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The Pāratas & King Yolamira (125 AD) ...The Pāratas, an Iranian people and ruling dynasty from what is now western Pakistan, are known essentially through their coinage, which typically exhibit the bust of a particular monarch on the obverse ( having long hair within a headband), and a swastika within a circular legend on the reverse….The swastika mark is not encountered on Kushan coins, but it is an element on Kushanshah coins
Bactrian Bagolago, Devakula & Kushan Divine Kingship...Bagolago is a Bactrian term.....the Bagolago at Mat (Mathura)......equivalent Prakit term 'devakula' appears in the inscriptions....the Mat site is one of three certain complexes (others are Surkh Khotal and Rabat) which are part of the same sort of ritual activity....There may be many more similar sites....as many as eight sites.......There is no way for certain what a Bagolago was....The sites have several features in common. They are not public spaces...have an association with water...had erections of both Kings and Gods....unclear if the kings attended the gods or vice-versa......there served some dynastic purpose….
Sandalwood, Cedar & the Sacred Trees of Shambhala ..."South of the main palace is a grove of Sandalwood trees and in the middle of the grove is a huge three-dimensional Kalachakra Mandala constructed by the first King of Shambhala of gold, silver, turquoise, coral, and pearl......Men wear white or red cotton robes; woman white or blue dresses decorated with pleats and various designs......Zoroastrians offer sandalwood twigs to the sacred fire and have had a long association with sandalwood, which goes back many thousands of years. There are several references in the Shah Nameh where specific mention is made of sandalwood which was imported from India and Ceylon for the use of the Royal families. "….
BMAC/Oxus Civilization.....1600 BC ..."Between 1700 and 1500 BC widescale collapse and transformation occurred throughout the entire Middle East........BMAC/Oxus Civilization collapsed and all of its Qala (Kala) settlements were abandoned in the century or so in the century 1700-1600 BC but concurrently BMAC/ Oxus materials occur throughout Iran and parts of the Indus Valley regions.....Pandemonium: The Asura/Deva Split (1500 BC).......The linguistic history indicates that the Aryans originally formed a single people until the beginning of the 2nd millenium BC when the Deva worshipping Indian Aryans and the Asura worshiping Iranian Aryans went separate ways ….
Surkh Kotal & Mount Yungdrung ...’Ol-mo-lung-ring is identical with Stag-gzig, to the west of Tibet, and is bordered by the smaller areas of Gilgit and Yavana (Bactria)...... ’Ol-mo-lung-ring was a place on the ground that we can indeed roughly locate, through text-based historical geography, in the area between Ladakh/Kashmir and the Oxus River….
Kshatriya King Khingala of Kapisa & Phrom Gesar (745 AD)...When the Chinese visitor Hsuan-tsang visited Kapisa (about 60 km north of modern Kabul) in the 7th century, the local ruler was a Kshatriya King Shahi Khingala.....The "King Khingala, King of Uddiyana" could be the same person as the Kabul Shah Bo Fuzhun known from Chinese sources, who succeeded his father Fulin jipo (Phrom Gesar) on the throne in 745 AD and was invested by the Chinese emperor as king of Uddiyana (Swat).….
The Drokpa, Takzig Nordzong & Takzig Norgi Gyelpo ...Local Drokpa believe that Takzik Nordzong is one of the fortresses of Tiger Leopard King of Wealth (Takzig Norgi Gyelpo), an invader who is supposed to have come from the northwest (Indo-Iranic borderlands or Central Asia). He is thought to have conquered major portions of western Tibet in early times. According to the Gesar epic, Takzig Norgi Gyelpo was one of the main adversaries of King Ling Gesar.….
Yum Chenmo & Shenlha Okar ... Shen-lha od-dkar....the god of the 'white light' who forms with the goddess Yum-chen-mo the primeval pair of gods. All the other gods are their descendants....The Primodial Mother, Yum Chenmo, is the ultimate nature of all phenomenon, emptiness, suchness [Skt. Dharmata]
King Yeshe-Ö (c. 959 - 1040 AD) & Kapisa/Od'iana...While Langdarma persecuted Buddhism in Tibet, his grandson, King Yeshe-Ö, who ruled the Guge Kingdom in the 10th century with Tholing as its capital, was responsible for the second revival or "second diffusion" of Buddhism in Tibet….
Yeshe kyi spyan, Buddha Wisdom Eyes and Miksang...On virtually every stupa in Nepal, there are giant pairs of eyes staring out from the four sides of the main tower.......These are Buddha Eyes (also known as Wisdom Eyes), and they look out in the four directions..........Between the Buddha's eyes where the nose would be is a curly symbol that looks like question mark. This is the Nepali character for the number 1, which symbolizes unity of all the things….
The White Turban & Historical Shambhala ...A turban is a type of headwear that is made by cloth winding...... Turbans have often been worn by nobility, regardless of religious background.....White turbans are generally a symbol of peace and purity.….The people of Uddiyana were gentle, soft and effeminate.....healthy, tanned people, mostly clothed in pure white cotton. The men have white turbans, the women soft flowing saris, also white."
Ancient Yonā & the White Clad Yonakā Buddhists ...The Yonaka or Yona country was visited, according to the Dīpavaṁsa and Mahāvaṁsa by the Thera Mahārakkhita.........The Rock Edicts V and XIII of Asoka mention the Yonas as a subject people, forming a frontier district of Asoka’s Empire.....According to the Mahāvaṁsa, its chief city was Alasanda is generally identified with the Alexandria founded by the Macedonian king (Alexander) in the country of the Paropanisadae near Kābul, Afghanistan...…...from the time of Kassapa Buddha the Yonakas went about clad in white robes, because of the memory of the religion which was once prevalent there.
Balkh & Bactria: From Gautama Buddha (c. 563-483 BC) to Kujula Kadphises (30–80 AD) .... The Kushans spread from the Kabul River (Sita River) Valley to also encompass much of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, from which they took their first official language (Greek), Bactrian alphabet, Greco-Buddhist religion, coinage system, and art. They absorbed the Central Asian tribes that had previously conquered parts of the northern central Iranian Plateau once ruled by the Parthians, and reached their peak under the Buddhist emperor Kanishka the Great (127–151 AD)….
Balawaristan (Bala Waristan) & Dardistan ...The people of this region have historically been referred to as Balawars (or highlanders), which is said to have come from the term 'Bala' (High, Elevated)….
Tibetan Bonpo Muslims: Balti Yul (Baltistan) & Kachee Yul (Kashmir) ...Local Muslims, who converted from Bön-po and Tibetan Buddhism still retain many traits of pre-Islamic Bön and Lamaist rituals, which makes Islam of Baltistan and Ladakh unique from other Muslim societies. Swastika (Yung drung) sign is considered auspicious and is carved on wooden planks that can be seen in historical mosques and Khankas. Showing respect to Lha and Lhu (Bön gods) is customary during many village rituals….
Ölmo Lungring & Stag-gzig/Kapisa/Od'i-ana...’Ol-mo-lung-ring is, as many later sources say, in some way identical with Stag-gzig, we see that Stag-gzig is to the west of Tibet, and is bordered by the smaller areas of Gilgit and Yavana (Bactria).....
Shams Al-Marif & the Cabbalistic Sufi Ahmad al-Buni (1200 AD) ... Al-Buni wrote one of the most famous books of his era, the Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra (Sun of the Great Knowledge) which is one of the most widely read medieval treatises on talismans, magic squares and occult practices........His another infamous work is called Bunî Risalesi (the Bunî Pamphlet), which is kept hidden from public and academic knowledge because of its contents....it explains how to summon a Jinn....... only a few pages of the manuscript have leaked in 800 years and the very few people, who have had the chance to see the original manuscript, have never (or according to some rumors could never) spoken about it.….
Padmasambhava in Kapisa/Uddiyana/Kashmir (732 - 786 AD) ...Padmasambhava's banishment to foreign lands, reflects the changes wrought when the powerful lords of Kapisa seized, as we know they did, control of the Swat Valley. Uddiyana was defeated and utterly lost its independence. Whatever happened to King Indrabhuti we do not know, but it is probable that he was slain, or perhaps as a blind captive, was dragged ignominiously back to Kabul in chains. At any rate Padmasambhava fled in the direction of Kashmir. ….
Kapisa/Uddiyana... Historical Timeline 565 - 870 AD ...Laghman, an independent nation prior to Hiuen Tsiang's time, had certainly become a tributary province of Kapisa by 629 A.D. Since Kabul was not overrun - and then only temporarily - by the Moslem invasion until as late as 870 A.D., Laghman's status would still have been that of a Buddhist province of Kapisa (Shambhala) in 804 A.D. The Sanskrit name of the country was Lampaka and Hiuen Tsiang lists it as Lan-po. ….
Kapisa: Wahund, Udabhandapura (870 AD) ...The Turkishahiya dynasty continued to rule over Kabul and Gandhara up until the advent of the Saffarids in the ninth century. Forced by the inevitable advance of Islam on the west, they then moved their capital from Kapisa to Wahund near Peshawar, whence they continued as the Hindushahiya dynasty. This was in 870 A.D. and marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination." ….
The Kingdom of Shambhala & the Sita River (Part 5)...The Kabul River (aka: Sita River) (Persian/Urdu: دریای کابل; Pashto: کابل سیند, Sanskrit: कुभा ), the classical Cophes /ˈkoʊfiːz/, is a 700-kilometre (430 mi) long river that emerges in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and empties into the Indus River near Attock, Pakistan.….
Dārā Šokōh (1615-1659 AD) & The Mingling of the Two Oceans...Dārā Šokōh’s interest was not so much in the reconciliation of Islam and Hinduism on the political and practical level, on which Akbar had focused; rather, it was focused on the experiential realization that esoteric understanding of both religions provides proof of a single divine principle behind the variety of outward manifestations….
The Vedas, Upanishads, the Avesta & Proto-Indo-Iranic Languages (2100 BC) ...Grammatically there is little difference between the languages of the Avesta and the Vedas.…. the Aryans originally formed a single people until the beginning of the 2nd millenium BC when the Deva worshipping Indian Aryans and the Asura worshiping Iranian Aryans went separate ways.....The Kalachakra discusses the expulsion of the Deva worshippers from Shambhala and refers to the Rigden kings as Asura.
Sushruta (1000- 600 BC): The Bower Manuscript, Ayurveda & Soma ...The Bower Manuscript is an early birch bark document, dated to the Gupta era (between the 4th and the 6th century). It is written in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit using the Late Brahmi script......medical writings antedating the composition of the saṃhitās of Caraka, Suśruta, and as such rank with the earliest surviving texts on Ayurveda.….
Moksha, Liberation, Mukti, Nirvana ... Moksha represents an initial liberation from the drama of the ego-illusion, a radical awakening to non-dual truth, very similar to what is realized by sravakas who mature into arhats. According to the Nyingmas, this realization would be classified within the first two yanas. The short version of the Mahayana critique of the lower vehicles is that the wisdom element is emphasized at the expense of compassion.....From the perspective of Dzogchen, Mahamudra is a sublime preliminary, associated with the seventh and eighth yanas.......Dzogchen is a transmission which goes beyond the teachings of buddhism but is so resonant with Buddhadharma that it is considered the highest among the nine yanas ....
Yājñavalkya of Videha ( c. 7th c BC) the Hridaya & the Kati Crystal Heart Channel ...Yājñavalkya said......Darkness is the abode....the heart is the perceiving medium, hṛdayaṁ lokaḥ ..... and the mind is the guide….
Robert Göbl & Bactrian/Kushan Coinage (171 BC - 232 AD) ...In the coinage of the North Indian and Central Asian Kushan Empire (approximately 30-375 CE) the main coins issued were gold......The coin designs usually broadly follow the styles of the preceding Greco-Bactrian rulers in using Hellenistic styles of image, with a deity on one side and the king on the other. Kings may be shown as a profile head, a standing figure, typically officiating at a fire altar in Zoroastrian style, or Warriors mounted on a horse.….
Kushan King Huvishka (140–180 AD): Ardoxsho & Iranian Deities...The Kushan religious pantheon is extremely varied, as revealed by their coins that contained more than thirty different gods, belonging mainly to their own Iranian, Greek, and Indian worlds as well. Kushan coins had images of Kushan Kings, Buddha, and figures from the Indian and Iranian pantheons.... Greek deities, with Greek names are represented on early coins. During Kanishka's reign, the language of the coinage changes to Bactrian (though it remained in Greek script for all kings). After Huvishka, only two divinities appear on the coins: Ardoxsho and Oesho….
Kundalvana, Kashmir: Kanishka & The Fourth Buddhist Council (72 AD) ...Kanishka's reputation in Buddhist tradition is based mainly that he convened the 4th Buddhist Council in Kashmir...... Images of the Buddha based on 32 physical signs were made during his time....He provided encouragement to both the Gandhara school of Greco-Buddhist Art and the Mathura school of Hindu art (An inescapable religious syncretism pervades Kushana rule)...... Kanishka personally seems to have embraced both Buddhism and the Persian cult of Mithra.….
Yagnobi Sogdian, Ancient Tagzig and the Yaghnob Valley ...The mysterious land of Olmo Lungring is said to be part of a larger geographical region to the northwest of Tibet called Tazig, which scholars identify with Iran or, more properly, Central Asia where in ancient times Iranian languages such as Avestan and later Sogdian were spoken.….
Anahita & Artaxerxes II (Persia: 404-359 BC) ...Balkh....another source of spiritual home that made Bactria sacred was a great temple of the ancient Iranian goddess, Anahit (in Pahlavi or Middle-Persian) and Anahita (Ânâhitâ) in the Avesta hymns....The temple was so rich that often it attracted the kings who sat out to plunder it..... Anaitis was a Scythian goddess, but she is identified also as Assyrian Mylitta, the Arabian Alytta and the Greek Venus Urania. Artaxerxes II Mnemon, one of the first emperors of Achaemenid dynasty was among her devotees. She is also associated with the Persian Mithra.….
Ziji: Chapter 30......Prince Trishang of Tazik ...Chapter 30 of the Ziji (gZi brid) is the story of the death of Prince Trishang of Tazik.…. does seem to place Stag-gzig in the northern part of present Afghanistan and Pakistan....
Tadzhik, Tadjik, Tajik...Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring ...Tajik, also spelled Tadzhik, sometimes called Sart, the original Persian-speaking population of Afghanistan and Turkistan....Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring..... of the Bon tradition....This country-name rTa-gzig is believed to be a form of the name Tajik; while the Ol-mo-lung-ring is believed to be a form of the name of the city Olmaliq….
Primordial Rigden, Imperial Rigden & Historical Rigden ... Sanskrit rājan- is cognate to Latin rēx (genitive rēgis), Gaulish rīx, Gaelic rí (genitive ríg), etc., originally denoting heads of petty kingdoms and city states. It is believed to be ultimately derived from a PIE *h3rēǵs, a vrddhi formation to the root *h3reǵ- "to straighten, to order, to rule". The Sanskrit n-stem is secondary in the male title, apparently adapted from the female counterpart rājñī which also has an -n- suffix in related languages, compare Old Irish rígain and Latin regina. Cognates of the word Raja in other Indo-European languages include English reign and German reich.….
The Kala (Fortress/Castles) of Ancient Khorasan (500 BC) ... "In classical antiquity, a number of advanced civilisations flourished in the area that today comprises parts of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. Through this area runs a river most commonly known by its Persian name, as the Amu Darya. However, in antiquity it was known by its Greek name, as the Oxus....The Oxus region is home to archaeological relics of grand civilisations, most notably of ancient Bactria, but also of Chorasmia, Sogdiana, Margiana, and Hyrcania. However, most of these ruined sites enjoy far less fame, and are far less well-studied, than comparable relics in other parts of the world......most of the ruins have been neglected by the modern world….
Koykrylgan Kala...Qoy Qirilq'an Qala...4th c. BC...Ruins of thousands of fortresses are disseminated at boundless open spaces of the Khorezm steppes, but the remnants of Koy-Krylgan-kala, the Fortress of Lost Rams, are unique. The fortress was discovered by archeologists of the Khorezm expedition casually in 1938. Archeologists were surprised with the form of ancient construction, unprecedented till then in Khoresm: the powerful citadel with the remains of a protective wall was not square and or rectangular as it was used to see, but it was round. ….
The Ancient Kala of the Oxus River Region (Part 1) ... Forgotten realms of the Oxus region.....The ancient cities and fortresses along the Oxus and nearby rivers........It's unknown exactly where antiquity-era Chorsamia was centred, although part of the ruins of Kyrk Molla at Gurganj date back to this period, as do part of the ruins of Itchan Kala in present-day Khiva (Khwarezm's capital). Probably the most impressive and best-preserved ancient ruins in the region, are those of the Ayaz Kala fortress complex, parts of which date back to the 4th century BC. There are numerous other "Kala" (the Chorasmian word for "fortress") nearby, including Toprak Kala and Kz'il Kala. ….
The Shaivite Yogini Poetess Lal Ded of Kashmir (1320–1392 AD) ... Lal Ded, Lal Didi, or Lalleshwari (1320–1392) was a Kashmiri Saivite mystic, whose mystic poetry (called vatsun or vakhs, i.e. that which flows, or speech, the Aryan name for the Oxus River near Balkh, the original Saraswati)….
Chinnamasta: Masta, Mazda, Kali & Vajrayogini ..."Mazda", or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå, reflects Proto-Iranian *Mazdāh (female)..... Chhinnamasta is popular in Tantric and Tibetan Buddhism, where she is called Chinnamunda ("she with a severed head") – the severed-head form of goddess Vajrayogini or Vajravarahi – a ferocious form of the latter, who is depicted similar to Chhinnamasta….
Arnold Toynbee: Oikoumenê & the Central Asian 'Roundabout' ... The historian Arnold Toynbee (1889 – 1975) has described Afghanistan as a “roundabout of the ancient world” due to the masses of people that have passed through this region over the centuries.….
Khyungtrul Jikme Namkha Dorje (1897-1955) Rimé/Bon...Fortress Face (Mkhar-gdong) is located in southwestern Tibet, in the upper Sutlej valley. This site was equated with the fabled Horned Eagle Valley Silver Castle (Khyung-lung dngul-mkhar) by the famous Bon lama Khyungtrul Jikme Namkha Dorje (Khyung-sprul ’jigs-med nam-mkha’ rdo-rje), some 70 years ago. Of course, in Tibetan literature, Horned Eagle Valley Silver Castle is recorded as the main capital of the Zhang Zhung kingdom.….
Udegram: Uḍḍiyāna & the Palace of King Indrabhuti...Udegram: the Castle (5th-14th cent. AD), tentatively identified by Tucci as the Palace of Indrabhuti described by Tibetan pilgrims….It is said that the Swat valley was filled with fourteen hundred imposing and beautiful stupas and monasteries, which housed as many as 6,000 gold images of the Buddhist pantheon for worship and education......In the spring of 326 BC, Alexander the Great conquered the beautiful valley of the river Swat."
Eusebeia & Dharma on the Edict of King Ashoka at Kandahar (258 BC)... Bilingual (Greek and Aramaic) inscriptions by king Ashoka at Kandahar (Shar-i-kuna). (3rd century BC). Preserved at Kabul Museum. ...Fragments of Edict 13 have been found in Greek, and a full Edict, written in both Greek and Aramaic has been discovered in Kandahar. It is said to be written in excellent Classical Greek, using sophisticated philosophical terms. In this Edict, Ashoka uses the word Eusebeia ("Piety") as the Greek translation for the ubiquitous "Dharma"….
The Alpide Belt of Sacred Mountains & the Hindu Kush of Bactria The Alpide belt or the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt includes an array of mountain ranges which extends along the southern margin of Eurasia, stretching from Java to Sumatra through the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and out into the Atlantic. It includes the Alps, the Carpathians, the mountains of Anatolia and Iran, the Hindu Kush, and the mountains of Southeast Asia. ....….
Sovereign King of Sutras, the Sacred Golden Light (500 AD)... There was a central aspect of Zoroastrian teachings having to do with "golden light," and whether that golden light feature was considered magical, supernatural, healing, etc. It could be coincidental, too--a famous teacher/physician who just happened to have a personal name meaning "Golden Light...Zaratuštra " ……During the third turning of the wheel, the Buddha is said to have taught the gser 'od dam pa'i mdo (Supreme Golden Rays Sutra), which contains a chapter entitled nad thams cad zhi bar byed pa'i rgyud (The Ways of Completely Curing Diseases). ….
Lha Chen (Shiva) & Lhachen Shen Lha Okar...In the Chakrasamvara Tantra it is said that Lha Chenpo (Shiva) and his consort (Uma Devi) were liberated by Chakrasamvara in their abode of Mount Kailash…. Lha Chen Shen Lha Woe Kar: the aspect of compassion of the universe.
The Dralas of Tirich Mir and Mt Suryaprakasa...Certain mountains are the favored seats of the Peri, especially the impressive, 25,287 ft high pyramid north of Chitral: the Kailāsa-like Tirich Mir (aka: Meru: Kaṭh, Meros: Arrian, Anabasis, Sumeru, Pāli Sineru; devameru).….
Nuristān & Uddiyana: Land of the Enlightened... The Kingdom of Uddiyana was divided between two countries, to the North and South. To the North, it bordered on the land of Shambhala (i.e., the Kingdom of Kapisa) ….By 669 AD, the neighboring Turkish Shahi kingdoms of Kapisa (Shambhala) and Uddiyana were also both being hard pressed on their southwesterly flank by the inexorable expansion of the southern Arab Moslems.....the war-like activity and expansion of the Tubo Empire in Central Tibet pressed the Himalayan peoples living in the west to block their advances on the one hand, while they were forced to fight the Muslims on the other.
Mes Aynak- Bronze Age Site and Ancient Buddhist Kingdom (2500 BC) ...The Mes Aynak archaeological site in the eastern province of Logar, in Afghanistan. .....The earliest Buddhist remains date from the Kushan Gandhara era, although these gradually give way to T'ang Chinese and Uyghur influences. Mes Aynak was at the peak of its prosperity between the fifth and seventh century AD, a period of slow decline began in the eighth century and the settlement was finally abandoned 200 years later.….There are thought to be 19 separate archaeological sites in the valley including two small forts, a citadel, four fortified monasteries, several Buddhist stupas and a Zoroastrian fire temple.
Advaita Vedanta & the Origins of Dzogchen... For many Mâdhyamikas, Dzogchen is a sort of Chinese Dharma like Ch'an or coming from Advaita Vedânta, Kashmiri Shaivism, or even Persian religion. ...Some leading Tibetan Lama scholars have accused Dzogchen of being a Chinese Dharma (rgya-nag gi chos), or assert that it is connected with Bon or Advaita Vedanta.….Advaita thought can also be found in non-orthodox Indian religious traditions, such as the tantric Nath tradition....Advaita Vedanta developed in interaction with the other traditions of India ... Buddhism, Vaishnavism and Shaivism.....Sufism is akin to Advaita Vedanta.....
Podrang Zhiwa Ö & the Non-Indic Origins of Dzogchen (1090 AD)...The second propagation on the Buddist doctrine in Tibet, in which teachings of non-Indian origin were dismissed...The Indic origin of the early Dzogchen texts was disputed by Podrang Zhiwa Ö, a member of the royal family of the Guge-Purang Kingdom of the 11th century, and a proponent of the “new transmissions”. ...Some leading Tibetan Lama scholars have accused Dzogchen of being a Chinese Dharma (rgya-nag gi chos), or assert that it is connected with Bon or Advaita Vedanta.
Metempsychosis & the Samsaric Cycle of Existence (570 BC)...The Buddhist concept of reincarnation differs from others in that there is no eternal "soul", "spirit" or "self" but only a "stream of consciousness" that links life with life. ….In the Rigveda, the oldest extant Indo-Aryan text, numerous references are made to transmigration, rebirth (punarjanma), and redeath (punarmrtyu) in the Brahmanas.
Prophet Muhammed, Asma bint Marwan, Hadith Literature & Modern Jihadism (624 AD)...Traditions of the life of Muhammad and the early history of Islam were passed down mostly orally for more than a hundred years after Muhammad's death in AD 632. ….a huge corpus of miscellaneous traditions, some of them flatly contradicting each other. Many of these traditions supported differing views on a variety of controversial matters..... Scholars had to decide which hadith were to be trusted as authentic and which had been invented for political or theological purposes.
Perennialism & the Secular Vision of Shambhala... “The Shambhala principle is our way of life. Shambhala is the Central Asian kingdom that-developed in the countries of the Middle East, Russia, China, and Tibet altogether. The basic idea of Shambhala vision is that a sane society developed out of that culture, and we are trying to emulate that vision. That particular system broke down into the Taoist tradition and Bon tradition of Tibet, the Islamic tradition of the Middle East, and whatever tradition Russia might have. It has broken into various factions.….
King Samudra Vijaya and S'ambhala (618 AD)... A king named Samudra Vijaya arrived at S'ambhala in 618 A.D.....From what can be gathered from Tibetan histories and works on Kala Chakra it may be conjectured that this S'ambhala, very probably, was the capital of the Bactrian Empire of the Eastern Greeks who had embraced Buddhism. It is also conjectured that the modern city of Balkh must have been the site of their latest capital. ….
The Kashmiri Master Somanatha & The Kalachakra (1027 AD)...The Kalachakra Tantra and its commentary were then passed on from Kalachakrapada the Elder to his younger successor Shribhadra.....continued onto Nalendrapa.....and then to the Kashmiri master Somanatha.…. the 1st visit of the Kashmiri Pandit Somanatha to Tibet, at Kharag in the 11th Century AD....
Epic Hero Rostam: Zabulistan, Khorasan and Zun...In Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Rostam is a native of Zabol, part of the Zabulistan region of Khorasan which is in present-day eastern Iran. His mother Rudaba was a princess of Kabul.....The Zunbils worshipped a god named Zun (Zoon) from which they derived their name. Their territory included between what is now the city of Zaranj in southwestern Afghanistan and Kabulistan in the northeast, with Zamindawar and Ghazni serving as their capitals.....Although the rulers of the Zunbil dynasty were worshippers of the sun god in Hinduism, many inhabitants under the rule of the dynasty practiced Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and other ancient religions.
Zhang Zhung: Senge Khabab, Khyunglung Ngulkhar, Khargok Fort... Takzig is commonly regarded as Bonpo's term for Bactria and Sogdia….Map of some speculative regions of the ancient kingdom of Zhang Zhung, based on the work of Namkhai Norbu and John Vincent Bellezza by Scott C. Smith
Tibetan Empire, Turk Shahis & Bactria (708 AD)...The Shahis of Kabul/Gandhara are generally divided into the two eras of the so-called Buddhist-Shahis and the so-called Hindu-Shahis, with the change-over thought to have occurred sometime around 870 AD..........870 A.D. marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination.….In 708 AD, Nazaktar Khan, a Turk Shahi prince in alliance with the Tibetan Empire, captures Bactria from the Umayyads....In 715 Ibn Qutaybah recaptured the region for the Umayyads and Tibet switched sides to ally with him against the Turk Shahis. In retribution for the insurrection Qutaiba inflicted heavy damage on Navbahar resulting in many monks fleeing Eastward to Khotan and Kashmir.
Sacred Mountain of Balkh: Koh e Alburz & Harā Bərəzaitī...In the ancient Zoroastrian scriptures of the Avesta, Harā Bərəzaitī is the source of all mountains of the world, that is, all other mountains and ranges are but lateral projections that originate at High Hara. So, for instance, the mountains of the Hindu Kush (Avestan: ishkata; Middle Persian: kofgar) appear in Yasht 19.3 as one of the spurs of High Hara.….
Al-Kermani: The Great Navbahar Buddhist Temple in Balkh (8th C. AD)...The Arab author, Omar ibn al-Azraq Al-Kermani, wrote a detailed account of Navbahar at the beginning of the 8th century...He described Navbahar in Balkh in terms strikingly similar to the Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest site of Islam. He described that the main temple had a stone cube in the center, draped with cloth, and that devotees circumambulated it and made prostration, as is the case with the Kaaba. The stone cube referred to the platform on which a stupa stood, as was the custom in Bactrian temples. The cloth that draped it was in accordance with Persian custom of showing veneration that applied equally to Buddha statues as well as to stupas.….
Bactria/Kapisa/Shambhala: the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang (644 AD)...Based on the account of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang), ( journey from 629 to 645 AD), who visited in AD 644, it seems that in later times Kapisa was part of a kingdom ruled by a Buddhist kshatriya king (Warrior King) holding sway over ten neighboring states, including Lampaka, Nagarahara, Gandhara, and Banu. Hiuen Tsang notes the Shen breed of horses from the area, and also notes the production of many types of cereals and fruits, as well as a scented root called Yu-kin."….
The Gods of the Kushan Empire & Shambhala Vision (127 AD)...Shambhala vision applies to people of any faith, not just people who believe in Buddhism. ….The Kushan religious pantheon varies widely as revealed by their coins and their seals, on which more than 30 different gods appear, belonging to the Hellenistic, the Iranian, and to a lesser extent the Indian world. Greek deities, with Greek names appear on early coins...
Garduneh-e Mehr: Mithra's Wheel & the Origins of Yungdrung (1000 BC)...Shenrabs origins are said to be in Iran-Elam and his name is given as Mithra..... In Ancient Persia, the swastika symbolized the revolving sun (Garduneh-e Khorshid), aka. Mithra's Wheel (Garduneh-e Mehr), fire, infinity, or continuing recreation.….
Prince Shotoku (574-622 AD)....Ancient Japan: Mixing Buddhism & Indigenous Religion...Prince Shotoku (574-622) promoted Buddhism and it took hold. Still, Japan would never see a full conversion away from its indigenous religion, as occurred to a much greater extent across pagan Europe with the introduction of Christianity. Rather, Japanese absorbed Buddhism gradually, mixing it with local folk religions….
TRACES: Chi, Ki, Suijaku & Derridian Deconstruction/Existentialism...Chi.....Traces..... a key term in the thought of medieval China and in its widest meaning it embraced the phenomenal world.….some kami (but not all) are in fact just local manifestations (the suijaku (垂迹?), literally, a "trace") of Buddhist deities, (the honji (本地?), literally, "original ground")...... The two entities form an indivisible whole called gongen.
Honji Suijaku...Weaving Shambala Dralas & Buddhist Deities ...Early Buddhist monks in Japan did not doubt the existence of kami, but saw them as inferior to their buddhas.....Hindu deities had already had the same reception: they had been thought of as non-illuminated and prisoners of samsara..... Buddhist claims of superiority encountered however resistance, and monks tried to overcome it by deliberately integrating kami in their system...... Japanese Buddhists themselves wanted to somehow give the kami equal status......Several strategies to do this were developed and employed, and one of them was the honji suijaku theory.….
Ukkala, Utkarsha Kala, Uttarapatha & Ancient Orissa in Kashmir ... The merchants Tapassu and Bhalluka were on the way from Ukkala, when a certain deva advised them to visit the Buddha at Rajayatanamula, near Uruvela, and to offer food to him….As per a popular legend, Buddhism was introduced in Balkh by Bhallika, one of the first two disciples of Buddha..... There are two stupas over their relics.....Ukkala (or Okkala) is the ancient name of Orissa....Ukkala of the Buddhist texts which is co-related with names like Asitanjana, Adhisthana, Pokkharavati and Kamsabhoga, said to be native country of caravan leaders Tapassu and Bhalluka, specifically placed in Uttarapatha...
Durshen Mada & the Dunhuang Texts...According to the Dunhuang documents, there is another figure, Durshen Mada, who accompanied Shenrab Myiwo in performing many ritual activities.….In this colorful origins tale, composed circa the 9th century AD, a hybrid yak named Dzomo Drangma (Mdzo-mo drang-ma) is appointed by the funerary priest Durshen Mada (Dur-gshen rma-da) to assist a young girl who died ..
Yungdrung, Rigpa & The Fourth Moment...Tibetan translators worked under a top-down system in which royal edicts decreed the correct Tibetan word to be used for every Buddhist Sanskrit term. ...One of the problems for the early translators was what to do with certain important and powerful words that came from the pre-Buddhist culture of Tibet....One of the most powerful and resonant words in pre-Buddhist Tibet was yungdrung (g.yung drung). ... we see “the eternal dharma” (g.yung drung chos) in many Dunhuang manuscripts. Translators of Chinese Buddhist scriptures into Tibetan used it to translate nirvana. Translators of Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures used it to translate the Sanskrit samyak, meaning “correct” or “perfect”, as well as various Sanskrit terms meaning “eternal”. This messy scene begins to look more like the chaos that bedevils contemporary translation efforts.. ….
Ilkhanid Buddhism & Eurasian Iran (1256-1335 AD)... The Ilkhans ruled Iran and neighboring territories from 1256-1335 AD as the grandsons and heirs of Chinggis Khan …. the Ilkhans increasingly adopted Tibetan Buddhism. Christian powers were encouraged by what appeared to be a favoring of Nestorian Christianity by the Ilkhanate's rulers but this probably went no deeper than the Mongols' traditional even-handedness towards competing religions. Thus the Ilkhans were markedly out of step with the Muslim majority they ruled....
Ubayd Allah, The Sita River & the Moslem Conquest of Shambala (698 - 870 AD)... The marauder Obaidallah crossed the Sita River (aka Kabul River) and made a raid on Kabul in 698 only to meet with defeat and humiliation.…. the Turkishahiya dynasty continued to rule over Kabul and Gandhara up until the advent of the Saffarids in the ninth century. Forced by the inevitable advance of Islam on the west, they then moved their capital from Kapisa to Wahund on the Indus, whence they continued as the Hindushahiya dynasty. This was in 870 A.D. and marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination.
Bactrian & Sogdian Languages and the Moghon Shine Usu Inscription (770 AD)...Later Shambhalists would identify the ancient Uighur kingdom of Khocho, centered around the Turfan Depression, as one of the prime candidates for the physical location of Shambhala.….The Uighur Terkh runic inscription deciphered by S.G.Klyashtorny describes the military merits of El Etmish Bilgä qaγan (749–759), the actual founder of the Uighur Empire
Greco-Bactrians: Ariana, Arachosia and Bactria, (250 - 90 BC)...Since the Indo-Aryan peoples built their first Kingdom in Bactria (now Balkh) scholars believe that it was from this area that different waves of Indo-Aryan peoples spread to Iran and Seistan, where they became today's Persian, Pashtuns, and Baloch, The ones that stayed in Bactria became Tajiks, who are located in modern Balkh and surrounding areas. The period between 26th- 20th century BC was the most important period in the history of Balkh."….
The Questions of King Menander .... Bactria, 150 BC...The Indo-Greek King Menander I (Pali Milinda) (c. 165 –130 BC) was born in Bactria, but brought up in Ariana (the Kabul valley) and in the early years of his rule expanded his father’s kingdom to the Indus valley and beyond, perhaps later establishing his capital at Sàgala.….The Milinda Panha (Pali trans. "Questions of Milinda") is a Buddhist text which dates from approximately 100 BC....It purports to record a dialogue in which the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Pali Milinda) of Bactria, who reigned in the 2nd century BC, poses questions on Buddhism to the sage Nāgasena..
Havilah, the River Pishon and Ancient Bactria (5000 BC)... The historian Josephus claimed that the Indians of India are descended from the sons of Joktan. Josephus explains that many Joktanites had settled in Afghanistan: "Now Joctan, one of the sons of Heber, had these sons, Elmodad, Saleph, Asermoth, Jera, Adoram, Aizel, Decla, Ebal, Abimael, Sabeus, Ophir, Euilat, and Jobab. These inhabited from Cophen [a river where Kabul is], an Indian river, and in part of Asia adjoining it. And this shall suffice concerning the sons of Shem."......This is modern Kabul and the valley of its river. The land further towards the Indus is Bactria. Thus, some of Joktan's descendants seemingly moved through the Arabian peninsula and went on to India.... Their having dwelt at one time in Afghanistan, leads to speculation that they were amongst the Aryans of northwestern India.….
Antonio Andrade and the Jesuit Search for Shambala (1626 AD)...The stories of the European search for Shambhala began in the mid 1500s at the court of the Indian Mogul Emperor Akbar the Great in Delhi. At his court, Akbar encouraged art and architecture, literature and promoted religious debate across many religions. He gathered not only Hindus and others from his own empire but Christian monks and pilgrims from the west to participate in these discussions.....This priest's successor, Antonio Andrade, being much younger set out on an expedition to locate this place. He found the wealthy Kingdom of Guge but no Christians. In 1626 Andrade published 'Discovery of Tibet'. It is this work which likely inspired 'Lost Horizon' the 1933 novel by James Hilton..….
The Yavanajātaka, Yavanesvara & Bactrian Greek Astrology (120 BC)...the translation of a Greek astrology text into Sanskrit prose by Yavanesvara in 149 AD. ....The Greek astrology text in question was written in Alexandria (Bactria) some time round about 120 BC. ....
The Kingdom of Yavana and Ol-mo-lung-ring/Stag-gzig... ’Ol-mo-lung-ring is, as many later sources say, in some way identical with Stag-gzig, we see that Stag-gzig is to the west of Tibet, and is bordered by the smaller areas of Gilgit and Yavana (Bactria).….Manjushri Yashas (Tib. Rigdan Tagpa) is said to have been born in 159 BC and ruled over a kingdom of 300,510 followers of the Mlechha (Yavana or "western") religion, some of whom worshipped the sun..... the Ti-se of Stag-gzig, which Indians call both Ka-bi-la (Kabul? Kapita?) and Kê-la-sha. The latter is located on the opposite side of the Shi-ta river that forms the boundary of Shambhala.....
The Origins of Yoni-Lingam & Yab-Yum Images... Mukhalingas of Shiva resemble similar depictions of phalluses with carved faces from Greece and those from Celtic Europe. He also notes the phalluses with full human figures are also found in France and India, citing the icon of Gudimallam as an early example….
Breath is Time: the Kalachakra and So Hum Breathing...The Kālacakra tradition revolves around the concept of time (kāla) and cycles (chakra): from the cycles of the planets, to the cycles of human breathing, it teaches the practice of working with the most subtle energies within one's body….
Multan & Balkh: Famous Temples Dedicated to the Sun called Shams or Shambha (515 BC)...There are known to have been famous temples dedicated to the sun called Shams or Shamba in Balkh, the ancient capital of the Bactrian kingdom in northern Afghanistan, and in Multan which according to Alberuni used to be called Shambha-pura (City of the Vision of the Sun) in the pre-Islamic period. In Multan,the Sun Temple has been mentioned also by Greek Admiral Skylax, who passed through this area in 515 B.C. The Multan and its temple are also earlier known as Kashya-papura is mentioned by Herodotus......Huen Tsang is said to have visited this temple in 641 AD and had described the deity made of pure gold and eyes of whom were made of large red rubies. The gold, silver and gems were abundantly used in doors, pillars and shikhara of temple.
The Tenth Karmapa, Choying Dorje (1604 - 1674) ...The Black Hat Eccentric... Toward the end of his life, in 1673, the Tenth Karmapa produced one of his last works of art, a white-sandalwood statue of the Sun Goddess Mārīcī riding a pig, for his wife & consort, Kelpa Zangmo....the mother of his several sons and daughters.....The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso , (1617-1682), in his own autobiography also recorded that the Karmapa was "behaving like an unconventional yogi."….
Marici: Öser Chenma, Goddess of Great Light, Tibetan Sun Goddess Marici ...Goddess of the Sun...The origins of Marici are obscure; however, she appears to be an amalgamation of Indic, Iranian and non-Indo-Iranian antecedents spanning 1500 years.….
Marici: Öser Chenma, Goddess of Great Light.....Part Two... 'Odzer Canma, "Woman Endowed with Rays of Light" ...'OD....light: འོད ('od) light; shine; brightness, splendor; radiance; illumination; spread the light; lustre; come to hear; effulgence; brilliance......ZER: ray; beam; shaft of light....Oser Chenma is a yidam, her chariot pulled by pigs….
TARA: The Female Buddha and The Mahavidya Wisdom Goddess... The goddess Tara , meaning "star", is the second of the Dasa (ten) Mahavidyas or "Great Wisdom Goddesses, is a form of Durga or Parvati. Tantric manifestations of Durga or Mahadevi, Kali, or Parvati. As the star is seen as a beautiful but perpetually self-combusting thing, so Tara is perceived at core as the absolute, unquenchable hunger that propels all life….
Srinmo: The Ancestral Earth Goddess of Tibet...Srin mo is a divinity and not a frightening demonic figure....Her status was transformed into the inauspicious character of the rakshasani with the advent of Buddhism...sexual intercourse out of compassion and for the benefit of all suffering beings” was a widespread “ethical” practice in Mahayana Buddhism….
Drukpa Kunleg: Phallus Paintings: Crazy Wisdom from Bhutan (1500 AD)...Traditionally symbols of an erect penis in Bhutan are traced to Drukpa Kunley....studies carried out at the Center of Bhutan Studies (CBS) have inferred that the phallus was an integral part of Bön tradition, an animistic and shamanistic religion, which existed in Bhutan before Buddhism became the state religion. In Bonism, phallus was integral to all Bon rituals. ….
Śākta Buddhism & Passionate Enlightenment... Tantric goddesses have played a significant role in the formation of tantric Buddhism, or what is sometimes referred to as 'Śākta Buddhism'….
Kashapa Rishi, Lake Saraswati & The Tirtha of Kashmir Valley... The Valley of Kashmir (Kash-mira) got its name from Kashapa Rishi.…. In November 1890, M. A. Stein was fully satisfied, in fact convinced that the site he had been guided to was the abode of Saraswati.....The proper name of the divinity in Indo-Iranian times was Anahita-Sarasvati, “she who possesses waters”
Naropa, Kashmir, Krityashramavihara & Pullahari (1016 AD)...Naropa is sometimes said to be from Bengal in the east, but there is little evidence for this theory and most authors locate his birthplace in Kashmir, along with Niguma.....Naropa’s well-known hermitage of Pushpahari, or Pullahari, commonly identified as being on a hillock west of Bodhgaya, may have been in Kashmir.….
Khyungpo Naljor (978-1172 AD)...Khyungpo Naljor, the great Bon/Buddhist Tantra Master asked his teachers whether anyone in India had met the Buddha Vajradhara, the source of the Buddhist tantras. They replied that Niguma, reputedly the sister of Naropa, had done so. Khyungpo Naljor sought her out, finding her in the Sosa Charnal Ground. He requested her transmission, to which she replied "I am a cannibal, a flesh-eating dakini!" ….
Niguma, Kashmir & the Sosaling Charnel Ground (1040 AD)... Naropa is sometimes said to be from Bengal in the east, but there is little evidence for this theory and most authors locate his birthplace in Kashmir, along with Niguma.....Naropa’s well-known hermitage of Pushpahari, or Pullahari, commonly identified as being on a hillock west of Bodhgaya, may have been in Kashmir....….
King Lalitaditya Muktapida of Kashmir (724 - 760 AD)...Kalhana describes Lalitaditya as a very strong ruler, who asserted his power far beyond Kashmir and the adjacent territories. ...The numerous foreign expeditions of Lalitaditya and his ultimate disappearance on one of these forays towards north reminds one of the Greek Conqueror, Alexander the Great who was of a similar disposition and in that respect Lalitaditya may be called Kashmir’s Alexander.... Lalitaditya is supposed to have invaded and subdued Tukharas, a nation in the northern region. The country of Tukharas is undoubtedly the Tokharistan of the Muslim period comprising Badakhshan and the tracts on the Upper Oxus.,,,Lalitaditya’s expeditions towards north were real and lasting and checked the Tibetan march towards Kashmir. ….
Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra: Om Manipadme Hum...Kashmir (4th c. AD)...The earliest existent copies of the prose Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra belong to the collection of Buddhist texts unearthed, during the 1940s, in a stūpa, situated three miles outside the town of Gilgit in northern Kashmir.... the text was written in a type of script which became obsolete in 630 AD….
The 'Lost' Mūla-Tantra...Sha'kya & Padmapani Lokeshvara (876 BC)... In the Mula Tantra, Sha'kya foretells to Dazang of 25 kings, who will successively reign at S'ambhala, each for 100 years. The six first of them are called Dharma Rajas (Religious King) and the others are styled Rigs-iden, Kulika, 'the Noble of Illustrious' ....He foretells also that after 600 years from that date (2nd c. BC)....Rigs-Idan Grags-pa, Kulika Kirti ('the celebrated noble one' (the Epiphanes of the Greeks ?) will succeed to the throne of Shambhala,......( his son or the young prince (born c. 200 BC) is (or will) (be an incarnation of) Pad-hdsin hjig-rten dvang, (Sanskrit: Padmapani Lokeshvara).....and that 800 years afterwards, (c 600 ad) the kla klo, Lalo (Sanskrit: Mleccha) religion will rise at Makha ...."….
Demetrius of Bactria: Greek Buddhist King (222 BC)...Buddhism flourished under the Indo-Greek kings...Demetrius I, who was born in the milieu of Bactria and struck coins with Buddhist gods, personally was a Buddhist. His conquests did however influence the Buddhist religion in India.....Greco-Buddhist art....There are several parallels between Demetrius and the first representations of the Greek Buddha in human form.….
Orissa, Od' i-ana & The Kabul/Swat Rivers... Ukkala (or Okkala) is the ancient name of Orissa......must be located not to the east but to the west of Prithudaka (or Pehova). The territory therefore, inevitably tends to get connected to Pali Pokkharavati (Sanskrit Pushkalavati), which is now known as Charasaddha and is located in north-west frontier province of Pakistan above the confluence of Swat and Kabul rivers.….
Dazang, Da wa Zang po, Dava Zang-po, King Da of Zang (c. 900 to 876 BC)...In the Mula Tantra, Shakya explicitly declares ...that the Rigsden Gragspa will be of his own Shakya race, and of the nation of Dazang, the natural interpretation is that they were both of the Scythian nation, or of the Sacae of the ancients….
Kalachakra & The Kaula-Chakra (990 AD)...When one looks at Tara, Kali, Cinnamasta-Vajrayogini, Kalachakra-Anandabhairava, compares the Kula ritual to Vajrayana, etc. it would be the height of absurdity to think these grew up side-by-side without influencing each other or deriving one from the other (or most likely from a shared root)….
Shambala References in "A Grammar of the Tibetan Language" ... Calcutta, India 1834... from Tibetan histories and works on Kala Chakra may be conjectured that this Shambhala, very probably, was the capital of the Bactrian Empire of the Eastern Greeks who had embraced Buddhism. It is also conjectured that the modern city of Balkh must have been the site of their latest capital. ….
The Aggañña Sutra & the Origins of Human Society (1st century BC)... The Beginning of Life on Earth....Buddha tells the story of how the human beings came to dwell on Earth......The Buddha told that sooner or later, after a very long time, there would be a time when the world shrinks. At a time of contraction, beings are mostly born in the Abhassara Brahma world. And there they dwell, mind-made, feeding on delight, self-luminous, moving through the air, glorious — and they stay like that for a very long time. But sooner or later, after a very long period, this world begins to expand again. At a time of expansion, the beings from the Abhassara Brahma world, having died from there, are mostly reborn in this world. Here they dwell, mind-made, feeding on delight, self luminous, moving through the air, glorious—and they stay like that for a very long time….
Dhanyakataka Stupa, Amaravati & the Krishna River Valley... On the full moon of March/April, the twelfth month counted from the time he [Shakyamuni] obtained buddhahood, the Buddha was teaching the Paramitayana at Mount Vulture Heap. At the same time he manifested another form inside the great stupa of Shri Dhanyakataka, which is near Shri Parvata in south India where he taught the Mantrayana.…....the Buddha taught The Root Kalachakra Tantra in the ninth century BCE and that the First Kalki King of Shambhala compiled The Abridged Kalachakra Tantra seven centuries later.
Kalachakra: The Vulture Peak Mountain...While the Buddha was in his physical body at Vulture’s Peak delivering the Prajnaparamita an emanation of the Buddha appeared at the same time in south India, at a place called the Dhanyakataka Stupa, and taught the Kalachakra, or Wheel of Time, doctrine to Suchandra, the King of Shambhala ….
Kalachakra Cosmology: The Arupyadhatu...Vedic literatures describe three intertwined dimensions of existence, triloka, the physical world, the world of our ancestors and the light-filled world of the Gods as the primary hierarchical division of the cosmos. ….
Sangyé Yeshé: Lamp for the Eye in Contemplation (9th c. AD)... .the historical process behind the separation of the Great Perfection from Mahāyoga (in the form of the vehicle of Atiyoga), and argued that Nupchen Sanggyé Yeshé (a strong influence on the Zur tradition) was instrumental in this movement...... The earliest reliable source for the idea that Mahāyoga and Atiyoga are each independent vehicles with their own scriptures and their own formulations of the view is Nupchen’s A Lamp for the Eyes of Contemplation….
Sangyé Yeshé, Li Yul, & The Shady Willow Grove of 'Khotan'... Gesar is mentioned in a Khotan text, the Tibetan Li-yul-lun-bstan-pa, ("Prophecy of the Li Country") of the 9th-10th century, and Phrom long identified with a country northeast of Yarkand. Recent opinion identifies the land either with the Turkish Küūsen or the Kushan territories of Gandhāra and Udayana.….
Chanakya, Kautilya & Takshashila (c. 370 – 283 BC)...Chandragupta was the founder of the Maurya dynasty, which ruled ancient India for about 140 years. He established the first territorial empire in ancient India, covering most of the Indian sub-continent. He was assisted by his political adviser, KAUTALYA, who also set out the rules for the administration of the country. This broad framework of administrative organization was adopted by many succeeding dynasties. ….
The Indica of Megasthenes (350 – 290 BC)... At the start of the Indica, Megasthenes mentions the devotees of Hercules (Shiva) and Dionysus (Krishna or Indra), but he does not write a word on Buddhists, something that gives ground to the theory that Buddhism was not widely spread in India before the reign of Asoka (269 BC to 232 BC).
Hercules and Dionysus in India (350 BC) Alexander @ Nysa... In 326 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Indus valley, where he discovered in Gandara a town called Nysa that was dedicated to the god Dionysus. (Probably, this was the Indian god Shiva.….
Mathuran Art & the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250 - 130 BC)... The origins of Greco-Buddhist art are to be found in the Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian kingdom (250 BC- 130 BC), located in today’s Afghanistan, from which Hellenistic culture radiated into the Indian subcontinent with the establishment of the Indo-Greek kingdom (180 BC-10 BC). Under the Indo-Greeks and then the Kushans, the interaction of Greek and Buddhist culture flourished in the area of Gandhara, in today’s northern Pakistan, before spreading further into India, influencing the art of Mathura, and then the Hindu art of the Gupta empire, ….
Sectarianism & Syādvāda: The Theory of Conditioned Predication...Syādvāda is the Jain doctrine of epistemological relativism underpinning all Jain logic, that all propositions about truth are based on finite, limited, and contextual postulates. Jainism claims that since reality is complex, no single proposition can express the nature of reality fully. Thus the term "syāt" should be prefixed before each proposition giving it a conditional point of view and thus removing any dogmatism in the statement.….
Kālidāsa....Classical Sanskrit Poem: Mégha Dúta ...5th C. AD...The Cloud Messenger.....Meghadūta ......is considered to be one of the greatest Sanskrit poems. It recounts how a Yaksa, an attendant of Kubera (the God of Wealth) after being exiled for a year to central India for some unknown transgression, convinces a passing cloud to take a message to his wife on Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas. The yaksa accomplishes this by describing the many beautiful sights the cloud will see on its northward course to the mythical city of Alaka, where his wife awaits his return...
Ekajaṭī, Māhacīna-tārā, Mahakali Vetali, and Durga... It’s not known for certain whether Ekajati originated in the Hindu, Buddhist, or Bön pantheon, but some have suggested that Nagarjuna brought her practice from India to Tibet in the 7th century. According to most Tibetan sources, she was a Bön goddess whom Guru Rinpoche bound under oath as a protector of the teachings....
Mahajanapada: Sixteen Great Kingdoms (1500-500 BC)...Between 1500 and 500 B.C., 16 city-states that are known as Mahajanapadas emerged in the Indian subcontinent from the west in modern Afghanistan to the east in Bangldesh....
Lhamo Youdrönma.....Goddess of the Turquoise Lamp...During the rituals called létsok, or activity practices, a deity is invoked - a yidam or Dharma protector - and highly accomplished practitioners can ask them questions. Their answers appear in a mirror. Trungpa Rinpoché’s deity for this practice was the deity Lhamo Youdrönma, Goddess of the Turquoise Lamp. ...
Hadda: Greco-Buddhist Archeological Site (2nd C. BC) ...Some 23,000 Greco-Buddhist sculptures, both clay and plaster, were excavated in Haḍḍa during the 1930s and the 1970s. The findings combine elements of Buddhism and Hellenism in an almost perfect Hellenistic style...
Mount Khwajeh, Lake Hamun & Ancient Sistan (2nd C. BC)..._Ancient geographers of Iran divided Iran ("Iran-Shahr") into eight segments of which the most flourishing and largest was the territory of Greater Khorasan. Esfarayen, among other cities of the province, was one of the focal points for residence of the Aryan tribes after entering Iran....
Blessing: Baraka, Adhiṣṭhāna & Chinlap...Baraka is an ancient Sufi word, which can be translated "as a blessing, or the breath, or the essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds...
Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian in Bactria (126 BC) ….The people are settled on the land, cultivating the fields and growing rice and wheat. They also make wine out of grapes. They have walled cities like the people of Dayuan (Ferghana), the region contains several hundred cities of various sizes...Their civilization was urban, almost identical to the civilizations of Anxi and Dayuan, and the population was numerous....
An Shigao: Prince of Parthia & First Chinese Buddhist Translator (c. 148-180 AD) ….An Shigao was a prince of the kingdom of Anxi in present-day northeastern Iran. He was famed for honoring his parents and having broad knowledge in astrology, medicine, and sacred texts. After his father’s death, he gave up his throne and became a Buddhist monk. He translated thirty-five texts from the Theravada and Mahayana schools of Buddhism, including works on meditation, psychology, and techniques of breath control. An Shih-kao is the first Buddhist missionary to China....
Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra... Buddhist Breath Awareness Meditation (160 AD) ….The Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra (Sanskrit), "Breath-Mindfulness Discourse," is a discourse that details the Buddha's instruction on using awareness of the breath (anapana) as a focus for meditation.
Sufi Prayer of the Heart & Breath Awareness Meditation (Khorasan: 1200 AD) ….Zikr-i-Qalbi...Pas Anfas, in Persian, means guarding every breath..... Zikr is performed with the heart using breath as the medium.
The Khwajagan Sufi Masters & Balkh (8th C. AD) ….In Balkh, Bokhara and also in the Hindu Kush a new “inner circle” of initiates was established. These great initiates were known as the Khwajagan (Persian for "Masters").
Begram ... Kapisa ... Alexandria of the Caucasus (320 BC) ….the Kingdom of Uddiyana was divided between two countries....to the North, it bordered on the land of Shambhala (i.e., the Kingdom of Kapisa.
Parwan & Panjshir Valleys ... Ghorband River & Village of Sambala ...John Wood (1839)…."Late in the evening we arrived... at the bottom of a deep valley, along which was scattered a village named Sambala.....we emerged a short time later, into the Parwan Valley.
Ya'qub al-Saffar (840 – 879) & the Islamic Conquest (870 AD) ...The Islamic conquest of Afghanistan (642–870) began in the middle of the 7th century after the Islamic conquest of Persia was completed, .
al-Mahdi, the Samanids & the Conquest of Shambhala (870 AD) ..Caliph al-Mahdi (775-785 CE).... had the same name as the last prophet in the Kalachakra list.
Patrul Rinpoche: Oddiyana & the Sita River ..Obaid allah crossed the Sita River (aka: Kabul River) and made a raid on Kabul... marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination.
King Takna Ziji & the fortresses of Tiger Leopard King of Wealth ..Takzik Nordzong is one of the fortresses of Tiger Leopard King of Wealth (Takzig Norgi Gyelpo), an invader who is supposed to have come from the northwest (Indo-Iranic borderlands or Central Asia)...
Ngari, Ü-Tsang and the Guge Kingdom (947 AD) ..Atisha spent thirteen years in Ngari and U-Tsang. He is credited with the propagation of the Lamrim and Lojong teachings...
Werma Deity Texts & Tertons Ponse Khyung Gotsal (1175) & Rigzin Gödem (1337) ....two mythical narrations on warrior deities (dgralha/ sgra bla/ dgra bla).... one from a Bonpo Terma text and the second from the “Old” (Rnying ma) tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. ...
Khyungsprul Rinpoche (1897-1919) & the Rimé Movement in Ngari .... he was the instigator of the return of Bonpo traditions to the ancient land of Zhang zhung in mNga' ris. Very significantly, he showed a particular interest for the remote Kinnaur valley." ...
Seventeen Dzogchen Tantras & The Cina Valley (8th C.)Sri Simha deposited copies of the first three Dzogchen cycles in a rock cut crypt beneath the Bodhivriksha Temple of Sugnam in the land of Cina, near Mt Kailasa, south of Western Tibet (below Suvarnadwipa), comprising modern Kinnaur, which was known in ancient times as the valley of Cina...
King Barhatakin, the Odiyana Shahi & Phrom Gesar (738 AD)"Phrom Gesar...received this laudatory epithet because he was successful at holding back the Muslim conquerors."....
Zhangzhung (Zanzun) ... Phug-pa/Bactria ... The Kingdom of ZunPhug pa ....Inner Shang Shung..... three month-walk from Mt Kailash westwards...The inner region is said to be sTag-gzig (Tazig) ...often identified with Bactria.......
Sutleg River, Mt Kailash & Lake RakshastalIt is interesting to note that Manasarovar does not receive any water directly from Mt Kailas. It is Rakshas Tal that does...
Zhangzhung: The Outer, Inner and Middle Regions Zhang Zhung consisted "of three different regions: sGob-ba, the outer; Phug-pa, the inner; and Bar-ba, the middle. ...
The Royal Seal of the Last King of Zhangzhung"Wielding Power over the World of Sensual Pleasures, King of Life"...
Kinnaur: Hindu/Buddhist/Bonpos & the Nine Dabla GodsThe Nine dabla (da.bla) ...Brothers and Sisters Gods, are said to have come from Tibet....
Jangshung Language of Kinnauri & Zhang-ZhungA modern Kinnauri language called by the same name (pronounced locally Jangshung) is spoken by 2,000 people in the Sutlej Valley of Himachal Pradesh who claim to be descendants of the Zhangzhung....
Kingdom of Suvarnadwipa & Zang-zung..Zang-zung or Suvarnadwipa was an ancient Indo-European nation, said to have been ruled by a royal lineage of women...
The Kinnaur Valley & Kalpa..In the ancient mythology the people of Kinnaur are known as Kinners, the halfway between men and gods..
Shri Singha & the Kinnaur Valley (8th C.)...…To fully appreciate Sri Simha's background we must briefly digress into the geography of a mysterious seventh century Himalayan country called Suvarnadwipa and its southern neighbour, the Kinnaur Valley.
The Beacon of Certainty ... Mipham Gyamtso (1846–1912)...…Mipham the Great wrote 'Beacon of Certainty', a compelling defense of Dzogchen that employs the very logic it was criticized as lacking.
Click on Map To Enlarge
Patrul Rinpoche (1808-1887) ... 'Advice From Me to Myself'...…'If you let go of everything — Everything, everything — That's the real point!'
Terms Dzogchen...…
Miscellaneous Terms A - C...…Authentic Presence, Ancestral Sovereigns, Asha & Ashe, Auspicious Coincidence, Basic Goodness, Chao, Cosmic Egg, Crystal Iconography
Miscellaneous Terms D - G...…Drala/Dralha, Dzogchen, Emptiness, Five Elements, Gaze, Great Eastern Sun
Miscellaneous Terms H - M...…Heart, Juniper, Khatvanga, Ki Ki So So, Khvarenah, La, Love, Light, Mind, Cosmic Mirror, Magic, Marriage, Mu Cord
Miscellaneous Terms N - R...…Natural Hierarchy, Natural State, Non-aggression, Passion, Presence, Primordial Purity, Purification, Renunciation, Richness, Rigpa
Miscellaneous Terms S - Z...….Post # 613 ... Sacred Outlook, Setting Sun, Secular, Siddhi, Sky Gazing, Space, Square One, Sacred Space, Sounds, lights, and rays, La of sound, Spiritual junkyard, Yung Drung, Non-theisism, Thekchod, Thodgal, Visualization, Trust, Primordial water, Wheel of birth, White Light of A, Wind, Windhorse, Xratu, Xvarenah, Yang, Ziji
The Nyingmapa Tradition (742 AD)..From the eighth until the eleventh century, the Nyingma was the only school of Buddhism in Tibet.....….
Mantra, Mathra, Incantare, Dharani..Tibetans visiting Dzungar officials were forced to stick their tongues out so the Dzungars could tell if the person recited constant mantras, which was said to make the tongue black or brown. This allowed them to pick the Nyingmapas and Bonpos, who recited many magic-mantras....….
Sipe Gyalmo, Sipaimen, Sipai Gyalmo Sidpa Gyalmo, Srid-pa’i Gyal-mo..Sipai Gyalmo has a complex iconography, and pantheon of manifestations, but is usefully summarized as a deep azure blue, wrathful deity who is pre-Buddhist in origin, and is a direct emanation of Shes-rab byams-ma, the Great Goddess.….
The Kalpa Sūtra (400 BC) & Jain Kālachakra...The Kalachakra refers to many different traditions, for example the Hindu; Saivite, Samkya, Vaishnava, the Vedas, Upanisads and Puranas traditions, but also Jainism….
John Hopkins....February 2021
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
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