Dream & Reality: Sufism,Taoism, Dzogchen

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Dzogchen Explorations

Okar Research

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"Sufism…..a true dream (ru’yaa saadeqa: Ruyaa:Dream, vision.),…..So-called `reality’, the sensible world which surrounds us and which we are accustomed to regard as ‘reality’, is, for Ibn ‘Arabi, but a dream. We perceive by the senses a large number of things, distinguish them one from another, put them in order by our reason, and thus end up by establishing something solid around us. We call that construct ‘reality’ and do not doubt that it is real…..According to Ibn ‘Arabi, however, that kind of ‘reality’ is not reality in the true sense of the word. In other terms, such a thing is not Being (wujud) as it really is. Living as we do in this phenomenal world, Being in its metaphysical reality is no less imperceptible to us than phenomenal things are in their phenomenal reality to a man who is asleep and dreaming of them……Ibn ʿArabī (Arabic: ابن عربي‎) (1165 – 1240) was an Arab Andalusian Sufi mystic and philosopher."….Toshihiko Izutsu : Sufism & Taoism

"Taoism...The essence of a lucid dream is recognizing that you are dreaming during the dream. The first step in this process is to begin looking at your normal waking reality as though it too is a dream. A basic principle of Taoism is that life is a dream of our own creation. Dream yoga, then, is meant to help us wake up from this dream in order to experience life completely.

"Dzogchen….According to Dzogchen philosophy, the reality perceived by the individual is in fact no more real than the dream-state we experience during sleep. It is claimed that the differences between the dream of life and the dreams of sleep are negligible; dreams at night are only slightly more removed from the concrete attachments of waking life.

"Tibetan Bon…… the Ma-rGyud, the “Mother Tantra” of the Tibetan Bon Tradition, urges us not to waste the time we spend sleeping and teaches us to appreciate the importance of discovering the quality of night-work….In our waking, intellectual mind, differences dominate and determine how we experience ourselves. Whereas while asleep, the waking, active and conscious mind dissolves into the basic consciousness, kun-gzhi-rnam-par-shes-pa in Tibetan (alaya-vijnana in Sanskrit). The basic, all-ground consciousness stores one’s deeper karmic traces, too, which are a part of oneself. When stirred and awakened, the karmic traces tell stories and convey messages…Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche ("Teacher and Great Man of the Shen"; also known as Shenrab Miwo Kunle Nampar Gyalwa) was born in the land of Olmo Lungring ('Ol mo lung ring), a part of a larger country called Tazig (sTag gzigs: Central Asia)."…http://bon-encyclopedia.wikispaces.com/Tonpa+Shenrab.

Nondual reality consciousness is perceived in a wide variety of religious traditions:
Hinduism: Upanishad
The Advaita Vedanta of Shankara
Tantra and Kashmira Shaivism
Tibetan Bon
Sikhism
Buddhism:
"Shūnyavāda or the Mādhyamika school"
"Vijnānavāda or the Yogāchāra school"
Tathagatagarbha-thought
Vajrayana-buddhism
Zen/Chan -buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism, including Dzogchen and Mahamudra
Taoism
Subud
Abrahamic traditions: Sufism
Western philosophy: Neo-platonism

"…..whether you are Buddhist, Sufi, Taoist, Bon, or any other truly nondual way, the forth turning level is the same, it is utterly nondual even in its nonduality. So it is impossible to pin down in any one Nondual Way. In this way Tibetan Buddhists, Bon practitioners, Sufis, Taoists, Zen Buddhists, etc are all on the same path in some sense"……https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v4Hc0p68MKVTNJoMPU6_BicaySTDTp_5nt4jETxiBZY/edit

"Next to Cheng-i Taoism, the most important school of Taoism is the Ch’üan-chen (Quanzheng) sect, or Complete Reality school, which integrated Ch’an Buddhist and neo-Confucian elements with religious Taoism and adopted the simplicity, naturalness and non-obsessiveness of the early contemplative Taoism, and their brand of “returning to the Source” and meditating on the open, creative emptiness of the Tao. This Complete Reality school looks to the legendary Chung-li Ch’üan and his disciple Ancestor Lü Yen (9th-10th century) as its founders."…..http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Taoism.html

"Taoist practitioners of all schools engage in purifying and strengthening the “Three Ones” (san-i), the three aspects of primordial Life-Force: spirit (shen), breath-energy (ch’i), and sexual essence (ching). This is achieved via a host of techniques: 1) meditation practices like “sitting-forgetting” (tso-wang, discussed by Chuang-tzu and Lao-tzu, et al), “emptying” (as discussed by Lao Tzu and outlined in the Yellow Court Canon scripture of Mao-shan, attributed to Wei Po-yang and inspired by lady Taoist Wei Hua-ts’un), the Zen-like Ch’üan-chen meditation of “returning to the Source” and “mind abiding nowhere,” and the many visualization exercises of religious Taoism; 2) internal alchemy (nei-tan) through orbital breathing (t’ai hsi) and other breathing practices (fu-ch’i, hsing-ch’i, and lien-ch’i), and various physical and energy-body exercises such as tao-yin, hsi-sui-ching, i-chin-ching, pa-tuan-chin, t’ai-chi ch’üan, hsing-i-chüan, kung-fu, and ch’i-kung; and 3) the “bedroom art” sexual energy practices (fang-chung shu) wherein male and female “join and exchange energies”; but these sexual practices are actually heterodox for the celibate monastics of the Ch’üan-chen, Shang-ch’ing and Three Mountain Alliance schools of Taoism who evolve to grades higher than grade six. Monks/nuns strengthen and purify ching entirely on an inner level, without actual sexual intercourse. These monastics and many other Taoists also practice vegetarianism as a way of purifying and strengthening the three life forces. The goal for all true Taoists is ming, Illumination or Enlightenment, or wu-wei chih-Tao, “the non-striving Way of Transcendence,” and a life of healing and blessing sentient beings with the power (te) of Tao"….http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Taoism.html

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

September 2013

J. Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Suhrawardi and Persian Platonic Orientalism (1155–1191 AD)

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Suhrawardi or al-Suhrawardi (Persian: سهروردی‎) i.....Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (1155–1191), Iranian philosopher also known as Sohrevardi

""Shahāb ad-Dīn" Yahya ibn Habash as-Suhrawardī (Persian: شهاب‌الدین سهروردی‎, also known as Sohrevardi) was an Iranian/Persian philosopher, a Sufi and founder of the Illuminationist philosophy, an important school in Islamic mysticism that drew upon Zoroastrian and Platonic ideas. The "Orient" of his "Oriental Theosophy" symbolises spiritual light and knowledge. He is sometimes given the honorific title Shaikh al-Ishraq or "Master of Illumination" and sometimes is called Shaikh al-Maqtul, the "Murdered Sheikh", referring to his execution for heresy. Mulla Sadra, the Persian sage of the Safavid era has termed Suhrawardi as "the Reviver of the Traces of the Pahlavi (Iranian) Sages" and Suhrawardi, in his Magnum opus titled "Oriental Theosophy" thought of himself as a reviver or resusicator of ancient Persian wisdom tradition.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahab_al-Din_Suhrawardi

"According to Henry Corbin, Suhrawardi "came later to be called the Master of Oriental Theosophy (Shaikh-i-Ishraq) because his great aim was the renaissance of ancient Iranian wisdom" which Corbin specifies in various ways as the "project of reviving the philosophy of ancient Persia". In 1186, at the age of thirty-two, he completed his magnum opus “The Philosophy of Illumination.”.....he was executed sometime between 1191 and 1208 in Aleppo on charges of cultivating Batini teachings and philosophy, by the order of al-Malik al-Zahir, son of Saladin.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Corbin

"Suhrawardi taught a complex and profound emanationist cosmology, in which all creation is a successive outflow from the original Supreme Light of Lights (Nur al-Anwar). The fundamental of his philosophy is pure immaterial light, than which nothing is more manifest, that unfolds from the light of lights in a descending order of ever-diminishing intensity and, through complex interaction, gives rise to a "horizontal" array of lights, similar in conception to Platonic forms, that governs the species of mundane reality. In other words, the universe and all levels of existence are but varying degrees of Light - the light and the darkness. In his division of bodies, he categorizes objects in terms of their reception or non-reception of light.... the Supreme Light, which is the only absolute Reality....Suhrawardi elaborated the neo-Platonic idea of an independent intermediary world, the imaginal world ( 'alam-i mithal عالم مثال). His views have exerted a powerful influence down to this day, particularly through Mulla Sadra’s combined peripatetic and illuminationist description of reality.."....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahab_al-Din_Suhrawardi

The Great Invocation to Hûrakhsh (The Sun) of Suhrawardî....Suhrawardî's "Book of Hours" has two invocations to Hûrakhsh: Hûrakhsh al-kabîr and Hûrakhsh al-saghîr....Hûrakhsh = Sol Splendidus, Resplendent Sun, i.e. the Sun in its active Archangelic theophanic modality, which the Avesta hails "as the most beautiful manifestation of Ohrmazd," the Godhead. Suhrawardî designates Hûrakhsh as the theurgy of the Archangel Shahrîvar (in the Avesta one of the Amahraspands known as Xshathra Vairya, "Desirable Reign,"precisely identified as "having the appearance of the Sun...")......Text from Henri Corbin, En islam iraniene, vol. II, Galimard: 1974.

"Suhrawardi, in his Magnum opus titled "Oriental Theosophy" thought of himself as a reviver or resusicator of ancient Persian wisdom tradition.....He states in Hikmat al-'Ishraq that: 'There was among the ancient Persians a community of Sage-Philosophers, with no resembelence to the Magi (Dualists).... It is their precious philosophy of Light, the same as that to which the mystical experience of Plato and his predecessors bear witness.'....Suhrawardi uses pre-Islamic Iranian gnosis, synthesising it with Greek and Islamic wisdom. The main influence from pre-Islamic Iranian thought on Suhrawardi is in the realm of angelology and cosmology. He believed that the ancient Persians' wisdom was shared by Greek philosophers such as Plato as well as by the Egyptian Hermes and considered his philosophy of illumination a rediscovery of this ancient wisdom. According to Nasr, Suhrawardi provides an important link between the thought of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Iran and a harmonious synthesis between the two. And Henry Corbin states: "In northwestern Iran, Sohravardi (d. 1191) carried out the great project of reviving the wisdom or theosophy of ancient pre-Islamic Zoroastrian Iran.".....Henry Corbin. The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. Omega Publications, New York. 1994

"In his work Alwah Imadi, Suhrawardi offers an esoteric intrepretation of Ferdowsi's Epic of Kings (Shah Nama) in which figures such as Fereydun, Zahak, Kay Khusraw and Jamshid are seen as manifestations of the divine light.".... Amin Razavi, M. (1997) Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination, Richmond: Curzon Press.

"In this Persian work Partwa Nama and his main Arabic work Hikmat al-Ishraq, Suhrawardi makes extensive use of Zoroastrian symbolism and his elaborate anegeology is also based on Zoroastrian models. The supreme light he calls both by its Quranic and Mazdean names, al-nur al-a'zam (the Supreme Light) and Vohuman (Bahman). Suhrawardi refers to the hukamayya-fars (Persian Philosophers) as major practitioners of his Ishraqi wisdom and considers Zoroaster, Jamasp, Goshtasp, Kay Khusraw, Frashostar and Bozorgmehr as possessors of this ancient wisdom."....Amin Razavi, M. (1997) Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination

"Among pre-Islamic Iranian symbols and concepts used by Suhrawardi are: minu (incorporeal world), Giti (Corporeal World), Surush (messenger, Gabriel), Farvardin (the lower world), Gawhar (Pure sessense), Bahram, Hurakhsh (the Sun), Shahriyar (archetype of species), Isfahbad (Light in the body), Amordad (Zoroastrian Angel), Shahrivar (Zoroastrian Angel), and the Kiyyani Khvarenah.....With regards to the pre-Islamic Iranian concept of Khvarenah, Suhrawardi mentions: Whoever knows Hikmat (Wisdom), and preserves in thanking and sanctifying the Light of the Lights, will be endowed with royal Kharreh and with luminous Farreh, and -- as we have said elsewhere -- divine light will further bestow upon him the cloak of royal power and value. Such a person shall then became the natural Ruler of the Universe. He shall be given aid from the High Heavens, and whatever he commands shall be obeyed; and his dreams and inspirations will reach their uppermost, perfect pinnacle.".......Hossein Ziai, "The book of radiance", Mazda Publisher, 1998. pg 84-85. Note the author has translated the word Hikmat (Wisdom) as Philosophy here but Hikmat usually means Wisdom.

"Suhrawardi was influenced by Avicennism.....Avicenna (980 –1037), created an extensive corpus of works during what is commonly known as Islam's Golden Age, in which the translations of Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied extensively. Greco-Roman (Mid- and Neo-Platonic, and Aristotelian) texts by the Kindi school were commented, redacted and developed substantially by Islamic intellectuals, who also built upon Persian and Indian mathematical systems, astronomy, algebra, trigonometry and medicine. The Samanid dynasty in the eastern part of Persia, Greater Khorasan and Central Asia as well as the Buyid dynasty in the western part of Persia and Iraq provided a thriving atmosphere for scholarly and cultural development. Under the Samanids, Bukhara rivaled Baghdad as a cultural capital of the Islamic world".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicennism

Walbridge, J.(1999) The Leaven of the Ancients: Suhrawardi and the Heritage of the Greeks, Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.
Walbridge, J. (2001) The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardi and Platonic Orientalism, Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

September 2013

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Pas-Anfaas (Breath Watching) & Kashmiri Sufism/Shaivism

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"What keeps Kashmiri mystics firmly anchored in the Indian soil is their meditative technique. By and large they use variations of pas-e-anfaas(watching the breath). This is similar to various techniques of pranayama widely practised in India's Hath-Yoga traditions. These meditative techniques were being practised initially by the Shaivaite yogis of Kashmir before the advent of Islam….."….http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/insights/insight990901.html

" THE EXERCISE OF PAAS ANFAAS……Paas Anfaas is most efficacious while it is the simplest of exercises (ashghaal). This exercise is a breathing exercise and its method is as follows:Take a deep breadth. While inhaling concentrate on the word اَلله. Exhale vigorously. While exhaling concentrate on هُوْ. Do this repeatedly. In the beginning practise this exercise in solitude and do it until one feels a warm sensation. Thereafter, this exercise should be carried out at all times while walking, sitting, etc. In all states endeavour to establish this concentration. In the beginning some effort is required. However, after a short while one’s breathing will be so conditioned that it (the breathing) will be along this pattern without one consciously resorting to it. "…..http://books.themajlis.net/node/591

"Zikr Pas-Anfaas: (Zikr with the breath). When you perform Zikr with the rhythm of the breath, one should mentally repeat 'Allah' with the inhalation and 'Hu' with the exhalation. Some Sufis suggest repeating "Allah" with the inhalation as well as with the exhalation. The key to this exercise is to focus on visualizing the image of the Murshid in the heart."….http://www.sufifoundation.co.in/Explanation6.html

"…One of the longest chapters, i.e. chapter 3, is describing paas-e-anfaas (the control of breath). The murshid of the author, the Chishti shaykh Kalimullah, is explicit in his warnings in case such a practice gets wrongly performed: ‘You should be careful not to suspend the breath to such an extent that you become deadly sick!’….‘When the upper and lower breaths join the breath of life, they become one. A Qur’anic allusion to this is ‘the meeting place of the two oceans’. This is the station (maqam) of the water of life (aab-e-hayaat) ….."…http://www.chishti.ru/order-of-hearts.html

"…Kashmir-Shaivite…..BREATH - MEDITATION TECHNIQUE…..Lord Shiva says : "Radiant one, this experience may dawn between two breaths. After breath comes in (down) and just before turning up (out)….the beneficence"…. Be aware between these two points, and the happening. When your breath comes in, observe. For a single moment, or a thousandth part of a moment, there is no breathing -- before it turns up, before it turns outward. One breath comes in; then there is a certain point and breathing stops. Then the breathing goes out. When the breath goes out, then again for a single moment, or a part of a moment, breathing stops. Then breathing comes in. Before the breath is turning in or turning out, there is a moment when you are not breathing. In that moment the happening is possible, because when you are not breathing you are not in the world…. The gap between the two is of a very short duration, but keen, sincere observation and attention will make you feel the gap….nothing else is needed….You are not to train the breath. Leave it just as it is. Why such a simple technique?……do not go ahead, do not follow it like a shadow; be simultaneous with it. Breath and consciousness should become one. The breath goes in -- you go in. Only then will it be possible to get the point which is between two breaths. It will not be easy. Move in with the breath, then move out with the breath: in-out, in-out. Buddha tried particularly to use this method, so this method has become a Buddhist method. In Buddhist terminology it is known as Anapanasati Yoga. And Buddha's enlightenment was based on this technique -- Buddha attained his enlightenment through this technique. Buddha said, "Be aware of your breath as it is coming in, going out -- coming in, going out." He never mentions the gap because there is no need. Buddha thought and felt that if you become concerned with the gap, the gap between two breaths, that concern may disturb your awareness. So he simply said, "Be aware. When the breath is going in move with it, and when the breath is going out move with it…."…https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=284655934928573&id=174701642590670

" Meditation according to Non-dual Shaivism of Kashmir……Close your eyes and pay firstly attention to the exhalation…the exhaled air is full of the vital energy called "prāṇa"….your attention tends to focus on the heart's zone in a natural manner because the Anāhatacakra situated there is the cakra in which prāṇa is accumulated….After doing that for a while, you will note that the "gap" between inhalation and exhalation has become longer due to the slowing down of them both. In this gap there is samāna. Obviously, this vital energy is always there but when the gap is enlarged through the concentration on the outgoing and incoming breaths, you develop awareness of samāna and its respective functions (digestive and assimilative). So, your attention goes now to that gap between inhalation and exhalation. The entire concentration is on samāna. You perceive that the attention gently moves to the navel. In other words, it goes to the Maṇipūracakra, the abode of samāna. The specific function of this vital energy consists in giving the energy extracted from it to every organ in a equitable manner. Hence it is called "samāna" (that which brings about "samatā" or balance)."….http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/en/trika-meditation-4-according-to-non-dual-shaivism-of-kashmir-1/517

"Kashmir Shaivism developed from about the ninth century CE and is based upon the revelation of texts called Tantras. The origins of Kashmir Shaivism lay in the cremation ground traditions of Kapalika or skull-bearing ascetics who worshipped ferocious forms of Shiva, such as Bhairava, and the Goddess Kali. There is also an independent revelation in the Shiva Sutras and Spanda Karikas given to Vasugupta (c.875-c.925) The term 'Kashmir Shaivism' refers to a number of traditions, principally to the Trika ('Threefold') tradition which worshipped the Goddess in the three manifestations of Para, Apara and Parapara and whose root text is the Mallinivijayottara Tantra. The theological articulation of the tradition is known as the Recognition (Pratyabhijna) school and Abhinavagupta (c. 975-1050 CE) is its main theologian. Tantric ideology dominated the kings of Kashmir during this period."…..http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/hindu/devot/kashmir.html

"….the tantric non-dual system of Kashmir Shaivism, which is a close cousin to Indian Tantric Buddhism…..So Kashmir Shaivism and the Vajrayana Buddhism seem to have arisen in the same area, I mean Kashmir was the center of Buddhism for many years, and in fact, there’s a lot of evidence that it’s the place from where Buddhism came into Tibet. For example, Naropa was from Kashmir, and Padmasambhava, Guru Rinpoche, seems to have been from Kashmir. And there’s also a tradition that Tilopa, the guru of Naropa, was actually not a Buddhist, but a Shiva yogi. He belonged to this very wild and interesting tradition of mountain wild-man yogis, crazy wisdom yogis, who lived out of doors, and lived in caves, and did deep practice, and had very very intense realizations of Oneness. So there was always a cross-fertilization between Tantric Shaivism and Tantric Buddhism and many Buddhists in Shivites at that time lived in the same villages or in neighboring villages and near their temples and in Kashmir"……http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2011/02/bg-207-the-tantric-cousins/

" Idel notes one element in Abulafia's ecstatic Kabbalah -- a requirement for pronunciation of the divine names while breathing out, rather than taking in air -- and finds a parallel between this and Sufi discipline. In another of his works, "Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah,"…..http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-schwartz/sufism-and-kabbalah_b_989875.html

" Meher Baba asserted that Sufism pre-dates the Islamic prophet Muhammad, having begun with the prophet Zoroaster of Persia..... Meher Baba designe…Merwan Sheriar Irani was born in 1894 in Pune, India to Zoroastrian parents….. Sufism Reoriented is a universal spiritual school which recognizes a central core of divine love at the heart of all spiritual systems."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism_Reoriented

"…Zoroastrianism and Sufism have the same origin, Sufism definitely predates Islam in Iran. And the dominant Pantheism of Sufism definitely has its roots in Zoroastrianism and obviously not in Abrahamic dualism….Sufism, like Zoroastrianism, is not only one thing, it is many things…..Safavid Iran, a kingdom of the great Sufies, did the greatest atrocities against Zoroastrians, the Zarvanists (Dahri) and the Mithraists (Mehri)…..Many jewels of Mithraic thought can be found in distorted ways amongst the Sufis, so I would look for Mithraism-Sufism conections more than Zoroastrian ones……"….http://alexanderbard.blogspot.com/2009/01/zoroastrianism-and-sufism.html

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

September 2013

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Rishis of Shambala, Kashmiri Sufism & the Kalachakra

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"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. A person through Yogic concentration first attains samprajñata samadhi (realisation of the independence of soul and body, Atma and Prakriti) and with continued effort attains asamprajñata samadhi (realisation of oneness with all). The Rishi's soul is interpreted as imbibing wisdom directly from the universal source. Vedic hymns are sermons conceived as delivered by divine inspiration by the rishis."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi

"What keeps Kashmiri mystics firmly anchored in the Indian soil is their meditative technique. By and large they use variations of pas-e-anfaas(watching the breath). This is similar to various techniques of pranayama widely practised in India's Hath-Yoga traditions. These meditative techniques were being practised initially by the Shaivaite yogis of Kashmir before the advent of Islam….."….http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/insights/insight990901.html

The Rishi order of Kashmir is a Sufi tradition associated with religious harmony. Many of the saints held dear by Kashmiris to this day were Sufi Rishis. The original Rishis include Sheikh Noor-ud-din Wali also known as Nund Rishi. The Rishi order has made an important contribution to Kashmiriyat, the ethnic, national, social and cultural consciousness of the Kashmiri people, as well as a distinctive contribution to global Islam. The 17th-century poet Baba Nasib sums up the impact of the Rishi order thus: "The candle of religion is lit by the Rishis, they are the pioneers of the path of belief. The heart-warming quality of humble souls emanates from the inner purity of the hearts of the Rishis. This vale of Kashmir, that you call a paradise, owes a lot of its charm to the traditions set in vogue by the Rishis."….Kashmiris use the Hindu epithets Rishi or Baba to describe these Sufi saints. The Shaivite yogini Lal Ded was a key influence on Nund Rishi, and is said to have suckled him at her breast when he was an infant. Sufi Rishis were certainly aware of yogic practices, as evidenced by the poet Shams Faqir's praise of Lal Ded: "Lalla achieved the fusion of her vital air and ether, and thus realized God." However, the Sufi Rishis made an effort to clearly distance themselves from certain Hindu practices. Some were farmers, and Nund Rishi himself is said to cultivated land in order to demonstrate the spiritual and social importance of manual labour, abhorred by the Brahmins.

"The most dominant influence on the Kashmiri Muslims, in terms of their Kashmiriyat, is that of the Rishi order of Sufis. While the Sufi orders like the Suharwardi, Kubravi, Naqshbandi and Quadri, arrived in Kashmir from Persia, Central Asia, and Central and North India, the Rishi order evolved in the valley itself indigenously in the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Kashmir valley was already permeated with the traditions of Hindu ascetism and Buddhist renunciation."….http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/insights/insight990901.html

"The term `Rishi' itself is clearly a derivation from Sanskrit and Indian traditions, though some Medieval Muslim scholars have tried to show that it is derived from the Persian word raish or rish meaning the feathers or wings of a bird. Baba Dawood Mishkati, for instance, gives a rather tortuous explanation. A bird whose feathers have been removed has no control over its own movements and depends entirely on the wind. And this is also the case with a Rishi; he is alienated from the world and lives alone, buffeted by fate. This and similar explanations, have, however, failed to impress the average Kashmiri Muslim and he, by and large, accepts its Sanskrit derivation and uses it loosely like his Hindus brethren as synonymous for a sage. In fact many Kashmiris do not even associate the word with any particular order of sufis, but use the word to denote any and every sufi saint."….http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/insights/insight990901.html

" "The most respected class of people in this country (Kashmir) are the Rishis. Although they have not abandoned the traditional and customary forms of worship (taqlid), but they are true in their worship. They do not denounce men belonging to different faiths. They do not have the tongue of desire, and do not seek to obtain worldly objects. They plant fruit-bearing trees in order that people may obtain benefit from these. They abstain from meat and do not marry."…. Abul Fazl….http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/insights/insight990901.htm

"…whereas the sufis were on the margins of society in other places, in Kashmir they were the dominant influence."…http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/insights/insight990901.html

"….In the Vedas, the word denotes an inspired poet of Ṛgvedic hymns, who alone or with others invokes the deities with poetry. In particular, Ṛṣi refers to the authors of the hymns of the Rigveda. Post-Vedic tradition regards the Rishis as "sages" or saints, constituting a peculiar class of divine human beings in the early mythical system, as distinct from Asuras, Devas and mortal men."…..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi

"…Numerous great yoginis and female mystics are mentioned in the Vedas; in fact, many of the vedic rishis were yoginis, rishikas…"…Daughters of the Goddess: Women Saints of India, by Linda Johnsen PhD., Yes Int'l Publishers, 1994, pg. 9.

"…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).

"The purpose of the Vajra Caste was not force everyone to convert to Buddhism but for people to re-discover the purity of their own traditions. The Kalachakra empowerment is given to anyone who wishes to participate. No one is asked to give up their own religion. The Kalachakra, open to all who wish to participate, has the power to benefit all beings on this planet."...https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/access/content/group/9f340e95-f808-4bc0-80bc-b23bcadd072e/copyrighted%20pdfs%20of%20texts/newmanbriefhistorykalachakra.pdf

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

September 2013

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Origins of the I Ching (3000 BC)

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"In imperial China the I Ching had two distinct functions. The first was as a compendium and classic of ancient cosmic principles. The second function was that of divination text."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching#Binary_sequence

"The typical academic view is that the I Ching probably developed out of earlier methods of tortoise shell and ox shoulder-bone divination, whereby a red-hot poker was applied to a bone or shell and the random pattern of cracks examined by priests who deduced its meaning.
The typical mythological view attributes the authorship of the I Ching to China's first emperor, a god-like figure, half man, half dragon, who went by the name Fu Hsi and is said to have lived about 5,000 years ago. One day, according to legend, he saw a dragon-horse rise from the Yellow River. On it's side were markings which inspired the earliest version of the I Ching.
Almost 2,000 years later, significant changes were made to the original I Ching by King Wen of Zhou. Invited to the capital under false pretenses, he was imprisoned by the emperor for a period of seven years, where he languished awaiting a death sentence. During his imprisonment, King Wen studied the I Ching. He rearranged the 64 hexagrams in an order which appears somewhat arbitrary, given its original binary sequencing, and then wrote extensive commentaries on each of the hexagrams."……http://www.ishalerner.com/prehistoric-origins-of-the-i-ching

"In Chinese mythology, Fu Xi (Fuxi) or Fu Hsi (Fu-hsi) (Chinese: 伏羲; pinyin: Fúxī; Wade–Giles: Fu-hsi1), also known as Paoxi or Pao-hsi (simplified Chinese: 庖牺; traditional Chinese: 庖犧; pinyin: Páoxī; Wade–Giles: Pao2-hsi1), reigned during the mid-29th century BCE, was the first of the Three Sovereigns (三皇 Sānhuáng) of ancient China…..According to legend, the land was swept by a great flood and only Fu Xi and his sister Nüwa survived. They retired to the mythological Kunlun Mountain, where they prayed for a sign from the Emperor of Heaven. The divine being approved their union and the siblings set about procreating the human race. In order to speed up the process, Fu Xi and Nüwa used clay to create human figures, and with the power divine entrusted to them made the clay figures come alive.[1] Fu Xi then came to rule over his descendants, although reports of his long reign vary between sources, from 115 years (2852–2737 BCE) to 116 years (2952–2836 BCE)."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Xi

The mythological Kunlun Mountain…As the mythology related to the Kunlun Mountain developed, and was influenced by the introduction of ideas about an axis mundi from the cosmology of India were introduced, Kunlun Mountain became identified with (or took on the attributes of) Mount Sumeru. Another historical development in the mythology of Kunlun, (again with Indian influence) was that rather than just being the source of the Yellow River, Kunlun began to be considered to be the source of four major rivers flowing to the four quarters of the compass, according to Anthony Christie (1968:74). The Kunlun mythos was also influenced by developments within the Daoist tradition, causing Kunlun to be perceived more as a paradise than a dangerous wilderness. (Christie, 1968:75) Another trend argued in some recent research, is that over time, a merger of various traditions has result in an alignment of earthly paradises between an East Paradise (identified with Mount Penglai) and a West Paradise, with Kunlun Mountain identified as the West Paradise, a pole replaced a former mythic system which opposed Penglai with Guixu ("Returning Mountain", and the Guixu mythological material accumulating around Kunlun instead, through a process of merging these two original mythological systems (Yang, et al, 2005:163)."…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunlun_Mountain_(mythology)

"King Wen of Zhou (1152 – 1056 BC) was king of Zhou during the late Shang dynasty in ancient China…..King Wen is credited with having stacked the eight trigrams in their various permutations to create the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching. He is also said to have written the judgments which are appended to each hexagram. The most commonly used sequence of the 64 hexagrams is attributed to him and is usually referred to as the King Wen sequence."…..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Wen_of_Zhou

"…The King Wen sequence (Chinese: 文王卦序) is an arrangement of the sixty-four divination figures in 易經 Yì Jīng, the I Ching or Book of Changes. They are called hexagrams in English because each figure is composed of six 爻 yáo—broken or unbroken lines, that represent 陰 yin or 陽 yang respectively…..The King Wen sequence is also known as the received or classical sequence because it is the oldest surviving arrangement of the hexagrams. Its true age and authorship are unknown. Traditionally, it is said that 周文王 Zhōu Wén Wáng (King Wen) arranged the hexagrams in this sequence while imprisoned by 商紂王 Shāng Zhòu Wáng in the 12th century BC."…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Wen_sequence

"Binary sequence, also known as Fu Xi sequence or Shao Yong sequence….A different arrangement, the binary sequence named in honor of the mythic culture hero 伏羲 Fú Xī, originated in the Song Dynasty. It is believed to be the work of scholar 邵雍 Shào Yōng (1011–1077 AD). As mirrored by the 先天 Earlier Heaven and 後天 Later Heaven arrangements of the eight trigrams, or 八卦 bā guà, it was customary to attribute authorship to these legendary figures…"…..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching#Binary_sequence

"Richard S. Cook states that the I Ching demonstrated a relation between the golden ratio (aka the division in extreme and mean ratio) and "linear recurrence sequences" (the Fibonacci numbers are examples of "linear recurrence sequences") : ...the hexagram sequence, showing that its classification of binary sequences demonstrates knowledge of the convergence of certain linear recurrence sequences ... to division in extreme and mean ratio... that the complex hexagram sequence encapsulates a careful and ingenious demonstration of the LRS (linear recurrence sequences)/DEMR (division in the extreme mean ratio relation), that this knowledge results from general combinatorial analysis, and is reflected in elements emphasized in ancient Chinese and Western mathematical traditions."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching#Binary_sequence

"…..Barbara Walker's The I Ching of the Goddess. Walker laments the fact that the perfectly elegant and symmetrical binary code of the original I Ching was broken up by the King Wen version 3,000 years ago, arguing that this may well have been done as part of a general pattern of “Confucian confusion” at that time, amounting to an attack on every aspect of the earlier matriarchal culture that revered women and the feminine principle……She asserts that Fu Hsi, the mythic figure credited with creating the earliest version of the I Ching, was an early god of the cultural-hero type who was coupled with the universal Muse, the Goddess of Creation, Nu Kua. Like many other primal Goddesses, according to Walker, Nu Kua stood for the Cosmic Water Womb associated with the Milky Way where the center of the galaxy is located. And, like cultural-hero type gods in all ancient civilizations:…..[Fu Hsi] was credited with inspiration from the Goddess who embodied life-giving intelligence and understanding, the primary I-dea, meaning “Goddess within.” Ancient scriptures said nothing could be accomplished by any god without the spirit of the Goddess. Whether she was called Anahita, Minerva, Athene, Neith, Maat, Isis, Carmenta, Kali-Maya, Shakti, Idun, Hokmah, Shekina or Sophia,…."….I Ching of the Goddess….By Barbara G. Walker

"Nüwa (also Nuwa, Nü-wa, Nu-wa and Nügua; traditional Chinese: 女媧; simplified Chinese: 女娲; pinyin: Nǚwā; Wade–Giles: Nü3-wa1) is a goddess in ancient Chinese mythology best known for creating mankind and repairing the wall of heaven. Depending on the source, she might be considered the second or even the first Chinese ruler, with most sources not putting her on the role, but only her brother and/or husband Fu Xi….She was said to have created humans from yellow clay….

"…Nu Kua is usually depicted as the wife of the legendary Fu Hsi, credited inventor of the trigrams and first emperor of China. Nu Kua is actually a goddess form imported from predynastic China where she was revered as a principal creation goddess and wife of Pan Ku. It is Nu Kua who is chiefly responsible for the creation of the human race…..Nu Kua was often depicted as having the torso of a woman attached to the body of a serpent or water dragon below. There is evidence to suggest that the I Ching may have actually evolved in predynastic China under matriarchal influence….There exist a number of intriguing parallels between the goddess form of Nu Kua in ancient China and Ningishzida from ancient Sumer that is worthy of closer scrutiny, and in truth, there are parallels between Nu Kua - Pan Ku and Tiamat - Apsu that render the two stories nearly identical in many important respects…. In the case of Nu Kua we have the I Ching itself which many now believe predates Fu Hsi by many hundreds of years at least and would therefore come under Nu Kua's jurisdiction archetypically…. the Earth Ascending arrangement of Trigrams corresponds to Nu Kua. Originally called the Inner Heaven arrangement, scrutinizing the binary mathematics underscoring this chronology reveals that it is actually gravitating upwards from 000 at the bottom rung to 111 at the top…. The Nu Kua (Earth Ascending) arrangement and its compliment, the P'an Ku (Heaven Descending) arrangement as revealed in the chronological order of the Tai Hsuan Ching."….http://www.abrahadabra.com/nukua01.htm

"Oracle bones (Chinese: 甲骨; pinyin: jiǎgǔ) are pieces of shell or bone, normally from ox scapulae or turtle plastrons, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. Diviners would submit questions to deities regarding future weather, crop planting, the fortunes of members of the royal family, military endeavors, and other similar topics. These questions were carved onto the bone or shell in oracle bone script using a sharp tool. Intense heat was then applied with a metal rod until the bone or shell cracked due to thermal expansion. The diviner would then interpret the pattern of cracks and write the prognostication upon the piece as well….While the use of bones in divination has been practiced almost globally, such divination involving fire or heat has generally been found in Asia and the Asian-derived North American cultures.The use of heat to crack scapulae (pyro-scapulimancy) originated in ancient China, the earliest evidence of which extends back to the 4th millennium BCE…"..Keightley, David N. (1978). Sources of Shang history : the oracle-bone inscriptions of Bronze Age China. Berkeley: University of California Press

"…Anyone who owns a PC will recognize certain recurring numbers in both hardware and software specifications. Among these numbers are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, and so on. ….These numbers recur constantly in the world of computing for the simple reason that they are the binary equivalent of "round numbers." They are the binary counterparts of 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, and so on in the decimal system. To anyone with even a nodding acquaintance with the "8 Trigrams" or "64 Hexagrams" of the I Ching, these numbers will seem like old friends."…. I Ching as Binary System …1992…Editor: Bevin Chu

"THE BINARY NUMBERS OF TRIGRAMS …..The eight I-Ching trigrams are actually numbers written in binary code and the trigram numbers are in natural numerical order 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7, so as the trigrams rise one above the other the number gets higher. The individual lines of the trigrams (and hexagrams) also rise one above the other, as the trigrams (and hexagrams) are built from the bottom up….THE RULES OF THE BAGUA

The I-Ching is based on the universal principle of there being two absolute opposites, this is represented by the TWO MAJOR TRIGRAMS Chien (Heaven) drawn with three male unbroken lines, and Kun (Earth) drawn with three female broken lines – they are the two opposite principles of light and dark, white and black, male and female, etc. Everything else in the universe that exists in between the two parent opposites is distributed within the six mixed lesser trigrams that have different combinations of both parents – so that there is female within male and male within female. There are only six possible combinations of mixed trigram that can be made by combining the great yin and the great yang. (An alternative spelling for Chien is Qian)."…..http://charmvirgo.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/i-ching-binary-numbers-astrology-and-chakras/

"There are two types of bagua: the Early Heaven Sequence and the Later Heaven Sequence (see below). Both types have been developed before the ‘Book of Changes’, the I Ching, which describes the cosmology and philosophy of ancient China. The basic ideas are: balance through opposites and acceptance of change. Both baguas are associated with the eight compass directions, both baguas use cardinal directions. The cardinal directions are determined by the marker-stars of the mega-constellations known as the Four Celestial Animals...... The Early Heaven Sequence is also called the Primordial Bagua, The River Chart (Hetu) and is an arrangement of opposites. Earlier Heaven arrangement refers to the archetypal order of things before creation, before changes. In yin-yang cosmology, the taiji is preceded by wuji. Wuji separates into taiji or yin and yang. Two symbols became four symbols. The four symbols became bagua (ba- eight, gua- area). Bagua describes all things of creation.....http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/Chinese_Customs/bagua.htm

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

September 2013

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Kalachakra, Shakyamuni & the 9th Century BC

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"The Kalachakra tantra puts the life of Shakyamuni Buddha in the 9th. Century BC, instead of the more commonly accepted 6th. Century BCE. There is also some discussion on when Shakyamuni Buddha taught the Kalachakra during his life time. Because of specific time indications in the teachings, it could have been one year after he attained enlightenment, but others say it was one year before he passed away. According to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, logic indicates that it must have been at the end of his life, because the Kalachakra tantra reflects so many of his lifelong accomplishments."......http://kalachakranet.org/kalachakra_tantra_history.html

"The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain: most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BC to 483 BC, but more recent opinion dates his death to between 486 and 483 BC or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BC. However, at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BC for the Buddha's death."...L. S. Cousins (1996), "The dating of the historical Buddha: a review article", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (3)6(1): 57–63.........The Date of the Historical Śākyamuni Buddha (2003) Edited by A. K. Narain. B. R. Publishing Corporation, New Delhi. ISBN 81-7646-353-1.

"The primary sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century AD......(600 years after the parinirvana)."

"King Suchandra came from Shambhala (some say north of Kashmir) to request and receive the Kalachakra teachings from Shakyamuni Buddha. After the teachings, he wrote them down and composed the 'Mula' or 'Root Text' of the Kalachakra tantra, comprising 12,000 verses. However, this text has never reached us. On the request of Shakyamuni Buddha, he built a huge 3-dimensional Kalachakra mandala in the centre of the kingdom. Suchandra (see image on the right) was the first of a line of seven religious kings who taught the Kalachakra to the inhabitants of Shambhala. 2 Years after receiving the Kalachakra teachings he died and was followed by 6 Kings, each reigning 100 years over Shambala. These first 7 kings are called the 7 Dharma-Kings.".....http://kalachakranet.org/kalachakra_tantra_history.html

"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.".....http://kalachakranet.org/kalachakra_tantra_history.html

"As for the texts you mentioned, my knowledge of the "small vehicle", or more appropriately, the Pali Canon, is limited. However from my understanding, the Kalachakra tantra originated in the 9th century AD monasteries of Northern-central Afghanistan. Without getting too far into esoteric practices like tantra, these texts were largely received in the centuries after the Buddha lived as transmissions that were received in visions."......http://www.examiner.com/article/a-buddhist-perspective-on-the-apocalypse

"....for the tantras the body consists of a network of numerous larger or smaller channels through which the life energies flow. These are also known as “veins” or “rivers” (nadi, rtsa). This dynamic body structure is no discovery of Vajrayana, rather it was adopted from pre-Buddhist times. For example, we can already find it in the Upanishads (ninth century B.C.E.).".....http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Part-1-07.htm

"The five century time span of roughly 800 to 300 BC effects the transition from Vedic to classical culture in Indian society. The early stages of this time span fit such tags as “later Vedic” or “post Vedic”, and the latter centuries qualify as “pre classical” or “early classical”. Although there is not full agreement about the exact dates of the composition of the Upanishads, most scholars believe they were composed during the “later Vedic” period, between 800 and 500 BCE."........http://www.ancient.eu.com/Upanishads/

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"Cyrus II of Persia (Old Persian: Kūruš; New Persian: کوروش بزرگ c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire."..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great

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"The texts of the Avesta — which are all in the Avestan language — were composed over the course of several hundred years.... The various Yashts are in Younger Avestan and thought to date to the Achaemenid era (559–330 BC).".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avesta

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"The Rigveda contains several mythological and poetical accounts of the origin of the world, hymns praising the gods, and ancient prayers for life, prosperity, etc........It is one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. Philological and linguistic evidence indicate that the Rigveda was composed in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, roughly between 1700–1100 BC (the early Vedic period). There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the early Andronovo and Sintashta-Petrovka cultures of c. 2200 – 1600 BC......The Rig Veda was written by the Aryans who entered the Indus Valey toward the end of the Harappan Civilization. They wrote this Veda between 1300 and 1000 BC, during the period of the Aryan Migrations." .....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda

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"In Buddhist tradition, Kassapa (Pāli) is the name of a Buddha, the third of the five Buddhas of the present kalpa (the Bhaddakappa or 'Fortunate Aeon'), and the sixth of the six Buddhas prior to the historical Buddha mentioned in the earlier parts of the Pali Canon (D.ii.7). In the Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, this Buddha is known as Kāśyapa.....Succeeded by: Gautama Buddha".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kassapa_Buddha

"Jainism.....Founded in part by Vardhamāna Jnātṛputra, or Mahāvīra (see Mahāvīra) in the sixth century BC".....http://www.answers.com/topic/jainism

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"The interaction between Hellenistic Greece and Buddhism started when Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor and Central Asia in 334 BCE, going as far as the Indus, thus establishing direct contact with India, the birthplace of Buddhism.....Alexander founded several cities in his new territories in the areas of the Oxus and Bactria, and Greek settlements further extended to the Khyber Pass, Gandhara (see Taxila) and the Punjab. These regions correspond to a unique geographical passageway between the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush mountains, through which most of the interaction between India and Central Asia took place, generating intense cultural exchange and trade.....Following Alexander's death on June 10, 323 BCE, his Diadochi (generals) founded their own kingdoms in Asia Minor and Central Asia. General Seleucus set up the Seleucid Kingdom, which extended as far as India. Later, the Eastern part of the Seleucid Kingdom broke away to form the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (3rd–2nd century BC), followed by the Indo-Greek Kingdom (2nd–1st century BC), and later still by the Kushan Empire (1st–3rd century CE). The interaction of Greek and Buddhist cultures operated over several centuries until it ended in the 5th century CE with the invasions of the White Huns, and later the expansion of Islam."....http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/history/hellenistic.htm

"The Kālachakra tradition, along with all Vajrayana Buddhism, vanished from India in the wake of the Muslim invasions, surviving only in Nepal.....The Dro lineage was established in Tibet by a Kashmiri disciple of Nalandapa named Pandita Somanatha, who traveled to Tibet in 1027 AD (or 1064CE, depending on the calendar used), and his translator Droton Sherab Drak Lotsawa, from which it takes its name. The Ra lineage was brought to Tibet by another Kashmiri disciple of Nadapada named Samantashri, and translated by Ra Choerab Lotsawa (or Ra Dorje Drakpa).".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalachakra

"The 60-year cycle Tibetan Calendar.... is known as the Bṛhaspati (or Vṛhaspati) cycle and was first introduced into Tibet by an Indian Buddhist by the name of Chandra Nath and Chilu Pandit of Tibet in 1025 CE. The first cycle is the rabqung (Tibetan: རབ་བྱུང༌།, Wylie: rab-byung) cycle. The first year of the first rabqung cycle started in 1027. This cycle was adopted from India."....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_calendar

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

September 2013

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Alexandria on the Oxus: Ai-Khanoum (280 BC)

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"Ai-Khanoum or Ay Khanum (lit. “Lady Moon” in Uzbek, possibly the historical Alexandria on the Oxus, also possibly later named اروکرتیه or Eucratidia), was founded in the 4th century BC, following the conquests of Alexander the Great and was one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. The city is located in Kunduz Province, northern Afghanistan, at the confluence of the Oxus river (today's Amu Darya) and the Kokcha river, and at the doorstep of the Indian subcontinent. Ai-Khanoum was one of the focal points of Hellenism in the East for nearly two centuries, until its annihilation by nomadic invaders around 145 BC about the time of the death of Eucratides.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai-Khanoum

"Perhaps the greatest of the "thousand cities of Bactria", known to us today as Ai Khanoum ("Lady Moon" in Uzbeki), was built at a notch where the Oxus (present-day Amu Darya) and Kokcha Rivers meet in northern Afghanistan. .....Initially the site of a fortress known as Alexandria on the Oxus built in 329-328 BC by the troops of Alexander the Great, the site later became a Greek colony where soldiers and a part of Alexander's vast entourage remained behind to settle and carve out a Greek kingdom in the wilds of Central Asia while Alexander continued his military campaign......Over the next 150 years, the fortress expanded to include a series of terrace structures along the south bank of the Oxus. The ground plan included a royal palace, a treasury, pools and fountains, a Propylaea (monumental gateway or processional with 118 columns with Corinthian capitals), a royal library, a gymnasium dedicated to Herakles (Hercules), storerooms to accommodate gold and gemstones mined from the nearby mountains and luxury goods acquired through trade or conquest, as well as a necropolis or mausoleum for attending to the dead.....The riverside terrace structures were backed by a Greek-style acropolis (the "upper city") and a massive Greek theater (the largest in the East, even larger than the theater at Babylon). .......There was also a "lower city" protected by a fearsome defensive wall (with ramparts more than 30 feet high and twenty to twenty-six feet thick) and an elite residentical district with 50 or more mansions (Greek in style with mosaic floors and many amenities, including heated water systems). ".....http://www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html

"Due to the lack of proper stones for sculptural work in the area of Ai-Khanoum, unbaked clay and stucco modeled on a wooden frame were often used, a technique which would become widespread in Central Asia and the East, especially in Buddhist art. In some cases, only the hands and feet would be made in marble....".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai-Khanoum

"Ai-Khanoum or Ay Khanum (lit. “Lady Moon” in Uzbek, possibly the historical Alexandria on the Oxus, also possibly later named اروکرتیه or Eucratidia) was one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Previous scholars have argued that Ai Khanoum was founded in the late 4th century BC, following the conquests of Alexander the Great. Recent analysis now strongly suggests that the city was founded c. 280 BC by the Seleucid king Antiochus I. The city is located in Takhar Province, northern Afghanistan, at the confluence of the Oxus river (today's Amu Darya) and the Kokcha river, and at the doorstep of the Indian subcontinent. Ai-Khanoum was one of the focal points of Hellenism in the East for nearly two centuries, until its annihilation by nomadic invaders around 145 BC .".....Lyonnet, Bertille. "Questions on the Date of the Hellenistic Pottery from Central Asia (Ai Khanoum, Marakanda and Koktepe". Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia". vol. 18. 2012.

"The site was excavated through archaeological searches by a French DAFA mission under Paul Bernard between 1964 and 1978, as well as Russian scientists. The searches had to be abandoned with the onset of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, during which the site was looted and used as a battleground, leaving very little of the original material."

"A Greek city in Bactria......Numerous artifacts and structures were found, pointing to a high Hellenistic culture, combined with Eastern influences. "It has all the hallmarks of a Hellenistic city, with a Greek theatre, gymnasium and some Greek houses with colonnaded courtyards" (Boardman). Overall, Aï-Khanoum was an extremely important Greek city (1.5 sq kilometer), characteristic of the Seleucid Empire and then the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. It seems the city was destroyed, never to be rebuilt, about the time of the death of the Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides around 145 BC.....Ai-Khanoum may have been the city in which Eucratides was besieged by Demetrius, before he successfully managed to escape to ultimately conquer India (Justin)."..Justin (Latin: Marcus Junianius (or Junianus) Justinus) was a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

September 2013

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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