Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche...1910-1991...Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche — born in the Dergé region of Kham, Eastern Tibet, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was recognized as the mind emanation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820-1892)....He is regarded by many as one of the greatest Dzogchen masters of the twentieth century..….
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche....1939 – 1987..."Trungpa Rinpoche’s Great Vision....To gather the sacred relationships, wisdom, and living essences of the world’s authentic traditions, and to give them a home under the Shambhala banner".….
Khandro Tsering Chodron...1929-2011...Regarded as one of the supremely realized female Buddhist practitioners of our time. Tibetans called her a "hidden master" because throughout her life she refused to preach with words, yet she taught by her sheer presence, beauty and example. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche revered her as "the queen of dakinis"...….
Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche...... (1954-1992)..."Born in Lhasa, Tibet in 1954, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche was recognized as an incarnation of the previous Jamgon Kongtrul by the late Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, the supreme head of the Kagyu lineage. At the age of six, the young tulku left Tibet to join the Karmapa at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim where he was raised by the Karmapa as one of his four “heart sons.”.….
Rinpungpa's Guidebook to Shambhala .... "The Knowledge Bearing Messenger" (1557 AD)...From Kailas continue northwest to Ladakh and down through mountains and forest to the vale of Kashmir...... then north, hrough a maze of treacherous mountains....you will pass safely through and come out in the land of the Paksik, horsemen who wear white turbans......over an 'outer ring' of sky-high ice mountains, down through a vicious desert, into unknown vistas....only to reach a second 'inner ring' of snow mountains. Beyond there, you must choose rightly among high valleys and low cities, having the good sense to know Shambhala when you reach it.….
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772 AD) Tantra, Kabbalism & Shambhala...Swedenborg was fascinated with the 'Shambhala' myth, and under cover of employment for the Swedish East India Company .... his interest in India and Central Asia, and the sexual rites that went with his New Jerusalem Society, later to be frequented by William Blake....Swedenborg became intrigued by the similarity of Yogic Tantra techniques of meditation and sexual magic to Kabbalistic techniques....Swedenborg argued that the Yogis of Central Asia discovered the secrets of Kabbalism….
Tzimtzum: Primordial Space & Time in the Kabbalah...The first act of creation was to bring about space in which the divine emanations and the evolving finite world could have a place to exist....it was screened, dimmed, hidden and concealed...where this concealment and occulation of the light occurred, an 'empty' place, a 'void' evolved into primordial space....this is the act of the first Tzimtzum ….
Yungdrung Tharpaling...Lamayuru Monastery & Mahasiddha Naropa (11th c. AD)...Lamayuru Monastery....according to popular tradition," it was originally the foremost Bon monastery in Ladakh….Mahasiddha Naropa (c. 1016–1100) visited Lamayuru coming from Zanskar...... He spent a long time in strict retreat in a cave there and turned the place into a sacred land. The cave still exists, well preserved and forms part of the main shrine
Yu Zurpuchen: The Crystal Youth of the gZermig Terma Text ...At that time there came from the void sky....the little boy Yui Zurpuchen....of a complexion as clear as crystal, arrayed in a coat covered with magic writ, riding on the blue horse of the turquoise dragen….
Druk: Dragon, the Sound of Thunder, Druk Sakyong...Druk in Tibetan means dragon but it also refers to the Sound of Thunder....Dorje Dradul of Mukpo, The Druk Sakyong.....The Sakyong holds and propagates the teachings of Shambhala, an enlightened society.....Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche is regarded as the first in this lineage of Sakyongs, and as such he is referred to as the "Druk Sakyong", or "Dragon Earth-Protector".….
Yungdrung Chakshing... "Yungdrung Chakshing is a symbol of continuity and willpower in the Bon religion which its followers say was the pre-Buddhist faith of the Tibetan people.....the Swastika (also known as the gammadion cross, cross cramponnée, or wanzi) (as a character: 卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious symbol considered to be a sacred and auspicious symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Bon and Jainism ....It has been used as a decorative element in various cultures since at least the Neolithic. It is known most widely as an important symbol long used in Indian religions, denoting "auspiciousness".….
A Cavern of Treasures and Shenchen Luga (1017 AD)...A Cavern of Treasures (Tibetan: མཛོད་ཕུག, Wylie: mdzod phug) is a terma uncovered by Shenchen Luga (Tibetan: གཤེན་ཆེན་ཀླུ་དགའ, Wylie: gshen chen klu dga') in the early eleventh century. .. the mDzod phug is one of the most intriguing of all Bon scriptures, since it is the only lengthy bilingual work in Zhang-zhung and Tibetan ….
The Nine Ways of Bon & Iranian Central Asia... The teachings of Yungdrung Bon did not solely originate in Zhang-zhung, but were said to have been brought from Tazik, that is, Iranian speaking Central Asia, to Zhang-zhung in Western and Northern Tibet by a number of mysterious white-robbed sages long before the political events of the seventh and eighth centuries ….
Hadda: Greek-Buddhist Archeological Site (1st c. AD)...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….Tapa Shotor, one of the most interesting sites to be excavated during this period, revealed shrines housing cultic images....as well as an underground room, probably restricted to the monks’ meditation practices dedicated to the theme of meditation on death.
.... Avestan Geography: The Mixture of Mythical and Historical ElementsThe Sixteen Great Districts...Airyana Vaēǰah lies at the center of the sixteen lands, in the central Afghan highlands....According to Skjærvø, and Gnoli it was situated between the Helmand River and the Hindu Kush Mountains…..it was common among the Indo-Iranians to identify concepts or features of traditional cosmography—mountains, lakes, rivers, etc.—with their concrete historical and geographical situation as they migrated.
The Bairam-Ali Manuscript & the Gyaur Kala near Merv... The Bairam-Ali manuscript appears to present the story of Buddhism’s first female adherents with the addition of several new details that reflect the influence of the Mahāyāna...We know of the formation of the Buddhist female community and women’s monasteries since the end of the first centuries A.D., although Buddhist tradition links this fact with permission granted by the Buddha after many requests by Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī (the Buddha Sakyamuni’s aunt, who raised him after his mother’s death) and support from Ānanda.….
The Sasanian high priest Kartir & Iconoclastic Mazdaism (241 - 275 AD)...Kartir was a significant force in an iconoclastic movement that would result in the loss of favour of the shrine cults, a religious tradition alien to Indo-Iranian forms of worship that was inherited instead from the Babylonians; shrine cults had been instituted six centuries earlier by Artaxerxes II.....It was during Kartir's time as high priest that the shrines were - by law - stripped of their statues, and then either abandoned or converted into fire temples.….
Iranian Migration into Eastern Tibet (7th - 9th Centuries AD)...After the Arabs had conquered the Persian empire.....the Tibetans who had become the dominant eastern power in the seventh century AD, it is they who provided the Persians and Sogdians sanctury.....As they fled east, the Persians first took refuge in Sugd (Sogdiana) ....then Sogdians continued east along the Silk Route into China and then into Eastern Tibet...... the rise of Tibetan power was because of the assistance of Persian refugees fleeing from the Arab invasion in the 650s AD.
Mount Mandara & The Ocean of Milk...East of Sumeru (Mt. Meru...Tibetan: Ri Rab) is the Ocean of Milk, in which there is a white city on a white island where the Lord Shiva can be seen sitting with his consort Parvati.....Mount Kailash is a rather small member of the Himalayas. The name of this stupendous range stems from Himavat, the father of Lord Shiva’s bride, Parvati.….
Bactrian Timeline: 2500 BC - 870 AD...The rise of Tibetan power was because of the assistance of Persian refugees fleeing from the Arab invasion of Persia in the 650s AD. According to Nikitin, when the Persians arrived in the Tibetan court, they trained the Tibetans in the art of imperial warfare….
Uttarakuru and Uttaramadra in the Aitareya Brahmana (c.1000 BC)...Uttarakuru (Sanskrit: उत्तर कुरु) is the name of a dvipa ("continent") in ancient Hindu and Buddhist mythology......Uttarakuru country and its people are sometimes described as belonging to the real world, whereas at other times they are mythical or otherworldly spiritual beings.....Aitareya Brahmana makes first reference to Uttarakuru and Uttaramadra as real-life Janapadas. According to Aitareya Brahmana, these two nations lay beyond the Himalayan ranges (Hindukush)....The Ramayana testifies that the original home of the Kurus was in Bahli country. Ila, son of Parajapati Karddama was a king of Bahli, where Bahli represents Sanskrit Bahlika (Bactria)....Bahlika or Bactria may have constituted the Uttarakuru.
Paradesha, Parádeisos, Chahar Bagh: Royal Walled Gardens of Kalapa... The mythical paradise of Shamballa, sometimes thought to be in a parallel world or dimension , is a land of a thousand names. The Hindus call it "Paradesha" (Paradesa: Sanskrit) (Paradise....Persian: پردیس,.....High Land).....or "Aryavarsha", the land from which the Vedas came from; the Buddhists "Shambala"; the Chinese know it as " Hsi Tien", the Western Paradise of Hsi Wang Mu, the Royal Mother of the West; the Russians knew it as "Belovodye" and "Janaidar", the Christians and the Jews the "Garden of Eden". ….
Polaris, Ursa Major, the Saptarishi Mandala and Yungdrung...In the Puranas, connected with the Kali-Yuga and Kalki Avatara prophecies, computations utilizing the cycle of the Big Dipper (The Great Bear, in Sanskrit, the Seven Rishis (Saptarsi)....revolving around the circle of the 27 asterisms....staying in each of them for 100 years....this cycle is strikingly similar to the one hundred year reigns of the Kings of Shambhala….
The Sanskrit Kālacakra and the Vimalaprabha Commentary...The Vimalaprabha (Wyl. dri med 'od), translated as Stainless Light or Immaculate Light, is the main commentary on the Kalachakra tantra. Composed by Pundarika, the 8th king of Shambhala and the second Kalkin king, brought to India in about 967 AD and introduced in Tibet 60 years later in 1027 AD, still existing in Sanskrit, it is the basis for all Kalachakra commentaries.….
Otzi, the Frozen Copper Age Mummy (3239 BC) & Indo-European Migration...Otzi’s stomach bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, is a nearly pure Asian strain. Genetically, it is most closely related to an H. pylori strain now found primarily in north India. …. In the far north of India, H. pylori from the stomach of Buddhists is genetically distinct from H. pylori from the stomach of Muslims."
Kapila and the Samkhya School (6th c. BC)...Kapila (Drang-srong Ser-skya).....was a Vedic sage credited as one of the founders of the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy. He is prominent in the Bhagavata Purana, which features a theistic version of his Samkhya philosophy..... He is estimated to have lived in the 6th-century BC....Samkhya is called one of the several major atheistic schools of Hinduism by some scholars..... Others, such as Jacobsen, Samkhya is more accurately described as non-theistic..….
Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Zarathushtra Spitama...Artaxerxes II invokes the goddess Anahita and the god Mithra, but as we have already seen above, Zarathustra was not a monotheist; he wrote Yashts for these two gods….
Barak Baba & the Il-khanid (Tibetan Buddhist/Muslim) Rulers of Persia (1257-1307 AD)...In Sufism, teachers of ‘crazy wisdom’ are termed ‘Malamati’ or followers of the ‘Path of Blame.’ They may find it necessary in their teaching function to incur feelings of opposition in others, in order to challenge fixed ideas and assumptions......Individuals who follow the ‘Malamati’ approach do not worry about appearances, image or the impression made on others. They incur reproach, take no care of their repute, and simplydo and say what they consider right….
The Kingdom of Zhun and Takzig/Tibetan Bon...The shrine of Zun in Zamindawar, which was believed to be located about three miles south of Musa Qala in today's Helmand Province of Afghanistan.......Scholars have noted several similarities between the religion of Zhun and the pre-Buddhist, religion of Tibet….
Shamanism & the Malang of The Oxus/Hindu Kush Region...Shamanic beliefs in Central Asia have shown a remarkable ability to persist alongside major religious traditions, not only Islamic, but also Buddhist….Scholars have noted several similarities between the religion of Zhun, and the pre-Buddhist, dragon-god religion of Tibet....
The Bon Tradition & The Naubahar/NoGombad Ruins of Balkh...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.….
The Shulgara Valley, Bactra & Chashma-i-Shafa...Bactra and Zariaspa are not synonymous with Balkh but are located further south in the Shulgara Valley in the Paraopamisus mountain range.….In the spring of 2008 French and Afghan archaeologists announced that they had uncovered the ruins of a vast, hither-to unknown, ancient city at Cheshm-e-Shafa, the 'City of Infidels' (Unbelievers), some 20 miles (30 kilometres) from the ruins of Balkh fortress..... this was once an important Zoroastrian city. The dig team have uncovered a 6-foot-tall (2-meter-tall) anvil-like stone believed to have been an altar at a fire temple dating back to around the 6th century BC.
Balkhab River & the Band-e Amir Lakes...Greek accounts describe Bactra and Zariaspa as twin cities and 'that the two cities lay at the foot of the Paraopamisus mountains and the Bactra river flowed past their walls'.….Bactra and Zariaspa are not synonymous with Balkh but are located further south in the Shulgara Valley in the Paraopamisus mountain range.
Iranian, Persian, Parsa, Persia & Iran: Distinctions...There were in the territory of Iran two hundred and forty princes" at the beginning of Iranian Parthian Empire (247 BC – 228 AD) .....The dominant kingdom of Iran has at various times been Balkh (Bactria), Mada (Media), Parsa (Persia), Parthava (Parthia) and then Persia again. The king of the dominant kingdom was called king-of-kings (shah-en-shah in modern terms) - an Emperor. ….
The Deity Oxus & Ancient Bactrian Polytheism...The single most important element that dominates the landscape of ancient Bactria is the river Amu Darya, the ancient Oxus, and its many tributaries. Bactria without Oxus is almost unimaginable.....yet most research has been confined to the study of the "major" religions (Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and/or Islam)...... Despite that, the local Bactrian polytheistic pantheon presents an amazing richness and forms a fascinating field of study, yet acknowledged by not many modern scholars.….
Aq Kupruk, Balkh...Early Human Representation....(18,000 BC)... Aq Kupruk artifacts belong to a cultural phase that lasted some 5,000 years, from circa 20,000 to 15,000 years ago, during which some unknown artist carved the face of a man (or is it a woman?) on a small limestone pebble — giving us one of the earliest representations of a human face made by human hand.….
Malahim, Armageddon, the Mappō Cycle & Kalachakra Prophecies ...The 1,300-year-old hadith, which is a report of the deeds, teachings and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, refers to the 'horde' flying 80 banners as they take on a Muslim army in the Syrian town of Dabiq. It warns of a 'malahim' - the equivalent to Armageddon in Christian teachings – in which the Muslims ultimately prevail.….
Dilbarjin, the Balḵāb River & the Greek Dioscuri Temple (2500 BC)...Dilbarjin: (2500 BC) A large urban site surrounded by city walls....dominated by a fortified enclosure and citadel (Kala) in the center, and has a vast unfortified urban area to the east and south of the city walls.….
Hephthalites, Tibetans and White Huns (408 - 670 AD) ...Saint-Martin was among the first to suppose that the Hephthalites were descendants of the Yuezhi and had a Tibetan origin....Bernshtam, states that the Hephtalites were shamanists….honoured their own god. “Each morning they came out of their own tents and prayed. Possibly, they honoured the sun."
Chinese Travelers in Bactria, Kapisa and Oḍḍiyāna (400 - 675 AD)... Xuanzang reports that at the time of his visit to Balkh in 630 AD there were about a hundred viharas and 30,000 monks, a large number of stupas and other religious monuments, and that Buddhism was flourishing in Bactria.….
The Takht Bahi Monastery & Early Tantric Buddhism (520 AD) ...Trisong Detsen, Emperor of Tibet, ruled from 755 until 804 AD.......he invited Padmasambhava and various other teachers to come to Tibet to spread Tantric Buddhism... the Tantric Buddhist complex at Takht Bahi in Ghandara, was constructed as early as 520 AD......200 years before Tantric Buddhism entered Tibet….
King Gondophares & the St Thomas Legend (52 AD) ...King Gondophares I took over the Kabul valley and the Punjab and Sindh region area from the Scythian King Azes...….According to one of the legends in the Acts, Thomas was forced to accompany an Indian merchant, Abbanes, to his native place in northwest India, where he found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares.
Sīta, Sītā, Śīta, Shita, Sita: Daughter of the Earth Goddess Bhūmi ...The Sita of the Ramayana may have been named after a more ancient Vedic goddess Sita, who is mentioned once in the Rigveda as an earth goddess who blesses the land with good crops. In the Vedic era, she was one of the goddesses associated with fertility...Mount Sita Ram is a mountain in the Spin Ghar range south of the Kabul (aka: Sita) River ….
Shukla Yajurveda & the Vedic Age (c. 1500–500 BC)...Yajurveda is the Veda of prose mantras.....a compilation of ritual offering formulas that were said by a priest while an individual performed ritual actions such as those before the yajna fire......The exact century of Yajurveda's composition is unknown, and estimated by scholars to be around 1200 to 1000 BC….The Yajurveda is broadly grouped into two – the "black" (Krishna) Yajurveda and the "white" (Shukla) Yajurveda.
Judaism & Ancient Bactria/Balkh (586 BC) ...Balkh was formerly the stronghold of Jewish settlements in Afghanistan. According to Persian and Muslim traditions, it was founded after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (586 B.C.E.), who is said to have settled the exiled Jews there.….
Anionic and Anthropomorphic Greco-Bactrian Buddhist Art (250 BC) ..The first Buddha statues were produced in about the 1st or 2nd century AD in Bactria (Afghanistan and northern Pakistan) perhaps as a result of Greek influence….
Charikar (Kapisa) and the Panjshir Valley... Vasubandhu came from the "Kingdom of Shambhala' (approximately, modern Begram, otherwise known as the ancient kingdom of Kapisha, north of Kabul)....Bagram was founded as Alexandria on the Caucasus by Alexander the Great and known in medieval times as Kapisa….
The Pashto Language & Pashtun Origins...French Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel associated Shambhala with Balkh, also offering the Persian Sham-i-Bala, "elevated candle" as an etymology of its name.....In the Pashto language 'candle is Sham' and 'castle/fortress is Kala'….
Darius the Great and the Kabul River (515 BC) ...Darius the Great ..... third Achaemenid king of kings (r. 522-October 486 B.C.)......Darius sent a naval reconnaissance mission down the Kabul River (aka Sita) to the Indus....Scylax, a man of Caryanda....started from the city of Caspatyrus in the land of Pactyïke ….
Sogd to Bactria Migration (4500 BC) ...The migration from Sogd to Bactria, took place about 5000 BC...When the climate was altered by some vast disturbance of nature, the Arians migrated…. Sogdiana is "listed" as the second of the "good lands and countries" ... second after Airyanem Vaejah, "homeland of the Aryans".
The Palola Shahi Dynasty (6–8th C. AD) ...In the 6th–8th C. AD, the Patola (Palola) Shahis ruled the country of Bolor, in what today is in the area of Gilgit-Baltistan….The people of this region have historically been referred to as Balawars (or highlanders), which is said to have come from the term BALA, which means high.....Before the invasion of Tibetans in 727, the official language of both the Palola Shahis and the clergy was Brahmi..."
The Vidyādharas of Uddiyana & Kashmir...Vidyadhara: someone who constantly abides in the state of pure awareness of 'rigpa’. .... ….
Gilgit Manuscript (5th C. AD) ...The Gilgit Manuscript contains references to iconometry, folk tales, philosophy and culinary skills. It also has a chronological list of the various Buddhist Shahi kings of Gilgit.….Kanishka was a Kushan of probable Yuezhi ethnicity. He used an Eastern Iranian, Indo-European language known as Bactrian (called "αρια," i. e. "Aryan" in the Rabatak inscription)"
Marco Polo: Uddiyana & Kashmir (1280 AD) ...From Homurz to Kerman, passing Herat, Balkh, they arrived Badakhshan, where Marco Polo convalesced from an illness and stayed there for a year........in about the year 1280 AD Marco Polo went from Balkh in Afghanistan near the present day Mazari Sharif, crossed Badakhshan, ascended the Oxus or Amu Dariya River to the Wakhan Corridor....In the thirteenth century Marco Polo wrote that, "The people of Pashai (i.e., Uddiyana) are Great Adepts in sorceries and the diabolic arts. ….
King Sophagasenus & The Kapisa Valley (206 BC) ... Sophagasenos also spelt Sophagasenus or Sophagasenas (Sanskrit: Subhagasena) was a local King ruling in Kabul and Kapisa valley (Paropamisade of the classical writings) during the last decade of 3rd century BC...Polybius, the Greek historian, makes reference to Sophagasenus in context with Antiochus III’s expedition across the Caucasus Indicus (Hindu Kush Mountains) in around 206 BC. Having crossed the Caucasus Mountains, Antiochus moved up to Kabul and met Sophagasenus the King with whom he renewed league and friendship he had made previously.....
Uddiyana Kurukulla & Vashya-Karma Magic... One Buddhist Dakini originating from the country of Uddiyana is the goddess Kurukulla. The name Kurukulla is translated into Tibetan as Rigjyedma (rig-byed-ma), “she who is the cause knowledge.” She is associated with a king of Uddiyana named Indrabhuti...... there exists a sadhana text attributed to him for the red Kurukulla......she is generally known as the Uddiyana Kurukulla. ….
Gendün Chöphel (1903–1951) & the White Annals ...The White Annals - an unfinished work on the early history of Tibet by Gendün Chöpel….Gendun Chopel is revered as Tibet's greatest modern poet......He published articles questioning traditional Tibetan views on history, world geography, and the origin of Tibetan writing..... He became a target for ecclesiastical extremists and conservative nobles. He was arrested, whipped, and thrown into prison at the foot of the Potala Palace. His research materials written during twelve years of exile in India were stolen and never returned.
Buddhagupta-natha & Dumasthira, Oddiana (1580 AD) ... Buddhaguptanatha (1514-1610)...locates Urgyan (Uddyana) in Ghazni, about 50 miles south of Kabul in modern Afghanistan, which is in contrast with the traditional location of Urgyan in the Swat area......Tāranātha (1575–1634) gives a detailed description of the country and Dumasthira, the capital city of Uddyana....the focal location of the magic dakini women.….
Kushan Empire Mint Cities...The Mint Cities of the Kushan Empire: Balkh, Surkh Khotal, Kapisa (Begram), Peshawar (Puskavalait), Taxila, Kanishakapura, Sagala (Sialkot), Mathura….
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
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.
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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….
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….
The Kingdom of Kosala & the Shakya (563 BC)...By the time of the Buddha (about 563 BC - 483 BC).. the Śākya nation had been subsumed into the Kingdom of Kosala under King Pasenad….
Sakyas & the Caucasus Indicus Mountains (625 BC)...In the time of Alexander the Great, the Hindu Kush range was referred to as the Caucasus Indicus or the "Indian Caucasus"….
The Durand Line (625 BC): Pakhtia and the Eastern Satrapies...Saka clans settled along the middle course of what is the Durand line around 625 BC-….
Mahasiddha Kṛṣṇapāda, the Great & Rongzompa...He appeared as the remarkable and powerful yogi in the Indian Śaiva tradition of the Nātha yogis and in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of the Vajrayana Māhasiddhas.….
Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo (1012–1088 A.D.) & Primordial Purity....We then begin to get the sense that purity and divinity are something to be discovered rather than conjured….
Samantabhadra, Saman.bhadra, Sam.bhala....Saman means "the rising morning sun"....
bhadra is a sanskrit term meaning good ….
Riwo Sangchö (Mountain Smoke Offering).... the most famous practice of sang offering in Tibetan Buddhism. ….
Sikkim Dzogchen: Tertön Lhatsün Namkha Jikmé (1597-1653)....one of the greatest of his termas, the Dorje Nyingpo Tringyi Tollü Chökor (The Spontaneous Song of the Clouds: the Nucleus of Indestructible Reality), ….
rDzogs chen terms in Chinese ..The transmission of Fahai Lama focuses on yang ti (yangdi). Yang ti is the Tibetan term for one of the three divisions of the Great Perfection Section of Esoteric Precepts or Section of Secret Instructions (Tib. man ngag sde, Ch. koujue bu 口訣 部), i.e., A ti (Ch. adi 阿的/低), sPyi ti (Ch. jiedi 借的) and Yang ti….
Boundless Space & Unconditional Love....Crazy love is a very ecstatic way of transcending this mind and its ultimate mistake of buying into its own display. We just see everything as sacred and love everything without having any specific object of love (Anam Thubten).
Pema Thongdrol & Padma Sambhava....Tsewang Rikdzin was the son of Drenpa Namkha and the brother of Pema Thongdrol who some Bonpos claim was the original Padma Sambhava.
Reiki and Zhangzhung Bon Healing Practices....Tsi Dup Yang Bod is an ancient energetic healing practice from ZhangZhung, an aspect of these precious teachings is known as Reiki here in the United States.
Adur Farnbag Fire Temple & Greater Khorasan (600 BC)....The Farnbag, Gushnasp, and Burzen-Mihr fires were connected, respectively, with the priests, the warriors, and the farmers. The Farnbag fire was at first in Khwārezm, until in the 6th century BC.
The Tsewang Rigdzin Ritual....In the Tibetan tradition there exist numerous rituals for recovering health, extending life, and recapturing any life force that has been lost due to external negative force, internal emotional suffering, or the secret obscuration of ignorance. The Tsewang Rikzin ritual, from the Tibetan Bon tradition, is just such a rite.
Drenpa Namka & Padmasambava....Multiple versions of a single figure’s biography are a common occurrence in Tibet and the Himalayan region. Bon and Nyingma mythology conflate Pema Tongdrol with Padmasambhava…”.
'Ol-mo-lung-ring & the Oxus River.... ’Ol-mo-lung-ring is located to the northwest of western Tibet and near the rivers Pag-shu and Si-ti, which we might very well identify as the Oxus (Vakṣu) and Sitā (Kabul River) ……
Cista (Shishta): Goddess of the Way....Cista (Shishta): Mithra's companion (16th Yasht) …
March 2014….
Verethragna & Bahrām … The Great Warrior God....Vərəθraγna was one of the principal gods of the ancient Iranian pantheon…. As the divinity of war and victory, he was the protector of his people… …
Shahr-e Sūkhté (3200 BC)....Shahr-e Sukhteh was one of the world’s largest cities at the dawn of the urban era… around 3200 BC.… …
Lake Hamun: The Saoshyants @ Qal'a-e Sham....the ruins are called Qal'a-e Sam …. “Castle of Sam" ……The religion of Sham (Sam) was considered "pagan" by the early Christians and Muslims…….it was the cult of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun)… …
The Art of Anahita (400 BC)...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.…
Greek-Bactrian Art & Early Buddhist Representation (250 BC)...“It was not until the Greek presence after the conquests of Alexander the Great in 326 BC that the anthropomorphic representation of Buddha emerged…
Cyrus the Great Cylinder (539 BC)...Cyrus's notions of human rights influenced the US Constitution…..Thomas Jefferson had two personal copies of the book…
Bas-Reliefs at Taq-e Bostan (c. 400 AD)...Taq-e Bostan and its relief patterns accentuate power, religious tendencies, glory, honor, the vastness of the court, game and fighting spirit, festivity, joy, and rejoicing…
Tonglen: Atisha & Malaysia (1030 AD)...Atisha was first initiated into, and became an adept in, the esoteric and magical practices of Tantra….however, when already a well-established practitioner of Tantra, he underwent a change of heart and made a decision to renounce the search for magical power. …
The Çintamani … Gankyil … Triskelion...Cintāmaṇi is a wish-fulfilling jewel within both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, equivalent to the philosopher's stone (Paras Pathar) in Western alchemy…
Suvarnadvipa, Persian Sea Trade and Kalki Kings (682 AD)...Suvarnadvipa can be identified with Sumatra, Java or Malaysia. It was home to Atisha's most important teacher, known as Dharmakirti of Suvarnadvipa.…
Atisa & the Kalachakra in Indonesia (1012 AD)…Vajracaryas of the original Kalacakra cult included Atisa's guru Pindo - a brahman Buddhist monk from Indonesia…
Spiritual Pilgrimage & Spiritual Tourism…Mt Kailas:…’You will be blessed with holy bath and parikrama to achieve your ultimate spiritual goal before returning to Kathmandu….A Full Moon supplement Charge Will be US $ 150 Per person Extra….Prices include Yaks & Yak men for luggage during Kailash Parikrama.’…
’God’… the word god is thought to derive from a root *ǵʰeu̯- "to pour, libate" (Sanskrit huta, see hotṛ), or from a root *ǵʰau̯- (*ǵʰeu̯h2-) "to call, to invoke" (Sanskrit hūta).…
‘Light’ … ‘o …’od … ‘od dkar … ‘od-i-ana … 'ol-mo … 'od gsal … 'od zer…The tibetan terms: sgra (sound)[sgralha], 'od (light)['odkar], zer (rays)[zermig]. …
Destruction of Archeological Sites in Afghanistan (1920-2014)…For years, villagers have dug the baked earth on the heights of Cheshm-e-Shafa for pottery and coins to sell to antique smugglers. …
Losar and Mönlam (1939 Tibet)…The Ernst Schäfer Expedition to Tibet (1938-39) …
Maps of The Shambhala Region…”…he came from the "Kingdom of Shambhala' (approximately, modern Begram, otherwise known as the ancient kingdom of Kapisha, north of Kabul."…
February 2014 …
Protection Cords, Medicine Strands, Sacred Girdles & Meditation Belts…The belt and stick are an essential aspect of long-dé practice…
Sanskrit to Persian Translators of Central Asia…Akbar underwrote a Persian translation of the Sanskrit Mahabharata…
Tang Dynasty & Central Asian Kingdoms (618-907 AD)…kingdoms paying tribute to the Tang Dynasty included Kashmir, Nepal, Khotan, and Kingdoms located in Amu Darya and Syr Darya valley.……
Nestorian Christians and Prester John in Central Asia…Timothy relates that he has recently appointed a metropolitan bishop for the Turks, and is about to do the same for the Tibetans. These references both date to the early 790s, during Trisong Detsen’s reign.”……
Five Elements Astrology …The oldest type of Tibetan astrology, Byung-rTsis is also called Nagtsi, has its origin in ancient Tibetan Bön culture……
Chogyam Trungpa: The Bon Way of Life (Page 2) …Shen rab was born in Sam bha la (sTag gzigs)……
Chogyam Trungpa: The Bon Way of Life (Page 1) …most of the original Bon texts were eventually destroyed or fell subject to heavy Buddhist editing……
Chogyam Trungpa: Dege, Tibet & Mt Pago-punsum …technically, Trungpa was actually born in Sechuan, China……
Emperor Wu of Han and Legendary Daxia (126 BC) …Daxia appears in Chinese from the 3rd century BCE to designate a mythical kingdom to the West, later known as Bactria……
Dongba Hieroglyphic Language … Tompa symbols are a system of pictographic glyphs used by the Bon priests of the Naxi people in southern China. They were developed in approximately the seventh century." …
Naxi … The Bonpo (Dongba) of South China… .Joseph Rock wrote about the region and the Naxi people who occupy it….these writings inspired the novel Lost Horizon, by James Hilton …
Balchen Gekhö … Zhang Zhung Deity of Time….A very important Bon deity is called Balchen Geko, who is said to govern time and the three worlds of existence. In this respect the deity is analogous to Kalachakra in Buddhism…
South Chinese Taoism & The Four Dignities… South Chinese Taoism is probably the origin of the four dignities…of Shambhala Training…
The Crystal Mirror by Thuken Chökyi Nyima (1737–1802)… Chapters on the Nyingma, Kadam, Kagyü, Shijé, Sakya, Jonang, Geluk, and Bön. …. the major traditions of China: Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist …. as well as those of Mongolia, Khotan, and Shambhala. …
The 'Nameless Religion' of Ancient Central Asia… the older … pre-Bon … animist-shamanist religion of Tibet -- the "nameless religion" -- whose practitioners, unbound by formal codes and doctrines, are in direct communication with the spirit world …
Kalash People of Chitral…The Kalash people of Pakistan were found to have DNA from an ancient European population. …
Nine Creator Gods of Ancient Tibet & The Epic of the Lha…Shenlha Okar literally means "wisdom deity of white light;" …. is said to have created the world with the help of nine brother gods or nine cosmic gods (shrid pa 'i lha) who appear as war gods or drala (dgra bla)…
Lha Descending, Sprul.sku & dMu Thag…Olmo Lungring or Shambhala…..was the place where the celestial gods of the Clear Light (`od gsal lha) descended from heaven to earth …
Baresman, Barsom, Sacred Bundles & Divine Sceptres...wands are ceremonial and/or have associations with magic but there have been other uses, all stemming from the original meaning as a synonym of rod and virge...
Mushin no shin & gZhi … No Mind & Ground of Being...True nothingness, true emptiness…from true emptiness the wondrous being appears (shin ku myo mu)”. Shin is true, ku is emptiness, myo is wondrous, mu is being. From true emptiness wondrous being…shin ku myo mu."….Shunryu Suzuki Roshi...
Chandravansha: The Lunar Dynasty...There are two different ksatriya families of the royal order, one descending from the king of the moon planet and the other descending from the king of the sun...the kṣatriyas or warriors…Gautama Buddha was born into a Kshatriya family
Vidyadharas and Vidyadharis ...(Rigpa Holders)...Vidyadhara ... literally ‘awareness holder’. According to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, it indicates someone who constantly abides in the state of pure awareness of 'rigpa’...
Kalama Sutra: Buddha's Charter of Free Inquiry...Do not believe anything on mere hearsay. ......Do not believe in traditions merely because they are old and have been handed down for many generations and in many places....
Alexander the Great, Nysa & The Dionysiaca...Alexander the Great….One of the puzzles of the campaign is the visit to Nysa. Here, the god Dionysus was venerated, one of Alexander's mythological ancestors...
Tirich Mir, Nysa, Sumeru & Mt Meru...The route to Nysa as described by the Greek historians of Alexander's campaign suggest a southerly location near the river Kunar, but a location more to the north, near modern Chitral, better fits the fact that there was ivy to be found on the spot. Moreover, there is an impressive mountain near Chitral, called Tirich Mir...
"Shambhala Lies North of The Sita River "...Obaidallah crossed the Sita River (aka: Kabul River) and made a raid on Kabul in 698 AD...
Oxus Explorer John Wood & the Village of Sambala (1839 AD)...Late in the evening we arrived..... at the bottom of a deep valley, along which was scattered a village named Shambhala....
The Arab Conquest of Shambala 624-870 AD...870 A.D. marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination...
The Blue Annals & Śambhala (624 AD)...A Muslim invasion in 624 AD weakened the kingdom. It was 800 years after Kulika Pundarika....
The Conflation of Mahāmudrā & Dzogchen...Conflation occurs when the identities of two concepts, sharing some characteristics of one another, seem to be a single identity — the differences appear to become lost....
_Mahasiddha Kukuraja: the Dog King...Kukuraja was a mahasiddha within the lineages of Esoteric Buddhism and he was contemporaneous with Indrabhuti in Oddiyana (also known as King Ja) and Kambalapada (also known as Lawapa)...
The Dzogchen Lineages of Shambala & Oḍḍiyāna...The Dzogchen teachings are mainly found only in the old unreformed Tibetan schools of the Buddhist Nyingmapas and the non-Buddhist Bonpos.... these schools assert that Dzogchen did not originate in Tibet itself, but had a Central Asian origin and was subsequently brought to Central Tibet by certain masters known as Mahasiddhas...
Kabul Shahis & Kapisa (3rd-9th C. AD)...Hsuen Tsang (c. 602–664), clearly describes the ruler of Kapisa/Kabul, whom he had personally met, as a devout Buddhist and a Kshatriya...
Zunbil, Zhun, Surya, Zabul...the god Zun or Zhun whose shrine lay in Zamindawar before the arrival of Islam, set on a sacred mountain….Zamindawar had become a famous pilgrimage center devoted to Zun…....the cult of Zun appears to originally have been brought southward by Indo European Hephthalites, displacing an earlier god on the same sacred site….parallels have been noted with the pre-Buddhist Bonpo monarchy of Tibet...
Kingdom of Zunbil & the Temple of Zun (653 AD)...Although the rulers of the Zunbil dynasty were worshippers of the sun, many inhabitants south of the Hindu Kush practiced Buddhism and other ancient religions ...
Manene…..Gesar’s Goddess and Guide...MANENE...the mother lineage of Warrior Manene....Manene means grandmother. More of a title than a deity. Dolma, the principle goddess in the Lamist pantheon. Tara of the Hindus. Important Goddess in the Gesar Epic....
King Harsha of India (647 AD)...Xuanzang tells us about the good works of kings who were patrons of Buddhism like King Asoka , King Kanishka or King Harsha (7th CE) ...
Xuanzang in Bactria/Kapisa/Udiyana (c.630-644 AD)...The people of Uddiyana, according to Huen Tsiang, were gentle, soft and effeminate.... mostly clothed in pure white cotton. The men have white turbans, the women soft flowing saris, also white. These are a gentle, happy people, rarely endangered by war or calamity. They are a society appreciative of fine culture, and they are all great lovers of learning....
Bahman Yasht & the Kālachakra Prophecy (9th C. AD)...The Bahman yašt is the most important apocalyptic work in Zoroastrian literature…Chapters 4 and 5 tell how calamities which will befall Iran at the end of the tenth millennium when enemy nations—Arabs, Byzantines, Turks, Chionites, Hephthalites, Tibetans, Chinese and others, will conquer Iran, causing decay of religion, breakdown of social order, debasement of law and morality, and degeneration of nature...
Ki Clan and the Kidarite Dynasty (300 AD)...The Kidarites are the last dynasty to regard themselves (on the legend of their coins) as the inheritors of the Kushan empire...
Bamian, Kapisa and the Ki Dynasty (4th c. AD)...the mongolian Ghengis Khan…in 1221 AD the Mongol armies invaded Bamiyan, conquered the fortress at Shahr-i Bamiyan, vandalized the Buddhist sites, and left. ...
The Swat Valley, Oddiana and Kapisa Shambhala...The people of Uddiyana, according to Huen Tsiang, were gentle, soft and effeminate. ....mostly clothed in pure white cotton. The men have white turbans, the women soft flowing saris, also white. These are a gentle, happy people, rarely endangered by war or calamity. They are a society appreciative of fine culture, and they are all great lovers of learning....
Nagarjuna & The Kushan Dynasty (150 AD)...Almost nothing is known of Nagarjuna. He was born sometime towards the end of the second century AD and probably published his most important work the Muladhyamakakarika about 200 to 250 AD. Where he lived, and exactly when are unknown, though he may have had some contact or perhaps even lived for a time in the Kushan Empire. His importance lies in the fact that his work was co-opted by the Mahayana movement of later centuries. Mahayana was a minority in the Kushan Empire but many of the texts which later came to be seen as foundational were published in this period....
Surkh Kotal & King Kanishka (c. 100 AD)...King Kanishka personally seems to have embraced both Buddhism and the Persian cult of Mithra... Kanishka had been the first Buddhist to rule Balkh... the Surkh Kotal temple complex would have been a imposing site, before its destruction, towering over the vast valley plains below.
Ancient Zabulistan and Kalata/Qala (870 AD)...In southern and eastern Afghanistan, the regions of Zamindawar (Zamin I Datbar or land of the justice giver, the classical Archosia) and Zabulistan or Zabul (Jabala, Kapisha, Kia pi shi) and Kabul, the Arabs were effectively opposed for more than two centuries, from 643 to 870 AD, by the indigenous rulers the Zunbils and the related Kabul-Shahs of the dynasty which became known as the Buddhist-Shahi....
King Gesar & Kapisa Shambhala (739-746 AD)... Ge-sar was the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 AD) "King of Khurasan'.....and may have contributed to his transformation in later historical tradition into the Tibetan national hero Gesar, whose figure still survives today in the folklore of the territory of ancient Gandhara....
Hiuen Tsang and Kapisa (640 AD)...Hiuen Tsang made the trip westward to Balkh (modern day Afghanistan), to see the Buddhist sites and relics, especially the Nava Vihara, or Nawbahar, which he described as the westernmost monastic institution in the world. Here Xuanzang also found over 3,000 non-Mahayana monks, including Prajnakara...
The Panjshir Valley and Kapisa Shambhala...Vasubandhu came from the "Kingdom of Shambhala' (approximately, modern Begram, otherwise known as the ancient kingdom of Kapisha, north of Kabul) located in the Afghanistan region, north-west of Peshawar....
Shambhala, Kapisa-Udyana and King Kanishka (78 AD)...King Kanishka of the Kushan Empire (its capital, Bagram, is situated slightly east of Bamian) ruled over Central Asia from 78-144 A.D...and is revered as a patron of Buddhism....Kanishka personally seems to have embraced both Buddhism and the Persian cult of Mithra.
Kunchen Dolpopa (1292–1361) & The Cry of the Red Garuda...Kunchen Dolpopa’s Mountain Dharma and other Jonang texts were banned in Tibet in the 17th century, they became extremely rare....a few of these texts were re-discovered and re-printed, notably through the agency of His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
Invoking Elemental Drala & Sacred Ground..."Imperial Drala of all dralas.....You hold in your left hand the crystal mirror ...In your right hand you brandish a crystal sword...You wear the blazing golden armor of life and the snow-white pennants on your helmet flutter in the wind...."
The Balkh to Lake Urmia Trade Route (2000 BC)...The Lake Urmia region has a wealth of archaeological sites that were home to some of the most advanced Neolithic communities known. Archaeological excavations of settlements in the Lake Urmia area have found artefacts that date from the Neolithic (New Stone) age, that is, from about 7,000 BCE. ...
Anahita,Lake Urmia & Takht-e Soleyman...The subject of Chichest sea and its identification as Urmieh lake has always caused some argumentation among scholars....The mythical king Khosro praised the goddess Anahita and the angel derwasp on its shore to arrest his enemy Afrasyab. Later, Zoroastrian clergy used the myth as a base to innovate a wide range of legends during Achaemenids and Sassanid period. Therefore, some new legends were ascribed to the sea, such as the foundation of Azargoshasb fire temple on its shore, and ruin of pagan’s temple by the king....
_Caucasus Mountains & the Bactrian Migration (9th c. BC)...Early settlements included the Scythians in the 9th century BC…..Like the Black Sea Scythians, the Saka identified gold with the sun, fire, supreme power and eternal life. The Saka tribes, just like the Scythians from the Dnipro region, had magical gifts from heaven: a plough and a yoke for farmers; a spear and an arrow for soldiers; and a sacrificial cup for priests…..This suggests a division of the Saka society into three groups: warriors (the ancient Indo-Iranian name for warriors, “rataishtar” – “those who stand in a chariot”), priests with their characteristic sacrificial cup and specific headgear and communal farmers, or the “eight-legged”, i.e., those who had two oxen that could be yoked to a plough. Each caste had its own traditional colours: red and golden-red for warriors, white for priests and blue and yellow for farmers...
Saka Migration and Black Sea 'Paganism' (7th c. BC)...The Sakas were an Iranian people that wandered from the north side of the Black Sea through Derbend passage and to the South Caucasus and from there to Asia Minor in the 7th century B.C....
The Kingdom of Balhara & Mount Imeon...Another possible connection between Balhara and the Bulgars is the words by Nasir Khosrow Qubadyani, the famous Persian poet of 11th century, who was born in Qubadyan, a village near Balkh in Afghanistan, says: 'Your voice hardly reaches the corridor from the room But his song (poem) easily reaches from Balkh to Bulgar'...
Mandala of the Sun, Solar Essence, Solar Rays...The sun god, who is both Hindu and Buddhist, appears at the center, flanked by Dawn and Pre-Dawn; the next circle holds the planets; and the outer circle has the twelve forms of the sun. Across the top, two bodhisattvas flank the five cosmic Buddhas. On the bottom, at the left, the priest presents offerings to a fire; on the right are the patron and his family. Nepalese Buddhists carried out ceremonies intended to prevent evil influences from disturbing the sun and the moon. The sun may also be an object of meditation, paired with the moon and imagined inside one's body...
Six Yogas of Naropa & The Bon Mother Tantras... the Bön Three Root Mother Tantras known as the Ma-rgyud Sangs-rgyas rGyud gSum (pr. Magyu Sangye Gyu Sum), the Three Buddhahood Tantras, using the commentary by Mi-lus bSam-legs ( Milu Samlek), the Prince of the region of Tazig around the 7th or 8th century….Hidden in the 8th century, these texts were rediscovered in the 10th century by Guru rNon-rtse [Guru Nontse]. These Tantras have an emphasis on practices of the Completion Stage, rDzogs-rim" ….and have six main practices, which can be said to be somewhat similar to the Six Yogas of Naropa...
Mother Tantras & Milu Samlek...Mi-lus bSam-legs (pronounced Milu Samlek), the Prince of the region of Tazig (Persia) around the 7th or 8th century AD...
Dialogical Awareness & Monological Thinking... Instead of treating a text or practice monologically as a linear, self-contained unit.... Bakhtin treats it as in constant dialogue with other texts, literary works, authors, practices, and even contexts. It is thus a more expansive and inclusive approach, continuously informed by, and in communication with, multiple "others:' where various approaches can coexist...
Ma Gyud Tantra & The Female Aspect of the Natural State...In Bon Dzogchen it is stated that all of reality is pervaded by a transcendent principle called "All Good". It has a male aspect called Kuntu Sangpo and a female aspect, Kungtu Sangmo...
Lucid Dreaming, Yoga Nidra and Dream Yoga...Rinpoche typically discusses the relationships between dreaming and waking and between dreaming and death. He also instructs in the “four preparations” for sleep and the uses and methods of lucid dreaming...
Historical Actuality & Sectarian Amnesia... In 1660, the 5th Dalai Lama was faced with a rebellion in Tsang province, the stronghold of the rival Kagyu sect with its high lama known as the Karmapa. The 5th Dalai Lama called for harsh retribution against the rebels, directing the Mongol army to obliterate the male and female lines, and the offspring too “like eggs smashed against rocks…. In short, annihilate any traces of them, even their names...
Lhasang, Smoke Offerings, Sur & Fire Rituals... Lha, nyen, and lu..... Trungpa Rinpoche thinks that these three principles "describe the protocol and the decorum of the earth itself, and they show how human beings can weave themselves into that texture of basic reality....
Chitral, Tirich Mir, Mt Meru & Oddiyana...Uddiyana ... the most likely mediator for injecting Persian concepts into Bon, transmitting Kashmir Shaiva-teachings into Tibetan Buddhism and combining the early Mahayana of India with Tantric teachings and aspects of folk-religion, a mixture that helped shape the later Vajrayana of Tibet ....
Tonpa Shenrab’s dMu Clan Ancestors... sMug'po gdong...... one of the four original tribes of Tibet from which the people of gLing were descended......Shenrab Miwo's clan is considered to be descended from the bMu deities, an ancient class of celestial deities. dMu is also the name of one of the four original tribes of Tibet....
Spiritual Traditions & Their Founders...As originally proclaimed by Chögyam Trungpa..... the Kingdom of Shambhala, an enlightened society of fearlessness, dignity and compassion." Furthermore, Shambhala vision applies to people of any faith, not just people who believe in Buddhism. The Shambhala vision does not distinguish a Buddhist from a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Moslem, a Hindu. That's why we call it the Shambhala Kingdom. A kingdom should have lots of spiritual disciplines in it....
El Shaddai, Shamash & The Goddess Asherah...Jehovah, aka: Yahweh was a god known as the Father of humankind and all creatures, and the husband of the Goddess Asherah ...
Ordu Baliq, The Orkhon Valley and Khocho Shambhala...Later Shambhalists.....the Uighur kingdom of Khocho, located at the northern edge of the Taklamakan, has often been posited as the "historical" Shambhala. ...
Ancient Kingdom of Hor……..Khwarezm/Khorasan, Khotan & Hata-Hor...Gesar's traditional four enemies were China to the East, India to the South, Tag zig (Persia) to the west, and Hor to the North....
Word Origins…..-i-stan….-asan….-isan….-ezm...-i-ana....-asam...The name "Khorasan" is derived from Middle Persian khor (meaning "sun") and asan (or ayan literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"), hence meaning "land where the sun rises" ….
Gyalpo Pehar: Oracle God of the Dalai Lama... "Pe-Har" and "bDud-gza’-smin-dkar." Pe-har is featured as a protecting deity of Zhanzhung, the center of the Bon religion. Reportedly, Pe-har is related to celestial heavens and the sky in general.....Pe-har’s consort is a female deity known by one of her names as bDud-gza’-smin-dkar ….
Indo-Iranian Origins and The Oxus Civilization (Part 2)...the BMAC of Central Asia may turn out to be its most northern extension while its heartland might be found in the vast areas of unexplored Baluchistan and Afghanistan.….
Indo-Iranian Origins and The Oxus Civilization (Part 1)...The BMAC culture, excavated by the Soviets in the last two decades in Afghanistan, however, is a slightly different story. Houses and forts, temples and palaces contain parallels in Iran as well as other parts of South Asia, and BMAC seems to be basically contemporaneous with Androvono culture. Archaeologists generally agree that the question of contact between BMAC and Androvono is paramount,….
BMAC: Seven Temples at North Gonur (3000 BC)...Seven temple constructions were recorded at North Gonur. These were: Temple of Fire, Temple of Water, Temple of Soma/Haoma, Temple of Sacrifices, Temple of Mitra-Sun, and Temple of Communal Eating. Their construction occurred roughly between 3000 BC and 2500 BC. ….
BMAC: Margu (2300–1700 BC)... The remains of a highly important Late Bronze Age building from North Afghanistan, the palace of Dashly-III shows strong similarities with the discussed group of seals. Ignoring the area of the entrance, we get the picture of a well planed 'mandala'…….
Uzboy River & The Khorasan Civilization... The major rivers are significant in forming the landscape of the Sea of Aral…..The first and greatest is the Amu Darya, known to the Greeks as the OXUS, and to the Arabs as the Jaihun. It rises in Bactria and forms the border between Margiana and Sogdiana before passing into Chorasmii. It is also the eastern boundary of the Karakorum Desert. Originally it is thought to have flowed north towards the Aral with a tributary turning west through Sary Kamysh Lake towards the Caspian Sea…..This western arm was the UZBOY which is now a dry river channel, but flowed some 750Km from the branch in the Amu Darya river. A riverine civilisation existed along the banks from at least the 5th century BCE until the 16th century CE, when the water which had fed the Uzboy abruptly stopped flowing out of the main course of the Amu Darya. The Uzboy River simple dried up!….
The Palace (Calah) of the King (Rigden, Shah, Khesar) in Ancient Balkh (Bactra)…....The Great Khorasan Civilization ('Land of the Rising Sun') had numerous great city/states, each with its own King and Queen, Royal Court, and Castle….Balkh (Bactra) was the most legendary and grandest, not only a legend in 7th Century pre-Buddhist Tibet but also throughout ancient China, India, the Middle East and Greece.….
Paropamisadae Mountains (Caucasus Indicus) and Bactra... Did Alexander the Great really build sixteen cities in Afghanistan, or was he the destroyer of a far more ancient civilization? David Adams goes in search of the most alluring of them all - Alexandria on the Oxus. The Ancient Greeks have long been credited for bringing civilization to the East. In fact it appears to be the other way round. Alexander discovered a highly developed civilization - a lost world - that pre-dated even the Persians.….
Paratethys Sea & The Oxus River in Central Asia... It is possible that the core region of Vedic culture was the landlocked area between the Oxus and Jaxartes river systems....This archaic geography allows that the Hapta-Hindu or Sapta-Sindhu in Sanskrit might include the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, and that the location of the Aral Sea and Lake Labnor might not then have been the same as now….
Shenrab Miwoche (1857 BC) and Tagzig/Khorasan...Olmo Lungring (Shambhala) was northwest from Mount Kailash in Zhang-zhung and twice as far as Kailas is from the city of Shigatse in Central Tibet. In precise geographic terms, this would put them beyond the Pamirs in Sogdiana (Khorasan).….
Ancient Bactria: Seals & Amulets (2500- 1500 BC)... Scorpion Seal, Oxus Civilization; Gonor Depe site; BMAC complex... (2000 BC)….
Prehistoric Chalo & Greater Khorasan (2500-1500 BC)... Traces of an international culture with major similarities to the Oxus civilization, otherwise known as the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex, have been discovered during an archaeological excavation in the prehistoric site of Chalo near the town of Sankhast in North Khorasan Province, Iran….
Raphael Pumpelly & The Oxus Civilization (2500- 1500 BC)..."Raphael Pumpelly (1837-1923)…."the fundamentals of civilization - organized village life, agriculture, the domestication of animals, weaving," (including mining and metal work) "originated in the oases of Central Asia long before the time of Babylon....such assertions that civilization as we know it originated in the Oxus Culture in North Khorasan sounded radical at a time when the names of Egypt and Babylon, regions connected to the Bible, were considered to be the cradle of civilization.….
Kayanian Dynasty: Kai Kāvus .....(Younger Avestan....559–330 BC)...Kai Kavoos, the founder of the Kayanian dynasty..... his Flying Throne was a legendary eagle-propelled craft used for flying the king all the way to China.....Kai Kavoos is one of the figures in the Shahnameh who is close to reality. The majority of his characteristics are similar to those of historical kings..........
The Nine Ways of Bon...Shamanic and Resultant Levels...Ninth Level of Bon.....Unsurpassable Way or the Way of Dzogchen (Khyad-par chen-po'i-theg-pa or rDzogs-chen).....Lame thegpa (bLa-med theg-pa), is concerned with the highest attainment through the path of Great Perfection (i.e., rDzogs-chen).….
Ferdowsi: Farr, Xᵛarənah & Lungta... Farr not only auspiciousness, but was also perceived as a necessary source of power, and ultimately a source of authority. In a court culture, which placed a high premium on adulation, well wishers naturally wanted to project a maximum of farr for the object of their praise. The desire to maximize farr….termed farrah afzun (may farr be increased)…..was iconographically achieved through multiplicity and repetition: the greater the number of the symbols of farr, the more powerful became the projection of auspiciousness and power.….
Buddharaksita & Tilise from Khotan (433 AD)... Around 433 CE certain Buddhist texts, including the Karandavyuhasutra, were brought to Tibet by the masters Buddharaksita and Tilise from Khotan. At that time, Khotan was already an important oasis and crossroads for Buddhist teachers moving between India, Bactria and China. Nelpa Pandita recounts how they returned to Khotan having discovered that no one could read or understand the meaning of the books.….
Butön & The Second Propagation of Buddhism in Tibet (11th c. AD)... Butön made enormous effort to determine precisely what should and should not be included in the Tibetan canon, excluding (controversially) everything without a persuasive Indian pedigree….He famously excluded from his Kangyur the Nyingma tantras, which he considered to be inauthentic, which is to say, not the words of the Buddha.
Ancient Central Asian Kingdoms: Bakhdhi, Markanda, Mouru (600 BC)...The Ancient Kingdom of Bactria was renowned through the known world for it wealth, beauty, abundant crops, and a large variety of fruits. While certain parts of Balkh are still relatively fertile.......centuries of climate change, endless war and poor leadership has reduced the once famed land to a dusty shadow of its former self.….
Legendary, Mythical, Mystical, Historical and Magical Reality... Whatever its historical basis, Shambhala gradually came to be seen as a Buddhist Pure Land, a fabulous kingdom whose reality is visionary or spiritual as much as physical or geographic. It was in this form that the Shambhala myth reached the West, where it influenced non-Buddhist as well as Buddhist spiritual seekers — and, to some extent, popular culture in general….
Obi-Rakhmat Grotto (57,000 BC)...New discoveries in the Kashkadariya region of Uzbekistan offer a unique stage on which to test existing assumptions about the geographic limits of Neandertal occupation, the nature of the interaction between modern humans and Neandertals….
Maha Ati & Atiyoga Dzogchen...According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen (Rdzogs chen or Atiyoga) is the natural, primordial state or natural condition, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by adherents of other Tibetan Buddhist sects. According to Dzogchen literature, Dzogchen is the highest and most definitive path to enlightenment.….
Neanderthals in Central Asia (30,000 BC)... Denisova Cave is a cave in the Bashelaksky Range of the Altai mountains, Siberia, Russia. The cave is of great paleoarchaeological and paleontological interest. Bone fragments of the Denisova hominin, sometimes called the "X woman" originate from the cave, including artifacts dated to ~40,000 BP. The cave is located in a region thought to be inhabited concurrently in the past by Neanderthals and modern humans….
Africa to Central Asia Migration (50,000 BC)...The first migration of anatomically modern humans from Africa was around the southern shores of the Arabian Peninsula and down the coast of India to the Kerala area on the western tip of South India, about 70,000 to 50,000 years ago.….
Kalhana & The Rajatarangini: Chronicle of Kings (2000 BC)...Excerpt from the "Rajatarangini of Kalhana…....we shall know how over two thousand years before the Christian era (2000 BC)…… bands of pastoral and agricultural tribes left their homes in Iran or Bactria and settled on the fertile banks of the five rivers of the Punjab.….
Zermig (gZer-mig): Piercing Eye...The country of Olmo Lungring where Tonpa Shenrab descended from the celestial spheres and took up incarnation among human beings as an Iranian prince. 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. According to the “gZi-brjid”, Olmo Lungring was also known as Shambhala in Sanskrit ….
Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-1933): Rimé (ris med) Movement...The 'non-partisan,' 'non-sectarian', 'universalist' or rimé (ris med) movement represents no less than the most far-reaching and broadly influential phenomenon to mold the Tibetan religious terrain of Shardza's lifetime.....Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé ('jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas, 1813-1899) rejected the 'intellectual petrification' associated with Geluk scholasticism, instead advocating fresh interpretations of original Indic texts across sectarian lines....This movement provided a promising avenue for Bönpos to contribute....Bönpos shared with the Nyingmas the position that the Dzokchen view represented the apex of all doxographical systems, and they maintained vigorous traditions of practice associated with it. Shardza's own keen interest in practicing and writing about Dzokchen undoubtedly left him well-positioned to participate in this type of dialogue.….
Patrul Rinpoche: Advice from Me to Myself (1808-1887)... Listen up, old bad-karma Patrul, You dweller-in-distraction.....For ages now you've been Beguiled, entranced, and fooled by appearances. Are you aware of that? Are you? Right this very instant, when you're Under the spell of mistaken perception You've got to watch out. Don't let yourself get carried away by this fake and empty life.….
Cuckoo's Song of Total Presence: The Six Vajra Verses...The sound of the cuckoo is evocative of the 6-verse text, The Cuckoo's Song of Total Presence. This fundamental Dzogchen text concerns the universally permeating nature of Mind -- non-dual, non-discursive, radiant, spontaneous and free.….
Lapis Lazuili Purple in Ancient Central Asia (7th c. BC)...Alexander the Great, the emperor of the Seleucid Empire, and the kings of Ptolemaic Egypt all wore Tyrian purple…..In China, purple represents spiritual awareness, physical and mental healing, strength and abundance. A red purple symbolizes luck and fame. The Chinese word for purple, zi, is connected with the North Star, Polaris, or zi Wei in Chinese….
Japanese Rite Of Nokan & Other Death Rituals... In Chinese Buddhist sources, there is a ‘principle of birth and death’ according to which a man’s soul escapes from his body through an upper or lower body part at death. A bystander can tell whether the dead man will go to a good or bad rebirth by noticing which part of the corpse retains its warmth longest….
Ultimate Dralas, Higher Beings, Veneration and Offerings...Tibetan Buddhists believe that there are countless types of beings other than humans and animals. Some are more powerful, happier, and more intelligent than humans, and others less so. Usually if there is no common karma or karmic connection, beings of different types will not encounter each other. Spirits are not necessarily births of the ancestors from a particular locality, but may have come from any kind of birth or realm.….
Uttarakuru, Mt Meru & Bactria...The Ramayana testifies that the original home of the Kurus was in Bahli country. Ila, son of Parajapati Karddama was a king of Bahli, where Bahli represents Sanskrit Bahlika (Bactria).….
Abhinavagupta's Critique of the Kalachakra (c.990 AD)...Kalachakra teachings were available by 1027 in Kashmir. At the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries CE, Kashmir was a center for both Buddhist and Hindu Shaivite tantra......a Hindu critique of the Buddhist Kalachakra meditation system in the sixteenth chapter of the Kashmiri Shaivite tantra text Illuminating the Tantras (Skt. Tantraloka), written by the Kashmiri pandit Abhinavagupta....during the latter part of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries CE, communication was quite common between the Buddhists of Oddiyana, Bactria, and Kashmir."…….
Aham, Spiritual Heart, Bodhicitta & the Tantraloka (950 AD)...Aham, a concept of Kashmir Shaivism, is defined as the supreme heart (hṛdayam)...the space of Aham is where kechari mudra (free movement in the space of the heart) is realised. ….
Abhinavagupta, Tantrāloka and Kashmir Shaivism (990 AD)... Tantrāloka is the masterwork of Abhinavagupta, who was in turn the most revered Kashmir Shaivism master..... a treasure text containing the synthesis of the 64 monistic āgamas and all the schools of Kashmir Shaivism. The work contains both ritualistic and philosophic aspects, spanning over 37 chapters. Chapter 29 is entirely dedicated to the so-called kula-chakra - a tantric practice which includes ritualized sexual activity. ….
Gonur Tepe: Soma, Haoma, Amrita, Ambrosia (2500 BC)...Amrita (Sanskrit: अमृत; IAST: amṛta) or more correctly "Amrit" (Sanskrit: अमृत) is a Sanskrit word that literally means "immortality", and is often referred to in texts as nectar. The word's earliest occurrence is in the Rigveda, where it is one of several synonyms of "soma" as the drink which confers immortality upon the gods. It is related etymologically to the Greek "ambrosia", and it carries the same meaning. It has various significances in different dharmic traditions….
King Oxyartes of Bactria (2140 BC)... Ninus, having conquered all neighboring Asian countries apart from India and Bactriana, then made war on Oxyartes, king of Bactriana, with an army of nearly two million, taking all but the capital, Bactra.….
Ancient Eurasian Calendars & Year Zero...The Kālacakra calendar is a luni-solar calendar based on a 60-year cycle. Unlike the western calendar, the months last from new Moon to new Moon, and are defined by the sign of the zodiac the Sun enters during the month......Strictly speaking, the Kālacakra sytem is not identical to the Babylonian one, which was entirely sexagesimal.….
The 'Gap', Formlessness & Greek Chaos/Emptiness...Greco-Buddhism refers to the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed between the 4th century BC and the 5th c. AD in the Indian subcontinent, especially in modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-western border regions of modern India.......Chaos was the non-personified concept of the gap between heaven and earth.….
Ancient Kings of Central Asia ( 900 BC - 740 AD)...Khorasan Tegin Shah" (King of the East), was the second Turk Shahi on the throne of Kabul, succeeding his father around or after 680 CE…Phrom Ge-sar was the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 CE) "King of Khurasan' (Land of the Rising Sun)….
Bactrian Sanskrit...2500 BC... Historians attest the largest population of the region including Bactria spoke vernacular dialects of Sanskrit.….
Kharoṣṭhī, Gāndhārī and Tibetan: Ancient Scripts... The discovery of the earliest Buddhist manuscripts – written in Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script and dating from the 1st c. BCE to the 4th c. CE – has revolutionized our understanding of this formative phase of Buddhism...Mahayana and (then) Hinayana, rather than evolving sequentially, developed simultaneously, in an intertwined fashion. The conclusion specialists have drawn is that there is no single, original canon.
The Kharoṣṭhī Script & Tantric Mantras (300 BC- 400 AD)... The Kharosthi alphabet was used in Gandharan Buddhism as a mnemonic for remembering a series of verses relating to the nature of phenomena. In Tantric Buddhism this list was incorporated into ritual practices, and later became enshrined in mantras.….
Sacred Calligraphy: Ancient Central Asia...The word calligraphy is from Ancient Greek: κάλλος .... kallos "beauty" and γραφή .... graphẽ "writing"…..Traces of the writing brush were discovered on the Shang jades, and were suggested to be the grounds of the oracle bone inscriptions (14th–11th centuries BC).
Temple of Hathor (54 BC): Egyptian Fertility Goddess... Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was considered to be the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow....As time passed she became more closely associated with Isis, who to some degree usurped her position as the most popular and powerful goddess. ….She was a sky goddess, known as "Lady of Stars" ….
The Garuda Pillar & King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra (113 BC) Greek-Bactria...From 130 BC, a nomadic people, the Yuezhi, started to invade Bactria from the north and we could assume that Heliocles was killed in battle during this invasion. Details from Chinese sources seem to indicate that the nomad invasion did not end civilisation in Bactria entirely. Hellenised cities continued to exist for some time, and the well-organised agricultural systems were not demolished…..Even if this was the end of the original Greco-Bactrian kingdom, the Greeks continued to rule in northwestern India to the end of the 1st century BCE, under the Indo-Greek Kingdom.….
Ithyphallic Deities, Sperm Gnosis & the Kalachakra Tantra...Pundarika, the first commentator upon the Kalachakra Tantra, distinguishes between one ejaculation, which arises out of karma and serves to perpetuate the chain of rebirth, and another, which is subject to mental control ... An enlightened one can thus ejaculate as much as he wishes, under the condition that he not lose his awareness in so doing.….
Garab Dorje ....dGa'-rab, Persian: گراب, Romanized as Garāb (1st c. AD)In the lineage of masters preceding Gyerpungpa, there is found a master named Zhang-zhung dGa'-rab, who may be Garab Dorje... Dzogchen or "Mahâsandhi" in Sanskrit, considers itself the "highest truth", a view superior to Mâdhyamaka. For many Mâdhyamikas, Dzogchen is not even part of the Buddhadharma, but a sort of Chinese Dharma like Ch'an or coming from Advaita Vedânta, Kaśmiri Śaivism, or even Persian religion,
Dorje: aka...Vajra, Thunderbolt, Diamond, Indra...The vajra is used symbolically by the Dharma traditions of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, often to represent firmness of spirit and spiritual power.…. The dorje is a male polysemic symbol that represents upaya whereas its companion tool, the bell which is a female symbol, denotes prajna.
BodhiCitta...Heart Mind...Crystal Kati....Eye Heart... Luminous mind (also, "brightly shining mind," "brightly shining citta") (Sanskrit prakṛti-prabhāsvara-citta, Pali pabhassara citta)….The channel that goes from the heart to the eyes is called the "crystal kati channel"...this seems to be the key to the whole thing.
Fakhruddin Iraqi: Divine Flashes & Radical Primordial Reality (1250 AD)...Both Dzogchen and Sufism are diamond-like Wisdom Teachings grounded in the Radical Primordial Reality. The goal of Sufism is to become the perfect mirror of the Formless through the purification of the heart. .
Legendary Troy & Ancient Balkh (2500 BC)...Balkh reached its height about 2500 BC.....Construction material: sun - dried bricks. (adobe)….Troy I (about 3000 - 2600 BC): Initial settlement of the early bronze age. Construction material: sun - dried bricks. (adobe)....With the idea that Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid reflected actual historical events….Schliemann, defying the ridicule of the learned world, actually unearthed the remains of the ancient city of Troy.
Two Dzogchen Texts & the Dunhuang Manuscripts (366 AD)...For centuries, Buddhist monks at Dunhuang collected scriptures from the West….“The Small Hidden Grain” and “The Cuckoo of Awareness” are two of up to 50,000 manuscripts hidden there for 700 years.
Shenlha Odkar, Shiwa Okar & Crystal Iconography...Shenlha Okar is depicted with a white body "like the essence of crystal"…. The analogy given by Dzogchen masters is that one's nature is like a mirror which reflects with complete openness but is not affected by the reflections, or like a crystal ball that takes on the colour of the material on which it is placed without itself being changed. ...In Bon tradition, King Gesar of Ling is sent to Tibet by Shenlha Okar, and Trungpa Rinpoche's blending of native traditions and Indian Buddhism appears to echo Mipham's.
Tapihritsa: Zhang Zhung Dzogchen Master (7th Century AD)...Tapihritsa (c 7th ~ 8th C.) is a Bönpo who achieved the Dzogchen mastery of the rainbow body and consequently, as a fully realised Trikaya Buddha, is invoked as a yidam…. The historical Tapihritsa was born in Zhang Zhung of a family of nomads. Tapihritsa's principal teacher was Dawa Gyaltsen. Tapihritsa was contemporaneous with Ligmincha, King of Zhang Zhung and Trisong Detsen, Emperor of Tibet.….
Abisheka: Empowerment, dBang, Esoteric Transmission RitualsThe Kalachakra originates in the ancient Vedic tradition in India which existed long before Buddhism appeared and refers to many different traditions, for example the Hindu; Saivite, Samkya, Vaishnava, the Vedas, Upanisads and Puranas traditions, but also Jainism…..the Kalachakra mandala includes deities which are equally accepted by Hindus, Jainas and Buddhists….There are different levels of abhisheka ritual with Kalachakra. …..entrance level rituals are openly presented to general public, the more advanced ones only conducted in secret…..….
Slavic Mythology & Eastern European 'Paganism'...Slavic mythology possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion….all their original religious beliefs and traditions were likely passed down orally over the generations, and basically forgotten over the centuries following their rapid conversion into Christianity, which began with the conversion of Bulgaria in 864 and was largely complete by the late 11th century.....one theory is that Bulgaria, the "Kingdom of Balhara..."Balh" refers to the city of Balkh (Balhara's capital)...
Nalanda University & Nava Vihara in Balkh... Nava Vihara, the main monastery at Balkh, soon became the center of higher Buddhist study for all of Central Asia, comparable to Nalanda Monastery in central northern India. It emphasized study primarily of the Vaibhashika abhidharma and admitted only monks who had already composed texts on the topic. Since it housed a tooth relic of the Buddha, it was also one of the main centers of pilgrimage along the Silk Route from China to India.….
Stravinsky, Nijinsky & Russian 'Paganism': The Rite of Spring (1913)...The Rite of Spring was an exploration of nature, subtitled "Scenes from Pagan Russia" ....Stravinsky set to music two poems from Sergey Gorodetsky's collection Yar.…. Gorodetsky began forming the Acmeist group with Gumilev, Akhmatova, and Mandelshtam….The eminent historian and ethnologist Lev Gumilev became interested in the Shambhala myth while a prisoner in the Siberian Gulag. He is the son of the great Russian poet Anna Akmatova.
Sambhala in the Kalki Purana (7th C. AD)... The Kalki Purana (Sanskrit: कल्कि पुराण Kalki purāṇa) is a prophetic work in Sanskrit that details the life and times of Kalki, the tenth and final of the ten Avatars….The work primarily describes the onset and exponential increase of evil and sin on the earth during the Kali Yuga, and the life of Kalki, who is said to bring an end to the darkness of the Kali Yuga....The name Kalki is a metaphor for eternity or time. ..."Lord Kalki continued to reside in the village of Shambhala, ...which was as good as the heavenly planets, appeared very beautiful with its assembly houses, gates, raised platforms, and flags flapping in the breeze that has been placed here and there.... the village of Shambhala, which was profusely decorated with blooming flowers, pious trees, forests and gardens, became a holy place that granted liberation from material existence."
Windhorse, Lungta and Tengrism...The Wind Horse (Tib. Lung-ta), a mythical Tibetan creature from pre-Buddhist times, combines the speed of the wind and the strength of the horse to carry prayers from earth to the heavens. In Tengriism, the meaning of life is seen as living in harmony with the surrounding world. By living an upright and respectful life, a human being will keep his world in balance and maximize his personal power or Wind Horse.
Geography: Europe, Eurasia, 'Middle East', Central Asia, 'Far East', Asia...In ancient times, the Greeks classified Europe (derived from the mythological Phoenician princess Europa) and Asia (derived from Asia, a woman in Greek mythology) as separate "lands". Where to draw the dividing line between the two regions is still a matter of discussion.…Eurocentrisn is the practice of viewing the world from a European-centered or Western-centered perspective....Many international standards (such as the worldwide spread of the Anno Domini Christian era and Latin alphabet, or the Prime Meridian) have their roots in this....
Modern Human Migration…Ancient Central Asia ... 40,000 B.C....If Africa was the cradle of mankind, then Central Asia was its nursery.....Around 40,000 years ago, as the grip of the Ice Age loosened and temperatures briefly became warmer, humans moved into Central Asia. Amid the bountiful grassy steppes, they multiplied quickly.
Dmanisi Skull & Early Central Asian Humans (40,000 BC)...There's a roughly 30,000-year gap in the archaeological record of Homo sapiens outside of Africa.....The real expansion occurred in the Upper Paleolithic (around 40,000 years ago) into the uncharted territory of Asia proper….as the grip of the Ice Age loosened and temperatures briefly became warmer, modern humans moved into Central Asia.….
Sanskrit: Shambhu ... Sham: happiness...Bhu: source...Shambhu …. (s)ham-(b)hu, sh-am-bhu…. Shambhu is primarily used in the Indian language and its language of origin is Sanskrit. The meaning of the name is benevolent, kind, source of happiness. It is derived from the words 'sham' meaning happiness ; 'bhu' source.….
Mount Belukha of Altai & Siberian Shambhala...Shambala, as legend has it, is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snowy peaks of the Himalaya. The physical place is said to be in Central Asia, north west of Tibet.....or a valley in southern Siberia.....Although an actual location on earth may represent it, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains that Shambhala exists purely as a spiritual realm ….
Altaic Tengrism & Shamanistic Burkhanism...Russian Pagan and Hindu followers often go on pilgrimages to Mount Belukha, which is considered to be the location of Shambhala both by some Pagans and locals of Altai. ….Archaeologist and some scholars of Buddhist history and philosophy believe that Belukha may be Sumeru, the Central Asian mountain in Buddhist belief that is the center of Shambala (Shangri-la )
Scythian Suite: Sergei Prokofiev (1915)...Pre-Zoroastrian Scythians...The religious beliefs of the Scythians was a type of Pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion and differed from the post-Zoroastrian Iranian thoughts.Foremost in the Scythian pantheon stood Tabiti, who was later replaced by Atar, the fire-pantheon of Iranian tribes, and Agni, the fire deity of Indo-Aryans. The Scythian belief was a more elemental stage than the Zoroastrian and Hindu systems.….
Samraat Emperor Pravarasena & Vakataka Dynasty (270 AD)...Pravarasena I. (270-330), who maintained the realm as a great power, he was the first Vakataka ruler, who called himself a Samraat …(Universal Ruler), Samraat (Sanskrit: samrāṭ or सम्राज् samrāj) is an Ancient Indian title sometimes translated into modern English as "Emperor". The title of empress is Samrãjñī….. most historians call Chandragupta Maurya the first samrāṭ of the Indian subcontinent, because he ruled the whole Indian-Subcontinent. Mauryan Emperor'sChandragupta Maurya and Ashoka are more well known as Samraat Chandragupta Maurya and Samraat Ashoka Maurya because of the vastness of their empire….
Kaula & Kapalika Practices: Kashmiri Shaivism & Vajrayana Buddhism... Kaula practices are based on tantra, closely related to the siddha tradition and shaktism. Kaula sects are noted for their extreme exponents who recommend the flouting of taboos and social mores as a means of liberation. Such practices were often later toned down to appeal to ordinary householders, as in Kaśmiri Śaivism…..Kaula or Kula describes a type of Hindu tantrism reckoned by Gavin Flood to derive from Kapalika or "cremation ground" asceticism….
The Kashmiri Pandit, Naropa (1050 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. There is even some evidence that Naropa’s well-known hermitage of Pushpahari, or Pullahari, commonly identified as being on a hillock west of Bodhgaya, may have been in Kashmir….
Mother and Child Luminosities: Inner Radiance of the Ground & Path...A fundamental distinction in the Dzogchen literature of 'od gsal is that of 'inner radiance of the ground' ... and the 'inner radiance of the path' ... otherwise known as the mother and child luminosity respectively. "The luminosity experienced in meditation is called the path luminosity, simile luminosity, or child luminosity. The true luminosity of our awakened nature is called the basic luminosity or mother luminosity; it dawns at the moment of death, and if it is recognized, the mother and the child meet and become one in liberation.….
Henry Corbin: Islamic Studies & Realized Eschatology... Platonism, expressed in terms of the Zoroastrian angelology of ancient Persia, illuminated the path that I was seeking..... the writings of Suhrawardi, the 12th century Persian mystic and philosopher whose work was to profoundly affect the course of Corbin’s life….realized eschatology: that is, to live the reality of the Last Things right now.
Dakini Niguma, Consort of Naropa (Kashmir: 1Oth C.)...Niguma is considered as one of most important and highly appreciated tantric yogini or dakini. She was born 10th century in Kashmir in rich Brahmin family and according to different sources was sister or consort of Naropa. It's said that her Buddhist realization originates directly from Buddha Vajradhara. Her main student was Tibetan meditation master Khyungpo Naljor, "the Yogin of the Garuda clan.".... At twelve, in accordance with the tradition on his father's side of the family, he studied the Bon teachings. Later on he practiced Dzogchen, and finally Mahamudra….
Ösel and Śūnyatā ...Luminosity Emptiness... The term ösel literally means “clear light"......."Clarity” is another popular rendering. Chogyam Trungpa however, preferred “luminosity,” which points not so much to the light itself, but to the quality or state of being radiant. He once remarked that even though the experience of brightness, the vividness of the phenomenal world, was an important experience on the path, it wasn’t in itself ultimately the point.….
Aspionus: Bactra-Zariaspa… 'Golden Horse'... The root of the name Aspionus [an eastern district of Bactria taken by the Parthians probably between 160 and 150 BC] is clearly the word asp (horse), which was used to form many toponyms in Central Asia. In Bactria in particular, it was one of the main components of the name of the town Bactra-Zariaspa (Golden Horse), which is mentioned by Strabo and Pliny….
Mani and Shenrab Miwoche.... In Persia, the Religion of Light was presented by the Divine Messengers: Zarathustra and Mani, but a very important manifestation that few people outside of Tibet know of was Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche……Tonpa Shenrab was actually from Central Asia, part of the Persian Empire
Persian Influences in Japanese Buddhism (592 AD)...In Japan it is widely shared that Japanese Buddhism (Mahayana) was formed under the strong influence of Iranian religion………In the Central Asia (present Afghanistan and Pakistan) Iranian religions met primitive Buddhism and made a syncretic new religious movement.…. the origins of Miroku Buddhism in Japan is Mithra.......Bodhidharma is referred as "The Blue-Eyed Persian".
Maitreya-Miroku, Mitra-Buddha & The Saoshyant Kalkin (5th C. AD) ...Saoshyant is a figure of Zoroastrian eschatology who brings about the final renovation of the world, the Frashokereti.….Maitreya may have come from the ancient Indo-Iranian deity Mithra...Miroku originates from the middle Persian name “Mihrak” for Mithra.
Solar Deities & The Great Khorasan Road (2600 BC)...The Great Khorasan Road stretched from Balkh to Egypt and was a major route for Lapis lazuli since at least 5000 BC….It was also the area of the great Solar Kingdoms of Ancient Central Asia and the Middle East…. "khor" means "sun" and "san" means "the place", "the dwelling" . Khorasan, is the "place where the sun rises".….
Emperor Asoka: Eusebeia & Non-Violent Ahimsa (256 BC)... When Ashoka's army took 150,000 people captive and slew 100,000 people at Orissa, unlike Alexander at Tyre and Genghis Khan at Balkh, he experienced tremendous revulsion and an abhorrence of any killing and suffering, human or animal, and never again waged war.….
Greek-Bactrian Satraps After Alexander the Great (356 – 323 BC)...The Maurya Dynasty (321-185 BC) emerged following the withdrawal of Alexander the Great from India in 325 BC, when Emperor Chandragupta defeated Alexander's General, Seleucus Nicator….Emperor Asoka defeated the three Kalinga kingdoms in about 256 BC.
Anahita, Durga, Kali, Vajradakini, Ishtar... Besides Durga in Hinduism, there are many other instances of goddesses that fit the same profile as Inanna/Ishtar:The west-semitic goddess Astarte, a near duplicate of Ishtar referred to abundantly in the Bible.The Greek/Roman goddess Aphrodite/Venus who, although chiefly being associated with sexuality, still was viewed clearly enough as a warrior goddess in Caesar’s time to be claimed by him as his ancestor….
Orissa, Oddiyana & the Indo-European Migration (1500 BC)...Orissa was founded by Indo-Europeans who migrated into India from around 1500 BC, but who were originally from Central Asia.….Oddiyana, mentioned in some Buddhist texts, according to some scholars may have referred to Orissa......King Vishtasp of Balkh was apparantly victorious and resulted in the deva worshippers living in his Central Asian kingdom, leaving or being pushed south through the Hindu Kush mountain passes into the upper Indus valley (today's Pakistan).
Shivini: Solar Deity of Utartu (9th Century BC)... Shivini or Artinis (the present form of the name is Artin, meaning "sun rising" or to "awake", was a solar god in the mythology of the Urartu, a prehistoric Iron Age kingdom. He is the third god in a triad with Khaldi and Theispas and is cognate with the triad in Hinduism called Shivam. The Assyrian god Shamash is a counterpart to Shivini. He was depicted as a man on his knees, holding up a solar disc. His wife was most likely a goddess called Tushpuea who is listed as the third goddess on the Mheri-Dur inscription. Shivini is generally considered a good god, like that of the Egyptian solar god, Aten….
Zhutrul Yeshi & Mucho Demdrug (Tagzig : 1196 BC)...Around 1196 B.C., Zhutrul Yeshi, a great master from Tagzig established the Bon monastic system and propagated the practice of monastic discipline and philosophical study in the kingdoms of Zhang Zhung and Tibet….Of Tonpa Shenrab's many disciples, the foremost was Mucho Demdrug (Mu cho lDem drug), who in his turn taught many students, the most important of whom were the 'Six Great Translators'
King Jalendra, King Ja: Lankapuri & Oddiyana ...Although it is generally accepted that Tantric Buddhism first developed in the country of Uddiyana or Odra Desha under King Indrabhuti, there is an old and well known scholarly dispute as to whether Uddiyana or Odra was in the Swat valley, Odisha or some other place.….the land of Oddiyana was divided into two kingdoms. The Kingdom of Lankapuri was Brahmin and ruled by king Jalendra and the Kingdom of Sambhola was Buddhist and ruled by king Indrabhuti.
Shambhala & Sambalpur, Orissa (100 AD) ...Ptolemy mentions Sambalaka as a city in the country of the Mandalai which produced the finest diamonds in the world.….
King Rāvana of Lankapura Oddiyana ... It is possible that the events of epic Ramayana could have occurred outside the confines of present day India. Ram’s father Dasarath lived in the heavenly city of Ayodhya on the banks of the river Saryu. This might have been a river called the Syr Darya that flows through present day Turkmenistan and Kyrghistan. It is located north of the Pamirs ( Meru) with a city called Andijan that is phonetically quite similar to Ayodhya, as the capital of the area. East of it is Kashi ( Kashgar) and west is Samarkand that was known as the Markanda in the Puranas .….
King Indrabhuti & The Kingdom of Sambhola...The land of Oddiyana was divided into two kingdoms. The Kingdom of Lankapuri was Brahmin and ruled by king Jalendra and the Kingdom of Sambhola was Buddhist and ruled by king Indrabhuti.….
Mithras in the Greek Magical Papyri...The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin Papyri Graecae Magicae, abbreviated PGM) is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, which each contain a number of magical spells, formulae, hymns and rituals. The materials in the papyri date from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. ….
Suhrawardi and Persian Platonic Orientalism (1155–1191 AD) ...Suhrawardi "came later to be called the Master of Oriental Theosophy (Shaikh-i-Ishraq) because his great aim was the renaissance of ancient Iranian wisdom" which Corbin specifies in various ways as the "project of reviving the philosophy of ancient Persia". In 1186, at the age of thirty-two, he completed his magnum opus “The Philosophy of Illumination.”.....he was executed sometime between 1191 and 1208 in Aleppo….
Dream & Reality: Sufism,Taoism, Dzogchen ... In our waking, intellectual mind, differences dominate and determine how we experience ourselves. Whereas while asleep, the waking, active and conscious mind dissolves into the basic consciousness, kun-gzhi-rnam-par-shes-pa in Tibetan (alaya-vijnana in Sanskrit). The basic, all-ground consciousness stores one’s deeper karmic traces, too, which are a part of oneself. When stirred and awakened, the karmic traces tell stories and convey messages….
Rishis of Shambala, Kashmiri Sufism & the Kalachakra... The Rishi order of Kashmir is a Sufi tradition associated with religious harmony....This vale of Kashmir, that you call a paradise, owes a lot of its charm to the traditions set in vogue by the Rishis."….Kashmiris use the Hindu epithets Rishi or Baba to describe these Sufi saints. The Shaivite yogini Lal Ded was a key influence on Nund Rishi, and is said to have suckled him at her breast when he was an infant. Sufi Rishis were certainly aware of yogic practices, as evidenced by the poet Shams Faqir's praise of Lal Ded: "Lalla achieved the fusion of her vital air and ether, and thus realized God." However, the Sufi Rishis made an effort to clearly distance themselves from certain Hindu practices. Some were farmers, and Nund Rishi himself is said to cultivated land in order to demonstrate the spiritual and social importance of manual labour, abhorred by the Brahmins. ….
Pas-Anfaas & Kashmiri Sufism/Shaivism ...What keeps Kashmiri mystics firmly anchored in the Indian soil is their meditative technique. By and large they use variations of pas-e-anfaas(watching the breath). This is similar to various techniques of pranayama widely practised in India's Hath-Yoga traditions. These meditative techniques were being practised initially by the Shaivaite yogis of Kashmir before the advent of Islam….
Origins of the I Ching (3000 BC)...The typical mythological view attributes the authorship of the I Ching to China's first emperor, a god-like figure, half man, half dragon, who went by the name Fu Hsi and is said to have lived about 5,000 years ago. One day, according to legend, he saw a dragon-horse rise from the Yellow River. On it's side were markings which inspired the earliest version of the I Ching.….
Kalachakra, Shakyamuni & the 9th Century BC...The Kalachakra tantra puts the life of Shakyamuni Buddha in the 9th. Century BC, instead of the more commonly accepted 6th. Century BC....King Suchandra came from Shambhala (some say north of Kashmir) to request and receive the Kalachakra teachings from Shakyamuni Buddha... the Kalachakra tantra originated in the 9th century AD monasteries of Northern-central Afghanistan..... ….
Alexandria on the Oxus: Ai-Khanoum (280 BC) ... Ai-Khanoum or Ay Khanum (lit. “Lady Moon” in Uzbek, possibly the historical Alexandria on the Oxus, also possibly later named اروکرتیه or Eucratidia), was founded in the 4th century BC, following the conquests of Alexander the Great and was one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. ….
Eastern Bactria, Gilgit, Chitral...The Dards are the linguistic descendants of the bearers of proto Rigvedic culture ca. 1700 BC, pointing to features in certain Dardic dialects that continue peculiarities of Rigvedic Sanskrit....….
Dardic Languages: Mt Noshaq & the Kalasha Valleys... Kalash mythology and folklore has been compared to that of ancient Greece, but they are much closer to Indo-Iranian (Vedic and pre-Zoroastrian) traditions. This can be explained as Hellenic, Vedic traditions. The Kalash have fascinated anthropologists due to their unique culture compared to the rest in that region, similar to ancient Persians.….
Sumerian Origins & Wisdom Literature Tablets (1750 BC)...The ancient Sumerians, the ‘black-headed ones'......and are likely to have been responsible for the development of the first writing….After about 3250 BC, another people migrated from its homeland, located probably northeast of Mesopotamia, and began to intermarry with the native population. The newcomers, who became known as Sumerians, spoke an agglutinative language unrelated apparently to any other known language.....Their original homeland was between the Caspian Sea and the Hindu Kush and Kopet Mountains
'Sun Worship': Shambhala, Sham Ash, Bactria, Sumeria : 2500 BC ...In Shambhala, the country’s capital, Kalapa…. There the Shambhala king lives in a palace made from every conceivable gem and diamond. The architecture is based upon the laws of the heavens. There is a sun temple and a moon temple… Sometimes referred to as the genuine sun that rises in one’s heart, the Great Eastern Sun’s radiance is perceived through the senses as the luminosity of the world—the worlds of heaven, earth and man—above, below and in-between.
Lapis Lazuli Trade Route ... Bactria to Sumeria (4000 BC) ...The legendary, 'mythical' 7-gated Sumerian city of Aratta, the original homeland of the Sumerians .... appears to refer to Bactria at the eastern end of the "Great Khorasan Road".... the source of valuable gems and minerals, in particular lapis lazuli.....'Civilization' may have traveled from East to West along the Sun’s path rather than blossoming first in the land of the Two Rivers of Genesis….
Mount Mashu, Shamash & The Scorpion Beings (800 BC) ...The Scorpion Men are described to have the head, torso, and arms of a man and the body of a scorpion....In the Epic of Gilgamesh, they stand guard outside the gates of the sun god Shamash at the mountains of Mashu. ….
Cuneiform Writing Script, Sumeria...3500 BC ...The concept of "divinity" in Sumerian is closely associated with the heavens, as is evident from the fact that the cuneiform sign doubles as the ideogram for "sky", and that its original shape is the picture of a star. The original association of "divinity" is thus with "bright" or "shining" hierophanies in the sky. A possible loan relation of Sumerian dingir with Turkic Tengri "sky, sky god" has been suggested.….
The Mes…Ancient Sumerian Blueprints to Civilization (3,000 BC) ...The Mes were documents or tablets which were blueprints to civilization…..In Sumerian mythology, a me (Sumerian, conventionally pronounced [mɛ]) or ñe [ŋɛ] or parşu (Akkadian, [parsˤu]) is one of the decrees of the gods foundational to those social institutions, religious practices, technologies, behaviors, mores, and human conditions that make civilization, as the Sumerians understood it, possible. They are fundamental to the Sumerian understanding of the relationship between humanity and the gods. ….
Inanna, Anahiti & Historical Aratta (4,000 BC)... ….Boyce proposes that there was once a Perso-Elamite divinity named Anahiti (as she reconstructs it from the Greek rendering of Anaitis, being otherwise unattested in old Persian) that was an analogue of Sumerian Ishtar–Inanna.
Aratta: The 'Mythical' Seven Gated City (3000 BC)...Aratta is described as follows in Sumerian literature: It is a fabulously wealthy place full of gold, silver, lapis lazuli and other precious materials, as well as the artisans to craft them......It is remote and difficult to reach.....It is home to the goddess Inana….
Chakravala Chakravartin & The Universal Monarch...Chakravartin is an ancient Indian term used to refer to an ideal universal ruler, who rules ethically and benevolently over the entire world. Such a ruler's reign is called sarvabhauma. It is a bahuvrīhi, literally meaning "whose wheels are moving", in the sense of "whose chariot is rolling everywhere without obstruction"...... "through whom the Dharmacakra ("Wheel of the Dharma) is turning" (most commonly used in Buddhism and Hinduism).….
Elamite Ziggurat ... Chogha Zanbil (1250 BC)...Ziggurats were not places for public worship or ceremonies. They were believed to be dwelling places for the gods and each city had its own patron god. Only priests were permitted on the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. The priests were very powerful members of Sumerian society....Ziggurats in the ancient world were the centerpiece in any city where they were built.....The Ziggurat was a temple on a man-made mountain where they would perform religious ceremonies exalting the god of that city..... Ziggurat's usually contained seven stories...
The Sogdian Civilization & the Tibet Migration (500 BC)...The Sogdians were the inhabitants of fertile valleys surrounded by deserts, the most important of which was the Zeravshan valley, in today’s Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. This Iranian-speaking people had a fifteen-centuries-long historical identity between the sixth century BCE and the tenth century CE when it vanished in the Muslim, Persian-speaking world....
The Mukpo Clan & the Black Headed People...Shenrab Miwo's clan is considered to be descended from the bMu deities, an ancient class of celestial deities. dMu is also the name of one of the four original tribes of Tibet....
Mukhyud Dalwa: The Cosmic Ocean of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring...Okeanos is the source ("father") of the Rivers and Springs.....the Greeks say that it flows around the whole world from where the sun rises.......
The Rivers & Mountains of Sumeru... a small handful number of western scholars have tried quite hard to identify Mount Meru or Sumeru with the Pamirs, north-east of Kashmir...
Sumerian Dilmun, Gilgamesh & the Pamir Garden of Eden...Some scholars maintain that the Sumerians may have originated from the mountainous regions of southwestern Iran, since their epic poems refer several times to western part of Iran as their original homeland. ...
Sumerian Tablets & The Kaballah (1800 BC)...The Kabbalah is traced back to Sumer and the Eridu Genesis story that was found on the Sumerian Tablets which dates back to 1800 BC. This is the oldest ‘religious text’ known to man....Abraham was a resident of the city of Ur in Mesopotamia
Purusha, Platonic Solids and Prana...Plato.....the four basic elements—fire, air, water, and earth—that he supposed to form all matter through their combinations. Plato assigned the tetrahedron, with its sharp points and edges, to the element fire; the cube, with its four-square regularity, to earth; and the other solids concocted from triangles (the octahedron and the icosahedron) to air and water, respectively. The one remaining regular polyhedra, the dodecahedron, with 12 pentagonal faces, Plato assigned to the heavens with its 12 constellations...
Sacred Geometry: Pythagoras (570 BC) & The Kalachakra...It was Baudhāyana who discovered the Pythagoras theorem. Baudhāyana listed Pythagoras theorem in his book called Baudhāyana Śulbasûtra (c. 800 BC)....
Mt Meru, Mt Harā, Yungdrung Gutsek & The Pamirs...At the centre of the land of Tagzig (called Shambhala in the Kalachakra) was Olmo Lungring which had at its centre, Yungdrung Gutsek, a four-sided mountain similar to Mount Meru / Sumeru...
Baudhayana Srauta Sutra & The Indo Aryan Migration (800 BC)...Is There Vedic Evidence for the migration of Indo-Aryan speakers from Afghanistan into India?...
Dashly Archaeological Sites (c. 2500-1700 BC)...The Dashly archaeological sites are located south of the Amu Darya River in Northern Afghanistan's Jozjan Province northwest of Balkh ... the cities and settlements of Dashly would have come within the orbit of the Ancient Aryan nation of Bakhdhi (later Balkh) otherwise known to the West as Bactria....
_Aybak Cave Dwellings & The Hazār Som Valley (1st C. AD)...an “urban complex” of more than 200 multi-roomed, multi-storied cave dwellings in Hazār Som Valley. Many exhibit painted designs, bas reliefs, and petroglyphs. Possibly the oldest dwellings date about the first century A.D...
Kashmir Smast Caves & The Mardan Valley...Mardan valley was part of the ancient Gandhara civilization...Alexander the Great reached this beautiful valley through Kunar Afghanistan and Swat in 326 BC.
Bactrian Kushan Deities & Religious Pantheon (30 - 375 AD)...from the time of Vima Takto, many Kushans started adopting aspects of Buddhist culture. Like the Egyptians, they absorbed the strong remnants of the Greek Culture of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, becoming at least partly Hellenised. The great Kushan emperor Vima Kadphises may have embraced Saivism, as surmised by coins minted during the period. The Kushan emperors represented a wide variety of faiths including Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Tantric Saivism...
Bactrian Kushan Kings (30 - 375 AD)...The Kingdom of Gandhara lasted from the early 1st millennium BC to the 11th century AD. It attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century under the Kushan Kings....
Rabatak Inscription & the Bactrian Language (127 AD)...The Kushan Empire was an empire in Central Asia originally formed in the early 1st century CE under Kujula Kadphises in the territories of ancient Bactria around the Oxus River (Amu Darya), and later based near Kabul, Afghanistan. ...
Surkh Kotal & The Kushan Empire (127 AD)...Surkh Kotal is an ancient archaeological site located in the southern part of the region of Bactria....Huge temples, statues of Kushan rulers and the Surkh Kotal inscription of early Kushan emperors (also called Great Kushans), the statue of King Kanishka and the Fire Altar....
Iron Age in Central Asia (10th Century BC)...The Iron Age is the period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles...
Banpo & The Cosmic City (4,800 BC)...Urbanization begins at Banpo (4,800-3,750 BC) on the Zhongyuan plain of the Yellow River. Banpo grew from a typical Yangshao village in both size and organization until the construction of the Great Hall ca. 4000 BCE....
Shangdi & The Book Of Rites (1046 BC)...The Duke of Zhou created an entire ceremonial city along strict cosmological principals to house the Shang aristocracy and the nine tripods representing Huaxia sovereignty...
Puranas & The Kalachakra (966 AD)...no one seems to have examined the Sanskrit Kalachakra texts. The Buddhist myth of the Kalkis of Shambhala derives from the Hindu Kalki of Shambhala myths contained in the Mahabharata and the Puranas....
'Channeled' Texts & Shambhala Terma...Chogyam Trunpa said that when he 'received' the Shambhala texts he saw them in a language that he did not recognize....he wrote them down in Tibetan which was 'as close as I could get'....
King Vishtaspa of Balkh (900 BC?)... ...Ferdowsi's Shahnameh tells us that King Vishtasp was King of Balkh at the time of Zoroaster....in the War of Religion in which Vishtasp was apparantly victorious ….resulted in the deva worshippers living in his Central Asian kingdom, leaving or being pushed south through the Hindu Kush mountain passes into the upper Indus valley (today's Pakistan). It is possible that the Indus valley had previously been populated by deva worshippers, and that those from Central Asia migrated to join their co-religionists. The Hindu Kush formed a border between the asura worshippers and the deva worshippers....See KALACHAKRA NOTES...
King Vishtaspa of Balkh (900 BC?)...Zarathustra and his followers wandered until they found a sympathetic friend in King Vishtaspa, who lived in eastern Iran or in Bactria, modern Afghanistan....
The Asura - Deva Worshippers .... Conflict and Separation (1500 BC)...King Vishtasp's victory resulted in the deva worshippers living in Bactria, leaving or being pushed south through the Hindu Kush mountain passes into the upper Indus valley (today's Pakistan). It is possible that the Indus valley had previously been populated by deva worshippers, and that those from Central Asia migrated to join their co-religionists...
Mithraic Median Empire (700 BC)...According to the Histories of Herodotus, the Medes were called anciently by all people 'Aryans'...
Masmoghân: The Chief Magian (521 BC)...Ustûnâwand [near Rhagae] is said to have been in existence for more than three thousand years, and to have been the stronghold of the Masmoghân of the land during the times of paganism. This word, which designates the high priest of the Zoroastrian religion, is composed of mas, 'great', and moghân, which means 'Magian'...
Shenlha Okar Iconography: The White Turban... On his head was a white turban.... on his feet he wore patraongden boots from Shangshung ...
Shangshung, Ling & Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring... According to the "gZi-brjid", Olmo Lung-ring was also known as Shambhala in Sanskrit...
Deities: Ganas, Gi-kod, Thorse and Werma of Kailash...360 Gi-kod or 360 Werma-deities.....live on the holy mountain Tise (Mt Kailash), which is also believed to be the residence of the Hindu god Siva...
Shiva, Shiwa Okar, Shenlha Okar & Mt Kailash Deities...Shiva means "the One who is eternally pure"....... the main 'Bon' deity, Shenlha Okar, is none other than Shiva Omkar living in Kailash by Mansarovar.
Ancient Nomadic Bards & Poetic Oral History...A hereditary caste of professional poets in Proto-Indo-European society has been reconstructed by comparison of the position of poets in medieval Ireland and in ancient India in particular....
Celtic Druids, Persian Magi, Indo-Europeans (7000 BC)... Sun worship may have played an important part of their beliefs....it was known in the ancient world that the Druids were the "Magi of the North"...
Japanese Shamanism & Solar Kingship (175 AD)...Noh probably originated in ancient matsuri in which shamans allowed deities to possess their bodies so that they could tell their history and explain their powers...
Ancient Rome & Central Asia (800 BC)...Many of the gods that Romans worshiped came from the Proto-Indo-European pantheon, others were based on Greek gods....
Bala Hissar: (Bala = Elevated...Hissar = Fort)...Bala Hissar is an ancient fortress located in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan. The estimated date of construction is around the 5th century A.D....
Shams = Candle/Light/Sun.......Bala = Elevated/Higher...Shams is the Arabic word for "sun" (شمس). ........Bala is from Dari Persian, meaning, “elevated"
Land of the Dakinis & Uddiyana...Uddiyana is not an invisible, celestial buddha field where people cannot go.... it is said that it is located somewhere in what is now known as Pakistan....
Abrahamic Religions...Judaism, Christianity and Islam....In the oldest biblical literature (12th–11th centuries BC) Yahweh is a typical ancient Near Eastern "divine warrior" who leads the heavenly army against Israel's enemies; he and Israel are bound by a covenant under which Yahweh will protect Israel, and Israel in turn will not worship other gods...
Garsha: The Lahoul Valley (700 AD)...the Lahaulis are of Tibetan and Indo-Aryan descent.... Fairer skin and hazel-colored eyes are commonly seen among the Lahaulis....the Lahaulis follow a combination of Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism....
Garsha: The Lahoul Valley (700 AD)...the Lahaulis are of Tibetan and Indo-Aryan descent.... Fairer skin and hazel-colored eyes are commonly seen among the Lahaulis....the Lahaulis follow a combination of Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism....
Oddiyana: The Śākta Pīṭha...Shakta Pithas.....Skt., pitha; Altars, Seats or Thrones of Divine Female Energy...
Ancient Kashmir & Uddiyana...the birth place of Garab Dorje not simply as 'Uddiyana' but as being close to Lake Kutra in the region of Dhanakosha; thus indicating present day North-eastern Kashmir (now Pakistan) - a region right in the middle between Chitral, Gilgit and Swat. ...
Kalachakra: Oddiyana & The Kingdom of Shambala... there was a kingdom of Oddiyana, in the north west of India, which had two parts – one was the main kingdom which was large and the other was governed by a prince of Oddiyana and was called Shambala, or Sambala... the region spanning eastern Afghanistan, Oddiyana, and Kashmir.
Greco-Bactrian Region: Buddhist Era Kings (900 BC)...the Trungpa Vidyadhara....pointed to the Kingdom of Shambhala, an ancient (some say mythical, some say real, 'most CCL....could care less') Kingdom of Central Asia ruled by a lineage of enlightened monarchs....
Hui Chao: Bactrian Pilgrimage (726 AD)...Hyeocho arrives in Gandhara, where Buddhist art reached brilliant heights. He goes north from there, passing through Oddiyana, and then west, to Afghanistan. He visits Bamyan and then heads to Tokhara....
Phrom Ge-sar and Khorasan Tegin Shah (680 AD)... the reign of Fromo Kesaro (739-746) and may have contributed to his transformation in later historical tradition into the Tibetan national hero Gesar, whose figure still survives today in the folklore of the territory of ancient Gandhara....
Ancient Bactria: Numismatic History (700 AD)...Bactria.....highly urbanized and considered as one of the richest of the Orient .... "The extremely prosperous empire of the thousand cities of Bactria"...
King Gesar, Tazig, Hor & Bactria (700 AD)...Tazig: appears to signify Persia. 13 days horseback ride from the Kingdom of Ling...(about 250 miles)
Nālandā University & Nava Vihara University (5th C. AD)...Nava Vihara.....near the ancient city of Balkh in northern Afghanistan..... the center of higher Buddhist study for all of Central Asia, comparable to Nalanda Monastery in central northern India...
Kingdom of Balkh: 2500 BC...between the 26th and 20th century BC was the most important period in the history of Balkh...
Mahasiddha Tilopa & Oddiyana (988 AD)... Uddiyana is located somewhere in what is now known as Pakistan. Many great masters of Tibet, as well as scholars of China and India, have visited Uddiyana, the source of Tantrayana teachings....
Enlightened Monarchy in Ancient Central Asia...Much of the Trungpa Vidyadhara's work, especially in the last ten years of his life, was dedicated to propagating what he called "enlightened society," ...as a model, he pointed to the Kingdom of Shambhala, an ancient (some say mythical, some say real, most could care less) kingdom of Central Asia ruled by a lineage of enlightened monarchs...
Great Eastern Sun & Ancient Central Asia...Khorasan" is derived from Middle Persian khor (meaning "sun") and asan (or ayan literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"), hence meaning "land where the sun rises"....
Kāśyapa Buddha (5th C. BC)...One day, instead of sermonizing, the Buddha held up a red flower. No one knew what to make of this. Then his favorite disciple Mahakasyapa smiled knowingly...
Nikbanou: Yazdegerd & Chak Chak (7th C. AD)...Chak Chak is where Nikbanou, second daughter of the last pre-Islamic Persian ruler, Yazdegerd III of the Sassanid Empire, was cornered by the invading Arab army in 640 AD. ...
Sacred Fire: Fire Puja & Fire Offering...The fire offering ceremony is a special ceremony.....called "Jin Sie" in Tibetan language, and "Huo Gong" in Mandarin Chinese. It is one of the sacrificial rituals for worshiping divinities in which people will burn the tributes, crops, tree branches and incantation tallies to pray for peace and harmony.....The fire offering ceremony is not held frequently...
Gautama Buddha: The Fire Sermon...The Ādittapariyāya Sutra..... is a discourse from the Pali Canon, popularly known as the Fire Sermon. In this discourse, the Buddha preaches about achieving liberation from suffering through detachment from the five senses and mind....
Iranian Buddhism (1st C. BC)..._The Muslim conquerors of eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and Transoxania in the mid-8th century found Buddhism flourishing in a series of prosperous trading communities along the old caravan routes to India and China...
Bactria: The Lalitavistara Sutra (3rd C. AD)...According to early Hinayana biographies of the Buddha, such as the Sarvastivada text The Sutra of Extensive Play (Skt. Lalitavistara Sutra), Tapassu and Bhallika, two merchant brothers from Bactria ( Balkh today in Afghanistan), became the first disciples to receive layman’s vows. This occurred eight weeks after Shakyamuni’s enlightenment, traditionally ascribed to 537 BCE. ...
The Origins of Vedic Sanskrit (1500 BC)... there is a proposed substratum in Proto-Indo-Iranian which can be plausibly identified with the original language of the BMAC ( 2300–1700 BCE, centered on the Oxus River).. Moreover, Lubotsky points out a larger number of words apparently borrowed from the same language, which are only attested in Indo-Aryan and therefore evidence of a substratum in Vedic Sanskrit....
Sacred Mountain: Taht-I-Suleiman (1000 BC)...According to the UNESCO, the Taht-I-Suleiman mountain is "the most complete example of a sacred mountain anywhere in Central Asia, worshipped over several millennia...
Trapussa & Bhallika of Balkh: First Two Buddhists...Tradition has it that Trapussa (Tapassu, Taphussa) and Bhallika (Bhalluka), two merchant brothers from Balkh, Bactria visited the Buddha immediately after his enlightenment, became his disciples and then returned to Balkh to build temples dedicated to him......
Dralas: Hvarena, Khvarnah & Fravashi (550 BC)...FRAVASHIS...."A class of higher intelligences...guardian spirits and prototypes of mankind in its purest creation...the nineteenth day of every month is consecrated to them. They resemble the Vedic Pitrs, the Roman Manes, or the Platonic Ideas...
Kareez: Ancient Water System of Central Asia (2,000 BC)...Bactra—the Greek name under which pre-Islamic Balkh was known—encapsulated Bronze Age settlements around 2,000 BC when its ancient water systems were built....
Ancient Central Asia: 50,000 BC...Archaeologists and historians suggest that humans were living in Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that farming communities of the region were among the earliest in the world...
Bactria & the Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian (130 BC)...they had their capital in the north of the K'ui-shui [Oxus] and made it the court of their king. The population of Ta-hia may amount to more than a million. Their capital is called Balka...
The Chinese Buddhist Pilgrim Xuanzang in Bactria (635 AD)...Po-Ho [Balkh]. .....on the north it borders on the Oxus....It is called generally the little Pajariha. ...The products of the soil are extremely varied, and the flowers, both on the land and water, would be difficult to enumerate. There are about 100 convents and 3000 monks, who all study the religious teaching of the Little Vehicle. Outside the city, towards the south-west, there is a convent called Navasangharama, which was built by a former king of this country. ...
Royal Palace of the King of Shambala...Balkh was usually rich rather than powerful, and became the envy and the prize of more warlike neighbors....Alexander took Bactria in 329 B.C.E., and made it his base for conquest and amalgamation of the Greek and Iranian civilizations.....Balkh flourished at the crossroads as a depot and trans-shipment point for the world’s luxuries. “ From the Roman Empire the caravans brought gold and silver vessels and wine; from Central Asia and China rubies, furs, aromatic gums, drugs, raw silk and embroidered silks; from India spices, cosmetics, ivory and precious gems of infinite variety”. With the merchants came monks preaching the new religion of Buddhism, and Balkh became a center of worship and learning, famous for its temples and monasteries....
Kingdom of Shambhala.....The Kalapa Moon Temple.....the country’s capital, Kalapa by name. By night, the city of light is lit up as bright as day, so that the moon can no longer be seen. There the Shambhala king lives in a palace made from every conceivable gem and diamond. The architecture is based upon the laws of the heavens. There is a sun temple and a moon temple....
Kingdom of Shambhala.... The Kalapa Sun Temple...the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was Shams-i-Balkh, a Bactrian sun temple...
Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye: Creative Vision & Inner Reality (1813-1899)...The completion stage employs the "mystic vortices" of the body, the cakra, the subtle energy of the subtle body, the five pranas or vāyu, together with the channels, the nadi through which the energy flows in order to generate the 'great bliss' (Tibetan: Dem Chog or bde-mchog; Sanskrit: Maha-sukha) associated with bodhi or enlightenment...
Ösel: Radiant Matter & Radiant Light...Ösel (tib. hod-gsal; 'od gsal), the Yoga of the Clear Light (often translated as 'Radiant Light' (Sanskrit: prabhasvara), referring to the 'intrinsic purity' (Tibetan: ka-dag) of the substratum of the 'mindstream' (Tibetan: sems-rgyud) is a sadhana found in Vajrayana and Bön centered on the state of luminous clarity. ...
Shamanic Flight: Vimāna, Lung-gom, and the Flight of Rigden Suchandra...when the Buddha proclaimed "Kalachakra", ninety seven kings headed by Rigden Sucandra, flew from the Kingdom of Shambala under magical powers...
Diodotus of Bactria (285 BC – c. 239 BC) & Emperor Ashoka...At the heart of the Greek or Roman inspiration of Gandhara Buddhist art lies the fact that its first two patrons were Alexander and Diodotus of Bactria (Asoka)...
World Heritage Sites in Afghanistan...City of Balkh......Paktra, later known as Bactria is ascribed to Kaiomars, and at an early date it was said to have rivaled urban centres such as Babylon. For a long period Bactria was the spiritual centre for the Zoroastrian religion, as well as having a rich temple to the goddess Anahita. Accounts of visitors in the 7th century AD indicate the existence of a significant number of Buddhist monasteries, stupas and other monuments in the city...
Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho (856 AD)...Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho......After 840 it then became occupied by Uyghurs fleeing Kirghiz invasion of their land. The Uyghurs established the Kingdom of Qocho (Kara-Khoja) in 850. The inhabitants of Qocho practiced Buddhism, Manichaeism and Nestorian Christianity....
Kham & Uyghur Qinghai...Large numbers of Sogdian refugees came to Ordu-Baliq to escape the Islamic conquest of their homeland. They converted the Uyghur nobility from Buddhism to Manichaeism. Thus, the Uyghurs inherited the legacy of Sogdian Culture....
Shambhala & Music...I once went to hear the St Matthew Passion in Oxford. This was such a great discovery. Experiencing the tremendous heroism and spiritual passion in that atmosphere of sanctity, that I felt as though the occasion was my own private feast. From the beauty of the music I gained further appreciation of the Western legacy. My Tibetan friend panicked and thought I was in danger of being converted to Christianity...(Trungpa: 1983)...
Veneration & Making Offerings..."Venerate Me and Make Offerings"... "to venerate" derives from the Latin verb, venerare, meaning to regard with reverence and respect. Veneration is practiced, formally or informally, by adherents of some branches of all major religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism.
Melong, Mirror Divination, Goddess of the Turquoise Lamp...Trungpa Rinpoché sent me this eight-point prediction letter in 1973. He wrote it in his own hand, as he was young and able at that time. Rinpoché asked his personal deity for a pramana prediction concerning my activity. 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.Melong, Mirror Divination, Goddess of the Turquoise Lamp
Dadar, mDa' dar, Dadhar, Arrow Divination...shaman's or lama's 'magical' arrow, complete with small shaman's mirror (toli), and pieces of silk.....in Tibetan Buddhism Silk Arrows (Tib: Mda-dar) are arrows with either one or several silk scarfs tied to them which are used for divination, attracting wealth and many other types of both white and black magic.......Wealth attracting arrows (Tib: Nor sGrub Mda-dar) are used to 'hunt' wealth.......Arrows like this are also used in Soul Retrieval ceremonies by Tibetan shamans.
Mu Cord (dmu thag) & Rainbow Body (Jalü)...the first Tibetan kings descended from heaven through rope-like structures called dmu-thag and after their time on Earth was up they returned back to heaven in a similar fashion..
Kingdom of Guge & The Garuda Valley of Zhang Zhung...Guge Kingdom......For centuries Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and the followers of Bon have revered Mount Kailash as the most sacred pilgrimage destination in Asia. It is common for pilgrims to do circumambulation of the sacred mountain, commonly called kora or parikrama. Here four of Asia's greatest rivers - the Indus, the Brahmaputra, the Karnali and the Sutlej find their source....
Dunhuang Caves & The Silk Road (1000 AD)...the largest collections of Dunhuang manuscripts and printed documents, well over 40,000 in total, belong to the National Library of China and Beijing University Library, the British Library in London, Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, the Institute for Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg, and Ryūkoku University Library in Kyoto. ...
Rawak Stupa & Ancient Khotan (8th C. AD)...According to legend, the foundation of Khotan occurred when Kushtana, said to be a son of Asoka, the Mauryan emperor, settled in Khotan about 224 BCE...
King Gheysar: Keyumars, Gayomart, Gar-shāh, Gesar...Fromo Kesaro, the Majestic Sovereign who defeated the Arabs and laid a tax on them. Thus they sent it...
Ancient Ceremonial Dance & Ritual Magic...Both the Buddhist & Bon deer dances held the intent of driving away evil forces to establish a good start to the new year. ...
Extreme Weather Events of 535–536 AD Central Asia...climate changes may have contributed to various developments, such as the emergence of the Plague of Justinian, the decline of the Avars, the migration of Mongolian tribes towards the West, the end of the Persian Empire, the rise of Islam, and the fall of Teotihuacán...
Umm-al-Belad & The Kayanian Dynasty (2500 BC)..._Umm Al-Belaad is the Arabic name given by the native population of Afghanistan's Balkh province to the city of Balkh (Bactra). Umm Al-Belaad means Mother of All Cities. In Vedic literature, it is known as Bhakri, and it became Bactra as the area was Hellenized after the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was from then on the capital city of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom..... Its foundation is mythically ascribed to Keyumar and it was the rival of Ecbatana, Nineveh and Babylon. There is a long-standing tradition that an ancient shrine of Anahita was here, a temple so rich it invited plunder....
Shinto: Shin Tao, Way of the Gods, Kami, Drala...Shinto is one of Japan's most prestigious ancient religions, tracing back to around 500 BCE. The word Shinto is derived from the Chinese word "shin tao" meaning "The Way of Gods...
Silver Palace in the Garuda Valley...Kyunglung Ngulkar Karpo...life at the Shang Shung court: Queen Sadmarkar describes the great riches in the palace, which she calls the "Kyunglung Ngulkar Karpo" (Silver Palace in the Garuda Valley). The palace contained hundreds of rooms, and its walls, she writes, were studded with gold and agate....
Magus & Magi of Central Asia (6th C. BC)...Meditation practice brings out the supernatural, if I may use that word. You do not see ghosts or become telepathic, but your perceptions become super-natural, simply super-natural...
Shi Wai Tao Yuan: The Peach Blossom Land..."Shangri-la" means an ideal living place, like the Garden of Eden or heaven in western countries. Shangri-la (Shi Wai Tao Yuan).....the poetic imagery depicted in Tao Hua Yuan Ji by the famous poet Tao Yuanming in the Jin Dynasty....
Bhutan: Bon-Buddhist Synchronism...Buddhist practice in Bhutan has had an overpowering influence from Bon. "In my opinion and from my observations, the influence has been great. Although Buddhism is our faith, I think many of our rituals are not only derived from Bon but are based on Bon beliefs...
Indrabhuti of Oddiyana, King Dza...the Guhyasamāja Tantra was taught for the first time by the Buddha in the form of Vajradhara to Indrabhuti the King of Oddiyana, also called King Dza...
Sangwa Dupa: The Guhyasamaja...The Guhyasamaja (Tib. sangwa-dupa) which focuses on the primordial buddha Akshobya is believed to be one of the first Sanskrit works to be translated into Tibetan....
Kunzang Akor: Shenlha Okar...Kunzang Akor: the All-good 'A' Circle is a meditational form of Shenlha Okar. He is generally recognized by the Tibetan letter 'A' placed on the chest at the level of the heart....
Dorje Lingpa: Gold Needle Terma: Serthur (1346-1405)...one of the principal reasons for visiting Paro was to reveal some hidden manuscripts in one of the caves of Tagtshang. The “Gold Needle” is the main work of the manuscript collection. It contains a remarkably original exposition of the Dzogchen doctrine, which he claims to be in accordance with the Bon tradition....
Sacred Water: Gyatso...The most common type of offering on Tibetan Buddhist shrines are water offerings. It also called yonchap in Tibetan....
Plato: Basic Goodness & The Great Eastern Sun (320 BC)...Plato uses the sun as a metaphor for the source of "illumination", which he held to be The Form of the Good.... The metaphor is about the nature of ultimate reality and how knowledge is acquired concerning it.....Plato says the sun and the Good are both sources of "generation"...
Eflatun Pinar, Sacred Hittite Spring (13th C. BC)...The sun goddess of Arinna is the most important one of three important solar deities of the Hittite pantheon, besides UTU nepisas - "the sun of the sky" and UTU taknas - "the sun of the earth...
Tirthas, Kshetra, Sacred Sites & Power Spots...Power place...(gnas ri) "a venerated mountain power place, a place that has been empowered by the presence and by the activities of famous religious practitioners throughout the centuries....
Hozho: Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom...Tibetans use two words to express the ideal state of being: "tashi," a harmonious relationship with the universe, and "sangye se," Buddha nature or enlightenment. The Navajos, on the other hand, use the word "hozho" or "beauty" to describe an "empowered state of the deities....
Kalachakra Deity & Vishvamata (World Mother)...Kalachakra refers a Tantric deity (Tib. yidam) of Vajrayana Buddhism .... The consort of Kalchakra is called Vishvamata . She is in pratyalidha attitude....
Vishvamata: World Mother of Diversity...In Kalapa, to the south of the palace is a wonderful park. In it Rigden Suchandra ordered the temple of Kalachakra and Vishvamata to be built. It is made from five valuable materials: gold, silver, turquoise, coral, and pearl. Its ground plan corresponds to the Kalachakra sand mandala....
Kalapa: Physical Descriptions of Shambala...The monks wear white, speak Sanskrit, and are all initiated into the mysteries of the Kalachakra Tantra. The majority of them are considered enlightened. Then come the warriors. The king is at the same time the supreme commander...
Āditya Solar Dynasty & the Sakya Clan of the Buddha... Aditya is used in the singular to mean the sun....the Sakya clan of the Buddha, a clan which also claimed to belong to the race of Aditya i.e. solar race....
King Suddhodana : Father of the Buddha (583 BC)...The Shakyas were of the Kshatriya solar race and called themselves rajas....Shakya kshatriyas were considering themselves as the purest breed of kshatriya.
Rishabha: Founder of Jainism (7190 BC)...Chandragupta, who was a Hindu, was influenced to accept Jainism by the sage Bhadrabahu; his grandson, Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya is one of the most celebrated rulers in the history of India....
Historical Shakyamuni Buddha (c. 560 to 485 BC)...The Kalachakra tantra puts the life of Shakyamuni Buddha in the 9th. Century BCE, instead of the more commonly accepted 6th. Century BC...
Gurdjieff : All Roads Lead To Balkh (1866 – 1949)...Idries Shah me suggéra que Shamballa pouvait être dérivé de Shams-i-Balkh, le temple solaire bactérien dont les ruines existent encore à Balkh près de la frontière nord de l'Afghanistan. Rudolf Steiner associait Balkh à Hraniratta, le centre du culte mithraïque du soleil....
Badakhshan and the Wakhan Corridor...From the land of Bamiyan I travelled northwards 20 days, and I arrived in Tokharistan. The home city of the king is called Balkh. At this time the troops of the Arabs are there and they occupy it. Its king was forced to flee one month's journey to the east and lives in Badakhshan. ...
Khezr, Khidr: Prophet, Guide, Patron-Saint...Some have speculated that not only are these two myths of Khezr and Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) similar, they are in fact, one being...
Khwājagān Sufi Masters (900 AD)....Balkh is the homeland of Baha ad-Din Naqshband, the greatest of the Khwjaghan Masters...
NYIDA: Vegetarian Diet of Shambala...Chogyam Trungpa...."NYIDA: The vegetarian diet of Shambhala. Nyi stands for yellow and green foods, primarily vegetables and fruits, and da for white foods such as milk, yogurt, cheese and tofu......enjoy as your provision only yogurt, milk, white butter, cheese, fresh vegetables, raw fish and white rice. You should refrain from garlic, onions, fat and other meats....
Oddiyana & the Origins of Dzogchen (7th C. AD)...Garab Dorje lived in the 7th Century in Eastern Pakistan/Afghanistan....
Abaris the Skywalker, The Avars (6th C. BC)...Abaris the Hyperborean was a legendary sage, healer, and priest of Apollo known to the Ancient Greeks. He was supposed to have learned his skills in his homeland of Hyperborea, near the Caucasus Indus,...
Rabia Balkhi…Poetess of Balkh (900 AD)...one of the first poets who wrote in modern Persian, and she is, along with Mahsatī Dabīra Ganja'ī, among a very few female writers of medieval Persia to be recorded in history by name...
Kalachakra Prophets: Mehdi, Kalki Avatar and the Messiah...The Kalachakra Tantra appeared in India in the tenth century and was probably written about this time. It predicts the coming of an Islamic Messiah figure named Mahdi...
Arab Conquest of Bactria: Eastward Migrations (725 - 875 AD)...At the time of the Arab Invasion of Bactria in the 800's AD, there was a strong north-eastward migration into Khotan & the Tarim River Basin...
Paropamisadae: Bactrian Caucasus Indicus (6th C. BC)...Paropamisadae......the Greek name for the region south of the Hindu Kush in the southeastern part of present-day Afghanistan. From the sixth to the fourth century B.C., Paropamisadae was part of the Achaemenid empire and the empire of Alexander the Great. It later became part of the Greco-Bactrian and Kushan kingdoms...
Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen: Dzogchen Bon-Buddhist (1859-1934)...an enlightened teacher whose non-sectarian sensibilities were perfectly suited to the times, his critics accused of him of championing an unorthodox movement that transgressed sectarian boundaries and mixed Bön with Buddhism....
Gandharvas, Aspara & Prajnaparamita (1st C. BC)...Prajnaparamita is a goddess of high standing in Mahayana tantric Buddhism; she is considered the sakti, or consort, of the highest Buddha ...
Nuristani People & the Kalash Culture...The Nuristanis are a people whose ancestors practised what was apparently an ancient Indo-Iranian polytheistic Vedic religion until they were conquered and converted to Islam in the late 19th century....
Oracles: Tibet, Greece, Central Asia, Persia...The word "oracle" is used by Tibetans to refer to the spirit, deity, or entity that temporarily possesses enters those men and women who act as media between the phenomenal natural world and the subtle spiritual realms....
Trungpa: Naturalism & Polytheism...Trungpa: Polytheism sounds like group marriage...I prefer the term Naturalism...
Shambhala Vision & Enlightenment...Siddhartha reached out his right hand to touch the earth, and the earth itself roared, "I bear you witness!...
_Sogdiana: Tibet Migration (500 BC)...Bon was introduced to Tibet in the fifth century BC, when there occurred a mass migration of Iranians from Sogdhiana in north-east Iran to the northern parts of Tibet....
May 2013....Random Quotes of Particular Interest...The purpose of the Vajra Caste was not force everyone to convert to Buddhism but for people to re-discover the purity of their own traditions....
Shambhala Arts: Sgra (Sound), Bija, & Melody...My most favorite person in music, Mozart...sat in the sense that his mind became blank before he composed. Some kind of mind-less-ness in the Buddhist sense has to take place...
Shambhala Arts: Sacred Dance & Magical Movement... I am sick to death of the monotheistic string... I prefer the pagan many gods, and the animistic version. Here at this ranch in Taos, looking west over the desert, one knows that all of our Pale-Faced and Hebraic monotheistic insistence is a dead letter....the soul won't answer any more. Here we have a camp under the hanging stars, and we sit with the Indians around the fire, and they sing till late into the night, and sometimes we dance the Indian thread dance.....".....DH Lawrence's primary literary effort was to re-sacralize the world, to awaken in his readers their long lost power to recognize the sacred in themselves and in the living environment....
DNA: Central Asia & The Indigenous American Migrations (15,000 BC)...New Mexico DNA Project.... This DNA lineage is found in North and Central Asian populations as well as native Americans. This lineage is believed to have originated in Central Asia and migrated through the Altai/Baikal region of northern Eurasia into the Americas....
Canyon de Chelly & Kokyangwuti: Spider Woman...The earth has a lot of facets, a lot of gods and warrior gods are still present. They can still be invoked. The deities and worship sites of the Native Americans have always been kept secret. Even with the complete desecration of America these Gods have not been destroyed. We can still visit these sacred sites and perform the appropriate ceremonies, just appreciating what is natural...
Ziggurats & Calahs (kälä) of Central Asia...The Mesopotamians believed that these pyramid temples connected heaven and earth. In fact, the ziggurat at Babylon was known as Etemenankia or "House of the Platform between Heaven and Earth...
Bhojakas (600 AD) & Śākadvīpīya Acharyas...The Bhojakas, (600–700 C.E.), believed that they emanated from the body of their sun god. In India they created a mixed solar religion from the doctrines of the Avesta (the teachings of Zarathustra) and Mahayana Buddhism... they influenced Buddhism primarily with their visions of light. Their “photisms” are said to have especially helped shape the shining figure of the Buddha Amitabha. Since they placed the time god, Zurvan, at the center of their cult, it could also be they who anticipated the essential doctrines of the Kalachakra Tantra...
Heirophants, Gurus, High Priests & Tantric Masters...The title Pontiff comes from the Latin for "bridge builder"...between heaven and earth or between the spiritual world and the temporal one, a possible allusion to a very early role in placating the gods and spirits...
Apsaras, 64 Khandroma' (dakinis) & the Goddesses of Shambala...there are the wild naked girls of Tantric lore, dancing with their ash-smeared bodies and raggedy hair in cremation grounds, drinking blood from human skulls...
Bas-Relief Sculpture & Narrative History (3000 BC)...Bas-relief sculpture was primarily used as a way to tell stories or record major events....
Balkh, Bactria & The Early Development of Mahayana (100 BC)...Navbahar, the main monastery at Balkh became the center of higher Buddhist study for all of Central Asia..... in 630 AD, there were in Balkh about a hundred Buddhist monasteries, with 30,000 monks, and that there was a large number of stupas, and other religious monuments and that Buddhism was flourishing in the Bactrian portion of Western Turk empire...
Bodhidharma the Blue-eyed Persian (5th C. AD)...Bodhidharma is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Ch'an (Zen) to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch....... the Japanese tradition regards Bodhidharma to be from Persia...
Cherchen Man (1000 BC) & Uighur Tarim Tocharians...Cherchen Man is described as: a 3,000 year old male, "6-foot-6-inch giant with Caucasian features", looking "like a Bronze Age European", "a Celt"....
Ancient Bactria & Silk Route Adobe Cities (2000 BC)...Balkh was second to none......A large and prosperous city of mud brick some three square miles in area, it held perhaps 200,000 persons. It was surrounded by mud-brick walls pierced by seven gates...
Thracians, Orphism & the Bacchic Gold Tablets (4th C. BC)...The Orphic Gold Tablets are inscribed with texts in ancient Greek that provide instructions and information to guide the soul of the deceased as it makes its way through the underworld, and to ensure that it receives preferential treatment from the rulers there...
Xembhala (1650 AD) and 'Northern Shambhala'...Catholic missionaries Stephen Cacella and John Cabral were the first Europeans in modern history to give an account of Shambhala in 1650 AD...
Kunlun Mountains & 'Queen Mother of the West' (1700 BC)...For Tibetan Buddhists, the Kunlun region is the site of Shambhala...
The Cosmic Mirror & Aina Khana of Sufism...Rumi.....We are the mirror as well as the face in it.....You would rather throw stones at a mirror?......I am your mirror, and here are the stones....
Pandemonium: The Asura/Deva Split (1500 BC)..."Pandemonium" is Jaan Puhvel's word for the mutual demonization that occurred when the Younger-Avesta demonized the daevas, and the post-Rigvedic texts demonized the asuras. ...
Lha, Nyen, and Lu: Asha, Rta & Natural Hierarchy... Shambhala vision ... 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....
Five Pure Lights ('od lnga) & The Six Lamps...In the Bonpo Dzochen tradition, the Five Pure Lights are discussed in the Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud and two texts in particular go into detail on them as The Six Lamps and The Mirror of the Luminous Mind...
Etymology: Esoteric, Exoteric, Secret, Sacred and Profane...The Buddha described four grades of such person depending on their level of purity....Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arahant...
Asaṅga, Vasubandhu (290 AD) & The Kingdom of Shambhala...Legend reports that Vasubandhu came from the "Kingdom of Shambhala' (approximately, modern Begram, otherwise known as the ancient kingdom of Kapisha, north of Kabul) located in the Afghanistan region, north-west of Peshawar....
Ilm-e-Khshnoom & Esoteric Zoroastrianism...the Zoroastrian Ilm-e-Kshnoom sect identify Mount Davamand as the home of the Saheb-e-Dilan ('Masters of the Heart')....as recently as the 19th century, a peak in the northernmost range in the Hindu Kush system, just south of Balkh, was recorded as Mount Elburz in British army maps....
Sherab Chamma ...Satrig Ersang ...Ardvishura Anahita...In the Zhangzhung language, Sherab Chamma is known as Satrig Ersang, sa trig meaning "wisdom." In the Tazig language of ancient Central Asia she is Ardvishura Anahita.
Pamir Mountains....Po-i-mihr, the Feet of Mitra...Greeks and the Pamir Mountains.....Some Greek sources claim that the Greeks (Achaeans) departed from the Pamir Mountains to Greece….
Achaean Greeks & the Pamir Mountains (2000 BC)...Archeological evidence suggests that the Achaeans migrated from "southern Asia Minor to Greece, probably settling first in lower Thessaly" probably prior to 2000 BC….
Tibetan Astrology: Byung rTsis & the Eight Parkha... The Tibetan astrological sciences....astronomy (skar-rtsis), elemental astrology ('byung-rtsis), divination and prediction purpose (gyang char)......are blends of Indian, Persian, Greek, Bon and Buddhist traditions.….
Garuda, Simurgh, Khyung & Shang-shang... KHYUNG: "Similar to the Indian Garuda since both are of a solar nature. .....shared with the Siberian shamaist people...introduced into Tibet from Bonpo Zhang-Zhung and shows Iranian influences.….a tantric tutelary god in both Buddhism and Bon.
Chandragupta Maurya: 340-298 BC & Vahilka...Chandragupta Maurya (340 BC – 298 BC) was the founder of the Mauryan Empire...his reign was a time of great social and religious reform in India and the movements of Buddhism and Jainism became increasingly prominent....his grandson was Ashoka….
Ancient Chinese Accounts of Historical Shambhala... Fa-hein (337 – c. 422 CE) arrived during the reign of Chandragupta II and reported about the absence of capital punishment, the lack of a poll-tax and land tax. Most citizens did not consume onions, garlic, meat, and wine..….
Kushan Emperor Kanishka: Fourth Buddhist Council (c. 78 AD)... Kanishka convened the 4th Buddhist Council in Kashmir. 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.….
Shambhala Vision: Secular, Sectarian & Rime... Shambhala vision applies to people of any faith, not just people who believe in Buddhism... the Shambhala vision does not distinguish a Buddhist from a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Moslem, a Hindu. That's why we call it the Shambhala kingdom. A kingdom should have lots of spiritual disciplines in it.….
Etymology: Sham & Bhala (Elevated Sun)... Balkh was known by the ancient Persian term.... 'Sham-i-Bala', loosely translated as "Elevated Candle"....Elevated/raised/divine as 'Bala/bhala' and 'Sham/sam' as candle/light/sun.….
Blue Pancake, Blue Sky Mind & Dzogchen Realization... The more time you spend as Blue Sky, the less you will want to spend time as clouds. To the extent that you spend time in this birthless mind, in the mind that hasn't taken the hard form of opinion, likes, and dislikes, to that extent you can have a flexible, expansive, and open mind….
Shamash, Sams ('Sun"), Shambu & Shamis en Balkh... Modern religions tend to dismiss the ancient 'Sun Gods' as semi-theistic anthropomorphic Nature Spirits which was somewhat true in the Quasi-popular level of worship.....The deeper levels of meaning saw the 'Sun God' as representative of direct or primordial light and the 'Moon God' as representative of reflected light or the mirror….
Sol Invictus, Mithras, The Great Eastern Sun...At the pleasant bank of the Candrabhaga, a city named for Sambha is situated...There lies the abode of the Sun God (Arka) who is standing there in the form of Mitra with the Mitra eye.…The eye of Mithras was the sun itself....When you discover the sun in the sky, you begin to communicate with it. Your eyes begin to relate with the light of the sun.
Divine Triad of Syrian Gods....Palmyra... Malakbêl was a sun deity of the city of Palmyra in pre-Islamic Syria..... The Greek identified Malakbel with Hermes, and the Romans with Sol. He was also similar to the Babylonian Sun God Shamash.….
The Golden Drink, Haoma/Soma Rituals (2500 BC)... The ancient Indo-Iranians act of worship often involved the preparation, purification, and the offering of a sacred plant, Iranian Haoma, Indian Soma. It was mixed with water or milk and other ingredients and offered as a libation to the gods. Therafter it was drunk. It is a color of golden or yellow.….
Royal Tombs of Ur: Lady Pu-abi (Sumeria...2600 BC)... The headdress and jewelry of Queen Pu-abi, made from gold leaf, lapis lazuli from Balkh, Afghanistan, and carnelian from the Indus Valley.…The seal is made from lapis lazuli, which would have come from Afghanistan. This not only shows the extensive trade routes that existed at this time, but also how important Pu-abi was, owning an object made of such an exotic material.
Royal City of Ur & the Great Khorasan Road to Balkh (2500 BC)...The Royal City of Ur was on the trade road that was later called the Great Khorasan Road to Balkh.….Ur was one of the largest cities in the world from c. 2030 to 1980 BC. Its population was approximately 65,000 people..... the area was struck by drought conditions from 2200-2000 BC. The population dropped by 93%.
Ancient Egypt (3150 BC) & the Great Khorasan Road... The Pamir Mountains near Balkh have been known since the earliest times, when first caravans went to ancient Egypt, bringing sky-colored lapis lazuli to the country.….This was the main source of lapis lazuli in the ancient world, with lapis from here occurring in such famous archaeological discoveries as the Royal Treasure of Ur (c 3800 BC) and the Tomb of Tutankhamun (1323 BC)
Cyrus The Great (580-529 BC) ... Khurvas: 'Sun Like'...Siddhartha Gautama, in India, was a contemporary of Cyrus the Great….Traditional maps of Olmo lung ring show resemblance to the Persian empire of Cyrus the Great.
Dorje Lingpa & Okar Rock (1346- 1405 AD)...Dorje Lingpa is considered as one of the five great “treasure revealers” (tertön) among the Nyingmapa and an important Dzogchen master by the Bonpo tradition....an exceptional figure who clearly adopted an impartial approach to both Buddhist practices and the Bon, the non-Buddhist religious tradition in Tibet, in his spiritual quest. His approach therefore made him the precursor of what is later known as the “eclectic” (rime) movement of the nineteenth century…. his greatest revelation, the rDor-sems-ati-'skor at Okar Rock when he was 33 years of age.
The Six Lamps: Lhündrub Tögal & the Vima Nyingtik...Tenzin Rinpoche on the Practice of the Six Lamps:.....'Among the Dzogchen teachings it is considered as one of the most important cycles. It is the ‘crème de la crème’ of Dzogchen.'….
Dzogchen: Fifteen Stages of A-Tri (A-Khrid) Meditation...The A-Khrid teachings regarding the Ultimate Origin-(A) is believed to have a historical source in the great lama rMe'u dGongs-mdzod(1038-1096). ….
Twenty-One Nails: Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung... In the thirteenth century, the illustrious Bonpo master Druchen Gyalwa Yungdrung composed a practice manual for this tradition. Book One deals with the preliminary practices of this Dzogchen system and the translation of this text was published earlier. Included in the present volume are the translations from Book Two that principally deal with the practices of contemplation and vision, otherwise known as Trekchod and Thodgal, as well as translations from Book Three of the four supplementary texts dealing with the view, meditation, conduct, and fruit of Dzogchen. Also included in this volume is a translation of the instructions for making the 49 day dark retreat according to the Zhang Zhung tradition, the text known as the Sevenfold Cycle of the Clear Light.….
HOZHO: Navajo Concept of Balance and Beauty...Navajo spiritual practice is about restoring health, balance, and harmony to a person's life. Ceremonies restore Hozhò, or beauty, harmony, balance, and health.....Protection ceremonies are used for Navajos that leave the boundaries of the four sacred mountains.….
Bhumisparsha: Sacred Earth Mudra...Just before the historical Buddha realized enlightenment, Mara attempted to distract him from his seat but he did not move. Then Mara claimed the seat of enlightenment for himself, saying his spiritual accomplishments were greater than Siddhartha's. Mara's soldiers cried out together, "I am his witness!" Mara challenged Siddhartha--who will speak for you?......Then Siddhartha reached out his right hand to touch the earth, and the earth itself roared, "I bear you witness!" Mara disappeared. And as the morning star rose in the sky, Siddhartha Gautama realized enlightenment and became a Buddha."….
gShen & Ye-gshen... Bon, unlike the religious outgrowths of the Aryan culture, especially Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism in their quasi-popular forms, gives little heed to the pursuit of salvation through austerities. Bon philosophy speaks of 'Yeshen' as being reflected in the interplay between heaven and earth."...(Chogyam Trungpa: The Heart of the Buddha"...1991..pg 222)….
Dzogchen: Druchen Gyalwa Yungdrung (1242-1290 AD)...What is most striking about Dru Gyalwa’s practice manual is its directness and clarity. The text is written as a detailed instructor’s guide for teachers in the tradition to teach their students. While the text is filled with beautiful and expansive quotes from the Twenty-one Nails and Six Lamps, the focus of the text is precise instruction on Dzogchen practice expressed in clear and direct language….
Way of Nangshen....Shen of the Visible World...Nangshen, comprises various rituals for purification to summon energy and enhance prosperity, to suppress and liberate negative forces, and to invoke and make offerings to powerful deities….
Nine Successive Stages…The Nine Yanas...The Supreme Way: Attainment of rDzogs-chen, the Great Perfection.....Way of Supreme Doctrine or The Way of Dzogchen (Bla-med theg-pa) enshrines Dzogchen.......Lame thegpa (bLa-med theg-pa), the Unsurpassed Way, is concerned with the highest attainment through the path of Great Perfection (i.e., rDzogs-chen).….
Döné Sangwa: Basic Goodness: The Natural State... Dzogchen (Rdzogs chen or Atiyoga) is the natural, primordial state or natural condition ....enlightenment can actually unfold through continually recognizing the nuances of our already existent "natural state," Dzogchen stands in contrast to the sutras and tantras, which stress applying fervent effort and striving toward actual transformation.....the Bon tradition understands the development of bare awareness as its most significant method, toward which all other practices serve as preparation….
Ölmo Lungring, Tazig & Shambhala...The country of Olmo Lungring where Tonpa Shenrab descended from the celestial spheres and took up incarnation among human beings as an Iranian prince. The mysterious land of Olmo Lungring (`ol-mo lung-rings) or Olmoling (`ol-mo`i gling) is said to be part of a larger geographical region to the northwest of Tibet called Tazig (stag-gzig, var. rtag-gzigs), which scholars identify with Iran or, more properly, Central Asia where in ancient times Iranian languages such as Avestan and later Sogdian were spoken. ….
Historical Shambhala, Enlightened Society & Ancient Human Effort... These images still convey the inner peace that results from putting the Buddha's doctrine into practice, they also give us an impression of people who walked and talked, etc. and slept much as we do. I feel this is very important. These figures are inspiring because they do not only depict the goal, but also the sense that people like us can achieve it if we try.....The Dalai Lama….
Chöd: Cutting Through Attachments and Aversions...Machig Labdrön was a great Tibetan yogini who originated several Tibetan lineages of the Indian tantric practice of Chöd. Machig may have come from a Bon family and developed Chöd by combining native Tibetan Bönpo shamanism with the Dzogchen teachings….
Skandhas: Five Human Attributes... We create the illusion of security through categorization, analyzing how thoughts fit together, putting them in boxes and trying make decisions, all in an effort to create a sense of security. This effort freezes the energy that our emotions really are and as Trungpa says “the world is seen as being absolutely solid and stiff. Everything is frozen movement, frozen space, solidified. ….
PAWO, Bravery…Spiritual Warrior...Those who have been fearless in their search and fearless in their proclamation belong to the lineage of master warriors, whatever their religion, philosophy, or creed...They are the fathers and mothers of Shambhala.….
Barmakids of Balkh (752 AD)...The Barmakids were an influential family from Balkh in Bactria where they were originally Buddhists, and subsequently came to great political power under the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad...... The Barmakids were remarkable for their majesty, splendor and hospitality. They are mentioned in some stories of the Arabian Nights….
Rigpa: Noetic Mind, Nous & Non Dual Presence...There is another layer of mind that is connected with fundamental intelligence. In Tibetan this is rigpa; in Sanskrit it is vidya. ...Rigpa comprehends the fundamental sense of survival. It sees dualism and the sense of pattern. It comprehends a sense of being. Professor Guenther refers to noetic mind, which is rigpa or vidya.….
Ultimate Reality, Un-fabricated Truth & Genuine Reality...The Enlightened Ones did not view any aspect of either the environment or the inhabitants of our world system as ultimately real.…. completely false truth is fabricated and superimposed onto genuine reality, while actual genuine truth is not fabricated and involves no superimposition
Text Sources (1979-1990's)...These texts were used for Okar Research quotes between 1979 and 1999......
The Great Eastern Sun & Avestan Hvare Khshaeta (Radiant Sun) (559 BC)The Great Eastern Sun is based on seeing that there is a natural source of radiance and brilliance in this world - which is the innate wakefulness of human beings....the sacred world is lighted by the sun, which is the principle of never-ending brilliance and radiance….Shivini: meaning "sun rising" or to "awake", is the third god in a triad cognate with the triad in Hinduism called Shivam.
Kashmir Shaivism & Kāpālika Tantra (8th C. AD)...The practice of Yoga and Tantra was common to the Vajrayana Buddhism and (the Kapalika, Kaula and other) Shaiva cults. Natha cult was the result of the fusion of the two streams of rival cults, based on the common factor of Tantric yoga. Occult sexual practices and experiments were integral part of the Vajrayana and Kapalika Tantra philosophies.….
Strirajya: The Land of Women Warriors (330 BC)...Strirajya.. (Suvarnagotra)(Sauromatae)..The Land of Women...."An area that Alexander the Great was not able to conquer...An interesting Kingdom of women warriors northwest of Zhang Zhung.….
Uttarakuru & the Legendary "Lost City of Gold"...King Lalitaditya Muktapida of Kashmir leads a war expedition against the tribes of north (i.e. north of Kashmir) and in sequence, encounters the Kambojas, Tusharas, Bhauttas, Daradas, Valukambudhis, Uttarakurus, Strirajya (mythical or otherwise) and Pragjyotisha with whom he fights one after the other......Rajatarangini places Uttarkuru land in the neighborhood of Strirajya. Based on Yuan Chwang's evidence, Strirajya is identified as a country lying north of Kashmir, south of Khotan and west of Tibet.….
Khyungpo Naljor (978-1172 AD)...Khyungpo Naljor asked his teachers whether anyone in India had met the Buddha Vajradhara, the source of the Buddhist tantras. They replied that Niguma, reputedly the sister of Naropa, had done so. Khyungpo Naljor sought her out, finding her in the Sosa charnal ground in East India. He requested her transmission, to which she replied "I am a flesh-eating dakini!" ….
DAKINIS: Sky Dancers, Khandroma... Worldly ḍākinīs are closely related to the māras of India, who haunted the Buddha under the tree of awakening. In this role, they took whatever form might correspond to the vulnerabilities of their target, including beguiling and seductive forms of exquisite beauty. When that ruse failed, they again became vicious ghouls and demonesses.….
Milam: Dream Yoga, Perceived Reality, Yoga Nidra...Perceived reality and the phenomenal world are considered to be ultimately "unreal"....the dream of life and regular nightly dreams are not dissimilar, and that the difference between the general dreaming state and the general waking experience is that the latter is generally more concrete and linked with attachments....In Dream Yoga, living may become the dream, and the dream may become the living.….
BEYUL: Sacred Lands, Hidden Valleys & Non-Visible Dimensions...Beyul are sacred environments...‘Beyuls’ or hidden valleys, are discovered when the planet is approaching destruction and the world becomes too corrupt for spiritual practice. Beyuls are inaccessible to all but realized beings or Siddhas. This land is said to be inhabited by Vidyadharas (rig-`dzin) or holders of esoteric knowledge. They exist on earth, but are not an ordinary country or nation which could be observed from an orbiting satellite, for they possess a special reality all their own. They are in this world, but not quite of it.….
Mahasiddha Lakshminkara: The Crazy Princess of Oddiyana...Among the eighty-four mahasiddhas were men and women of all social classes; their model of highly individual realization strongly influenced Tibetan Buddhism. Also of importance were their spiritual songs. The biographies of the eighty-four mahasiddhas, preserved in Tibetan translation, describe personalities like Chatrapa the beggar, Kantali the tailor, and Kumaripa the potter. However, King Indrabhuti and his sister Lakshminkara are also among them….
Crazy Wisdom: Yeshe Chölwa…Craziness Gone Wise...Siddha is a Sanskrit word which refers to those who are able to overpower the phenomenal world in their own enlightened way. A siddha is a crazy wisdom person. Crazy wisdom in Tibetan is yeshe chölwa. Yeshe means "wisdom," and chölwa, literally, is "gone wild." The closest translation for chölwa that we could come up with is "crazy," which creates some further understanding. In this case "crazy" goes along with "wisdom"; the two words work together well. So it is craziness gone wise rather than wisdom gone crazy. So from that point of view, craziness is related with wisdom.….
KERESANI: Haoma & Indo-European Divine Beings...There has been a great deal of speculation among scholars concerning the true identity of the mystery plant in the Rig Veda called Soma, the only plant known to have been deified in the history of human culture,…Keresani are divine beings connected with soma.
Rishis & Rishikas: Divine Human Beings & Kalachakra...Rishis & Rishikas.....inspired poets of Ṛgvedic hymns, who alone or with others invokes the deities with poetry. In particular, Ṛṣi refers to the authors of the hymns of the Rigveda. Post-Vedic tradition regards the Rishis as "sages" or saints, constituting a peculiar class of divine human beings in the early mythical system, as distinct from Asuras, Devas and mortal men.….
Drung, Deu: Ancient Narrations & Symbolic Languages...Drung (ancient narratives), deu (symbolism).....the epic poems and legends of Tibet`s secular culture & the mysteries of the ancient symbolic languages that conveyed wisdom inexpressible in conventional terms….
Lhak-thong: Fourth Moment Total Presence...The fourth moment is not a far-out or extraordinary experience as such. It is a state of experience that doesn’t even belong to now. It doesn’t belong to what might be, either. It belongs to a non-category—which provides another sense of category. Thus it is called the fourth moment.….
Astrolatry: The Night Sky As A Cosmic Mirror... The term astro-theology is used in the context of 18th to 19th century scholarship aiming at the discovery of the original religion, particularly primitive monotheism. Unlike astrolatry, which usually implies polytheism, frowned upon as idolatrous by Christian authors since Eusebius, astrotheology is any "religious system founded upon the observation of the heavens….
Ancient Ceremonies, Practices & Rituals...In the rites of 'propitiation of prosperity' (yang grub), the term 'cha' is used as a synonym of 'yang' (prosperity or fortune). It refers to a principle or force that embraces all the positive aspects such as wangthang (ascendancy-capacity), yang (richness, prosperity), pal (glory), phunsum tsogpa (completeness), trashi (good fortune). ….
Ancient Castles: Kalah, Kalapa, Quala, Cabala, Kabalah, Qabala... Location of a great castle called Kal'ah Taj. The remains of a mighty castle (kal'ah), a 'mother of castles' situated on the great Tarum River that flowed from the mountains of Tarum in northern Persia. Like Samiran, its site remains unidentified. On its walls were lions of gold. The ancient fortress of Kabalah near Darband is more than once mentioned in the campaigns of Timur.….
CALAH: Nimrud, Sham Ash, The Palace Of Juniper…900 BC... The ancient inhabitants of Assyria, Babylon, and Sumer believed that civilization was a "gift from the gods" and it was marked from the time "kingship was lowered from heaven" ......somewhere around around 4750 B.C.......evidently near Calah….
The Satraps & Shambhala in the Kalachakra... Administration of the Sassanid Empire was considerably more centralized than that of the Parthian Empire; the semi-independent kingdoms and self-governing city states of the Parthian Empire was replaced with a system of "royal cities" which served as the seats of centrally appointed governors called shahrabs as well as the location of military garrisons….Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces....The word "satrap" is from an Avestan cognate to Sanskrit kṣatriya क्षत्रिय. The Old Persian xšaθrapāvan ("protector of the province"), from xšaθra ("realm" or "province") and pāvan ("protector")....
Kalachakra: Suryaratha & The Great Eastern Sun... If then we see a Middle Eastern derivation in the name Shambhala, it would mean "light of the sun" or "vision of the sun." Alternatively, if we spell the word Shambala (as it was spelled in most of the early European references to it), this would mean "the sun above" (from the Persian bala "above"; as in Bala Missar, the fort above Kabul, and many other similar names). Shambhala would then mean "the supernal sun", not merely the ordinary visible sun but the principle of light itself, as coming from the transcendent sun, the source of all light.….
First Rigden King of Shambala: Manjushri Yashas (159 BC)... In 624 AD., a non-Indic religion will arise in Mecca. Because of a lack of unity among the people and laxity in following correctly the injunctions of their Vedic scriptures, many will accept this religion when its leaders threaten an invasion. To prevent this danger, Manjushri Yashas united the people of Shambhala into a single "vajra-caste" by conferring upon them the Kalachakra empowerment. By his act, the king became the First Kalki, the First Holder of the Caste….
The Goddess Anahita...Sacred Water & Mithra (436 BC)...The period between 26th and 20th century BC was the most important period in the history of Balkh.... Its foundation is mythically ascribed to Keyumars, the first king of the world in Persian legend ; and it is at least certain that, at a very early date, it was the rival of Ecbatana, Nineveh and Babylon. There is a long-standing tradition that an ancient shrine of Anahita was to be found here, a temple so rich it invited plunder.….
Xiongnu Kingdom (209 BC)...It seems as if the legend of Shambhala was at least partially inspired by the Xiongnu Empire which stretched from Mongolia to Central Asia (indeed north of Tian Shan and the several "White Rivers (Sita)")..... Chandra Bhadra (a.k.a. Suchandra, Skt. "Auspicious Moon") was actually translation of a name or phonetic rendering of the title of the Xiongnu Emperor Shanyu Baghatur (Chanyu Batyr). ….
Ki So Cha'o: Phywa & the Sang Sol Ceremony...Ki Ki So So is an ancient Tibetan prayer shouted as one crosses a mountain pass... Ki is a very high pitched sound similar to the cry of an Eagle, equivalent to a seed syllable for the sky... So is a very deep earthy sound, equivalent to a seed syllable for the earth..….
Amaterasu Omikami: Japanese Sun Goddess (660 BC)... Chogyam Trangpa visited Ise Grand Shrine in Japan, and told his followers about Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan. He said Shinto thought is similar to Shambhala and he decided to incorporate a Shinto shrine into Rocky Mountain Dharma Center.….Tsubaki priests trained some center staff members (four men and one women), to make the daily offerings.
Sham Bala: 'Light of the Sun', "The Sun Above", "The Supernal Sun"... There are known to have been other 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. ….
"Sun Worship" ... Surya, Shambha & Kalachakra Shambhala...Multan used to be called Shambha-pura (City of the Vision of the Sun) in the pre-Islamic period. In Multan, the great annual festival of the year was celebrated in honor of the sun and there are descriptions of the golden idol representing the sun to support this identification. Though the temple was destroyed after Alberuni saw it, the sun god Surya in Multan (as in many other Indian temples) is described as wearing "northern" (central Asian) nomadic dress, including in this case red leather boots....."….
Balkh & the Sar-i Sang Lapis Lazuli Trade Route...The Pamir Mountains near Balkh have been known since the earliest times, when first caravans went to ancient Egypt, bringing sky-colored lapis lazuli to the country. We are very limited on information about that time. But one thing is clear; the country was on The Great Khorsan Road.....aka: The Silk Route for a long time. ….
Bactriana, Ptolemy, the Sacae & the Chomarians (500 BC)...Ptolemy...those called Chomarians he placed in Bactriana, “pretty near the Oxus.” Some old maps of Bactriana that Pezron looked at confirmed this, for on them he found a city called Chomara, which he took to be “the capital of these people.”….
Calendars, Astrology, Cycles, Time...The astrological system based on the cycle of the twelve years and the 5 elements was known in Shang Shung, Tibet, Oddiyana since ancient times. Hidden points refers to the specific element, 'mewa', or 'parka' of each of the 360 days of the year and to the various classes of beings that control them. Their influence on the la, 'authentic presence', and lungta of a person and the way to enhance the positive aspects (cha) and eliminate the negative.….
Arkaim: Ancient Circular City (1700 BC) ... The settlement of Arkaim was about the same time as the Indo-Aryan migration into South Asia and Mesopotamia (the Gandhara grave culture appearing in the Northern Pakistan from ca. 1600 BC.......early investigators described Arkaim as "Swastika City", "Mandala City", and "the ancient capital of early Aryan civilization, as described in the Avesta and Vedas….
Natural Hierarchy & Sacral Kingship in Ancient Central Asia (1700 BC) ... Plato explained the ideal city as divided into 12 sectors which allowed cosmic laws and proportion to penetrate the city and allow the inhabitants to live under cosmic laws. This cosmic pattern is especially clear in the royal circular cities of the ancient Orient. A number of Parthian, Sassanian, and Abbasid cities are cited. In Persia: Darabjird, Firuzabad, Kalach, Hiraqla, Hamadan (Ecbatana)….
Kālá...Theories of Time: Kala Yugas and Kālavāda...Time goes from present to past. This is not true in our logical mind, but it is in the actual experience of making past-time present. There we have poetry and there we have human life.….
Denkart: Sacred Texts in Zoroastrianism (1600 BC) ...For a long time the texts of the Avesta were orally transmitted, and did not come to be written down before 6th century BC, which is about 1,000 years after they first began to be used. ….
ECBATANA: Ancient Persian Circular City (800 BC) ...A glimpse into ancient Persian cosmology is the royal city of Ekbatana) built in 800 BC by King Deioces .....Seven concentric circles within walls, each higher than the preceding wall as one passed toward the center hill where the palace stood. The 7th and highest wall was painted gold (sun)...the 6th was painted silver (moon)...the 5th wall was painted orange...the fourth was painted blue...the third was painted red...the second black...and the outermost wall was painted white….
The Ancient Civilization of Margiana, Margush and Gonur Depe (1600 BC)...The Merv Oasis was an important centre for human settlement long before Achaemenian times. A remarkable Bronze Age civilization existed here, known variously as Margush, or by the Greek name of Margiana....Climatic change and progressive desertification caused the abandonment of the area....the Margiana sites seem to have had close ties with those at Bactria, in present-day northern Afghanistan. Sarianidi argues that the Bactria- Margiana complex was a major centre of ancient civilisation.….
Lokāyata/Cārvāka, Ajita Kesakambali & the Greek Materialists (500 BC)...Living about the time of the founders of Buddhism and Jainism, Ajita Kesakambali was one of the earliest people in recorded history to deny the existence of gods, spirits, souls, a non-material realm, the afterlife, reincarnation, absolute moral values, and karma. He was a major influence on the Indian school of philosophy known as Carvaka.....He was just about the only person on the planet who didn’t buy into superstitious nonsense.….
Akbar the Great (1542 –1605 AD)...The reign of Akbar bears a strange resemblance to that of Asoka...... Being a true humanist, Akbar showed great respect to other religions and he examined the principles of Hinduism and Buddhism based on the law karma and Confucius. He tried to understand the aims of Zoroastrians in Persia, Jains with the belief of causing no harms to living things which consequently supported his vegetarianism. He also admired the idea of Sikhism which identified God beyond religion.......Asoka was an illustrious king of the Maurya dynasty in India, who died about B.C. 225. He did much for the advancement of Buddhism, and has been called the "Buddhist Constantine." ….
Tillya Tepe & The Bactrian Treasure (145 BC) ... 21,000 pieces of gold in six burial chambers within Tillya Tepe. The hoard had belonged to the rich Kushan nomads buried there around the time of Christ. It had lain undisturbed for 2000 years….
The Great Ancient Cities of Central Asia (5000 BC) ...Balkh was referred to as the “Mother of Cities” and the “Elevated Candle” (Shams-i-bala)....The ancient city has an incredibly long and rich history, its name is also from "Bakht" meaning "fortunate" in Persian. ….'Balkh is a large and magnificent city. It was here that Alexander married the daughter of Darius.' (Marco Polo)
The Kalachakra Symbolism & Ancient Central Asian Traditions ... Kalachakra and the VAJRA CASTE....The purpose of the Vajra Caste was not force everyone to convert to Buddhism but for people to re-discover the purity of their own traditions. The Kalachakra empowerment is given to anyone who wishes to participate. No one is asked to give up their own religion. The Kalachakra, open to all who wish to participate, has the power to benefit all beings on this planet.….
'Od zer ...Light Rays, Luminosity…Heart, Eyes, and Space...Everything that arises as manifest phenomenon, consisting of sounds, lights, and rays (sgra 'od zer gsum)...this energy, in the form of light, originates in the heart of the individual.….
Ancient Bactrian Archeological Sites... Having become the first disciples of the Buddha, Trapusa and Bahalika wished his leave to return home, they asked the Buddha for something by which they could remember and honour him in his absence. The Buddha gave them eight of his hairs as relics. They made golden caskets for the relics and took them to their own city (Balkh in Bactria) where they enshrined them in a stupa by the city gate. Huang Tsang recounts that theirs was the first ever Buddhist Stupa to be made….
Silver/Gold Sculpture ...Bactria (c. 2000 BC)...Ancient Bactria and Margiana were areas along the Oxus and Murghab rivers in modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. While these areas were sparsely inhabited during much of the third millennium B.C., by about 2200 B.C. permanent settlements with distinctive forms of architecture, burial practices, and material culture had been established, supported in part by active trade with parts of Iran, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley...….
Ancient Balkh, Bactra, Shamis en Balkh, Umm Al-Belaad, ... Photographs... The foundation of the city of Paktra, later known as Bactra is ascribed to Kaiomars, and at an early date it was said to have rivaled urban centres such as Babylon.….
Mahasiddha Traditions in Central Asia (750 AD)...Dzogchen did not originate in Tibet itself, but had a Central Asian origin and was subsequently brought to Central Tibet by certain masters known as Mahasiddhas or great adepts. There thus would appear to exist two ancient and authentic lineages for the Dzogchen teachings, the Buddhist and the Bonpo......the Bonpo transmission from a line of Mahasiddhas dwelling around Mount Kailas and the lake country of Zhang-zhung to the west and north of Tibet. ..... the Kalachakra Tantra is said to have been brought from Shambhala in Central Asia in the 10th century AD, by the Mahasiddha Tsilupa ….
FRAVASHIS: The Dralas of Ancient Persia...There are many gods....They are always present everywhere.....the dieties of the indigenous traditions of Western Europe and The Americas especially were dismantled, suppressed, undermined, abused, forgotten...followers were not even allowed to mention them.....but they still have not been able to destroy them, even with the desecration of the entire planet...the drala principle exists everywhere, always.….
Ancient Kingdom of Kapisa (500 BC)... 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 Arab Moslem Conquest of Shambhala (642-870 AD)...Obaidallah crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul in 698 only to meet with defeat and humiliation. Vincent Smith, in Early History of India, states that 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. ….
Garab Dorje, Prahevajra & Uddiyana (7- 8th Century AD)...According to the Nyingma tradition, the teachings of Dzogchen were first taught by a master named Garab Dorje, who was from the land of Oddiyana, Uddiyana (Eastern Afghanistan)....Buddhist texts speak of Oddiyana as a beautifully green and fertile kingdom, inhabited by gentle people often clothed in white, who had great respect for wisdom and learning. It was surrounded by high, rugged mountains, and in the broad valleys were towering white stupas and golden temple roofs. It seemed a paradise on earth and so was called “the royal garden” from the Sanskrit udyana
Yeshe Tsogyal & Oddiyana (757–817 AD)....Yeshe Tsogyal (757–817 AD), was the consort of the great Oddiyana tantric teacher Padmasambhava....."Primordial (ye) Wisdom (shes) Queen (rgyal mo) of the Lake (tso)"...Tsogyel, relationship of an older Bön figure, Swastika Bon yogini, Bonmo Tso of the Chokro Clan (female Bön practitioner of the lake)….Yeshe Tsogyel is introduced as an incarnation of Saraswati, (the goddess, of Hindu origins
Nestorian Christians in Central Asia (7th c. AD)...Timothy I’s appointment of a bishop for Tibet during the reign of Trisong Detsen,......The best evidence of the involvement of Christian missionaries in early Tibet comes in the letters of Timothy I, who was Patriarch of the Nestorian Church between 780 and 823, overlapping with the reigns of three of Tibet’s great Buddhist emperors, Trisong Detsen, Senaleg and Ralpachen. Timothy I’s letters contain a couple of references to Tibet. In one letter, he lists the lands in which the Trisagion, one of the oldest Christian prayers, is recited. This list includes Tibet. In another letter, Timothy relates that he has recently appointed a metropolitan bishop for the Turks, and is about to do the same for the Tibetans. These references both date to the early 790s, during Trisong Detsen’s reign.….
Ancient Sexual Rituals from Greece to India... In the Tantric Buddhism of India, Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet, yab-yum is a ritual of the male deity in union with his female consort. The symbolism is associated with Anuttarayoga tantra where the male figure is usually linked to compassion (karuṇā) and skillful means (upāya-kauśalya), and the female partner to 'insight' (prajñā). Yab-yum is generally understood to represent the primordial (or mystical) union of wisdom and compassion.….
Early Russian Shambhala Research...Nikolay Gumilev, Anna Akhmatova and their son Lev Gumilev, 1913...Lev Gumilev belonged to the old Russian intelligentsia. His father, Nikolai Gumilev, was a prominent poet of the Silver Age and a victim of Bolshevik terror. His mother, Anna Akhmatova, was one of the greatest Russian women poets.….
Gurdjieff & the Khwajagan Sufi Masters of Central Asia... Authors such as Idries Shah and John Godolphin Bennett maintain that George Ivanovich Gurdjieff's 'Fourth Way' originated with the Khwajagan.….
Mleccha, Barbarians, Lalo & the Setting Sun World...'Setting Sun' people have no understanding of, interest in, or appreciation of the rich diversity and colorful displays of cultures, religions, languages, arts, poetry or magic of the phenomenal world. They are more interesting in conquering the earth than in touching the earth.….
The Great Kashmiri Poet Kshemendra (990 – 1070 AD )... Kshemendra (Ksomendra)(c. 990 – c. 1070 AD) was a Kashmirian poet of the 11th century, writing in Sanskrit.…."Tibetan histories and works on Kala Chakrait 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 name of King Menander {Minendra) who erected a very lofty chaitia has been mentioned by the Kashmirian poet Ksomendra, in Avadānakalpalatā, a work that was finished in about 1035 AD.
Natural Perfection: Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen (1350 AD)... the brilliance of Longchenpa within the wider discourse of the Dzogchen tradition (found in the Bonpo Zhangzhung and Indo-Tibetan traditions of Buddhism):......."Although at least five hundred years (800 CE - 1300 CE) of thought, contemplation and composition in this tradition... preceded him such that all the major themes, structures, and terminology were in place prior to his birth (above all in the canonical Seventeen Tantras of the Great Perfection (rgyud bcu bdun), it was Longchenpa (1308-1363) who systematically refined the terminology….
Alexandra David-Neel & Historical Shambala (1924-1946)...The famous Buddhistic traveller Alexandra David-Neel writes in 'Les Nouvelles Littéraires', 1954, p.1 that Shambhala - is to be found at Afghanistan - near or at the city of Balkh.….
Csoma de Körös (1784-1842)...Early Shambhala Research... His role as a seminal Shambhalist was in bringing to the attention of the scholarly world a basic outline of the Buddhist concept of Shambhala and inspiring further investigations by future generations of Shambhalists......The tragedy of Csoma's quest is he was wrong in his life-long belief that the Uighurs were somehow connected with the origins of the Hungarian people. The irony is that 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, which Csoma believed to be somewhere to the west. ….
The 25 Kalki: Rigden Kings of Shambala.."Like the Indian Maha Siddhas, the Kalkis have long hair which they tie up in a knot. Likewise, they also adorn themselves with earrings and armbands. “The Kalki has excellent ministers, generals, and a great many queens. He has a bodyguard, elephants and elephant trainers, horses, chariots, and palanquins. His own wealth and the wealth of his subjects, the power of his magic spells, the nagas, demons, and goblins that serve him, the wealth offered to him by the centaurs and the quality of his food are all such that even the lord of the gods cannot compete with him. ... The Kalki does not have more than one or two heirs, but he has many daughters who are given as vajra ladies during the initiations held on the full moon of Caitra each year”….
The Naiman Warriors (1177 AD)...Naiman means "Eight" - the Naiman people were called like this because they were made up of eight tribes. They also had a Turkic names, "Säkizlär", which also meant "Eight (Tribes)". There is a theory that they were the descendents the Säkiz Oġuz (Sekiz Oguz, Eight Tribes) mentioned in the early Uyghur inscription of Shine Usu written for Bayan Čor Qaġan (Bayan Chor Qaghan) in the mid-8th century,….
The Nine Warrior Gods & Goddesses of Shambala...In 1959, Chogyam Trungpa left Tibet, fleeing the invasion of the Chinese.... It took him several months to cross the Himalayas. On the way, he wrote a synthesis of the spiritual history of Shambala that was, unfortunately, lost during that eventful journey..... It was partially re-written in England and first translated in 1971 in Vermont ...The Golden Dot Text describes Shiwa Okar and the Nine Lha who created existence out of non-existence....In the Bon tradition the legend is known as Shen Lha Okar and the Nine Brothers who created this world..
Sadanga Yoga, Dark Retreat, Ratriyoga & Seven Cycles of Clear Light...In the Kalachakra tradition, the apparition of ten signs are likened to an image reflected in the mirror of one's mind, comparable to the visions that appear in a magic mirror during a pratisena divination rite. In order to let the first signs appear, the yogin has to meditate in a closed place, where no light can filter in. This is called night yoga. ….
The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi & the the Arab Conquest of Khorasan (649 AD)...The Shahnameh is an epic composed by the Iranian poet Ferdowsi and completed around 1010 CE....The epic chronicles the legends and histories of Iranian (Aryan) kings from primordial times to the Arab conquest of Iran in the 7th century CE, in three successive stages: the mythical, the heroic or legendary, and the historic.….
Ziji: dZi, Zi, Ji...Brilliance & Splendor... Dzi stones made their first appearance between 2000 and 1000 BC, a few hundred thousand were supposedly brought back by Tibetan soldiers from Persia or ancient Tajikistan….
The Musk Trade Routes Between Islamic, Bactrian and Tibetan Cultures (8th C. AD)...The musk routes: In Arabic literature from the 9th century onwards Tibet is frequently described as the land of musk. A variety of sources attest to the importance of the musk trading routes for the contacts between Islamic and Tibetan cultures. A comparison of the uses of musk in Islamic and Tibetan medicines revealed, for example, that alongside musk as a trading good, ideas of its use travelled as well.….
Jambhala & Kubera: Gods of Wealth in Central Asia...Jambhala........A god of riches. He is sometimes depicted holding a bag of gold, a mongoose or a lemon. In some accounts, identified as Jambhala, Dsam-bha-la, Dsam-bha-la, Jambala, Jambala, Ratnasambhava, Ratnasambhava, Aparajita, Prasannatara, Ratnaheruka, Ratnapani, Hindu Yama, Japanese Hosho, Hindu Kubera, Bishamon, Kompira, Tibetan Dsam-bha-la or Tibetan Dsam-bha-la. ….
Central Asia: Historical Timetable Notes….40,000 BC - 800 BC ...Balkh/Bactra was at it height from 2700- 2000 BC ….
Yungdrung Bon, Bar-po so-brgyad & Sam bha la (sTag gzigs) ...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. … .
The Kalachakra Tantra: Rigden Djapo & The Military Verses 127- 148...The 1047 verses of the Kalachakra Tantra used today (the original is 12,000 verses) was composed by the eighth King of Shambhala, the first Kulika (Kalki), Jampal Trakpa. The original 12,000 verses have never been translated into Tibetan….weaponry plays a prominent role in the Time Tantra....
Bactria in the Bronze Age (2500-1500 BC) ...Known as Bactra to the ancient Greeks, Balkh is found in northern Afghanistan and is descibed as the 'Mother of Cities' by Arabs. It reached its peak between 2,500 BC and 1,900 BC prior to the rise of the Persian and Median empires..
Sotung Nangu, Crystal Iconography, Hopi Sky Gods & Shiwa Okar...Sotuknang, the Hopi sky god: a fantastic being descended from the heavens, his face glittering like ice.....another set of Tibetan deities are the White Old Man, a sky god, and his consort. They are known by a few different names, such as the Gyalpo Pehar, "King Pehar" Pehar is featured as a protecting deity of Zhangzhung,….
Rigden King Suchandra of Shambala (878 BC)... The Dharmaraja....First Notable King of Shambhala.....King Suchandra/Chandrabhadra (Tib. - chos rgyal zla ba bzang po) (Chogyal Dawa Sangpo) - (c. 900 to 876 BC)…. the Kalachakra calculations put the life of Shakyamuni Buddha quite a bit earlier than is generally accepted, and the Tibetans produced a number of divergent calculations of the dates given here. Also, many of the names of the kings are often wrongly Sanskritized (back-translated from the Tibetan) in Western publications.
Bactrian Kshatriya Kings & Kapisa (644 AD)... Based on the account of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang, who visited in AD 644, it seems that in later times Kapisa was part of a kingdom ruled by a Buddhist kshatriya king holding sway over ten neighboring states, including Lampaka, Nagarahara, Gandhara, and Banu...."Legend reports that Vasubandhu came from the "Kingdom of Shambhala' ....otherwise known as the ancient kingdom of Kapisha, north of Kabul) located in the Afghanistan region.….
Alexandria in the Caucasus Indicus : Kapisa (323 BC)...Alexandria on the Caucasus (medieval Kapisa, modern Bagram) was a colony of Alexander the Great in the foothills of the Hindu Kush (Caucasus Indicus) mountains, in the country of the Paropamisade.....During the reign of Menander I the city was recorded as having a thriving Buddhist community, headed by Greek Buddhist monks….This was a multi-ethnic state, in which Greeks, Bactrians, western Iranians and Indians lived together. Greek religious practices, Iranian cults, Hinduism and Buddhism are all known from second-century Gandara. Coins were modeled on the drachmas of Athens, although they often had Indian legends....In 698 AD the marauder Obaidallah crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul....870 A.D. and marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination.
King Menander (Greek/Bactria: 165- 130 BC)...Tibetan histories and works on Kdla Chakrait 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 name of King Menander {Minendra) who erected a very lofty chaiti/a has been mentioned by the Kashmirian poet Ksomendra, in Avaddna Kalpalatd, a work that was finished in about 1035 A.D….
King Kanishka (Kushan Dynasty 127-151 AD)...King Kanishka of the Kushan Empire (its capital, Bagram, is situated slightly east of Bamian) ruled over Central Asia from 78-144 A.D. and is revered as a patron of Buddhism...Kanishka personally seems to have embraced both Buddhism and the Persian cult of Mithra... The coins of the Kushan dynasty show that open society honoured Brahman, Manichean, Greek, and Christian deities too.….
Khyunglung Ngülkhar: The Silver Palace & The Garuda Valley... Zhang Zhung consisted "of three different regions: sGob-ba, the outer; Phug-pa, the inner; and Bar-ba, the middle. The inner region is said to be sTag-gzig (Tazig) [often identified with Bactria]...some of the ancient texts describing the Zhang Zhung kingdom also claimed the Sutlej valley was Shambhala….
The Scorpion Seal & Ancient Shambhala... In 1980 and 1981, the Druk Sakyong, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, received the terma text The Scorpion Seal of the Golden Sun. As Acharya John Rockwell describes, “It was rather secret, a bit ahead of our times.” Many people were given the Werma sadhana at Kalapa Assemblies, but few realized that this practice was based on a terma. While the Druk Sakyong spoke about the Scorpion Seal to his students, and clearly stated that he wanted the community to aspire to practice it, this never happened in his lifetime.….
The Earth Witness Mudra & Sacred Earth Element...The enlightenment of the Buddha, realized through his own effort, was confirmed by the earth….Most of the numerous invaders of Shambhala were more interested in conquering the Earth than touching the earth.
Ancient Shambhala: The Oxus, Kabul & Sita Rivers...Tibetan texts mention that the Kingdom of Shambhala is located north of the river Sita….Obaidallah crossed the Sita River (aka Kabul River) and made a raid on Kabul in 698 ...
Navbahar in Balkh: Ancient Solar/Fire/Zoroastian/Buddhist Temple...Navbahar (also known as Nava Vihara) was a Buddhist stupa or monastery near the ancient city of Balkh in northern Afghanistan. The temple may have been an old Zoroastrian fire-temple…. 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..... In 715 Ibn Qutaybah inflicted heavy damage on Navbahar resulting in many monks fleeing to Khotan and Kashmir.
The Great Walled City Shamis en Balkh...The Ancient Kal'ah...It did not take a long time by the Iranian Buddhist converts to build a magnificent temple in Balkh....In a book written by Alexander Polyhistor 80 or 60 years before the birth of Christ he speaks about Buddhism, its relation with Iran and specially Balkh and gives detailed account about Shamans in Balkh...during the first century A.D. Balkh was famous with Buddhism temples and a large number of Iranian citizens in Balkh were followers of that faith and preached and propagated Buddhism.….
Central Asia: Cave Art & Petroglyphs (5000 BC)... The sun and moon figure prominently in the symbolic rock art of Upper Tibet. In Buddhist and Bon art the sun often cradles a crescent moon, signifying the union of the methods and wisdom that lead to enlightenment. In more ancient rock art the sun and moon usually appear separately on stone surfaces. In this composition the two of them were carved in conjunction with a swastika. The sun with its spokes and hub resembles a chariot wheel.….
TIGER : Ancient Central Asian Divine Power...There is much fascination with tigers in Tibet, a symbol of divine power, martial prowess and magical ability. ….In ancient times, honored heroes wore tiger skins.
Translation Agreement: Hermeneutics & Text Interpretation... In contrast to the chaotic scene today, where nobody can agree on a standard English word to translate any given Tibetan term, 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. ….
Natural Perfection ... Pristine Rigpa….Shenlha Okar...Purity of karma, putative rebirth, degree of meditation-concentration, facility in visualization, levels of attainment, and so on, are all issues pertinent to acceptance and success within a hierarchical cult....but to the formless experience of Dzogchen, such considerations have no relevance...any kind of preparation or fore-practice muddies the waters….
Syncretism in Silk Route Spiritual Traditions...Syncretism – the bringing together of different strands of belief and custom...The Rimé movement is often mistaken as trying to unite the various sects through their similarities, which is not the case. Rather, Rimé recognizes the differences between traditions and appreciates them, while also establishing a dialogue to create common ground.….After the year 2000, with the merging of the secular teachings of Shambhala and the Buddhist teachings of Vajradhatu into Shambhala Buddhism, completion of Shambhala Vajrayana Seminary (which requires taking Buddhist refuge and bodhisattva vows, as well as Buddhist vajrayana samaya vows) became a condition for receiving the highest Shambhala teachings.
Alchemy & Transformative Tantra in Central Asia...The form of ascesis expounded in the Tantras, unlike the Sutras and the Vinaya which taught the methods of the path of renunciation, taught the methods of transformation, where the poisons of the passions, far from being renounced were actually cultivated to their extreme, in order that their energy might be transmuted within the alchemical vessel of the physical human body into the luminous nectar of enlightened awareness. There was a deliberate and clear parallel here with alchemy-- the kleshas or passions through the alchemical process of sadhana were transmuted into Jnana (gnosis) or knowledge. Thus the things of the world that are usually renounced by the ascetic-- wine, meat, and sex-- which are seen as the fetters binding the spirit to matter and nature, especially the latter (women and sex) are not renounced in the higher Tantras but actually employed as the very means to enlightenment. ….
Sacred Mountains of Central Asia...Mt Hara, Indo-Iranian sacred mountain (Sanskrit: Mt Meru).... The opening verses urge the worship of the great mountains of the earth, the first being Hara Bareza (Hara in Mazanderan, the Alborz) and is said to surround the whole earth. The hollow cave. The world mountain, sometimes identified with the Hindu Kus. The mythical Lake Kasava.....Koh e Alburz.....(Romanized as Kuh i Elburz, Gory Koh-i-Elburz, Kohe Alborz, Kuh i Alborz (Persian: کوه البرز high mountain) is a mountain a ridge of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan, Balkh Province
Great Walls of China (200 BC)...The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China in part to protect the Chinese Empire or its prototypical states against intrusions by various nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike peoples or 'barbarians'. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC….
Circumambulation: Clockwise & Counter Clockwise...Then the other eight great warriors gathered around him and sang a song of praise, showering him with flowers. They circumambulated him right and left.….
The Secular Shambala Vision of Chogyam Trungpa...Shambhala vision applies to people of any faith, not just people who believe in Buddhism… the Shambhala vision does not distinguish a Buddhist from a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Moslem, a Hindu. That’s why we call it the Shambhala kingdom. A kingdom should have lots of spiritual disciplines in it. That’s why we are here….
Poetry, Ancient Central Asia & Shambhala Culture...Poetics is based on the idea that first we see our universe very clearly, very precisely, and very thoroughly.….The Indo-Europeans, speakers of the prehistoric parent language from which most European and some Asiatic languages are descended, most probably lived on the Eurasian steppes some five or six thousand years ago.....their traditional mythologies, religions, and poetries, point to elements of common heritage.
Lamed Thegpa, bLa-med theg-pa ...The Ninth Stage of Dzogchen...the word La,bLa..... is similar in meaning to the word 'soul'. All human beings possess a la, consciousness (sem) and life (sok). The la is an entity which is part of one's being but is unintelligent. Therefore it can be stolen, confiscated, regained, as well as reinforced by spiritual power." (Trungpa: 1978..pg 227)….
Ohrmazd : Ahura Mazda & Ancient Persian Asura Worship...The Rigden Kings of Shambhala other than Rigden Raudrachakrin are of the Asura family…. the Younger-Avesta demonized the daevas, and the post-Rigvedic texts demonized the asuras. ... The cosmic wars between the deities were symbolic of the earthly wars between the two groups.....three primary pre-Zoroastrian Aryan religionss: Mazda worship, Deva worship and Asura worship.
Ancient Bactria: Fondukistan, Bamiyan, Surkh Kotal & Ghazni ... Surkh Kotal), a 1st century AD fire temple believed to have been built by the Kushan emperor Kaniska I (c. 50 - 120 CE) whose statue was found within the temple. ……Built on the top and side of a large hill, the temple complex would have been a imposing site, before its destruction, towering over the vast valley plains below. It was accessed by a long flight of steps leading to a stairwell, above which was a monumental stairway some fifty five metres high, rising in four flights, flanked by four terraces, to a great Fire Temple on top of the hill.….(elevated candle?).
Werma & Drala Deities & Shambala Terma Texts...WERMA is a Tibetan term for a kind of spirit and spirit principle. A werma is an enlightened form of drala. This term is used mostly in the context of the Shambhala terma teachings and practices that relate to those such as the Werma Sadhana....The Werma Sadhana is a sadhana meditation practice unique to the Shambhala lineage. It is based upon a Shambhala terma received by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche at Casa Werma in Mexico in 1980….
Tiger,Lion,Garuda,Dragon & Ancient Shambhala...Traditionally, prayer flags would always be recognizable by the drawings of a horse at the center of the composition surrounded by four other animals—a lion, tiger, bird, and dragon....On early Bon prayer flags, a white yak was counted as one of the four. In addition, the bird depicted on Buddhist flags is believed to be a garuda, which has its origins in Indian culture and literature, while the bird image on Bon flags has a different meaning and history.....Buddhist prayer flags are generally amalgams of Indian Buddhist banners and Tibetan lungta.….
Ancient Central Asian Kingdoms & Shambala... The Four Sons of Heaven, the rulers of the four great countries of the Asiatic world: China, India, Iran, Throm in the north with King Gesar......Gesar's traditional four enemies were China to the East, India to the South, Tag zig (Persia) to the west, and Hor to the North." ......"In Jambudvipa there were six great countries where the true doctrine was propagated: India, Tibet, China, Khotan, Shambhala, and Kailash."….
ASHE: The Powerful Existence Arising Out of Basic Goodness... The stroke of ashé was first produced on the night of October 25, 1976, while Trungpa was leading a three-month seminary in Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin. ….
Ancient Scripts & Shambhala Texts...In the Nyingma tradition, the oldest Buddhist school, exist some other scripts named "terma scripts" or "dakini scripts"….
Proto-Indo-European Religions (4000 BC)... The Proto-Indo-Iranian Religions are most likely the source of all predominantly monotheistic religions today. ….The Vedic religions influenced, shaped and evolved more into Hinduism, eventually leading to Buddhism.
The Great Eastern Sun: Sharchen Nyima...We have messed everything up. That’s our problem. We have to go back to the sun and the moon, to dragons, tigers, lions, garudas (mythical birds). We can be like the blue sky, sweethearts, and the clouds so clean, so beautiful. We don’t have to try too hard to find ourselves. We haven’t really lost anything; we just have to tune in. ….
Ancient Seals, Symbols & Coinage of Bactria...Kanishka's coins portray images of Indo-Aryan, Greek, Iranian and even Sumero-Elamite divinities, demonstrating the religious syncretism in his beliefs. ...
The Divine Horses of Ancient Bactria...Since ancient times the"heavenly horses" were a political issue. The Persian emperor Cyrus married a daughter of King of Medes Astyages to gain access to the Bactrian horses, which he was unable to secure by force. Alexander the Great, through his marriage to Roxane, the daughter of a Bactrian king, acquired the fastest and most gallant horses of his time. It is to them he owed much of his successes on the battlefield. The Chinese, under Emperor Wu, in 103 B.C., even started a war to acquire those horses......
The Rigveda & Bactria (1700 BC)...Philological and linguistic evidence indicate that the Rigveda was composed in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, roughly between 1700–1100 BC….In the years after Rig Veda the proto Avestan peoples gradually separated from the Vedic Aryans due to intellectual conflict between the two groups of the Aryans
Buddhism Before Shakyamuni (9th c. BC)...Maitreya is sometimes represented seated on a throne Western-style, and venerated both in Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna Buddhism. Some have speculated that inspiration for Maitreya may have come from the ancient Indo-Iranian deity Mithra. ….
Magi (Magoi) of Ancient Central Asia (6th c. BC)...For Buddhists....Padmasambhava represents a second Buddha. For the Hindus he is the deathless Mahavatar .....For the Christian he is the Christ-consciousness. The Himalayan yogis know him as the Mahasiddha..... while amongst the sages he is known as the supreme Magi......For some initiates he is known as Arunagiri babaji, the holy master of the Sacred Red Mountain..... In our tradition he is the Paramguru, the supreme Guru of those who follow the way of Tantra.….dharmafellowship.org
Archaeology of the Balkh Region... The looting of the Archaeological Heritage of Afghanistan does not limit itself to a few sites ....One should also mention the sites of the regions of Herat, Maymana, Balkh, Samangan, Qunduz, Bakhshan, Takhar; the mountainous regions of the center of Afghanistan such as Bamiyan,Yakaoling, further south, Panjshir, Kohestan (especially Khom e- Zargar), Kapissa, Begram, Kabul, Jalriz, Maydan Shahr, Kandahar, Helmand, Seistan….
Kingdom of Shambhala: Architecture, Clothing, Diet, Medicine...The highest elite of the country of Shambhala is formed by the priests. The monks wear white, speak Sanskrit, and are all initiated into the mysteries of the Kalachakra Tantra. The majority of them are considered enlightened….
Central Asian Historical Timetable...45,000 BC - 100 AD...After 2400 BC, throughout Central Asia the growth of urban societies was severely challenged. Within a span of some three hundred years, none of the major centers that developed during the first half of the 3rd millennium were still occupied. The precise reasons for this "urban collapse" remain a mystery.….
Anau Seal in Bactria (2300 BC)... 5,000 years ago an ancient Sumerian would have some understanding of what a central Asian was, or what central Asian artifacts were and vice versa.….
BMAC Culture of Bactria (2300 BC)... The reasons that the cities of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex were suddenly abandoned are not known. Possibly the widespread calamity known as the Bronze Age Collapse impacted trade with settlements in Central Asia. Or possibly a severe drought or other environmental catastrophe forced the BMAC settlers in Central Asia to flee.….
Akar Werma, Akar Thegpa, Kunzang Akor & Shenlha Okar...Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Namkha Drimed Rinpoche.......shared visions of Akar Werma, the deity whom the Vidyadhara called Shiwa Ökar.….The deity Kunzang Akor is the meditational form of Shenlha Okar.
Terma Traditions & Shambala Texts...Certain Shambhala practices derive from specific terma texts of Trungpa Rinpoche's such as Letter of the Black Ashe, Letter of the Golden Key that Fulfills Desire, Golden Sun of the Great East, and the Scorpion Seal of the Golden Sun, in long and short versions….
Airyana Vaeja, Arya Varta & Shambhala... The concept, description and qualities of Shambala coincide with those for Arya Varta / Airyana Vaeja, the Aryan homeland, and help provide us with added information on its possible location.….
The Five Elements in Shamanism, Tantra & Dzogchen...Indigenous healing and spiritual traditions around the world are based on an understanding of the five elements. In the Tibetan tradition, these are known as space, air, fire, water and earth, and are understood as the underlying energies from which the physical world, our bodies, our emotions, and our minds arise. The elements are addressed in all nine levels of teachings of Bön, including shamanism, tantra and Dzogchen.….
The Avestan Texts (600 BC)... The Persian archives were held at Persepolis yet Alexander the Great uncharacteristically burnt the city and murdered many of Persia’s leading scholars, though they had willingly surrendered expecting mercy. The Dinkard, a ninth century Persian work says there were only ever two copies of Zoroaster’s monumental work, one of which was burned and the other was confiscated by the Greeks….
The Five Elements: Atar: Sacred Fire...the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was Shams-e Bhala ... a pre-historic Bactrian sun/fire temple...
Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring & The Kingdom of Shambhala...According to the "gZi-brjid", Olmo Lung-ring was also known as Shambhala in Sanskrit ...
The Hephthalites & Bactria (500 AD)... Balkh came under the Hepthalites (Huns) by the of 4th Century A.D...... Kanishka had been the first Buddhist to rule Balkh. The early Huns worshipped fire and Sun. Subsequently, Hun Kings became followers of Buddhism..
Chan Buddhism, Zen & Shambhala... .Bodhidharma was clearly a Persian Zoroastrian trader, possibly a Mithraist of sorts ...
Cintamani: The Wish Fulfilling Gem...The word "mani" here means "pearl" while "cinta" is "desire, love....
Shambala in the Mahabharata (500 BC)...The Buddhist myth of Shambhala is an adaptation of the earlier Hindu myth of Kalki of Sambhala found in the Mahabharata and the Puranas...
Early Shambhala Researchers (987 AD -1820 AD...etc)... As for 'sham', it could either be connected (for reasons given below) with the Indian God Shiva, if the term is ascribed an Indian origin, or with the word 'Shamash' of Sumerian origin meaning "sun", which comes into modern Arabic as 'shams'....
Greek Buddhism in Bactria (180 BC)....the Mahavamsa, Greek monks seem to have been active proselytizers of Buddhism during the time of Menander ...
Shamis-en-Balkh, Sam-bala & Historical Shambhala... Texts from the Tun huang site identify Oddiyana as "Shamis en Balkh" in modern day Balkh, Afghanistan where many ruins, Buddhist stupas and monasteries existed. Oddiyana was conquered in about 176 B.C......
Okar Research Maps... Ancient Central Asia...Click on the maps to enlarge.....
Ancient Khorasan: Land Where The Sun Rises (2000 BC)... Khorasan was originally inhabited by the ancient Indo-Iranians in the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex in around 2000 BC....
Ancient Tibet (1196 BC - 950 AD)... as early as the sixth and seventh centuries, a period when the Hephthalites had extensive links with the Tibetans...In 801, Tibetans were active as far west as Balkh, Samarkand and Kabul. Caliphate forces began to gain the upper hand, and the Tibetan governor of Kabul submitted to the Caliphate and became a Muslim about 812 or 815 AD.
Ancient Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan (600 AD)... The ancient Kingdom of Khotan was one of the earliest Buddhist states in the world and a cultural bridge across which Buddhist culture and learning were transmitted from India to China ...
The Tibetan Muslims of Skardu Baltistan...The Gesar epic even seems to have played a small role in the struggle of a Tibetan speaking Muslim people in Pakistan. The Baltistan region, centered around Skardu, is home to some 300,000 people whose mother tongue is Balti, a language of the Tibetan-Ladakhi family. ”We are the only people in this region to have had our own script since the 6th century AD" ...
King Ashoka (Maurya: 324-187 BC)... Ashoka explains he sent emissaries to the Hellenistic kings as far as the Mediterranean, and to people throughout India, claiming they were all converted to the Dharma as a result. He names the Greek rulers of the time, inheritors of the conquest of Alexander the Great, from Bactria to as far as Greece and North Africa, ...
Masculine Deities in Ancient Central Asia (600 BC)...the whole of the macrocosm is kept in being by the Fravashis (Dralas ?), the spiritual powers that are indissolubly linked with each human being and with humanity as a whole....
Zurvanism: Zurwan-Mithra, Sun God and the God of Time (400 BC)...Zurvan... represents White Compassion-Essence. In many Manichaean texts this Father of Light is called Zurvan, the Father of Time. ...
Pamir Mountains and Uighur Khocho (800 AD)... the actual physical location of Shambhala. According to the Dro Tradition a young man, the son of two yoga practioners, heard that boddhisattvas themselves were teaching the Dharma somewhere to the north of India in the country of Shambhala. Eager to learn the Dharma he set out on a journey to find these teachers. Beyond India but before reaching Shambhala, we are told, he encountered a vast desert which would have taken four months to cross.....
The Europoid Yuezhi in Bactria (200 BC)... The Yuezhi may have been a Europoid people, as indicated by the portraits of their kings on the coins they struck following their exodus to Transoxiana (2nd–1st century BCE)...
Shamanism in Ancient Central Asia (500 BC)... one of the ways the Buddhist schools of Tibet (and the Christian missionaries of North America) attempted to suppress Indigenous Tibetan Religion, was by accusing Bon practitioners of being ‘intellectually uncivilized’ – of being mere primitive shamans. ...
Taoism & Ancient Shambhala (600 BC - 600 AD)...Shambhala is the Central Asian kingdom.......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 ...
Japanese Shinto & Ancient Shambala (6th C. BC)... After the Meiji Imperial Restoration of 1868, the new government purged Shinto of Buddhist elements, or ordered to clearly segregate Buddhism from Shinto.....Buddhist effigies were ordered to be removed from Shinto shrines and all traces of Buddhism were purged from the imperial household.....
Gandharan Style Greek - Buddhist Art (5th C. BC - 5th C. AD)...Trungpa Rinpoche said that the thangkas in Tibet had really lost it..... But he really totally admired Gandharan style ...
Confucius & the Shambhala Tradition (551–479 BCE)...Chögyam Trungpa incorporated elements from numerous traditions into the Shambhala Path that he thought would be beneficial to practitioners: From Confucianism comes a framework of Heaven, Earth, and Man, and the Court Principle for understanding the proper relationship between different elements of society ...
Kingdom of Gandhāra (1st-5th C. AD)...Gandhāra is noted for the distinctive Gandhāra style of Buddhist art, which developed out of a merger of Greek, Syrian, Persian, and Indian artistic influence. ...
Fravashis, Zhidag, Gandharvas, Dralas...Tibetan Buddhists believe that there are countless types of beings other than humans and animals. Some are more powerful, happier, and more intelligent than humans, and others less so. Usually if there is no common karma or karmic connection, beings of different types will not encounter each other....
Shiwa Okar, Shenlha Okar and Akar Werma...In the Bon tradition, King Gesar of Ling is sent to Tibet by Shenlha Okar, and Trungpa Rinpoche's blending of native traditions and Indian Buddhism appears to echo Mipham's....
'Od gSal Lha & The Shambhala Deities... Ölmo Lungring or Shambhala, this imperishable sacred land, which is the spiritual center of the world, existed on earth from the very beginning of the human race. It was the place where the celestial gods of the Clear Light (`od gsal lha) descended from heaven to earth in order to take up incarnation as human beings and ensoul the physical bodies which had been prepared for them....
Vajra Caste, Secular Shambhala & The Kalachakra...The purpose of the Vajra Caste was not force everyone to convert to Buddhism but for people to re-discover the purity of their own traditions. ...
Rimé Movement & Non-Sectarianism (19th C. AD)... In the 19th century, a movement funded by the secular authorities in Derge, Kham began to establish centers of learning encouraging the study of traditions different from the dominant Gelug tradition in central Tibet....
Feminine Deities in Ancient Central Asia...Unlike Buddhism, whose deities are generally genderless or male, the Shintō tradition has long revered the female element. The emperor of Japan, even today, claims direct decent from the Shintō Sun Goddess Amaterasu. ...
Ancient Historians in Bactria (400 BC).."Khorasan" is derived from Middle Persian khor (meaning "sun") and asan (or ayan literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"), hence meaning "land where the sun rises"..
Ancient Historians in Bactria (400 BC).."Khorasan" is derived from Middle Persian khor (meaning "sun") and asan (or ayan literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"), hence meaning "land where the sun rises"..
Balkh and the Genghis Khan Destruction (1220 AD)..Kublai Khan told Marco Polo: 'The Christians worship Jesus, the Saracens worship Mohammed, the Jews worship Moses and the idolaters worship Sakyamuni Burkhan..
Ancient China & the Four Sons of Heaven... Gesar's traditional four enemies were China to the East, India to the South, Tag zig (Persia) to the west, and Hor to the North...
Greek/Bactrian Buddhism (200 BC)... the Gandharan school of art that emerged in north-west India is that it has been clearly influenced by the naturalism of the Classical Greek style. Thus, while these images still convey the inner peace that results from putting the Buddha's doctrine into practice, they also give us an impression of people who walked and talked, etc. and slept much as we do...
King Gesar...Phrom and Tazig (743 AD)...the Four Sons of Heaven, the rulers of the four great countries of the Asiatic world: China, India, Iran, Throm (Phrom) in the north with King Gesar...
Shambhala: Tribes, Clans and Castes...Tonpa Shenrab was born at the palace Barpo Sogye of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring. His father was Gyalbon Thodkar of the Mu clan ...
gZi-brjid: The Ziji & Shenrab Miwo (1847 BC?)...The work of Shenrap still exists in Tibet in the form of 400 volumes, but it has undergone heavy Buddhist editing.
Nava Vihara in Balkh: Sun Temple/Fire Temple/Monastery/Mosque..Navbahar (also known as Nava Vihara) was a Buddhist stupa or monastery near the ancient city of Balkh in northern Afghanistan. The temple may have been an old Zoroastrian fire-temple...
Etymology: Sakya, Shaka, Shakya, Saka, Sacae...Dawa Zangpo was the first of the seven "SHAKYA" kings of Shambhala....
Shambhala Research....Partial References ...November 2012
Pliny the Elder (23 AD) & Bactrian Geography...Balkh, is the name given to Zariasta....town is Zariasta, which was afterwards called Bactra, from the river.......
Chitral & Oddiyana Kashmir... the birth place of Garab Dorje not simply as 'Uddiyana' but as being close to Lake Kutra in the region of Dhanakosha; thus indicating present day North-eastern Kashmir (now Pakistan) - a region right in the middle between Chitral, Gilgit and Swat. ..
The Kalash People & Ancient Shambhala...Kalash has ancient Bactrian Roots, it resisted the Muslim takeover for 800 years..
Tantra in Central Asia (400 AD) ....Tantric movements led to the formation of many esoteric schools of Hinduism and Buddhism. It has influenced the Hindu, Sikh, Bön, Buddhist, and Jain religious traditions
Kalkin Kings of Sambhala (277 BC)..... the Vidyadhara indicated that the Shambhala terma had originated with the Rigden Kings, Shiwa Ökar, or Gesar of Ling....
Rigden Kings of Shambhala (881 BC)..... KALACHAKRA...(dus kyi khor lo)...Taught by the Buddha to Dawa Sangpo in 881 BC...
Ancient Languages & Linguistics of Bactria..... Bactrian could legitimately have been ranked amongst the world's most important languages. As the language of the Kushan kings, Bactrian must have been widely known throughout a great empire....
The Parsee of India & Shambhala ....Followers of Ilm-e-Kshnoom in India believe in reincarnation and practice vegetarianism, two principles unknown to Orthodox Zoroastrianism.
Shambhala and the Kingdom of Oddiyana ....places where Vajrayana teachings are preserved and taught. Uddiyana is one such realm, and it is said that it is located somewhere in what is now known as Pakistan.
Sacred Feminine & Ancient Shambhala ....the female protectress of Balkh, Anahita goddess of the Oxus
Human Feminine & Ancient Shambhala "..hair like the petals of the Utpala flower, eyes like the fruit of the indigo, brow is of the greatest serenity and full like the moon, eyebrows of wide arch and like the letter o, cheeks are of clear color and like blood-red rubies in a cup of ivory,..."
Kingdom of Zhang-zhung & Shambhala ..Olmolungring (Shambhala?) was northwest of Mt Kailas, twice as far from it as the peak is from Shigatse, a major town in central Tibet. (Newman, 1985).....(i.e.. 1200 Miles?)....
Indo-Europeans & Indo-Aryans in Bactria (2500 - 1500 BC) ..Bactria was a homeland of Indo-European tribes who moved south-west into Iran and into North-Western India around 2500–2000 BCE.....
Alexander The Great in Bactria ( 334 BC) ..Alexander was more concerned with conquering the Earth than touching the earth...
Mithraism & The Eye of Mithra (1400 BC) ..Mithra is young. His eye is the sun. The rays of the sun are his arms. He wears glistening garments. His abode is golden. He is a king and a universal monarch. Mithra is ever waking and watches in darkness....
Early Buddhism in Balkh (563 BC) ..Trapusa and Bahalika from Balkh in Afghanistan, are attributed to be the first two lay disciples of the Buddha....
Padmasambhava (732 AD) & Chakdara, Pakistan .. Padmasambhava from Uddiyana (Bactria)....nothing is really reported concerning Padmasambhava’s life in Kashmir..... In Kashmir he earned the name Sthiramati, ‘the Youthful Genius.’....
Mani & the Manichaeans (216-274 AD) ..One of the main principles of the Manichaeans was a vegetarian diet of mainly green and yellow foods.......
The Shambhala Path and The Kalachakra .."Do Shambhala Training students have to become Buddhists at some point to continue?” He said, “No, Shambhala Training is a complete path to enlightenment–it has view, meditation, action."......
The Shambhala Path & The Bon Tradition ..Chögyam Trungpa incorporated elements from numerous traditions into the secular Shambhala path...
elements in the Bön tradition worth exploring: Shenlha Okar practices and abishekas, the Nine Lha who created existence out of non-existence, the Werma & Dralha deities of Mt Kailas, the Zhangzhung Kingdom, Shenrab Miwo's Iranian origins, and the numerous Bonpo Sang & Enrichment Rituals......
Zarathustra, Zoroastrianism & Balkh (6th C. BC) ..Ancient Bactrians....prior to Islam would pray five times per day ....but, contrary to the Muslims, they would pray in the direction of the Sun and/or to the Fire Temple........
Origins of Sufism & Ancient Bactria ...The Sufis will often say that Sufism came before Islam and there will be Sufism after Islam too. This is the spirit of Balkh, an enduring ancient legacy fed by diverse streams of influence over the last 2500+ years......
Shambhala Vision & Dzogchen ..Dzogchen did not originate in Tibet itself, but had a Central Asian origin and was subsequently brought to Central Tibet by certain masters known as Mahasiddhas or great adepts..
Kingdom of Shambala & the Moslem Conquest (670-870 AD) ..Bactria was especially important between 600 BC and 600 AD, serving as a meeting place not only for overland trade between East and West but also for the crosscurrents of religious and artistic ideas..
BACTRIA, Tagzig, Khorasan, Paktra, Zariaspa, Vahilka & Shambhala ..Walled palace cities existed in 900 BC near the present sites of Termez, Merv (Gyaur-Kala), Samarkand, Afrasiab and Bactra (Balk) in southern Bactria.
Bactria: Land of a Thousand Cities ..The Aryans first settled on the Oxus (AMU DARYA in BACTRIA) around 4000 B.C. They called this river the Sarasvati and here Vedic culture developed. ..Beginning of the famed Bactrian Empire of a thousand cities, wallowing in wealth....
Historical Timetable of Bactria Region (100 AD - Present) ..Alexandra David-Neel, in her script "Les Nouvelles Littéraires", says that Shamballa is geographically placed near the ancient city of Balkh.
Swat Valley, Dankanoshka Lake and Padmasambhava ...Padmasambhava is said to have been born in a village near the present day town of Chakdara in Lower Dir District, Pakistan, which was then a part of Oddiyana..
Ancient Balkh ....Bahlika, Daxia, Altyn-Depe, Paktra ...The Oxus civilization was a Bronze Age Central Asian culture dated to ca. 2300–1700 BC and centered on the upper Amu Darya (Oxus River)..
Ancient Bactria Region ...Bactria, by some writers, is called "the pride of Ariana". The ancient local citizen called it "Bactria the beautiful". Bactria was popular for its fertility.
Great Khorasan Road & The Silk Route ... "Khorasan" is derived from Middle Persian khwar (meaning "sun") and āsān (or ayan literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"), hence meaning "land where the sun rises"
Bactra (Balkh) in Bactria Map ...Bactria was the homeland of Indo-European tribes who moved south-west into Iran and into North-Western India around 2500–2000 BC.
Ancient Balkh from Google Earth ...The palace of Balkh was once decorated with silk, gold, and gemstones. Bactria was known as the Land of a Thousand Cities....each with a Calah (Castle, Kala) and a King.
The Grounding of Johnny Blue
Shamis en Balkh ... Bactra, The Mother of All Cities ... in 630 AD, there were in Balkh about a hundred Buddhist monasteries, with 30,000 monks, and a large number of stupas....The Nava Vihara Monastery was it is said build on an old fire-temple called Sam-i-bhala (Elevated Candle).
Ai Khanum...Alexandria on Oxus (4th c. BC) ..Perhaps the greatest of the "thousand cities of Bactria", known to us today as Ai Khanoum was built where the Oxus (Amu Darya) and Kokcha Rivers meet in northern Afghanistan..
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The First Google Blogger Post was October 31, 2012....The notes were previously on Angelfire and Geocities Free Blog Sites beginning in 1992 in Vermont.
Okar Research Index of Notes.....2012 - 2016
Notes on Sacred Warriorship
Dzogchen Explorations
Previous Okar Research Blog Sites (Geocities/Angelfire/etc...1992 - 2012
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"Shambhala, as originally proclaimed by Chögyam Trungpa, states that "there is a natural source of radiance and brilliance in the world, which is the innate wakefulness of human beings. This is the basis, in myth and inspiration, of the Kingdom of Shambhala, an enlightened society of fearlessness, dignity and compassion." Furthermore, Shambhala vision applies to people of any faith, not just people who believe in Buddhism... the Shambhala vision does not distinguish a Buddhist from a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Moslem, a Hindu. That's why we call it the Shambhala kingdom. A kingdom should have lots of spiritual disciplines in it.".....Trungpa, Chogyam (1999). "Great Eastern Sun - The Wisdom of Shambhala". ISBN 1-57062-293-0
John Hopkins....February 2021
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
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