Saturday, February 2, 2013

The Kalachakra Symbolism & Ancient Central Asian Traditions

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"The individual syllables are represented in a in a stylized version of Sanskrit Lantsa (or Ranjana) characters. (Lantsa is an Indian Buddhist script, probably of late Pala origin, derived from Sanskrit, although certain scholars date it as late as the seventeenth century. It was used in Nepal until recent history. It is specifically used for mantra syllables and the titles of sacred texts.)....http://kalachakranet.org/kalachakra_tantra_10-fold_powerful.html

"In Sanskrit, each syllable is a mantra. Tibetan writing was derived originally from Devanagari -- the script in which Sanskrit is usually written. The All Powerful Ten Symbol is written in Lentsa, a decorative script in which the syllables, so to speak, have come "half way back" from Tibetan to Sanskrit.....The central design in KALACHAKRA is an adaptation of The All Powerful Ten Symbol .....reading from the right, the blue is Sanskrit "ha" in Devanagari, (it can also be construed as "Ma"); the green, "ksa;" the reds, "ra;" the yellow, "la;" the white, "va;" and the blacks, "ya." Although each syllable is extremely elongated and stylized, its Sanskrit form is still clearly discernible.....the entire symbol is a mantra composed of seven letters and the three symbols of sun, moon and flame.....in Sanskrit as: "Om, ha k-sa ma la va ra ya-m." It was also read for me by a Tibetan Lama from Ladakh as: "Om hung hyan mala wara ya hung pet." In Tibet, it is called the rNam-bcu-dban-ldan. In Sanskrit it is known as Dasaksaro vaci"....http://janhaag.com/NP13Kala.html

"External Kalachakra deals with the world and external phenomena. It is concerned with the study of the elements of the universe in their dynamic relations; that is, with the interactions of cosmic phenomena and their transformation in time.......Internal kAlachakra deals with internal phenomena, namely the subtle composition of the body of the yogin. It deals with the nature and functions of the subtle channels (nADis), the energy centers (chakras) and the internal winds that circulate in them (prANa), and the essential drops of energy (bindu). The circulation of the vital winds in the channels and the chakras is linked to the cosmic energy of the stars and the planets......It must be noted that though the concept of Shambhala has been adopted by the Buddhists, the oldest kAlachakra texts speak nothing about Buddhism. It is stated clearly that before Buddhism, other prevalent religions were taught in Shambhala and after Buddhism dies, as all religions must, Shambhala will continue to send forth new religious impulses into the world..".....http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=745&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

The Five Elements: Directions, colors, lights, wisdoms,

The Five Elements In Tibetan Shamanism and Tantra.....by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.......October 1998......"In many indigenous traditions, we relate with the raw elements. Fire Pujas, Earth Ceremonies, rituals near springs, Sky and Space rituals.....Basically we are relating with the raw elements and their related spiit realms.....If you do not have a reference place when we talk about spirits, do a little dzogchen practive and feel spacious......Inviting the four guests......The shrine is basically the house of the enlightened first guest....such as Shen Lha Okar.,.....not really for the 2nd (Gods) , 3rd (Karmic Guests), or 4th (Guests of Compassion) Guests......"

The Five Pure Lights (Tibetan: 'od lnga) is an essential teaching in the Dzogchen tradition of Bön and Tibetan Buddhism. For the deluded, matter seems to appear. This is due to non-recognition of the five lights. Matter includes the mahābhūta or classical elements, namely: space, air, water, fire, earth. Knowledge (rigpa) is the absence of delusion regarding the display of the five lights. This level of realization is called rainbow body....The Five Pure Lights are essentially the Five Wisdoms (Sanskrit: pañca-jñāna). Tenzin Wangyal holds that the Five Pure Lights become the Five Poisons if we remain deluded, or the Five Wisdoms and the Five Buddha Families if we recognize their purity. In the Bonpo Dzochen tradition, the Five Pure Lights are discussed in the Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud and within this auspice two texts in particular go into detail on them as The Six Lamps (Tibetan: སྒྲོན་མ་དྲུག་, Wylie: sgron ma drug) and The Mirror of the Luminous Mind (Tibetan: འོད་གསལ་སེམས་ཀྱི་མེ་ལོང་, Wylie: 'od gsal sems kyi me long).

"A great deal of the ceremonial of both the branches of the Aryans goes back to a very remote antiquity, as also some of the social and other customs. The religious ceremonies depended upon the yearly change of seasons. Hence the yearly Gahambars, six in number, which the Iranians celebrated in the ancient days and which are even to-day observed by the Parsis. These corresponded pretty closely to the annual sacrificial cycle observed in the Veda. The chief objects of popular worship among these two nations were the Elements-Fire, Water, Earth and Air-and the Lights of Heaven-the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. These were invoked as Heavenly Beings."..http://www.farvardyn.com/zoroaster.php

'Ashoo Pezeshk' (Health Physician)......"Ashoo" meant cleanliness and health. It referred to both cleanliness of the body and the environment, as well as intrinsic health (that of the mind and soul)...... for keeping the four divine elements (water, wind, earth and fire) free from pollution.....

Avesta...."The Vendidad, the priestly code of the Parsees, contains in 22 chapters (fargard) a kind of dualistic account of the creation (chap. 1), the legend of Yima and the golden age (chap. 2), and in the bulk of the remaining chapters the precepts of religion with regard to the cultivation of the earth, the care of useful animals, the protection of the sacred elements, such as earth, fire and water, the keeping of a man's body from defilement, together with the requisite measures of precaution, elaborate ceremonies of purification, atonements, ecclesiastical expiations ,and so forth."

Avesta....each of the four elements has its separate guardian, from the Nuristan (region of light),

"Iranians also refrained from contaminating the four elements. They would not bathe nor wash dirty objects in flowing water, and urinating or spitting into water was considered a great sin. Materials that were foul smelling or that generated smoke were never thrown into the fire, and the fire-holder was always kept clean. The earth and the soil were kept free from pollution and for this reason, the dead were placed on high ground and became food for birds and carnivores. Wild rue and frankincense were always burned inside houses and around the neighborhood so the air would smell good, and insects and bacteria would die. These customs are still practiced by Iranians and other nations, with some people also burning wild rue to repel envy and to cure the sick."

Specific rituals and sacrifices of the Vedic religion include, among others:
The Soma rituals, which involved the extraction, utility and consumption of Soma: The Agnistoma or Soma sacrifice
Fire rituals involving oblations (havir): The Agnihotra or oblation to Agni, a sun charm, The Agnicayana, the sophisticated ritual of piling the fire altar.

"Iranians and Indians share the same ancestors identified as proto-Indo-Iranians. Their society was divided into three main groups: priests, warriors and herdsman. From the fourth to the third millennium BC the Proto-Indo-Iranians forged a significant religious tradition that has influenced their descendants, the Brahmans of India and the Zoroastrians of Iran. The two groups were very likely separated around the third millennium BC and linguistically became two distinct groups, the Indians and Iranians. ....Pre-Zoroastrian religion of the ancient ancestors centered on natural/nature cults mostly belonging to the Stone Age, such as the cults of water and fire. Many elements of these ancient cults have survived in Zoroastrian and Indian Vedic literature. Elements such as water and fire were personified. Water itself became a goddess the ‘Apas’ (modern Persian Aab) with specific prayers and libations made to her. The elders of each household regularly made offerings (from the plant and animal world) to the nearest pool or spring and there were communal ceremonies involving the priestly rites. Fire, named Atar (modern Persian Azar / Atash) was also worshipped with offerings consisting of clean dry fuel, incense and animal fat if available."

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"The Rva tradition also credits the pandit Tsilupa with bringing the Kalachraka doctrine from Shambhala to India. Tsilupa had studied at many of the major centers of Buddhist learning including Ratnagiri (northeast of current-day Cuttack in Orissa), Vikramasila, and Nalanda. He soon realized that none of these teachings could help him achieve buddhahood in this lifetime. He then heard that in Shambhala more advanced teachings were available which would allow him to quickly attain enlightenment. Some sources hint that he actually examined some Kalachakra texts while still in India and thus purposely set out on his journey to Shambhala to obtain more texts and initiation into these teachings. This then would mean that the Kalachakra in some form already existed in India. Little more is said on this subject, however, and the Kalachakra as it was expounded first at Nalanda in India and later in Tibet is said to be based solely on the texts which Tsilupa supposedly brought back from Shambhala. In any case, Tsilupa set out for Shambhala in the company of a group of traders."...http://www.shambhala.mn/Files/transmission.html

MANICHAEISM........."According to Mani the First-Man now emanates sons as a man who puts on his armor for the combat. These five sons are the five elements opposed to the five aeons of darkness: Clear Air, Refreshing Wind, Bright Light, Life-Giving Waters, and Warming Fire. He put on first the aerial breeze, then threw over himself light as a flaming mantle, and over this light a covering of water; he surrounded himself with gusts of wind, took light as his lance and shield, and cast himself downward toward the line of danger."

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 Healing Practice of the Five Elements Goddesses” was composed by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, and is explained in his latest book, “Healing with Form, Energy and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen”. It is presented here in traditional Tibetan pecha format, as are our other practice books, printed on a series of individual cards. In addition to instruction on practicing with the individual elemental goddesses (of earth, water, fire, air and space) as is presented in the book, here there is also a detailed explanation on “The Combination Practice of the Five Elements Goddesses.”

Devs, in Hinduism, are celestial beings that control forces of nature such as fire, air, wind, etc.

" The identification of Thagi-Masada with the Greek god Poseidon by Herodotus was probably due to the fact that the Iranian god of wisdom is usually associated with the cosmic ocean ("heavens" regarded as "celestial waters") - thus the the Vedic equivalent of Ahura-Mazda was the god Varuṇa of the Asuras.".....Ardavarz comment on your post "Shamis en Balkh ...Asuras & Ahura Mazda":

"From the ancient 'nameless religion' of Tibet, a system is preserved in current Tibetan astrology which relates to Five Individual Forces (La - vitality, Sok - life potential, Lu - bodily health, Wangthang - personal power, and Lungta - wind horse) or energies within a person. These energies relate to the Chinese animals and elements, for example, the La force of the Horse is Wood etc. This system is unique to Tibet and is important to establish yearly horoscopes.......The Bon religion.....Methods are given for divination, warding off negative influences, astrological calculations and medical diagnosis...The four types of astrological calculation systems....
The mirror of magical horoscopes
The circle of Parkhas (trigrams) and Mewas (magic squares in 9 colours) - Chinese origin
The Wheel of Time (Kalachakra) of the Elements
The Jushak method: calculation of interdependence
A very important Bon deity is called Balchen Geko, who is said to govern time and the three world of existence. In this respect the deity is analogous to Kalachakra in Buddhism.
The Tibetan system works with a 360-day lunar year and cycles of 60 and 180 years. The La moves through the body in a monthly cycle."...http://kalachakranet.org/ta_tibetan_astrology.html

"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."...https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/access/content/group/9f340e95-f808-4bc0-80bc-b23bcadd072e/copyrighted%20pdfs%20of%20texts/newmanbriefhistorykalachakra.pdf

"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."...Chögyam Trungpa (Great Eastern Sun, The Wisdom of Shambhala, p 133).

"Rimé is a Tibetan word which means "no sides", "non-partisan" or "non-sectarian". In a religious context, the word ri-mé is usually used to refer to the "Eclectic Movement" between the Buddhist Nyingma, Sakya, and Kagyu traditions, along with the non-Buddhist Bön religion. It does not mean "non-conformist" or "non-committal"; nor does it mean forming a new School or system that is different from the existing ones. The Buddha forbade his studentsto criticise the teachings and teachers of other religions and cultures."

John Newman, one of the world's leading Kalachakra scholars, explains: "The Kalacakra, or "Wheel of Time," was the last major product of Indian Vajrayana Buddhism. All late Vajrayana Buddhism is syncretic - it takes elements from non-Buddhist religious traditions and assimilates them to a Buddhist context. However, in the Kalacakra tantra syncretism is unusually obvious and is even self-conscious—the tantra makes little effort to disguise its borrowings from the Śaiva, Vaisnava, and Jaina traditions. The basic structure of the Kalacakra system is itself non-Buddhist: the Kalacakra uses the ancient idea of the homology of the macrocosm and the microcosm as the foundation of its soteriology."

KALACHAKRA...(dus kyi khor lo)...Taught by the Buddha to Dawa Sangpo in South India in 881 BC (Dudjom:1991 pg 947)...Appeared in India from 966 AD with Chilupa. (Jeffrey Hopkins:1985, pg 61)... Introduced into Tibet from India in 1026 AD.(Norbu:1995,pg 272)... "Shen Rab explained the mighty Kalachakra Tantra in the Palace called dBan chen sa bdag." (Kvaerne: 1971, pg 221).... [Was the Kalachakra taught in Zhang Zhung and Persia before India? before Tibet?]...."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." (Kongtrul: 1995..pg 271)..."The Kalachakra is one of the last Sanskrit works to have been written in a Central Asian land." (Geoffrey Hopkins: 1985..pg 60)..."King Sucandra wrote the 12,000 verse root text to the Kalachakra in an unknown tongue called the 'twilight language.' (Bryant: 1992..pg 68)..."Sixteen translations of the Sri Kalachakra from Sanskrit to Tibetan appeared between the 11th and 14th centuries." (Bryant: 1992..pg 71)...

Chogyam Trungpa on ultimate Shambhala: "the kingdom of Shambhala itself, is not some mysterious heavenly realm. It is the realm of the cosmic mirror, the primordial realm that is always available to human beings if they relax and expand their minds." (Trungpa: 1984..Pg 174)....

Kongtrul, Jamgon (Lodro Taye)..."Myriad Worlds: Buddhist Cosmology in Abhidharma, Kalachakra, and Dzog-chen"...(1995)
Hopkins, Geoffrey..."Commentary to the Initiation Rite of Kalachakra"....1985
Mullin, Glen..."The Practice of the Kalachakra"...1992
Geshe Lhundub Sopa..."The Wheel of Time: The Kalachakra in Context"...1992
"Kalachakra: The Wheel of Time"...(VHS)...1996

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….February 2013

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