Thought Is Your Enemy

Today is My Last Day of Work....Thank You Sweet Baby Buddha!

2006-09-21T16:44:00.000-04:00

I am not in conflict with the society. I am not interested in changing it. The demand to bring about a change in myself isn't there anymore. So, the demand to change the world at large is not there. I suffer with the suffering man and am happy with the happy man... -- the truth machine

To hell with unemployment: I think it's a fine thing. I like sleeping all day and having nothing to do but read, write, and sleep whenever I feel tired. I like waking up in the morning and going immediately back to bed if the weather is foul. In short, I think it's a fine situation for a man to be in: provided, of course, that he has enough money to eat and pay the rent.
I don't...and therefore must work: but what the hell? Is it anything to cry and pray for forgiveness about? [...] Hell no it's not. I get goddamn tired of getting letters telling me to "buck up", to "keep my chin up," to "keep trying," to "pray and be virtuous," and to read Horatio Alger books. I like being unemployed. I'm lazy. There are plenty of jobs, but I just plain damn don't want to work. It's that simple [..] and I have an ode:

"Ah, lives there a man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, as he hunched and rolled in his comfortable bed:
To hell with rent...I'll drink instead!"

Let us toast to animal pleasures, to escapism, to rain on the roof and instant coffee, to unemployment insurance and library cards, to absinthe and good-hearted landlords, to music and warm bodies and contraceptives...and to the "good life," whatever it is and wherever it happens to be.

So there you have it: a slacker's credo for pleasure...

-- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, "The Proud Highway"

The Kalachakra Tantra

2006-09-17T13:41:00.000-04:00

I have views on every damned thing from disease to divinity. But my views are of no more importance than those of that maid over there cooking and cleaning. -- the truth machine

The Abridged Kalachakra Tantra warns against a future invasion by a non-Indic people who will follow the line of prophets: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mani (the founder of the primarily Iranian religion Manichaeism), Muhammad, and Mahdi (the Islamic messiah). To meet the threat, the king of Shambhala united the Hindus and Buddhists into one caste with the Kalachakra initiation. As a united society, the people of Shambhala would then be able in the future to follow a Buddhist messiah-king in defeating the invading forces and establishing a new golden age.

This article analyzes:

the identity of the non-Indic invaders,
the prophesies of a messiah and an apocalypse in Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism,
the cultural context for the description of the non-Indic prophets,
the historical context for the Buddhist response to the threatened invasion,
the Buddhist tantra practice that the invasion and battle represent.

The Essential Points

One of the main themes in the Kalachakra teachings is the parallel between the physical world, the human body, and Buddhist tantra practice. Accordingly, the invaders that Kalachakra warns against, and which the forces of Shambhala will defeat, have historical, physiological, and meditative levels of meaning. Here, we shall focus only on the first and the last of the three.

Externally, the non-Indic-speaking invaders refer to followers of late tenth-century messianic forms of Islam who will claim to have the messiah Mahdi as their political and spiritual leader. Mahdi will unite and rule the Islamic world, restore Islamic purity, and convert the entire world to Islam before the coming of Dajjal (the Muslim version of the Antichrist), the Second Coming of Christ (who is a Muslim prophet), the apocalypse, and the end of the world.

In the late tenth century - the period when the Kalachakra teachings first emerged in India - the Arab Abbasid rulers of Baghdad and their vassals feared invasions from Islamic empires having such ambitions. Specifically, they feared an invasion from their main rivals, the Fatimid Empire of Egypt and their vassals in Multan (central Pakistan). Such fear was the predominant mood of the times, due to the widespread belief that the world would end five hundred years after Muhammad - in the beginning of the twelfth century.

Afghan Buddhists of the late tenth century, the most likely compilers of the historical material in the Kalachakra teachings, lived in a predominantly Hindu society and, lying between Multan and Baghdad, shared their Muslim neighbors' fear of this invasion. They mixed into their portrait of the invaders a fear of followers of so-called "heretical" forms of Islam, such as Manichaean Shiah, which they had gained when, in the late eighth century, many Afghan and Indian Buddhist scholars had translated texts in Baghdad for the Abbasids.

According to the Kalachakra verse, the invaders will be from the asura caste, which means that they will be followers of jealous gods, who will rival and threaten the gods of the brahmans of Shambhala. This non-Indic group will be "powerful and merciless" and, after conquering the region of India around Delhi, will be the invaders of Shambhala.

To make the danger more intelligible to a predominantly Hindu audience, Kalachakra made use of the Hindu analysis of the material world as consisting of three primal material constituents or features - sattva (mental strength), rajas (speck of passion), and tamas (darkness). The sagely authors of the Vedas have the constituent feature of sattva, while the avatars (incarnations) of Vishnu have the feature of rajas. The prophets of the non-Indic invaders have the primal constituent feature of tamas, meaning that they will be destructive of Indian culture.

To meet the threat, the different castes in Shambhala need to stop avoiding social contact with each other. They need to form a harmonious united front, by becoming one vajra caste in the Kalachakra mandala. Only when all members of society cooperate with each other will the pan-Indic messiah Kalki be able to stop an invasion led by the threatening non-Indic messiah Mahdi.

This was not a call for mass conversion to Buddhism. In the Kalachakra call for unity, Buddhism was merely responding in kind to the established Hindu and Muslim policy of including followers of other religions under its umbrella. The Hindus already asserted Buddha as the ninth avatar of Vishnu, thus rendering all Buddhists good Hindus. Kalachakra, in turn, now identified the first eight avatars as emanations of the Buddha, thus rendering all Hindus good Buddhists.

Both Hindus and Buddhists accepted Kalki as the messiah predicted to defeat a group of non-Indic invaders and to usher in a new golden age. Therefore, the Buddhist king of Shambhala argued that the Hindus could also join the Buddhists in accepting his successor, twenty-five generations in the future, as the Kalki predicted in their own scriptures to be born in Shambhala as Vishnu's tenth and final avatar.

Orthodox Muslims, also fearing an invasion by the army of a "deceiver messiah" who would claim to be the true messiah Mahdi, would also be welcome to rally with the united front of Buddhists and Hindus. Muslim law at the time accepted both Buddhists and Hindus as "people of the Book," and thus included under its jurisprudence followers of the two religions who lived among them. Similarly, Buddhism could include Muslims in their vision of unity, since their teachings contained themes held in common by both.

On the alternative level of Buddhist tantra practice, the invaders represent the forces of unawareness (ignorance), disturbing emotions, destructive behavior, and the negative karmic forces coming from them. The conflicting castes needing to join together as a vajra caste represents the conflicting energy-winds of the subtle body needing to dissolve into the "clear light" subtlest level of energy and mind. The forces of Shambhala represent the resulting blissful realization of the true nature of reality (voidness) with the clear light mind, which then has the power to overcome the ignorance that threatens to bring suffering to everyone.

Conclusion

Buddhism as portrayed in the Kalachakra literature was not anti-Hindu, anti-Muslim, or anti-Christian. It was merely responding to the spirit of the times in the Middle East and parts of South Asia at the end of the tenth century. In the face of widespread fear of an invasion, an apocalyptic battle, and the end of the world, and the popular preoccupation with the coming of a messiah, Kalachakra presented its own version of the prediction. To face the threat, it recommended a policy already followed by Hinduism and the ruling Abbasid Muslims. The policy was to show that Buddhism too had open doctrinal doors for including other religions within its sphere. An essential foundation on which a multicultural society needs to stand in order to face a threatened invasion is religious harmony among its people. Joining others in a Kalachakra mandala symbolizes this commitment to cooperation.

The Kalachakra depiction of the non-Indic prophets and its prophecies of a future war with their followers must be understood in this historical and cultural context. Despite the recommended policy, neither Buddhist leaders nor masters at the time actually launched a campaign to bring Hindus and Muslims into its fold. No one held a Kalachakra initiation with such an aim in mind. Nevertheless, certain Hindu and Muslim groups resented the Kalachakra call for unity and identified the future Buddhist King of Shambhala as the false messiah predicted in their own texts.

When several religions share a belief in a true messiah overcoming a false messiah in an apocalyptic battle, and members of these religions live in close proximity to each other, two possible outcomes may follow. Several of the religions may try to unite in facing a common false messiah by declaring that they share the same true messiah. Alternatively, they may identify each other's true messiahs as their own predicted false messiahs. History shows that both policies can lead to distrust and conflict.

In short, the primary purpose of the Kalachakra teachings on history was to describe future events in a manner that paralleled advanced stages of Kalachakra meditation practice. They neither reflect nor shape the current Buddhist view of the present world situation.

The Nazi Connection with Shambhala and Tibet

2006-09-16T14:29:00.000-04:00

When the movement in the direction of becoming something other than what you are isn't there any more, you are not in conflict with yourself. -- the truth machine

Alexander Berzin

Introduction

Many high-ranking members of the Nazi regime, including Hitler, held convoluted occult beliefs. Prompted by those beliefs, the Germans sent an official expedition to Tibet between 1938 and 1939 at the invitation of the Tibetan Government to attend the Losar (New Year) celebrations.

Tibet had suffered a long history of Chinese attempts to annex it and British failure to prevent the aggression or to protect Tibet. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union was severely persecuting Buddhism, specifically the Tibetan form as practiced among the Mongols within its borders and in its satellite, the People’s Republic of Mongolia (Outer Mongolia). In contrast, Japan was upholding Tibetan Buddhism in Inner Mongolia, which it had annexed as part of Manchukuo, its puppet state in Manchuria. Claiming that Japan was Shambhala, the Imperial Government was trying to win the support of the Mongols under its rule for an invasion of Outer Mongolia and Siberia to create a pan-Mongol confederation under Japanese protection.

The Tibetan Government was exploring the possibility of also gaining protection from Japan in the face of the unstable situation. Japan and Germany had signed an Anti-Commintern Pact in 1936, declaring their mutual hostility toward the spread of international Communism. The invitation for the visit of an official delegation from Nazi Germany was extended in this context. In August 1939, shortly after the German expedition to Tibet, Hitler broke his pact with Japan and signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact. In September, the Soviets defeated the Japanese who had invaded Outer Mongolia in May. Subsequently, nothing ever materialized from the Japanese and German contacts with the Tibetan Government.

[For more detail, see: Russian and Japanese Involvement with Pre-Communist Tibet: The Role of the Shambhala Legend.]

Several postwar writers on the Occult have asserted that Buddhism and the legend of Shambhala played a role in the German-Tibetan official contact. Let us examine the issue.

The Myths of Thule and Vril

The first element of Nazi occult beliefs was in the mythic land of Hyperborea-Thule. Just as Plato had cited the Egyptian legend of the sunken island of Atlantis, Herodotus mentioned the Egyptian legend of the continent of Hyperborea in the far north. When ice destroyed this ancient land, its people migrated south. Writing in 1679, the Swedish author Olaf Rudbeck identified the Atlanteans with the Hyperboreans and located the latter at the North Pole. According to several accounts, Hyperborea split into the islands of Thule and Ultima Thule, which some people identified with Iceland and Greenland.

The second ingredient was the idea of a hollow earth. At the end of the seventeenth century, the British astronomer Sir Edmund Halley first suggested that the earth was hollow, consisting of four concentric spheres. The hollow earth theory fired many people’s imaginations, especially with the publication in 1864 of French novelist Jules Verne’s Voyage to the Center of the Earth.

Soon, the concept of vril appeared. In 1871, British novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, in The Coming Race, described a superior race, the Vril-ya, who lived beneath the earth and planned to conquer the world with vril, a psychokinetic energy. The French author Louis Jacolliot furthered the myth in Les Fils de Dieu (The Sons of God) (1873) and Les Traditions indo-européeenes (The Indo-European Traditions) (1876). In these books, he linked vril with the subterranean people of Thule. The Thuleans will harness the power of vril to become supermen and rule the world.

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) also emphasized the concept of the Übermensch (superman) and began his final work, Der Antichrist (The Antichrist) (1895) with the line, “Let us see ourselves for what we are. We are Hyperboreans. We know well enough how we are living off that track.” Although Nietzsche never mentioned vril, yet in his posthumously published collection of aphorisms, Der Wille zur Macht (The Will to Power), he emphasized the role of an internal force for superhuman development. He wrote that “the herd,” meaning common persons, strives for security within itself through creating morality and rules, whereas the supermen have an internal vital force that drives them to go beyond the herd. That force necessitates and drives them to lie to the herd in order to remain independent and free from the “herd mentality.”

In The Arctic Home of the Vedas (1903), the early advocate of Indian freedom, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, added a further touch by identifying the southern migration of the Thuleans with the origin of the Aryan race. Thus, many Germans in the early twentieth century believed that they were the descendants of the Aryans who had migrated south from Hyperborea-Thule and who were destined to become the master race of supermen through the power of vril. Hitler was among them.

The Thule Society and the Founding of the Nazi Party

Felix Niedner, the German translator of the Old Norse Eddas, founded the Thule Society in 1910. In 1918, Rudolf Freiherr von Sebottendorff established its Munich branch. Sebottendorf had previously lived for several years in Istanbul where, in 1910, he had formed a secret society that combined esoteric Sufism and Freemasonry. It believed in the creed of the assassins, deriving from the Nazari sect of Ismaili Islam, which had flourished during the Crusades. While in Istanbul, Sebottendorf was also undoubtedly familiar with the pan-Turanian (pan-Turkic) movement of the Young Turks, started in 1908, which was largely behind the Armenian genocide of 1915-1916. Turkey and Germany were allies during the First World War. Back in Germany, Sebottendorff had also been a member of the Germanen Order (Order of Teutons), founded in 1912 as a right-wing society with a secret anti-Semitic Lodge. Through these channels, assassination, genocide, and anti-Semitism became parts of the Thule Society’s creed. Anti-Communism was added after the Bavarian Communist Revolution later in 1918, when the Munich Thule Society became the center of the counterrevolutionary movement.

In 1919, the Society spawned the German Workers Party. Starting later that year, Dietrich Eckart, a member of the inner circle of the Thule Society, initiated Hitler into the Society and began to train him in its methods for harnessing vril to create a race of Aryan supermen. Hitler had been mystic-minded from his youth, when he had studied the Occult and Theosophy in Vienna. Later, Hilter dedicated Mein Kampf to Eckart. In 1920, Hitler became the head of the German Workers Party, now renamed the National Socialist German Worker (Nazi) Party.

Haushofer, the Vril Society, and Geopolitics

Another major influence on Hitler’s thinking was Karl Haushofer (1869-1946), a German military advisor to the Japanese after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Because he was extremely impressed with Japanese culture, many believe that he was responsible for the later German-Japanese alliance. He was also highly interested in Indian and Tibetan culture, learned Sanskrit, and claimed that he had visited Tibet.

After serving as a general in the First World War, Haushofer founded the Vril Society in Berlin in 1918. It shared the same basic beliefs as the Thule Society and some say that it was its inner circle. The Society sought contact with supernatural beings beneath the earth to gain from them the powers of vril. It also asserted a Central Asian origin of the Aryan race. Haushofer developed the doctrine of Geopolitics and, in the early 1920s, became the director of the Institute for Geopolitics at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. Geopolitics advocated conquering territory to gain more living space (Germ. Lebensraum) as a means of acquiring power.

Rudolf Hess was one of Haushofer’s closest students and introduced him to Hitler in 1923, while Hitler was in prison for his failed Putsch. Subsequently, Haushofer often visited the future Führer, teaching him Geopolitics in association with the ideas of the Thule and Vril Societies. Thus, when Hitler became chancellor in 1933, he adopted Geopolitics as his policy for the Aryan race to conquer Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. The key to success would be finding the forefathers of the Aryan race in Central Asia, the guardians of the secrets of vril.

The Swastika

The swastika is an ancient Indian symbol of immutable good luck. “Swastika” is an Anglicization of the Sanskrit word svastika, which means well-being or good luck. Used by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains for thousands of years, it became widespread in Tibet as well.

The swastika has also appeared in most other ancient cultures of the world. For example, the counterclockwise variant of it, adopted by the Nazis, is also the letter “G” in the medieval Northern European Runic Script. The Freemasons took the letter as an important symbol, since “G” could stand for God, the Great Architect of the Universe, or Geometry.

The swastika is also a traditional symbol of the Old Norse God of Thunder and Might (Scandinavian Thor, German Donner, Baltic Perkunas). Because of this association with the God of Thunder, the Latvians and Finnish both took the swastika as the insignia for their air forces when they gained independence after the First World War.

In the late nineteenth century, Guido von List adopted the swastika as an emblem for the Neo-Pagan movement in Germany. The Germans did not use the Sanskrit word swastika, however, but called it instead “Hakenkreutz,” meaning “hooked cross.” It would defeat and replace the cross, just as Neo-Paganism would defeat and replace Christianity.

Sharing the anti-Christian sentiment of the Neo-Pagan movement, the Thule Society also adopted the Hakenkreutz as part of its emblem, placing it in a circle with a vertical German dagger superimposed on it. In 1920, at the suggestion of Dr. Friedrich Krohn of the Thule Society, Hitler adopted the Hakenkreutz in a white circle for the central design of the Nazi Party flag. Hitler chose red for the background color to compete against the red flag of the rival Communist Party.

The French researchers Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, in Le Matin des Magiciens (The Morning of the Magicians) (1962), wrote that Haushofer convinced Hitler to use the Hakenkreuz as the symbol for the Nazi Party. They postulate that this was due to Haushofer’s interest in Indian and Tibetan culture. This conclusion is highly unlikely, since Haushofer did not meet Hitler until 1923, whereas the Nazi flag first appeared in 1920. It is more likely that Haushofer used the widespread presence of the swastika in India and Tibet as evidence to convince Hitler of this region as the location of the forefathers of the Aryan race.

Nazi Suppression of Rival Occult Groups

During the first half of the 1920s, a violent rivalry took place among the Occult Societies and Secret Lodges in Germany. In 1925, for example, Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Anthroposophical movement, was found murdered. Many suspected that the Thule Society had ordered his assassination. In later years, Hitler continued the persecution of Anthroposophists, Theosophists, Freemasons, and Rosicrucians. Various scholars ascribe this policy to Hitler’s wish to eliminate any occult rivals to his rule.

Influenced by Nietszche’s writings and Thule Society creeds, Hitler believed that Christianity was a defective religion, infected by its roots in Jewish thinking. He viewed its teachings of forgiveness, the triumph of the weak, and self-abnegation as anti-evolutionary and saw himself as a messiah replacing God and Christ. Steiner had used the image of the Antichrist and Lucifer as future spiritual leaders who would regenerate Christianity in a new pure form. Hitler went much further. He saw himself as ridding the world of a degenerate system and bringing about a new step in evolution with the Aryan master race. He could tolerate no rival Antichrists, either now or in the future. He was tolerant, however, of Buddhism.

[See: Mistaken Foreign Myths about Shambhala.]

Buddhism in Nazi Germany

In 1924, Paul Dahlke founded the Buddhistischen Haus (House for Buddhists) in Frohnau, Berlin. It was open to members of all Buddhist traditions, but primarily catered to the Theravada and Japanese forms, since they were the most widely known in the West at that time. In 1933, it hosted the First European Buddhist Congress. The Nazis allowed the House for Buddhists to remain open throughout the war, but tightly controlled it. As some members knew Chinese and Japanese, they acted as translators for the government in return for tolerance of Buddhism.

Although the Nazi regime closed the Buddhistische Gemeinde (Buddhist Society) in Berlin, which had been active from 1936, and briefly arrested its founder Martin Steinke in 1941, they generally did not persecute Buddhists. After his release, Steinke and several others continued to lecture on Buddhism in Berlin. There is no evidence, however, that teachers of Tibetan Buddhism were ever present in the Third Reich.

The Nazi policy of tolerance for Buddhism does not prove any influence of Buddhist teachings on Hitler or Nazi ideology. A more probable explanation is Germany’s wish not to damage relations with its Buddhist ally, Japan.

The Ahnenerbe

Under the influence of Haushofer, Hitler authorized Frederick Hielscher, in 1935, to establish the Ahnenerbe (Bureau for the Study of Ancestral Heritage), with Colonel Wolfram von Sievers as its head. Among other functions, Hitler charged it with researching Germanic runes and the origins of the swastika, and locating the source of the Aryan race. Tibet was the most promising candidate.

Alexander Csoma de Körös (Körösi Csoma Sandor) (1784-1842) was a Hungarian scholar obsessed with the quest to find the origins of the Hungarian people. Based on the linguistic affinities between Hungarian and the Turkic languages, he felt that the origins of the Hungarian people were in “the land of the Yugurs (Uighurs)” in East Turkistan (Xinjiang, Sinkiang). He believed that if he could reach Lhasa, he would find there the keys for locating his homeland.

Hungarian, Finnish, the Turkic languages, Mongolian, and Manchu belong to the Ural-Altaic family of languages, also known as the Turanian family, after the Persian word Turan for Turkestan. From 1909, the Turks had a pan-Turanian movement spearheaded by a society known as the Young Turks. The Hungarian Turanian Society soon followed in 1910 and the Turanian Alliance of Hungary in 1920. Some scholars believe that the Japanese and Korean languages also belong to the Turanian family. Thus, the Turanian National Alliance was founded in Japan in 1921 and the Japanese Turanian Society in the early 1930s. Haushofer was undoubtedly aware of these movements, which sought the origins of the Turanian race in Central Asia. It fit in well with the Thule Society’s search for the origins of the Aryan race there as well. His interest in Tibetan culture added weight to the candidacy of Tibet as the key to finding a common origin for the Aryan and Turanian races and for gaining the power of vril that its spiritual leaders possessed.

Haushofer was not the only influence on the Ahnenerbe’s interest in Tibet. Hielscher was a friend of Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer who had led expeditions to Tibet in 1893, 1899-1902, and 1905-1908, and an expedition to Mongolia in 1927-1930. A favorite of the Nazis, Hitler invited him to give the opening address at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Hedin engaged in pro-Nazi publishing activities in Sweden and made numerous diplomatic missions to Germany between 1939 and 1943.

In 1937, Himmler made the Ahnenerbe an official organization attached to the SS (Germ. Schutzstaffel, Protection Squad) and appointed Professor Walther Wüst, chairman of the Sanskrit Department at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, as its new director. The Ahnenerbe had a Tibet Institut (Tibet Institute), which was renamed the Sven Hedin Institut für Innerasien und Expeditione (Sven Hedin Institute for Inner Asia and Expeditions) in 1943.

The Nazi Expedition to Tibet

Ernst Schäffer, a German hunter and biologist, participated in two expeditions to Tibet, in 1931–1932 and 1934–1936, for sport and zoological research. The Ahnenerbe sponsored him to lead a third expedition (1938-1939) at the official invitation of the Tibetan Government. The visit coincided with renewed Tibetan contacts with Japan. A possible explanation for the invitation is that the Tibetan Government wished to maintain cordial relations with the Japanese and their German allies as a balance against the British and Chinese. Thus, the Tibetan Government welcomed the German expedition at the 1939 New Year (Losar) celebration in Lhasa.

[See: Russian and Japanese Involvement with Pre-Communist Tibet: The Role of the Shambhala Legend.]

In Fest der weissen Schleier: Eine Forscherfahrt durch Tibet nach Lhasa, der heiligen Stadt des Gottkönigtums (Festival of the White Gauze Scarves: A Research Expedition through Tibet to Lhasa, the Holy City of the God Realm) (1950), Ernst Schäffer described his experiences during the expedition. During the festivities, he reported, the Nechung Oracle warned that although the Germans brought sweet presents and words, Tibet must be careful: Germany’s leader is like a dragon. Tsarong, the pro-Japanese former head of the Tibetan military, tried to soften the prediction. He said that the Regent had heard much more from the Oracle, but he himself was unauthorized to divulge the details. The Regent prays daily for no war between the British and the Germans, since this would have terrible consequences for Tibet as well. Both countries must understand that all good people must pray the same. During the rest of his stay in Lhasa, Schäffer met often with the Regent and had a good rapport.

The Germans were highly interested in establishing friendly relations with Tibet. Their agenda, however, was slightly different from that of the Tibetans. One of the members of the Schäffer expedition was the anthropologist Bruno Beger, who was responsible for racial research. Having worked with H. F. K. Günther on Die nordische Rasse bei den Indogermanen Asiens (The Northern Race among the Indo-Germans of Asia), Beger subscribed to Günther’s theory of a “northern race” in Central Asia and Tibet. In 1937, he had proposed a research project for Eastern Tibet and, with the Schäffer expedition, planned to investigate scientifically the racial characteristics of the Tibetan people. While in Tibet and Sikkim on the way, Beger measured the skulls of three hundred Tibetans and Sikkimese and examined some of their other physical features and bodily marks. He concluded that the Tibetans occupied an intermediary position between the Mongol and European races, with the European racial element showing itself most pronouncedly among the aristocracy.

According to Richard Greve, “Tibetforschung in SS-Ahnenerbe (Tibetan Research in the SS- Ahnenerbe)” published in T. Hauschild (ed.) “Lebenslust und Fremdenfurcht” – Ethnologie im Dritten Reich (“Passion for Life and Xenophobia” – Ethnology in the Third Reich) (1995), Beger recommended that the Tibetans could play an important role after the final victory of the Third Reich. They could serve as an allied race in a pan-Mongol confederation under the aegis of Germany and Japan. Although Beger also recommended further studies to measure all the Tibetans, no further expeditions to Tibet were undertaken.

Purported Occult Expeditions to Tibet

Several postwar studies on Nazism and the Occult, such as Trevor Ravenscroft in The Spear of Destiny (1973), have asserted that under the influence of Haushofer and the Thule Society, Germany sent annual expeditions to Tibet from 1926 to 1943. Their mission was first to find and then to maintain contact with the Aryan forefathers in Shambhala and Agharti, hidden subterranean cities beneath the Himalayas. Adepts there were the guardians of secret occult powers, especially vril, and the missions sought their aid in harnessing those powers for creating an Aryan master race. According to these accounts, Shambhala refused any assistance, but Agharti agreed. Subsequently, from 1929, groups of Tibetans purportedly came to Germany and started lodges known as the Society of Green Men. In connection with the Green Dragon Society in Japan, through the intermediary of Haushofer, they supposedly helped the Nazi cause with their occult powers. Himmler was attracted to these groups of Tibetan-Agharti adepts and, purportedly from their influence, established the Ahnenerbe in 1935.

Aside from the fact that Himmler did not establish the Ahnenerbe, but rather incorporated it into the SS in 1937, Ravenscroft’s account contains other dubious assertions. The main one is the purported Agharti support of the Nazi cause. In 1922, the Polish scientist Ferdinand Ossendowski published Beasts, Men and Gods describing his travels through Mongolia. In it, he related hearing of the subterranean land of Agharti beneath the Gobi Desert. In the future, its powerful inhabitants would come to the surface to save the world from disaster. The German translation of Ossendowski’s book, Tiere, Menschen und Götter, appeared in 1923 and became quite popular. Sven Hedin, however, published in 1925 Ossendowski und die Wahrheit (Ossendowski and the Truth), in which he debunked the Polish scientist’s claims. He pointed out that Ossendowski had lifted the idea of Agharti from Saint-Yves d’Alveidre’s 1886 novel Mission de l’Inde en Europe (Mission of India in Europe) to make his story more appealing to the German public. Since Hedin had a strong influence on the Ahnenerbe, it is unlikely that this bureau would have sent an expedition specifically to find Shambhala and Agharti and, subsequently, would have received assistance from the latter.

[See: Mistaken Foreign Myths about Shambhala.]

Yeti

2006-09-15T15:02:00.000-04:00

The appreciation of music, poetry and language is the product of "thought." It is "thought" that tells you that Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is more beautiful than a chorus of cats screaming; both produce equally valid sensations. -- the truth machine

Yeti

The "abominable snowman" is also known as yeti or mighu (pl. m'ghira,) or miteh, and bongamanche ("man of the forest.")

As you may know, several casts have been made of mysterious footprints, neither ape-like nor human, found in the high mountain terrain of Asia and the Americas. In spring of 2001, a mysterious black hair was found in a cedar tree-root den in a bamboo jungle in Bhutan.

Bryan Sykes, Professor of Human Genetics at the Oxford Institute of Molecular Medicine, one of the world’s leading experts on DNA analysis, and the first to extract genetic material from ancient bones said, "We found some DNA in it, but we don’t know what it is. It’s not a human, not a bear nor anything else we have so far been able to identify. It’s a mystery and I never thought this would end in a mystery. We have never encountered DNA that we couldn’t recognise before." ~ The Times, London

April 6/01, Discovery News, "Scientists Claim Yeti DNA Evidence" by Rossella Lorenzi:

British scientists in search of the yeti have found the best evidence yet for the existence of the legendary creature — a strand of hair, the DNA of which has proved impossible to identify.

The tall, nocturnal, hairy creature who many say dwells around the forests and mountains of the Himalayas supposedly inhabits the hollow of a cedar tree in the Kingdom of Bhutan, on the eastern side of the Himalayas.

Working on a documentary for Channel 4, the British expedition team found a long black hair on the tree bark after Sonam Dhendup, the King of Bhutan's official yeti hunter for the past 12 years, led them into a forest where locals claimed to have discovered a piece of a mysterious skin.

The results of DNA analysis on the hair follicle have surprised even skeptical researchers. "It's not a human, it's not a bear, nor anything else that we've so far been able to identify," Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, told New Scientist.
In the documentary, one eyewitness — a former royal guard called Druk Sherrik — described his encounter with the Migyur, as the Buthanese call the yeti. "It was huge. It must have been nine feet tall. The arms were enormous and hairy. The face was red with a nose like a chimpanzee." In the past, traces of hair and footprints believed to be from the yeti were in fact from bears, langur monkeys, himalayan goats and pigs. But the British finding raises the
possibility that the sample belongs to an unknown species.

"We have never encountered any DNA that we couldn't recognize before," said Sykes, a pioneer of DNA identification as the first genetist to extract DNA from archaeological bone specimens.

Inside the cedar tree, Rob McCall, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Oxford, found scratch marks resembling claw. Nearby, he saw odd footprints just a couple of hours old. They showed a short print with a narrow heel and toe pads.

"Yeti was an official protected species in the Kingdom of Nepal until the mid late 1950's, so someone obviously believes in them," says Lama Surya Das, one of the foremost American Lamas in the Buddhist tradition and author of Wisdom Tales from Tibet.

"I've also seen scalps at monasteries high in the Himalayas, but I think they belonged to species of Himalayan red bear. I personally believe that the Yeti, like the Native American's legendary Sasquatch [Bigfoot] are mostly figments of the imagination."

The Tengboche Incident

A report was filed in the valley around Tengboche monastery in Nepal stating that one evening, when a herder came to get the yaks, three were found cruelly slaughtered. The local people attributed this to a mighu since it has the reputation of getting the animals to thrust their horns to earth, which leaves them vulnerable to disembowelment. The yeti eats "the still living, still warm innards."

We ventured to ask if the yeti still existed. Yes, The Abbot thought so, even though rarely seen. Is it a kind of human or animal we enquired further? That received the slightly shocked answer "it's is human of course!"

The yeti is not always harmful. One was believed to have helped the realized meditation master Lama Sangwa Dorje and is also mentioned in the autobiography of Thangtong Gyalpo to have helped him carry his luggage. But there are believed to be different kinds: the mhi-te, which is very horrible and dangerous, and the chuk-dre, slightly smaller and less ferocious version that only eats animals.

In the 1950s the famous climber Eric Shipton took photographs of yeti footprints which were published in England. Indeed yeti footprints are still occasionally sighted, but most spectacular is the yeti skull still kept in Kumjung Monastery. It looks like a shaggy rugby ball and not much like any known species of animal.

A few years ago there was also a yeti skull and a hand kept in the monastery in Pangboche. It was quite famous and all the tourists would pay a few rupees to have a look. This provided a small income that helped to support a community of nuns who lived there. Unfortunately it was stolen and that precious piece of evidence of the yeti lost forever.
~ Shmitz and Cawley, Tengboche.com

According to The Japan Times (Aug. 14, 2003) "The rare specimen, having been stolen once, is now kept under lock and key in a glass container. Reddish-brown in color, the scalp is about 20 cm high with a thick head of hair parted and brushed back from the center. Scientists, however, have questioned its authenticity."

The specimen known as the Yeti of Khumjung that is in the monastery near Namche Bazar in Nepal was donated by a lama who had found it near Pangboche.

In 2003, Yoshiteru Takahashi, a 60-year-old painter from Tokyo, set out with a team of six other climbers. With support from a Japanese newspaper, for 2 months they staked out the flanks of 8,167-meter Dhaulagiri, which Takahashi had scaled in 1975 and 1982.

"I have climbed the Dhaulagiri (White Mountain) massif four times, and every time, I saw footprints of the yeti. In 1971, one of my expedition members saw one of these creatures.

"It looked like a gorilla and stood only 15 meters away from him, watching him, for about 40 seconds," Takahashi said. "It was about 150 cm tall and stood on its hind legs, like a man. Its head was covered with long, thick hair and he was certain it was not a bear or a monkey."

On another expedition to the same region in 1994, Takahashi discovered what he describes as a "bolt-hole," a natural cave that stretched back 5 meters into a rock face at 5,000 meters above sea level.

"Animals had definitely visited the cave and there were more of the footprints in the snow around the mouth of the cavern," he said. Unfortunately, his camera failed and he couldn't record his find.

And
An expedition to find the yeti in 1994 was prompted by the earlier discoveries of footprints that he describes as being similar to those of a human child and measuring up to 20 cm long. He also said he could smell the creatures' musty, animal odor.

"The footprints that I saw were similar to the one photographed by British explorers Eric Shipton and Michael Ward in 1951," Takahashi said. {see below]

And

"The ones I found were smaller and thinner, more like a human foot, with an arch between the heel and the toes," Takahashi said. "There are no animals that leave that sort of track."
~<http://www.camp4.com/moreoffroute.php?newsid=496>

Sightings

Researchers rarely find evidence, unlike local inhabitants who occasionally meet with it while going about their daily routine.

In 1925, Greek photographer, N. A. Tombazi, a member of the British geological expedition in the Kachenjungma region, described a creature he saw moving across a Himalayan slope at an altitude of around 15,000 feet. He estimated it was about a thousand feet away.

"Unquestionably, the figure in outline was exactly like a human being, walking upright and stopping occasionally to uproot or pull at some dwarf rhododendron bushes," said Tombazi, "It showed up dark against the snow and, as far as I could make out wore no clothes." But before he could take a photograph, it disappeared.

When Tombazi left the team to check out the terrain, in the snow he found 15 footprints from one and a half to two feet apart, ". . . similar in shape to those of a man, but only six to seven inches long by four inches wide at the broadest part of the foot. The marks of five distinct toes and the instep were perfectly clear, but the trace of the heel was indistinct . . . ."

Later, the local people said it was a "Kanchenjunga demon."

In 1938 Captain d'Auvergue, curator of Calcutta's Victoria Memorial, was traveling alone in the Himalayas when he became snow blind. He related that, when he was almost dead from exposure, a nine-foot tall Yeti saved his life.

In 1951, in the Gauri Shankar pocket on the Menlung Glacier at an altitude of 20,000 feet, tracks were photographed by British mountaineers Eric Shipton and Michael Ward. The prints were fresh when discovered, and the men followed the trail for a mile before it disappeared onto the ice. Each footprint was thirteen inches wide and up to eighteen inches long.

Scientists who viewed the photographs could not positively identify the tracks, noting that depressions in snow get bigger as the snow melts in the sun. Some felt the trail was that of a langur or a red bear, but neither animal is bipedal.

In 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay found giant foot prints on their way to their record Everest ascent.

The London Daily Mail sent an expedition in 1954, and American oilmen, Tom Slick and F. Kirk Johnson, financed trips in 1957, '58, and '59.

In 1960, sponsored by World Book Encyclopedia, there was an expedition lead by Sir Edmund Hillary in association with Desmond Doig. Well equipped with the finest photographic technology of the day and despite a ten-month stay, the group found nothing but a couple of blue bear skins and the scalp of a serow.

Doig concluded that the size and activity of the group had precluded any chance of a yeti encounter, since neither did they see a snow leopard.

Besides the 1971 sighting by a Takahashi climbing team member, British searchers reported a sighting in 1974.

After thirty years in the Himalayas, Desmond Doig believes reports of the mysterious creature refer to three distinct animals: First, what Sherpas call "dzu teh," the one that attacks cattle and which is probably the Tibetan blue bear -- a creature known in the West only through a few skins, bones and a skull; the second is probably a type of gibbon that may live as far north as Nepal despite the fact its usual range is south of the Brahmaputra. The third, known as "mih teh," is the mysterious hairy creature living as high up as 20,000 feet.

Compare Australia's "Yowie." (See also Bigfoot, Sasquatch.)

Phowa

2006-09-12T17:16:00.000-04:00

Cabbages are more alive than human beings. -- the truth machine

The Teaching Of Phowa
(Transference of Consciousness at the Time of Death)

According to the Tibetan custom, in the event of someone dying, a
member of the family of the dying person would request a Lama to
perform the "phowa" ceremony (i.e. Transference of consciousness at
the time of death.)

The Lama performing the ceremony would have himself mastered the
art of phowa (transferring the consciousness at the time of death)
after having previously been initiated into the practice and
meditation given only to Tulkus (Incarnates) and retreated to the
hills to carry out the practice which he would continue night and day
until the signs he was told to watch for (at the time his initiation)
appear.

He would then leave his retreat equipped now to instruct monks,
nuns and lay people in the practice. He would however, continue to
perform the practice at least once a month. When he becomes aware of
the signs of his approaching death (signs he was taught to recognize
during his retreat period), he would meet the eventuality with a great
calmness and equanimity.

All the Tibetans are familiar with this practice. During the summer
months at the end of every twelfth year when the plains were richly
verdant after the white of winter, one could see the trek of Tibetan
pilgrims walk to the small temple at Bhum Ngu Sumdo in which phowa had
been given for the first time to the people of Drigung .

They would pitch huge white tents, a stark contrast to the yellow
and maroon robes of the monks and nuns and the colorful chubas (the
traditional dress) of the women and children and summer flowers, in
preparation for three weeks stay for the performance of "PHOWA" by the
head Tulku of Drigung Lamas.

This teaching of "PHOWA" is with the Venerable K.C. Ayang Rinpoche
who continues this uninterrupted succession of the Drikung line of
Phowa Lamas from the Supreme Guru Dorje Chang to Tilopa, Naropa,
Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa up to the present time. He now resides at
the Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist Kagyudpa Monastery: "THUBTEN SHEDRUB
JANGCHUBLING" in the Tibetan settlement, Bylakuppe in Karnataka State
India.

When taking the initiation of Phowa, it is important to receive the
initiation from a Tulku (i.e. Incarnate Lama) who continues the line
of succession of the Phowa lineage of Gurus. The blessings of such an
initiation will render the practice safe as the blessings of the
lineage will flow unhampered to meet the disciple and bring with them
quick results.

Should the Phowa be attempted without this very vital precaution
the results will not be the same and the practitioner will be faced
with many dangers.

Faith in the Lama Tulku is of primary importance. If the faith is
very strong, coupled with devotion, then the results will be very
powerful and immediate. If the faith is not of the highest strength
then the results will be medium and so on . . and where there is
little faith, no good results can be expected, however much you may
try.

In the root Tantra, "GYUD" it is written:
Even if a man is so sinful that he kills a holy man every day and
has committed the five Heavy Sins, if he goes on this path of Phowa
the veils of sin will not remain. For the men of many sins and for all
beings, this is the Path of liberation which is direct and secret.

Urgyan Rinpoche said, "By meditation all can attain Enlightenment.
My meditation is that which is called "MA GOM PI" (i.e. spontaneous
without meditation effort) . . . "

Naropa says, 'There are nine Gates which are of the world but there
is only one which is the gate of Mahamundra (Nirvana). If you shut the
nine Gates then you will get the Path of liberation without any
doubt ...."

Marpa Lotsawa said, "From now, if you study Phowa, purify, purify
time and time again. Then, at that time, when death is approaching you
will know no despair. If, beforehand, you have become accustomed to
this Path of Phowa then at the time of death you will be full of
cheerful confidence .... "

Over and above the Nine ordinary apertures of the body called
"buga", there is a 'Crest' aperture, and the virtue of doing this
practice of Phowa is to be able to think of this crest aperture at the
time of death and to direct the consciousness through this gate into
the pure land of the Buddha, the Buddhafield (DEWA CHEN).

The profound Path of Phowa is the Holy Way of the Buddhas which is
Dharma rapidly realized spontaneously without meditation effort.

DRIKUNG PHOWA CHEN MO
Account of the Great Drikun Phowa

It is very difficult to attain the precious human body and having
attained it one must utilize it to reach Buddhahood through the proper
hearing, contemplation and meditation of the precious teachings. Even
if one has attained human birth, it can suddenly end without warning.
Because of the overwhelming power of laziness in the postponement of
our practice, one's life ends without one even realizing it, because
life is so short and the galloping mara of death is so quick. When
death comes we have no escape, we have to accept it and go on to the
next life. At this time neither your accumulated wealth nor your dear
ones nor your cherished body -- nothing can help except the precious
teachings.

In the precious teachings, Lord Shakyamuni Buddha taught the Dharma
to suit the different levels of understanding and to different
dispositions of all beings through Shravakayana, Pratyekayana and
Mahayana practices.

The Mahayana consists of Hetuyana (cause) and Phalayana (fruit).
The Hetuyana or the Sutrayana consists of all the practices without
the tantric initiations. In the Phalayana or the Vajrayana there are
many means (paths) to attain enlightenment through the Arising and
Completion processes but one must diligently practice over a period of
time before one can realize one's Buddhahood .

In the Vajrayana, the Phowa practice is the most direct and the
quickest path for one to achieve enlightenment. It is said that even
the heaviest of sinners has a chance for enlightenment through the
practice of the Phowa. "There are teachings for one to become
enlightened, but I have a teaching (Phowa) that offers enlightenment
without meditation", said Marpa, the great translator and the father
of the Kagyu Lineage.

The Phowa "Jaktshukma" (the standing grass blade) Linage is one of
the precious phowa practices. In the eighth century, the Dharma king
of Tibet, Thri-song Deu-Tsen invited the great Indian tantric master,
Guru Padmasambhava, to Tibet and they built the Samye monastery. Guru
Padmasambhava was residing in Ch'im-phu cave in the vicinity of Samye
when an important minister of the king, Nyima, had a tragedy. Nyima,
who had two palaces and was in the process of moving from one to the
other, was packing some belongings by the light of a lantern when a
small spark caused a fire which instantly burned down the whole palace
tragically killing thirteen people including his parents. All his
horses, mules, cattle and other animals also perished in the fire.
Minister Nyima, thinking of the love and respect that others show
their parents felt that he had committed the heaviest of sins by
causing the death of his parents and others.

The king desiring to end the suffering of his minister went to
Ch'im-phu cave to request the help of Padmasambhava. Padamasambhava by
miraculous power went to the Pure Land to see Amitabha Buddha. He told
Buddha Amitabha about the suffering of Minister Nyima and of all
sentient beings and asked Amitabha to give a special teaching to free
them from suffering. Buddha Amitabha gave this Phowa teaching to
Padmasambhava who gave it to Minister Nyima who then gave up all
worldly activities to practice the Phowa which he eventually
actualized. Through the path of Phowa, Minister Nyima's consciousness
attained the Pure Land when death came and many different signs
appeared like rainbows and relics from his body.

This text was hidden in the Black Mandala Lake which is at the
backside of Dhaglhagampo Hill. The Naga king, Tsurana-Ratna, asked to
be the guardian of this text and was told by Padmasambhava that the
future incarnation of Minister Nyima would be Nyida Sang-gye and that
he must give the text to him.

Padmasambhava then left to go to the land of the Rakshas. After
more than 350 years the incarnation of Minister Nyima was born as the
son of a shepherd. When Nyida Sang-gye was growing up he felt great
compassion and wept tears of sorrow when the animals would die.

In order to alleviate his great suffering, Buddha Amitabha appeared
to him and gave him this Phowa teaching for the benefit of all
sentient beings. Nyida Sang-gye then gave Phowa to all the dying
animals and often many different signs appeared.

The Naga-king then came to Nyida Sang-gye and told him of the
Hidden Text (Ter-ma) and Nyida Sang-gye took the Ter from the Black
Mandala Lake and gave the teaching to the Sagas. Through this teaching
many of the Nagas were reborn into a higher life.

After this Nyida Sang-gye gave many teachings to human beings
through which many reached liberation.

This transmission of the teaching is held by the Drikung Kagyudpa.
The devoted practitioner who has no doubt in the qualified Lama and
teachings can experience the sign of Phowa merely through receiving
the Lung (Blessing Transmission). This has been experienced by many
practitioners around the world.

The Drikung Kagyu Linage is one of the lineages of Tibetan
Buddhism. The founder, Kyobpa Jigten Sumgon (1143-1217) - thought of
as the second Buddha was the Vajra-regent of Phagmo Drupa who was the
chief lineage holder of Gampopa (1079-1153).

The Drikung Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism holds the precious
teachings of all which Shakyamuni Buddha taught for the
benefit of all sentient beings. This lineage also possesses the
complete transmission of the meditative practices of the Five-Profound
Paths of the Mahamudra and the Six Yogas of Naropa. The Drikung order
is famous for its ability to successfully transfer the power of the
Phowa meditation to initiated and devoted practitioners who practice
it. Thus, the Phowa transmission given by the Drikung Lamas came to be
known as the 'Drikung Phowa Chen-mo' - the Great Drikung Phowa. The
Drikung Phowa became so powerful that it became a tradition in Tibet
to have a Drikung Phowa Ch'en-mo ceremony every twelve years at
Dro-ngor Sum-dho at Drikung in central Tibet. The fame of this Phowa
continued to spread as thousands of participants would experience the
signs of the Phowa during the 'Lung' (Blessing Transmission) given by
a head Lama of Drikung Kagyu. Due to the accumulated energy of the
lineage and the blessing of the teaching itself, the qualified Lama is
able to directly transfer the blessings of this practice to the pure
and devoted disciples who can experience the signs very quickly. When
one has received any of the signs of the Phowa meditation, then one is
considered to be prepared to enter into the Buddha-field of Amitabha
Buddha (Dewa-chen) at the time of death. It is taught that one does
not return to the samsaric realms after having entered Dewa-chen and
that one can quickly achieve Enlightenment. Because of all this, the
Drikung Phowa is becoming particularly relevant in these times simply
because in today's society we do not have the time nor the
circumstances to walk the spiritual path of the Dharma as did our
predecessors in the past. We desperately need a spiritual path that is
simple, relevant, and direct, enabling us to transform the stresses
and pace of modern life into a vital force that cuts through
materialism and attachment to worldly phenomenal, and awakens in us
the realization of our Buddha-natures.

The Drikung Phowa meditations is simple and yet powerful. We have
the same opportunity as did the thousands of people in Tibet to master
the Phowa practice, enabling us to transform the experience of death,
which is a certainty, into a passage to the realization of Dewa-ch'en
(Blissful, Pure Land). Today, we have His Holiness the Drikung
Kyabgon, the Vaira-regent of Lord Jigten Sumgon who is the incarnation
of Chenrezig, imparting this teaching as well as other Drikung Lamas
like the Venerable K.C. Ayang Rinpoche who is traveling the world to
impart these precious teachings to fortunate human being

Nagas On A Plane

2006-09-02T13:16:00.000-04:00

Boredom is a bottomless pit. As long as you think that there is something more interesting, more purposeful, more meaningful to do than what you are actually doing, you have no way of freeing yourself from boredom -- the truth machine

The word Naga comes from the Sanskrit, and nag is still the word for snake, especially the cobra, in most of the languages of India. When we come upon the word in Buddhist writings, it is not always clear whether the term refers to a cobra, an elephant (perhaps this usage relates to its snake-like trunk, or the pachyderm's association with forest-dwelling peoples of north-eastern India called Nagas,) or even a mysterious person of nobility. It is a term used for unseen beings associated with water and fluid energy, and also with persons having powerful animal-like qualities or conversely, an impressive animal with human qualities.

In WW II, learn how inhabitants of Nagaland came to the world's attention.

Mythology

In myths, legends, scripture and folklore, the category naga comprises all kinds of serpentine beings. Under this rubric are snakes, usually of the python kind (despite the fact that naga is usually taken literally to refer to a cobra,) deities of the primal ocean and of mountain springs; also spirits of earth and the realm beneath it, and finally, dragons.

In Indian mythology, Nagas are primarily serpent-beings living under the sea. However, Varuna, the Vedic god of storms, is viewed as the King of the Nagas, ie. Nagarajah.

Here we see the king and queen of water nagas worshipping Parshva, the Jain Tirthankara of the era before this one.

All nagas are considered the offspring of the Rishi or sage, Kasyapa, the son of Marichi. Kashyapa is said to have had by his twelve wives, other diverse progeny including reptiles, birds, and all sorts of living beings. They are denizens of the netherworld city called Bhogavati. It is believed that ant-hills mark its entrance.

The naga-Varuna connection is retained in Tibetan Buddhism, where Varuna, lord of weather, is known as Apalala Nagarajah.

As a category of nature spirit:

"Nagas [kLu] are a class of beings (often snake-like in form) that dwell in a variety of locations ranging from waterways and underground locations and also in unseen realms. These beings have their own perceptions and vary in their enlightened level as do humans and other beings. Nagas are susceptible to suffering created by mankind's carelessness and basic ignorance of proper conduct in nature and disrespectful actions in relation to our environment. Therefore Nagas often retaliate towards humans when they behave in such ignorant manners. The expression of the Nagas' discontent and agitation can be felt as skin diseases, various calamities and so forth.

Additionally, Nagas can bestow various types of wealth, assure fertility of crops and the environment as well as decline these blessings. For this reason the practice of Lu Sang has been developed or arises as a natural method to increase prosperity, and assist the Nagas by preserving the positive qualities of their natural environment." ~ Tsewang Ngodrup Rinpoche

The bodhisattva Manjushri, in wrathful form, can appear as Nagaraksha (Tib: jam.pal lu'i drag.po).

Nagas and Water

Water symbolizes primordial Wisdom and in psychoanalysis, the storehouse that is the unconscious mind. However, to paraphrase Sigmund Freud commenting on the interpretation of symbols in dreams, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." That is, the water in naga lore is really wet.

In the language of Kashmir, the word for "a spring" is naga and, in fact, nagas are considered the earliest inhabitants of that region. In a sense this is borne out by geology since that valley was once

"a vast span of water, similar to a huge dam, walled in by high mountains. The Nilamatapurana records how the valley was elevated out of water and left under the care of the Nagas, of whom Nila, the son of Kashyapa, was the chief." Kashmir is named after Kashyapa where "the term ‘naga’ stands for spring; 'chesmah,' and 'negin' for small spring. Springs are the main source of water in Kashmir." And "the auspicious and famous river of Kashmir, the Vitasta (Jhelum) originates from a spring near Verinag and is responsible for the water supply to most parts of the valley. The religious significance of the river is established by the Nilamata Purana [Myth of the Indigo Goddess] when it records the entire land of Kashmir as the material manifestation of Uma and describes her as the divine form of the Vitasta."

"A large number of temples were built near springs and were dedicated to the worship of nagas." and "These places have become great centres of religious pilgrimage. The place names of certain areas, e.g. Verinag, Anantnag and Seshanag even today remind one of the intimate relations between the valley and the popularity of the Naga cult. The Rajatarangini of Kalhana mentions Sushravas and Padma Nagas, who were tutelary deities connected with the Wular lake. The Dikpalas of Kashmir are believed to be four nagas, viz. Bindusara in the east, Srimadaka in the south, Elapatra in the west and Uttarmansa in the north."

Many Kashmiri festivals relate to Naga worship, "for example during the first snowfall, Nila, the Lord of Nagas, is worshipped. The Nagas are also propitiated in April and are related to Iramanjari Puja and to Varuna Panchmi, which is organised in July-August." And "in the darker half of the month of Jyeshtha, when a big festival is organised to propitiate the king Taksakyatra. The Nilamatapurana listed 527 Nagas that were worshipped in Kashmir. In the account of Abul Fazal, the court historian of Akbar, there are references to seven hundred places sacred to serpents."

The purana also points to the association of the cult of Nagas with that of Shiva. In the Mahabharata and Harivamsa texts, Shesha was considered the son of Shiva. A lesser relation was developed with regard to Vishnu as in his sheshashayi form which links the primal waters with the sleeping Vishnu. Also, Balarama who is Krishna's elder brother is the personification of the snake, Ananta.

Kashmiri names such as Vishnasar and Krishnasar are Vaishnavite ones where the suffix sar means 'reservoir.' Even though Kashmir may be Muslim-dominated in contemporary times, a spring is "understood as naga and enjoys the respect of every religion."

"The prosperity goddess, Lakshmi, is said to have taken the form of the river Visoka (now known as the Vishov) to purify the people of Kashmir. Most probably, treating springs and rivers with great reverence wittingly or unwittingly resulted in the ecological balance necessary for a healthy and natural interaction between the environment and man."

" . . . every naga has a snake as its guardian deity. Fishing is prohibited in these springs, though the fish which come out of the main garbha [den, lair] of a naga can be caught. Restrictions on fishing have definitely helped to some extent to preserve water ecology."

"Hindus still propitiate these nagas. At Martanda Naga even srada is performed. Water is offered by Hindus to the Sun God and to their ancestors (purvaj). Before having darshan of the snow linga at Amarnatha a holy dip is essential in the Seshanaga. A person suffering from a skin disease is said to be cured after having a bath in Gandhakanaga (sulphur spring) at Naghbal, Anantnag."

"Muslims show their respect for these nagas in many ways. They offer sacrifices and organise fairs on many festivals such as Id, [e]ven they do not catch fish in these nagas. Their faith in nagas can further be established by an example from Anantnag district, where during days of water scarcity or extra rainfall, people offer sacrifices to the Vasuk[i] Naga (the water of which remains in the valley during summer only and disappears in winter.) They have full faith that offerings to Vasuk will bring rain or stop it as desired."

~ B. Malla, Water Resources and Their Management in Kashmir

In Thai symbolism, naga and makara are closely linked.

Catalogue of nagas, their names and attributes, from the Nilamata Purana.

Ulupi became Udupi in some Asian languages: Visit the land of the Nagas.

Thai myth, legend and fact: Paya Naga, fireballs and fresh water naga.

Times Asia, "Secret of the Naga's fire"

Glycon, [image is at foot of linked page] the white naga once worshiped at Tomis (now in Romania) on the Black Sea.

Naga Mythology

Vasuki [also Basuki,] the naga king, has the gem, Nagamani, on/in his head. It is a universal panacea [cure-all] and is a bestower of fortune.

Manasa Devi, the serpent goddess, is Vasuki's sister. She is mostly identified with the cobra, but she can cure any snakebite; indeed, any adversity. A popular Indian film shows Manasa coming to visit a man in his prison cell. She drinks his offering of milk, then leaves, opening the cell for him on her way out.

Now the maternal naga ancestor, Kadru, once enslaved Vinata, mother of birds. To ransom her, the Garuda stole amrita, the elixir of immortality, from the gods. Before the serpents could even have a taste, Indra stole it back again, however, a few drops of amrita fell to earth. The serpents slid through it which is why their skin now has the capacity of renewal.

The grass upon which the nectar fell explains why serpents have forked tongues. Although they did not get to drink the amrita, the split in their tongues caused by the sharp-edged dharba [or, durva] grass provided them a blessing in disguise. According to Kurt Schwenk, ("Why snakes have forked tongues," Science vol. 263, 1994) the evolutionary success of advanced snakes is partly due to their special tongues. The forked tongue allows the snake to simultaneously sample two points along a chemical gradient, which is helpful in instantaneous assessment of trail location. It may also play a role in mating.

Naga and Fertility

Because of its shape and its association with renewal, the serpent is a phallic symbol. This powerful emblem of fertility is thought to bring plentiful harvests and many children -- images of nagas adorn houses and shrines and temples. It is said that when a king once banned snake worship, his kingdom suffered a drought, but the rains returned once the king himself placated Vasuki.

Above is a naga stone erected in anticipation or in gratitude for blessings received.

Role of the Naga in Buddhism

Nagas are said to have raised their hoods to protect the Buddha, and other jinas [spiritual victors] like the Jain saint Parshva. However, at least 1500 years before Buddha Shakyamuni's enlightenment when Ananta or Muchilinda with his many heads sheltered him, the mythic image of nagas doing homage to a great yogi was well-known.

< imprint of a seal found at site of archaic Indus Valley city

Visit Himalayan Art web site to see a tangka with 8 great nagas around Vajrapani.

Many examples of the naga association with the Buddha appear on the walls and along an avenue leading to the temple of Ankhor Wat in Kampuchea (formerly, Cambodia) and also in Buddhist temples in Shri Lanka (formerly, Ceylon.)

See a Thai naga as conceived by S. Dhumphakdi & Sons Publisher, Bangkok, Thailand (10 Perfections series.)

Nag'arjuna

The Indian mahasiddha, Nagarjuna, received his illuminating insights and tantric empowerment with the help of the nagas in the lake beside which he meditated. Nagarjuna is one of the main champions of Buddhist philosophy, and is traditionally portrayed with a sunshade or halo formed by a multi-headed serpent. He is called the Second Buddha, partly in tribute to his having established the Madhyamaka [Middle-Way, ie. neither materialist nor nihilist nor idealist] school of philosophy.

See the Buddha's protector-naga in the process of transforming into Nagarjuna unsheathing the sword of wisdom at the Asian Art web site.

As there are serpents in Tibet, and nagas known as kLu play a role in the symbolism of Himalayan Buddhism and in Tibetan mythology, so Nagarjuna is known as Lu-trub.

The tradition of Sera Monastery holds that when Sakya Yeshe was on his way back from visiting China, it so happened that the set of Tengyur (Buddhist scriptures) donated by the emperor fell into the water while the party was fording a river. The travellers could see that the texts were hopelessly lost and so, distraught, they continued on their way back to Sera.

When the caravan finally got back, the monks told them that just before their return, an old man with attendants had visited Sera and presented a set of scriptures to the monastery. He said that he was delivering it for Sakya Yeshe. It was believed that the old man was really a Naga king, for when the texts were examined, it was found that they were still a bit damp.

A bronze naga-king from Densatil monastery, East Tibet, undergoing transformation.

The traditional life-story [Tibetan: namthar] of Niguma, the female companion of Naropa, begins during the time of one of the earliest Buddhas in a region covered by water ruled by a great Naga King. This Naga was an accomplished and compassionate disciple of that Buddha and gave his permission for the miraculous drying up the water for the purpose of erecting a great temple and monastery. A bustling city grew up around these which acquired a certain reputation, and came to be called The Land of Great Magic. This is the place that Niguma was born.

Niguma developed the powerful tantric techniques referred to as the Five Dharmas of Niguma. The best known is called the Dream Yoga of Niguma. Her disciple, Naljor, is considered the head of the Shangpa Kagyu denomination of Tibetan Buddhism.

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Jain: Adherent of a religion whose teachings emphasize the absolute sanctity of all living things and asceticism in most aspects of life. The Buddha opposed its extreme nature.

Lu Sang: Smoke offered to the nagas.

darshan: viewing of an object or person that is considered to bestow a powerful blessing.

lingam: short pillar or phallic symbol standing for Shiva as creative Imagination. In the Himalayan cave at Amarnath, a special icicle is formed that is considered a manifestation of the deity.

Killing the Buddha

2006-07-16T22:04:00.000-04:00

I see what the killer sees.
I put myself inside his head,
I become the thing we fear most,
I become "capability."

I become the horror,
what we know we can become,
only in our heart of darkness.
It's my Gift. It's my Curse. -- Frank Black

The following is a transcript of a lecture I gave to Zen priests at Eiheiji Temple in Japan:

Thank you again for inviting me, it truly is an honor. Let me first say that you Zen practitioners are nothing more than a bunch of spiritual elitists. You believe your minimalist style is so fucking superior to other Buddhist schools. Well to this, I say "Whatever guy..."

My point in being here is not to point out the obvious fact that you're shit is nearly completely diluted. My point in being here is to let you know that you don't even understand where your own koans come from. You use our tantric scripts, but you have no idea that it is written in 'twilight language.' It is codified and must be deciphered with an oral commentary by a qualified teacher. These methods were implemented to ensure that the actual meanings did not end up watered down, much like your own new-age, wishy-washy nonsense.

I find it absolutely fucking unbelievable that EVERY single book on Zen I've read, has so completely mangled the following koan. So I will now proceed to learn you stupid bitches on the classic koan "If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him."

The story goes:

Angulimala was this student of a famous Brahmin. The other students were jealous of him, so they spread a rumor that he slept with the teachers wife. The teacher believed the slanderers and booted him out of the school. Angulimala had lost all honor, and his family was disgraced. The only way he could get back in the good graces of the teacher was to collect 1,000 human fingers.

So Angulimala went on this rather lengthy serial killing spree, and only had one finger left.....then he saw the Buddha down the road, and came at him! The following reads as:

the Buddha willed a feat of psychic power such that Angulimala, though running with all his might, could not catch up with the Blessed One walking at normal pace. Then the thought occurred to Angulimala: "Isn't it amazing! Isn't it astounding! In the past I've chased & seized even a swift-running elephant, a swift-running horse, a swift-running chariot, a swift-running deer. But now, even though I'm running with all my might, I can't catch up with this contemplative walking at normal pace." So he stopped and called out to the Blessed One, "Stop, contemplative! Stop!""

The answer to this koan is here:

"While walking, contemplative,
you say, 'I have stopped.'
But when I have stopped
you say I haven't.
I ask you the meaning of this:
How have you stopped?
How haven't I?"

[The Buddha:]
"I have stopped, Angulimala,
once & for all,
having cast off violence
toward all living beings.
You, though,
are unrestrained toward beings.
That's how I've stopped

No matter what Angulimala does, he will never catch up. Likewise, for as long as we are driven by wrong views and action, we also will never stop.

But if we meet a Buddha on the road we will try to catch him, and until we stop, we will not succed. This story resonates deeply with every person-- why? Because we are all Angulimala. We all have our own carrots dangling in front of us, and the carrot is our own creation.

The plain fact is that if you don't have a problem, you create one. If you don't have a problem, you don't feel that you are living. -- the truth machine

Buffalo Soldier

2006-07-15T14:39:00.000-04:00

It is fear that makes you believe that you are living, and that you will be dead. What you do not want is the fear to come to an end. That is why we have invented all these new philosophies, therapies, religions and various other gimmicks. -- the truth machine

There was once a yogi who lived in a cave in the mountains, where he practiced meditation with great determination. One day, while sitting in profound concentration and just about to achieve Enlightenment, two cattle thieves dragging their prize of a dead water buffalo just happened to find the cave. Thinking they were alone, they began to butcher the meat by first removing the head from the rest of the carcass.

When they noticed the ascetic, who would certainly be able to identify them to authorities, they smoothly and swiftly beheaded him, too. The yogi, in a fury that his objective -- so near in that lifetime -- had been thwarted, reached out and grabbed the closer of the heads lying there, and with a twist of his wrist, installed the missing part. It happened to be that of the bull.

Thus, his prior spiritual attainment combined with his anger, frustration and animal fury caused him to take on the form of the most ferocious of the devas: Lord Yama, god of Death. Having assumed this form, he not only slaughtered the two cattle rustlers, but also went on a rampage that threatened the population for miles around.

In desperation, followers of the Dharma appealed to the Great Bodhisattva, Manjushri, for help. Manjushri, having both wisdom and compassion, as well as superior knowledge, used like to conquer like. He assumed a fierce bull-headed form himself and put an end to the furious and mindless predation of the god of Death. Hence, the form that Manjurshri took has been known since then as the Yamantaka, the Death Terminator.

Commentary:

'Yamantaka' is a Sanskrit name, which can be broken down into two primary elements: 'Yama', which is the name of the god of death, and ‘Antaka’, which means 'terminator'.

So here, the name of the deity describes a quality that the deity has, and this deity is named for the primary activity- Yamantaka is the terminator of death.

This quality is actually a quality of all Buddhas: Yamantaka is a Buddhist deity - and is indeed a Buddha. In this context, Yamantaka represents the goal of our journey.

How does Yamantaka terminate death? This question depends upon the meaning that we ascribe to the term 'death' - but one way in which we can identify this ability is through wisdom, acquired by insight. This wisdom mind is able to perceive that death has no intrinsic, concrete existence: Our understanding of death emerges solely from the conventions of the world; therefore, one way of identifying with Yamantaka is through the power of wisdom activity - and so we can see Yamantaka as a manifestation of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva-Buddha of Wisdom.

Another way of understanding Yamantaka is as the journey, or the path to Buddhahood, it is through the practice of Yamantaka - the practice of terminating death, which we are able to awaken into enlightenment.

Yamantaka enters the world in degenerate times, when the world is filled with grievous difficulties, terrible dangers, great conflict and flagrant intolerance. His special powers annihilate the very root of all these troubles -- atmagraha, or self-cherishing. He turns the minds of living beings away from selfishness and hate, and leads them to insight and compassion. He enters the mind of the practitioner and completely destroys the most stubborn, habitual tendencies that hold to the illusion of the dualism of "self" and "other" that is the basis of all error, misery and samsaric rebirth.

2006-07-13T14:39:00.000-04:00

And now for something completely different......

This morning I did my morning alms round in the beautiful Hamptons! The people there are so nice, and I only got thrown out of 5 stores! Later that afternoon, I realized that I needed a new pair of Prada sandals for my begging rounds, and at the bargain price of $315.00, how could I pass that up? So there I was, salivating in front of the Prada store window, when out of nowhere I was punched in the face! I hit the ground and standing above me was a young ocularist who shouted at me:

"Peep this you dirty fuckin' bum: Food, clothing and shelter - these are the basic needs. Beyond that, if you want anything, it is the beginning of self-deception."

He then placed a pair of newly made rimless glasses with my exact prescription in my alms bowl, and sauntered off while humming the theme to 'West Wing.'

The entire incident was a lesson in wrathful compassion, and could only be understood by a suburban mystic like myself. So I would like to express my thanks to the young man by saying "What the fuck man!? You punched me in my jaw you crazy person!" And thank you for my new kitty glasses. Now I can see so good.

2006-07-11T13:34:00.000-04:00

To abuse a child is a violation of all humanity. Even the lowest
animal will die to protect its child. Can we call ourselves a
higher form when we fail to do the same?
Andrew Vachss - Batman the Ultimate Evil

Often I get letters from people who love to think they know what the hell they're talking about. I, in my graciousness, like to respond to these stupid shits so as to clarify their incredibly innane misconceptions. Here is a letter I received from Oprah Winfrey. She writes:

Dear mr. gordo the suburban mystic:

I think you Buddhists are a sham. You go around begging for your food every morning and spend your days meditating. What do you think you're accomplishing? Social action must take place in the world, not in some dark, dank ass cave. Why just this past year I gave away a car to every single one of my audience members. What do you have to say to that?

Well Oprah, you ignorant slut, let me tell you what I have to say to that. We Buddhists cannot do anything in a real sense to relieve the sufferings of sentient beings apart from acheiving the confidence of realization ourselves, and then in turn assisting people through our realization. In other words, we can teach them, but we can't actually do much for them.

We just don't wear a big badge which says "Compassion, Ask Me How!!" We don't make a big deal about compassion, we don't make a big deal at all. We just work on our practice, with full and confident knowledge that all the aims of Buddhist practice are fulfilled just in the direct perception of reality-as-it-is; Then we will be like wish-fulfilling gems, able to satisfy the suffering of everyone without even thinking about it.

Otherwise the "altruism thing" becomes this sort of sickening, saccharine, sentimental, obsequious do-gooder trip, a sort of facism of "compassion" which is really just narrow-minded self-clinging.

So why don't you eat this statistic you repulsive wench. Every year, 15 million children die of hunger. It's the 21st Century, and people are still dying from lack of food. Oh sure, they've got the clothing and shelter thing down pat, but no fuckin' food. So I think it's fuckin' great that you're giving away cars to lower/middle class suburbanites that were able to somehow transport themselves to your show, but the bottom line is this: You are one dumb motherfucker.

Namaste

2006-07-11T01:22:00.000-04:00

Therang

2006-07-10T18:36:00.001-04:00

As I was going about the village on my daily morning alms round, a member of one of the unwashed stupid masses yelled out to me "Hey, mr. gordo the suburban mystic, what is a Therang?" I walked over to the inquisitive gentleman and spat in his face saying "You dumbass, what the hell do you know about Therangs?!" After his initial shock, I patiently explained to him precisely what a Therang was by telling the following story:

A Tibetan monk had as a friend a sort of spirit that we call therang in Tibetan. These dark and very hairy goblins have only one foot and love to play dice. It is said that, in order to make friends with one of them, one should go to a place where three rivers converge, throw dice, and repeat, "I win; the therang loses!" until the temptation gets too strong for the therang, who holds out his big hairy hand and says, "No! I'm not losing! Give me the dice!" One must then grab his hand and say, "I won't let you go unless you become my friend!" Thus a therang and this monk had become friends. They lived together in the monastery, the therang bringing the monk everything he wanted. The monk lived very happily in luxury. Although he knew very well that he should practice meditation, he would postpone it all the time. He told his friend, "Certainly I am very happy right now, but I must meditate to prepare for death. Warn me as soon as you see my death approaching." The therang agreed. Months and years passed until one day the therang said to his friend, "Lama, do you realize your hair has gone gray?" The therang went off, thinking, "Everything is OK, he knows." A few years later the therang told him, "Lama, you're losing your teeth." The monk replied: "Of course I'm losing my teeth. I am getting old!" The therang thought: "If he knows this, all is well." One day, the therang announced to his friend that he was going to die on the following day. The monk got angry and reproached his friend: "Why didn't you tell me earlier? I asked you to warn me!" The therang replied, "But I warned you loads of times. First I told you your hair was going gray - you told me you were getting old, so I thought you realized. Then I told you your teeth were falling out, and again you told me you knew. I warned you many times!"

I swear you can't make this shit up.

After telling the story, the ignorant villager expressed his thanks, and put some of his pickled fish in my alms bowl. I was horrified. I hate pickled fish. So I kicked him in the nuts and lashed out at him by saying "You deaf dumb fuck, don't you know I hate pickled fish! I mean that shit is just disgusting man!" I then quickly had to hotfoot it out of the village when the children started throwing rocks at me. Et tu children?

Anyway, back to the story. There are two main points to understand about this story:

Hairy, one-foot goblins have gambling problems.
Indentured servitude existed in Tibet too.

2006-07-03T15:17:00.000-04:00

Dorje Drollo is the wrathful manifestation Padamsambhava who specifically manifested to tame worldly forces and remove difficult obstacles. In other words, he is not to be trifled with. He will eat you alive. Grrrrrrr....

2006-07-03T12:48:00.000-04:00


	I am not interested in changing the society. What I am saying has absolutely no social content at all. What is wrong with this world? Why do you want to change this world? This is an extraordinarily beautiful world! You want to change the world so that you can live in a world of your own ideas. The real problem is that you want to change yourself and you find it's impossible, and so you want to change the world so that you can fit the world into your own pattern. - U. G. Krishnamurti