštra, "light" (from the root uš, "to shine"). …..gser 'od (pronounced "ser ö") is a well-used phrase in Tibetan meaning "golden light," and 'od 'phro (pronounced "ö tro") means "to shine; radiating light rays." …..Sorry this is all sort of meander-y, but suffice it to say, the Persian "zar* + *uštra" and Tibetan "ser + ö tro" both having to do with golden light, would be considered a worthy topic of exploration in the linguistic field. …..Aside from linguistic curiosities, a big question to me would be whether there was a central aspect of Zoroastrian teachings having to do with "golden light," and whether that golden light feature was considered magical, supernatural, healing, etc. It could be coincidental, too--a famous teacher/physician who just happened to have a personal name meaning "golden light." ……During the third turning of the wheel, the Buddha is said to have taught the gser 'od dam pa'i mdo (Supreme Golden Rays Sutra), which contains a chapter entitled nad thams cad zhi bar byed pa'i rgyud (The Ways of Completely Curing Diseases). "….http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/8487/buddhism-in-regards-to-magic-o/p3

"gser 'od dam pa…..Sutra of the Sacred Golden Light ……the eighth of the rdzogs chen ston pa bcu gnyis Sacred Golden Light Sutra; Sutra of the Sacred Golden Light; Sublime Golden Light …..sutra of the sacred golden light"…..http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/gser_'od_dam_pa

"Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma (Skt. tridharmacakra; Tib. chö khor rimpa sum; Wyl. chos 'khor rim pa gsum) — the three major series of teachings given by the Buddha, according to the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition. To 'turn the wheel of Dharma' means to teach the Dharma.:
The first turning took place in the Deer Park at Sarnath, Varanasi, where Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths.
The intermediate turning on the absence of characteristics took place on Vulture's Peak Mountain near Rajagriha.
The final turning on the complete revelation took place in Vaishali and other places and included the sutras that explain the three natures, such as the Lankavatara Sutra.

"The holy Sutra of Golden Light is the king of the sutras. It is extremely powerful and fulfills all one's wishes, as well as bringing peace and happiness for all sentient beings, up to enlightenment. It is also extremely powerful for world peace, for your own protection, and for the protection of the country and the world. Also, it has great healing power for people in the country. Anyone can read this text, Buddhists and non-Buddhists, who desire world peace. This also protects individuals and the country from what are labeled natural disasters of the wind element, fire element, earth element, and water element, such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones, fires, tornadoes, etc. They are not natural because they come from causes and conditions that make dangers happen. They come from people’s past inner negative thoughts and actions, and from external conditions. The benefits of reading this sutra are immeasurable. Reciting just a few lines of the Sutra of Golden Light creates more merit than making immeasurable offerings to the Buddha. Reciting this Sutra directs one's life towards enlightenment. There is so much merit. One's life becomes so easy—whatever one wishes for one receives. There is unbelievable purification. One liberates numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and brings them to enlightenment.".....http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=328&chid=1511

"Sutra of Golden Light (Suvarna-prabhasa-uttamaraja) was popular in China since the 6th century. It includes the philosophy of Buddha’s nature, the methods of confession and the benefits of reciting/spreading this sutra. One of the benefits is that the country would gain protection from the Four Heavenly Kings. This belief caused people to increase their faiths in the Heavenly Kings in Central Asia, especially the Khotanese, before they converted to Islam. The philosophical part of this sutra later merged with the Lotus Sutra and the confession ceremony is a monastic practice, therefore it is not as well known as the other sutras.".....The Religions in Dunhuang....http://public.dha.ac.cn/content.aspx?id=241808307552

Amitabha Buddha.....Buddha of Boundless Light

"....among the late Mahayana sutras is the Sutra of Golden Light......... It appeared in the language which western scholars generally call Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. How long the Sutra of Golden Light existed as an oral tradition before being written down we've no means of knowing, but in spirit at least it goes back to the time of the Buddha, to the historical Buddha. Now the sutra, the Sutra of Golden Light, did not appear all at once. It did not appear fully formed, complete. When we say that it appeared during the period 5th to the 8th century AD we don't mean that it appeared at some particular point within that period. We mean that it took the whole of that period to emerge, in other words a period of three hundred years. It took three hundred years to emerge gradually as a literary document. And this is not at all unusual..... From the first century BC to the 10th century AD, during all that period, that period of a thousand years, oral traditions were being committed to writing as scriptures. And broadly speaking the more exoteric teachings were committed to writing first, and the more esoteric remained oral traditions for longer and were committed to writing later......with the Sutra of Golden Light. It was written down in installments over that three hundred year period...... in the case of the Sutra of Golden Light, the most important part of the whole sutra, which as I've said is the confession, is not spoken by the Buddha at all. So this is a strange situation. The central part of the whole sutra - and a sutra is supposed to be a discourse by the Buddha - is not spoken by the Buddha at all. It's not even spoken by a Bodhisattva. So who is it spoken by, what is it spoken by? Well, it's spoken by a drum, it's spoken by a golden drum. And not only that. It's spoken in somebody's dream......the existing text of the sutra is divided into nineteen chapters.....In chapter three the same Bodhisattva has a dream. And in this dream he sees a Brahmin beating a drum, a golden drum, and the drum sends forth a series of beautiful verses of confession. It's these verses which are of course the nucleus of the whole sutra......in chapter ten, three goddesses come forward and they all make similar promises to protect the sutra. And these three goddesses are Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, Sri, the goddess of wealth, and Drdha, the earth goddess..."...The Growth of a Mahayana Sutra......by Sangharakshita

Shenlha Ökar means "wisdom gshen of white light;" the variant Shiwa Okar means "peaceful white light." ...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenlha_Okar

"RANGJUNG YESHE DICTIONARY .....the eighth of the རྫོགས་ཆེན་སྟོན་པ་བཅུ་གཉིས་ Sacred Golden Light Sutra; Sutra of the Sacred Golden Light; Sublime Golden Light ..."

".... the Lotus Sutra was neither the only text nor the only cult represented in sutra burials. as the final age was understood to portend political as well a religious troubles, the Lotus Sutra was also often joined by two additional scriptures held to protect the state, the Golden Light Sutra (Japanese Konkōmyō kyō) and the Benevolent Kings Sutra (Japanese Ninnō hannya haramitsu kyō). The other scriptures most commonly buried, and usually accompanying the Lotus Sutra, were the three sutras dedicated to the Buddha amida – the Larger Pure Land Sutra (Japanese Muryōju kyō), the Smaller Pure Land Sutra (Japanese Amida kyō), and the Sutra of Meditation on Amida Buddha (Japanese Kanmuryōju kyō) – and the three sutras dedicated to the future Buddha Maitreya, known in Japanese as Miroku, – the Sutra on Maitreya Achieving Buddhahood (Japanese Miroku jōbutsu kyō), the Sutra on Maitreya’s Rebirth Below [on Earth] (Japanese Miroku geshō kyō) and the Sutra on Maitreya’s Rebirth Above in Tusita (Japanese Miroku joshō tosotsu kyō). ".....The Death of the Dharma: Buddhist Sutra Burials in early Medieval Japan by D. Max Moerman

"....from the traditional Theravadin point of view, all the Mahayana Sutras are inauthentic in the sense that they were not spoken by the Buddha. Historically, Theravada has tended to take a dim view of Mahayana, regarding it as a mere degeneration of the pure teachings......That the Lotus Sutra and other Mahayana Sutras were not spoken by the Buddha is unanimously supported by modern scholarship. I don’t know of a single academic in the last 150 years who has argued otherwise.... the Lotus Sutra was composed over a period of time, or in a number of stages. The oldest sources probably stem from a little before the common era, and it was finalized around 200 AD. This makes it one of the earliest Mahayana Sutras (and it is even argued that the earliest form of the sutra may not have even been Mahayana)....But I suspect, given the visionary nature of many Mahayanist texts, that they often stemmed from meditation experiences; visions of the Buddha, memories of ‘teachings’ received while in samadhi. "....https://sujato.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/is-the-lotus-sutra-authentic/

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

February 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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