Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Eusebeia & Dharma on the Edict of King Ashoka at Kandahar (258 BC)

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"Venerate me and make offerings."

"Eusebeia (Greek: εὐσέβεια from εὐσεβής "pious" from εὖ eu meaning "well", and σέβας sebas meaning "reverence", itself formed from seb- meaning sacred awe and reverence especially in actions) is a Greek word abundantly used in Greek philosophy as well as in the New Testament, meaning to perform the actions appropriate to the gods. The root seb- (σέβ-) is connected to danger and flight, and thus the sense of reverence originally described fear of the gods."

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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"

"Eusebeia..... (ευσεδεια)...( Greek)......meritorious piety; ‘to change nothing of what our forefathers have left behind’ – this is eusebeia (Isocr.7.30); for Platonists, piety means not simply bringing the sacrificial offerings and fulfilling of cultic duties, but also humility, supported by philosophy and combined with love ( eros), faith ( pistis) and knowledge ( gnosis) that finally lead to assimilation to God."....The Golden Chain: An Anthology of Platonic and Pythagorean Philosophy, by Dr. Algis Uždavinys

"The word was used in Classical Greece where it meant behaving as tradition dictates in one's social relationships and towards the gods. One demonstrates eusebeia to the gods by performing the customary acts of respect (festivals, prayers, sacrifices, public devotions). By extension one honors the gods by showing proper respect to elders, masters, rulers and everything under the protection of the gods."

"Dharma (/ˈdɑrmə/; Sanskrit: धर्म dharma, Pali: धम्म dhamma) is a key concept with multiple meanings in the Indian religions Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism.....In Hinduism, dharma signifies behaviors that are considered to be in accord with rta, the order that makes life and universe possible, and includes duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and ‘‘right way of living’’..... In Buddhism dharma means "cosmic law and order", but is also applied to the teachings of the Buddha..... In Buddhist philosophy, dhamma/dharma is also the term for "phenomena"...... In Jainism dharma refers to the teachings of the Jinas and the body of doctrine pertaining to the purification and moral transformation of human beings. For Sikhs, the word dharm means the "path of righteousness"."

A Handbook of Ancient Religions.....edited by John R. Hinnells

"Eusebeia and dharma.....Above rock inscription is from Indian Emperor Asoka, from 258 BC, and found in Afghanistan. The inscription renders the word Dharma in Sanskrit as Eusebeia in Greek, suggesting Dharma in ancient India meant spiritual maturity, devotion, piety, duty towards and reverence for human communit.....This rock inscription contained Sanskrit, Aramaic and Greek text. According to Paul Hacker, on the rock appears a Greek rendering for the Sanskrit word dharma: the word eusebeia..... Scholars of Hellenistic Greece explain eusebeia as a complex concept. Eusebia means not only to venerate gods, but also spiritual maturity, a reverential attitude toward life, and includes the right conduct toward one’s parents, siblings and children, the right conduct between husband and wife, and the conduct between biologically unrelated people. This rock inscription, suggests dharma in India, about 2300 years ago, was a central concept and meant not only religious ideas, but ideas of right, of good, of one’s duty toward the human community.".....Paul Hacker (1965), Dharma in Hinduism, Journal of Indian Philosophy, Volume 34, Issue 5

"In Socrates' usage, virtue is the ability to do what is right and resist doing what is wrong. As we learn especially from the Crito, Socrates holds that wrong actions harm the soul. Because the soul is more important to us than the body, we should care about nothing so much as virtue, and Socrates understands his role in Athens as that of shaming Athenians into taking this most important concern seriously .....The principal virtues of interest to Socrates in this group of dialogues are courage (andreia), reverence or piety (eusebeia, to hosion), wisdom (sophia), temperance or sound-mindedness (sophrosune), and justice (dikaiosune)."....Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

"Euthyphro's conception of 'to hosion', holiness.....

Greek Sculpture.....By Nigel Spive

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

February 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Friday, February 20, 2015

The Alpide Belt of Sacred Mountains & the Hindu Kush of Bactria

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"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. ....

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Main ranges:
Cantabrian Mountains (Basque Mountains), Pyrenees, Alps, Sudetes, Carpathians, Balkans, and Crimean Mountains in Europe
Atlas Mountains in Northern Africa, Baetic System (Sierra Nevada and Balearic Islands), Apennine Mountains, Dinaric Alps (Hellenides) and Aegean Islands (Crete, Karpathos and Rhodos) in Southern Europe
Pontic Mountains, Caucasus Mountains, Armenian Highland, Alborz, Kopet Dag, Hindu Kush, Pamir Mountains, Tian Shan, Kunlun Mountains, Hengduan Mountains, the Indochina (Annamite Range) and Malay Peninsula in Asia
Cyprus (Troodos Mountains), Taurus Mountains, Zagros Mountains, Makran Highland, Sulaiman Mountains, Karakoram, Himalayas, Patkai, Chin Hills, Arakan Mountains, Andaman and Nicobar Islands in South Asia

"Cave Dwellings & Troglodytes of Old Iran.....While the plains of Mesopotamia are often touted as the cradle of civilization, early Stone Age hominines/hominids* (genus Homo - hereafter called hominids) left scant evidence of their presence in the plains. It is in the foothill of the Zagros Mountains bordering Mesopotamia to the east and the north - or for that matter the hills of Greater Aryana (Iran, Central Asia, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Eastern Iraq, Kurdistan and Eastern Turkey) as a whole - that we find evidence of what early Stone Age hominids left behind in caves and rock shelters. Prehistoric cave dwelling have been found throughout the region of Greater Aryana from Shanidar in Kurdistan to Teshik-Tash in Uzbekistan and the Sel'ungur Cave in Kyrgyzstan . The region is also home to present-day cave dwelling communities whose residents have been given the technical name troglodytes."..... Zoroastrian Heritage Author: K. E. Eduljee.....http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/cavedwellings/index.htm

"The Hindu Kush (/kʊʃ, kuːʃ/; Pashto/Persian/Urdu: هندوکش‎), also known as Pāriyātra Parvata (Sanskrit: पारियात्र पर्वत), Caucasus Indicus, or Paropamisadae (ancient Greek: Παροπαμισάδαι), is an 800 km (500 mi) long mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. It is a subrange of the Hindu Kush Himalayan range. It divides the valley of the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus) to the north from the Indus River valley to the south.....The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir (7,708 m or 25,289 ft) in Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. "

"Origin of name Hindu Kush....The name of the mountain in Sanskrit is 'Pariyatra' and the Greeks called it 'Paropamisadae'. The word 'Hindu Kush" is a Persian word meaning 'Hindu-Killing"..... The word Koh or Kuh means "mountain" in some local languages.....Some believe it to be the name derived from the rule of the Hindu god Rama's son, Kusha, who ruled in Kasur, in present day Punjab, Pakistan......In the time of Alexander the Great, the Hindu Kush range was referred to as the Caucasus Indicus or the "Caucasus of the Indus" (as opposed to the Greater Caucasus range between the Caspian and Black Seas), and some past authors have considered this as a possible derivation of the name "Hindu Kush". However, many other theories have been propounded by different scholars and writers for the origins of the modern name Hindu Kush. Hindū Kūh (ھندوکوه) and Kūh-e Hind (کوهِ ھند) are usually applied to the entire range separating the basins of the Kabul and Helmand rivers from that of the Amu River (ancient Oxus), or more specifically, to that part of the range lying northwest of the Afghan capital Kabul. Sanskrit documents refer to the Hindu Kush as Pāriyātra Parvata (पारियात्र पर्वत).....Some sources state that the term Hindu Kush originally applied only to the peak in the area of the Kushan Pass, which had become a center of the Kushan Empire by the 1st century CE. This mountain range was also called Paropamisadae by Hellenic Greeks in the late first millennium BCE."

"Tirich Mir (Pashto/Khowar/Urdu: ترچ میر‎) (alternatively Terich Mir, Terichmir and Turch Mir) is the highest mountain of the Hindu Kush range, and the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayas-Karakoram range, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border

"Damavand is a significant mountain in Persian mythology. It is the symbol of Iranian resistance against despotism and foreign rule in Persian poetry and literature. In Zoroastrian texts and mythology, the three-headed dragon Aži Dahāka was chained within Mount Damāvand, there to remain until the end of the world. In a later version of the same legend, the tyrant Zahhāk was also chained in a cave somewhere in Mount Damāvand after being defeated by Kāveh and Fereydūn. Persian poet Ferdowsi depicts this event in his masterpiece, the Shahnameh:

"Hindus believe Mt.Kailash to be the abode of Lord Shiva. Like many of the Hindu gods, Shiva is a character of apparent contradictions. He at once the Lord of Yoga and therefore the ultimate renunciate ascetic, yet he is also the divine master of Tantra, the esoteric science that regards sexual union as the most perfect path to spiritual enlightenment. According to legend, immortal Shiva lives atop Kailash where he spends his time practicing yogic austerities, making joyous love with his divine consort, Parvati.....Kailash is sacred to other religions as well. The Jains call the mountain Astapada and believe it to be the place where Rishaba, the first of the twenty-four Tirthankaras attained liberation. Followers of Bon, Tibet's pre-Buddhist, shamanistic religion, call the mountain Tise and believe it to be the seat of the Sky Goddess Sipaimen. Additionally, Bon myths regard Tise as the sight of a legendary 12th century battle of sorcery between the Buddhist sage Milarepa and the Bon shaman Naro Bon-chung. Milarepa's defeat of the shaman displaced Bon as the primary religion of Tibet, firmly establishing Buddhism in its place. While the Buddha is believed to have magically visited Kailash in the 5th century BC, the religion of Buddhism only entered Tibet, via Nepal and India, in the 7th century AD. Tibetan Buddhists call the mountain Kang Rimpoche, the 'Precious One of Glacial Snow', and regard it as the dwelling place of Demchog (also known as Chakrasamvara) and his consort, Dorje Phagmo. Three hills rising near Kang Rimpoche are believed to be the homes of the the Bodhisatvas Manjushri, Vajrapani, and Avalokiteshvara."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

February 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Sovereign King of Sutras, the Sacred Golden Light (500 AD)

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"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)...The Golden Light Sutra or Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra (Sanskrit: सुवर्णप्रभासोत्तमसूत्रेन्द्रराज, IAST: Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājaḥ), also known by the Old Uygur title Altun Yaruq, is a Buddhist text of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the full title is The Sovereign King of Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light."

"The sutra was originally written in Sanskrit and was translated several times into Chinese ....and later translated into Tibetan and other languages.....The name of the sutra derives from the chapter called "The Confession of the Golden Drum", where the bodhisattva Ruchiraketu dreams of a great drum that radiates a sublime golden light, symbolizing the dharma or teachings of Gautama Buddha....its fundamental message, which teaches that the Four Heavenly Kings protect the ruler who governs his country in the proper manner.....the sutra also expounds the vows of the goddesses Sarasvatī (Lakṣmī ) and Dṛḍhā (the earth goddess Sthāvarā or Dṛḍhā) to protect any bhikṣu who will uphold and teach the sutra...."

"On a linguistic rampage through the etymology of "magic" (Old Persion maguš) I stumbled across something fascinating. Acc. to Wiki, maguš denoted followers of Zoroaster (Persian Zaratuštra), whom the Greeks believed had the ability to "read the stars, and manipulate the fate that the stars foretold." …..The "zar" in Zaratuštra is from old Eastern-Iranian zar, meaning "gold." That was an eyebrow-raiser - gold in Tibet is gser (pronounced "ser"). …..Turns out a folk etymology of Zaratuštra is zaraϑa, "golden", plus *uštra, "light" (from the root uš, "to shine"). …..gser 'od (pronounced "ser ö") is a well-used phrase in Tibetan meaning "golden light," and 'od 'phro (pronounced "ö tro") means "to shine; radiating light rays." …..Sorry this is all sort of meander-y, but suffice it to say, the Persian "zar* + *uštra" and Tibetan "ser + ö tro" both having to do with golden light, would be considered a worthy topic of exploration in the linguistic field. …..Aside from linguistic curiosities, a big question to me would be whether 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." ……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). "….http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/8487/buddhism-in-regards-to-magic-o/p3

"gser 'od dam pa…..Sutra of the Sacred Golden Light ……the eighth of the rdzogs chen ston pa bcu gnyis Sacred Golden Light Sutra; Sutra of the Sacred Golden Light; Sublime Golden Light …..sutra of the sacred golden light"…..http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/gser_'od_dam_pa

"Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma (Skt. tridharmacakra; Tib. chö khor rimpa sum; Wyl. chos 'khor rim pa gsum) — the three major series of teachings given by the Buddha, according to the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition. To 'turn the wheel of Dharma' means to teach the Dharma.:
The first turning took place in the Deer Park at Sarnath, Varanasi, where Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths.
The intermediate turning on the absence of characteristics took place on Vulture's Peak Mountain near Rajagriha.
The final turning on the complete revelation took place in Vaishali and other places and included the sutras that explain the three natures, such as the Lankavatara Sutra.

"The holy Sutra of Golden Light is the king of the sutras. It is extremely powerful and fulfills all one's wishes, as well as bringing peace and happiness for all sentient beings, up to enlightenment. It is also extremely powerful for world peace, for your own protection, and for the protection of the country and the world. Also, it has great healing power for people in the country. Anyone can read this text, Buddhists and non-Buddhists, who desire world peace. This also protects individuals and the country from what are labeled natural disasters of the wind element, fire element, earth element, and water element, such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones, fires, tornadoes, etc. They are not natural because they come from causes and conditions that make dangers happen. They come from people’s past inner negative thoughts and actions, and from external conditions. The benefits of reading this sutra are immeasurable. Reciting just a few lines of the Sutra of Golden Light creates more merit than making immeasurable offerings to the Buddha. Reciting this Sutra directs one's life towards enlightenment. There is so much merit. One's life becomes so easy—whatever one wishes for one receives. There is unbelievable purification. One liberates numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and brings them to enlightenment.".....http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=328&chid=1511

"Sutra of Golden Light (Suvarna-prabhasa-uttamaraja) was popular in China since the 6th century. It includes the philosophy of Buddha’s nature, the methods of confession and the benefits of reciting/spreading this sutra. One of the benefits is that the country would gain protection from the Four Heavenly Kings. This belief caused people to increase their faiths in the Heavenly Kings in Central Asia, especially the Khotanese, before they converted to Islam. The philosophical part of this sutra later merged with the Lotus Sutra and the confession ceremony is a monastic practice, therefore it is not as well known as the other sutras.".....The Religions in Dunhuang....http://public.dha.ac.cn/content.aspx?id=241808307552

Amitabha Buddha.....Buddha of Boundless Light

"....among the late Mahayana sutras is the Sutra of Golden Light......... It appeared in the language which western scholars generally call Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. How long the Sutra of Golden Light existed as an oral tradition before being written down we've no means of knowing, but in spirit at least it goes back to the time of the Buddha, to the historical Buddha. Now the sutra, the Sutra of Golden Light, did not appear all at once. It did not appear fully formed, complete. When we say that it appeared during the period 5th to the 8th century AD we don't mean that it appeared at some particular point within that period. We mean that it took the whole of that period to emerge, in other words a period of three hundred years. It took three hundred years to emerge gradually as a literary document. And this is not at all unusual..... From the first century BC to the 10th century AD, during all that period, that period of a thousand years, oral traditions were being committed to writing as scriptures. And broadly speaking the more exoteric teachings were committed to writing first, and the more esoteric remained oral traditions for longer and were committed to writing later......with the Sutra of Golden Light. It was written down in installments over that three hundred year period...... in the case of the Sutra of Golden Light, the most important part of the whole sutra, which as I've said is the confession, is not spoken by the Buddha at all. So this is a strange situation. The central part of the whole sutra - and a sutra is supposed to be a discourse by the Buddha - is not spoken by the Buddha at all. It's not even spoken by a Bodhisattva. So who is it spoken by, what is it spoken by? Well, it's spoken by a drum, it's spoken by a golden drum. And not only that. It's spoken in somebody's dream......the existing text of the sutra is divided into nineteen chapters.....In chapter three the same Bodhisattva has a dream. And in this dream he sees a Brahmin beating a drum, a golden drum, and the drum sends forth a series of beautiful verses of confession. It's these verses which are of course the nucleus of the whole sutra......in chapter ten, three goddesses come forward and they all make similar promises to protect the sutra. And these three goddesses are Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, Sri, the goddess of wealth, and Drdha, the earth goddess..."...The Growth of a Mahayana Sutra......by Sangharakshita

Shenlha Ökar means "wisdom gshen of white light;" the variant Shiwa Okar means "peaceful white light." ...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenlha_Okar

"RANGJUNG YESHE DICTIONARY .....the eighth of the རྫོགས་ཆེན་སྟོན་པ་བཅུ་གཉིས་ Sacred Golden Light Sutra; Sutra of the Sacred Golden Light; Sublime Golden Light ..."

".... the Lotus Sutra was neither the only text nor the only cult represented in sutra burials. as the final age was understood to portend political as well a religious troubles, the Lotus Sutra was also often joined by two additional scriptures held to protect the state, the Golden Light Sutra (Japanese Konkōmyō kyō) and the Benevolent Kings Sutra (Japanese Ninnō hannya haramitsu kyō). The other scriptures most commonly buried, and usually accompanying the Lotus Sutra, were the three sutras dedicated to the Buddha amida – the Larger Pure Land Sutra (Japanese Muryōju kyō), the Smaller Pure Land Sutra (Japanese Amida kyō), and the Sutra of Meditation on Amida Buddha (Japanese Kanmuryōju kyō) – and the three sutras dedicated to the future Buddha Maitreya, known in Japanese as Miroku, – the Sutra on Maitreya Achieving Buddhahood (Japanese Miroku jōbutsu kyō), the Sutra on Maitreya’s Rebirth Below [on Earth] (Japanese Miroku geshō kyō) and the Sutra on Maitreya’s Rebirth Above in Tusita (Japanese Miroku joshō tosotsu kyō). ".....The Death of the Dharma: Buddhist Sutra Burials in early Medieval Japan by D. Max Moerman

"....from the traditional Theravadin point of view, all the Mahayana Sutras are inauthentic in the sense that they were not spoken by the Buddha. Historically, Theravada has tended to take a dim view of Mahayana, regarding it as a mere degeneration of the pure teachings......That the Lotus Sutra and other Mahayana Sutras were not spoken by the Buddha is unanimously supported by modern scholarship. I don’t know of a single academic in the last 150 years who has argued otherwise.... the Lotus Sutra was composed over a period of time, or in a number of stages. The oldest sources probably stem from a little before the common era, and it was finalized around 200 AD. This makes it one of the earliest Mahayana Sutras (and it is even argued that the earliest form of the sutra may not have even been Mahayana)....But I suspect, given the visionary nature of many Mahayanist texts, that they often stemmed from meditation experiences; visions of the Buddha, memories of ‘teachings’ received while in samadhi. "....https://sujato.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/is-the-lotus-sutra-authentic/

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

February 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Zarathustra.... Zaraϑa, "golden" ... Uštra, "light" (550 BC)

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"On a linguistic rampage through the etymology of "magic" (Old Persion maguš) I stumbled across something fascinating. Acc. to Wiki, maguš denoted followers of Zoroaster (Persian Zaratuštra), whom the Greeks believed had the ability to "read the stars, and manipulate the fate that the stars foretold." …..The "zar" in Zaratuštra is from old Eastern-Iranian zar, meaning "gold." That was an eyebrow-raiser - gold in Tibet is gser (pronounced "ser"). …..Turns out a folk etymology of Zaratuštra is zaraϑa, "golden", plus *uštra, "light" (from the root uš, "to shine"). …..gser 'od (pronounced "ser ö") is a well-used phrase in Tibetan meaning "golden light," and 'od 'phro (pronounced "ö tro") means "to shine; radiating light rays." …..Sorry this is all sort of meander-y, but suffice it to say, the Persian "zar* + *uštra" and Tibetan "ser + ö tro" both having to do with golden light, would be considered a worthy topic of exploration in the linguistic field. …..Aside from linguistic curiosities, a big question to me would be whether 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." ……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). "….http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/8487/buddhism-in-regards-to-magic-o/p3

"....In Persia, the Religion of Light was presented by the Divine Messengers: Zoroaster 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 in a time after the life of Zoroaster….. The Buddha Mani would later also present the Religion of Light in the 2nd century A.D….. Tonpa Shenrab came awakened to his true nature as a manifestation of the Divine Messenger, known by many names: In Tibet He was known as Shenlha Okar (Priest King of the Shen Clan, the clan of Tonpa Shenrab), in India this would be Vishnu or the Adi Purusha and in many countries in the Far East He would be known as Amitabha….. He was called to the Tibetan plateau and taught the Pure Teaching for 3 years this would become the basis of Yundrung Bon, the Eternal Light Teachings….Tonpa Shenrab is considered to be a Buddha who existed prior to the time of Shakyamuni."…..http://liberationoflight.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/tonpa-shenrab-miwoche-a-divine-messenger-of-the-religion-of-light/

"gser 'od dam pa…..Sutra of the sacred golden light ……the eighth of the rdzogs chen ston pa bcu gnyis Sacred Golden Light Sutra; Sutra of the Sacred Golden Light; Sublime Golden Light …..sutra of the sacred golden light"…..http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/gser_'od_dam_pa

"स्वर्ण svarNa….gold…….A Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms…..By Sarat Chandra Das

Meaning of Swarna…….Means "good colour" or "golden", a contraction of the Sanskrit prefix सु (su) "good" and वर्ण (varna) "colour".

"Zoroaster (from Greek Ζωροάστρης Zōroastrēs), also known as Zarathustra (Avestan: Zaraϑuštra; Persian: زرتشت‎ Zartosht, زردشت Zardosht), was the founder of Zoroastrianism. Though he was a native speaker of Old Avestan and lived in the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau......He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrian thinking. Most of his life is known through the Zoroastrian texts....Avestan, the language spoken by Zoroaster and used for composing the Yasna Haptanghaiti and the Gathas, on archaeological and linguistic grounds, is dated to have been spoken probably in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC.... The Gathas in contrast to the mythological Avesta place the chronology of Zoroaster much later in history, with the most conservative being dated to around the mid-sixth century BC and the most liberal estimate being c. 1,000 BC. Arthur Emanuel Christensen dates Zoroaster to c. 625 BC, but Ebrahim Pourdavoud Herzfeld and Johannes Hertel date Zoroaster as existing between 550–523 BC."

"This form appears subsequently in the Latin Zōroastrēs and, in later Greek orthographies, as Zōroastris. The Greek form of the name appears to be based on a phonetic transliteration or semantic substitution of the Avestan zaraϑ- with the Greek zōros (literally "undiluted") and the Avestan -uštra with astron ("star")."

"*Zaratuštra- ....[owner of the] golden camel": this is derived from old Eastern Iranian word *zar- for gold and ushtra for camel, further corresponding to an Eastern Iranian origin (the Old Persian word dar as a Western-Iranian dialect would be the equal term of Eastern Iranian zar; Modern Persian uses the Eastern Iranian word for gold)."

"ZARATHUSHTRA: The name of the founding Prophet of Zoroastrianism is not Zoroaster, which is a Greek transliteration of the name, but Zarathushtra, which means, in ancient Iranian, "yellow camel." (zara = yellow, ushtra = camel).....later Zoroastrians.....said that the name meant "Golden Light," deriving their meaning from the word zara and the word ushas, light or dawn. There is no doubt about Zarathushtra's clan name, which is Spitama - perhaps meaning "white." Zarathushtra's father was named Pouruchaspa (many horses) and his mother was named Dughdova (milkmaid). His birthday is celebrated on March 26, as part of the Iranian New Year Festival.....No one knows where or when the Prophet was born. Some legends place his birth in western Iran, perhaps near Tehran; others, which are somewhat more likely due to the eastern Iranian language of his poetry, place his birthplace in the east. The traditional Zoroastrian date for Zarathushtra's birth and ministry is around 600 B.C. This is derived from a Greek source that places him "300 years before Alexander" which would give that date; other rationales for the 600 BC date identify the King Vishtaspa of Zarathushtra's Gathas with the father of the Persian King Darius, who lived around that time."

"Ahura Mazda is so greatly associated with light that he has actually been identified as light itself even though Yasna 44.5 implies that he created light instead. Ahura Mazda’s dimension, or Heaven, is even called Endless Light in later texts."....http://tengudev.com/epiclore/2013/12/06/connections-between-zoroastrianism-and-mahayana-buddhism/

“Amida(Amitabha) is barely mentioned in the Lotus Sutra, and his worship probably originated in central Asia, perhaps based on an Iranian original. He may well have emerged from Zoroastrian scriptures, which worship him in a similar way to the Amidists."...Handbook of Japanese Mythology p. 49 by Michael Ashkenazi

"According to the Tibetan historian of Buddhism, Taranath, Amitabha’s worship could be traced back to Saraha or Rahulbhadra, a great magician, and reputed to be the teacher of Nagarjuna, who saw Amitabha in the land of Dhingkota and died with his face turned towards Sukhavati. The name Saraha does not sound Indian, probably a Sudra represented in Tibetan scrolls with a beard and top knot and holding an arrow in his hand.....While it cannot be proved that he came from the lands of the Oxus or Turkestan, there seems little difficulty, according to Eliot, in accepting Zoroastrian influence on this cult or worship. The main principles of Amidist doctrine are that there is a paradise of light belonging to a benevolent deity and those good men invoking his name would be led to that region."......From Buddhism in Central Asia pp. 143-144 by B.N. Puri

"....the Shambhala of Tibetan lore might be related to Airyanem Vaejah, which is the original homeland of all Iranian peoples mentioned in the later Avesta. Airyanem Vaejah and Shambhala are also both described as a Garden of Eden like area.".....Connections between Zoroastrianism and Mahayana Buddhism.....2013...by John Easter.

""Mazda", or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå, reflects Proto-Iranian *Mazdāh (female). It is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā, means "intelligence" or "wisdom".... While Zoroaster was fetching water from dawn for a sacred ritual, he saw the shining figure of the yazata, Vohu Manah, who led Zoroaster to the presence of Ahura Mazda..."

"Anahita..... is the Old Persian form of the name of an Iranian goddess and appears in complete and earlier form as Aredvi Sura Anahita (Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā); the Avestan language name of an Indo-Iranian cosmological figure venerated as the divinity of 'the Waters' (Aban)."

"....the sacred ancient Persian prayer in honor of Anahita, the ―Hymn to the Waters‖ or ―Aban Yasht, as it is called in modern Persian or Farsi, Bleeker further remarks:...the fifth Yasht tells that Ahura Mazda rendered homage to Anāhitā and asked for her assistance in order to win Zarathustra as champion of the new faith."..... Was the Persian Goddess Anahita the Pre- Christian Virgin Mother of Mithra? By D.M. Murdock.....http://www.kavehfarrokh.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/anahita1.pdf

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

February 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Thursday, February 5, 2015

Lha Chen (Shiva) & Lhachen Shen Lha Okar

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"In the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Shiva is seen as a great Bodhisattva and is known as Lha Chenpo....The sacred Lingam (also, Linga, Lingham, Shiva linga) is revered as a manifestation of Lord Shiva.... In the Shaivite tradition, he is seen as the Supreme Being. His devotees worship him in the form of the Lingam, representing absolute and single power of this universe. ....In the Chakrasamvara Tantra it is said that Shiva and his consort (Uma Devi) were liberated by Chakrasamvara in their abode of Mount Kailash.".....http://www.garudashop.com/Lingam_or_Lingham_Stones_s/202.htm

"lha chen......Mahadeva or Shiva......great lha, great local deity, great and mighty deity, address for kings, sire.....the deity dbang phyug chen po, Mahadeva, great lha, great local deity.....great gods (lha chen), ".....http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/lha_chen

This Shiva Statue sits in Padmasana lotus pose....http://www.crystal-life.com/statue-shiva

Shen........ ཤེན། (Tibetan, from David Germano ), gshen/ (Tibetan-THL Wylie, from David Germano ), Shen (Tibetan-THL Phonetics, from David Germano )

Dzogchen (Wylie: dzogs chen) or "Great Perfection".....perfection: རྫོགས (rdzogs)....The term Dzogchen is the often used abbreviated form of the Tibetan Dzog-pa Chen-po, which fully translated means "Great Perfection Teachings".

Buddhist Worldly Protector: Lha Chenpo (Shiva) ....Maha Deva (Tibetan: lha chen po, English: Great God): also known as Shiva ......http://www.himalayanart.org

"Shenlha Wodkar.......The Bon deity Kunzang Akor is the meditational form of Shenlha Okar. The highest ranking deities are Küntu Zangpo (Kun-tu bZang-po), the Bönku (bon-sku), Shenlha Ökar (gShen-lha `Od-dkar), the Dzogku (rdzogs-sku: Perfect Sphere), and Tönpa Shenrab, the Tülku (sprul-sku) who is the Teacher (sTon-pa, Priest) of the present world age. The most important female deity is Jamma (Byams-ma), the “Loving Mother”, also known as Satrig Ersang (Sa-trig Er-sangs)....... Wodkar means ‘white light’ and his natural body is pearlescent, the body of perfection (dzog ku). Shenlha Wodkar is always dressed in elaborate, ceremonial robes with his hands in the meditation mudra. He sits on a throne supported by two snow lions, which represent Shenlha Wodkar’s supremacy over all life forms."....http://bonchildren.tonkoblako-9.net/en/jewel2/01.tan

"Tonpa Shenrab, enlightened teacher of this era.....Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche manifested into normal human life in Khar Barpo Sogye, Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, in Zhang Zhung, as the prince son of father, Yab Gyal Bon Thoe Kar, and mother, Yum Yo Chi Gyal Zhed Ma.....In the realm of enlightened gods and goddesses, four were chosen to embody the essential enlightenment energies of the universe (Der Shek Tso Wo Zhi) and go to the “100 years era” universe:
• Yum Chen Sa Trik Er Sang: the aspect of loving mother of the universe
• Lha Chen Shen Lha Woe Kar: the aspect of compassion of the universe...Lhachen Shen lha Okar (lha chen g.shen lha 'od dkar, Lha chen)
• Si pa Sang Po Bum Tri: the aspect of creator of the universe
• Ton Pa Shen Rab Miwoche: the aspect of teacher of the universe
http://bonshenling.org/bonhistory/

"To the discerning pristine awareness body of all conquerors, Emanation body of compassion of the powerful Avalokiteshvara, Benevolent Lord of the World: Mahadeva together with consort, Uma, I pay homage." (Nyingma liturgical verse)......http://www.himalayanart.org

The practice of Mahadeva is a Revealed Treasure teaching (Tib.: Terma) unique to the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It was especially popularized through the Mindrolling Tradition of the Nyingma. Sometimes Lha Chenpo can be found as a minor figure in Mindrolling paintings of Jinasagara Lokeshvara. There are a number of different forms of Lha Chenpo relating to the 'Terma' tradition plus other forms of Shiva found in the various levels of Buddhist Tantra."....http://www.himalayanart.org

Religions Of Tibet.....By Tucci

"The White Snow Mountain, Kangkar Tise (gangs dkar ti se), Mt. Kailash (literally 'Silver Mountain'), is one of the world's great holy mountains, sacred to Hindus and Buddhists alike. It is one of the so-called "Three Holy Places of Tibet", associated with the body, speech, and mind aspects of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi. ....It is recounted in the Chakrasamvara Tantra and it's commentaries that the world was once ruled by Bhairava, the wrathful form of Mahadeva, who made the land of Magadha the seat of his power."..... from Matthieu Ricard (MR) in his The Life of Shabkar.

"Bhairava sometimes known as Kala Bhairava, is a Hindu deity, a fierce manifestation of Shiva associated with annihilation. He is one of the most important deities in Nepal, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, who originated in Hindu mythology and is sacred to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains alike....Bhairava means "terrifying" and it is an adjective applied to Shiva in his fearful aspect.....

"Bon, Zoroastrianism & Dualism......The ancient Bon religion that survives primarily as a minority religion in Tibet today, has some interesting connections with Zoroastrianism, the pre-Zoroastrian Aryan religion of ancient Indo-Iranians, as well as the now extinct branch of Zoroastrianism, Zurvanism. Bon's theological dualism finds connections with Zurvanism, while its philosophical dualism finds connections with Zoroastrianism. In Zurvanism, the first creative principle that embodied time and space give rise to the duality of light and darkness otherwise associated with a beneficent and destructive spirit respectively.......Bon doctrine and practice appear to have evolved greatly during the past thousand years and it is at times difficult to distinguish some of Bon's original teachings from its more modern borrowings from Buddhism, Hindu Saivism (Shiva worship) and even possibly Islam. Amongst several possibilities that exist regarding Aryan influence on Bon, there exists the possibility that Bon could have adopted its dualism doctrine in Central Asia from the early Indo-Iranians, or that the doctrine could have been brought over later by Iranians (including Sogdians) who fled to Tibet following the Islamic invasion. However, since Bon's dualism doctrine appears older and fairly distinct from Buddhist or Hindu theology and cosmology, the former possibility has the better claim.".....(Suggested reading: Iranian-Aryan Connections with Western Tibet. Also see God, Time and Creation in Zoroastrianism and Dual, Duality & Dualism)......http://zoroastrianheritage.blogspot.com/2011/07/bon-zoroastrianism-dualism_20.html

"Both Zoroastrianism and Bon would hold that duality is a fundamental aspect of this universal existence - that without existential duality there would be no cosmos. However, the argument in Zoroastrianism is whether there was a differentiation from an undifferentiated state of being, or whether the duality of existence was uncreated, that is, duality was and is. There is enough material to fuel both sides of the argument. When orthodox Zoroastrianism adopted the latter position, Zurvanism arose to postulate the former position. Proponents of both positions read into the words of Zarathushtra support for their stand. [It is of great regret that most translations and interpretations of Zarathushtra's texts are heavily influenced by the bias and prior positions of writers or by proponents of positions.] Bon adopts the former position, namely, that an undifferentiated primordial state of being was differentiated in the process of creation or in the manifestation of this physical existence."......http://zoroastrianheritage.blogspot.com/2011/07/bon-zoroastrianism-dualism_20.html

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

February 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Monday, February 2, 2015

The Dralas of Tirich Mir and Mt Suryaprakasa

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Throne of the Golden King....Tirich Mir (25,287 feet/7708 meters)......Tirich Mir literally translates into “King Tirich”, a suitable name for this giant mountain which dominates the landscape of Chitral.......Tirich Mir (Urdu: ترچ میر‎) (alternatively Terich Mir, Terichmir and Turch Mir) is the highest mountain of the Hindu Kush range, and the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayas-Karakoram range, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border....The Tirich Mir is a chain of about eleven peaks with different routes to their submits.....Tirich Mir main peak (25,287 feet/7708 meters) is the highest peak of the Hindu Kush.... (Pāriyātra Parvata (Sanskrit: पारियात्र पर्वत ), Caucasus Indicus, or Paropamisadae (ancient Greek: Παροπαμισάδαι).....Mountain range.

Mount Suryaprakasa...
Surya.....an important god of later Hinduism; the sun god or the sun itself worshipped as the source of warmth and light.
Prakāśa is a concept of Kashmir Shaivism translated by various authors as "light", "splendour", "light of consciousness" (identified with Śiva)...... "luminous and undifferentiated consciousness"....or "primordial light beyond all manifestations"......Tantric practitioners Tibetan Buddhists practice Clear Light yoga based on a similar concept.......Prakāśa is considered supreme, ultimate, unsurpassable, but as such it cannot be described as pure transcendence, because even though it is above all, it is still present in the manifestation, in every aspect of it. Thus prakāśa is said to be both transcendent and immanent."

"Tirich Mir.....Krumai lives on her sacred mountain Tirich Mir...She had a shrine at Badáwan, where the Afghan Kalasha used to make offerings.....Robertson first thought Krumai was a male god, “but after seeing her effigy in one of the dancing-houses in Presungul, no doubt could remain concerning her sex. She is worshipped everywhere probably…”...The goddess Krumai came over from Tirich Mir* and went among them, but none recognised her ... Tirich Mir was a sacred mountain......

"Suryaprakasa means the mountain of the " dawning of the sun" or " Mt. Sunrise." It is described as being in the North. Which of the many great peaks of the Hindu Kush or Karakorum this is today cannot be ascertained, but it is possible that the mountain was the sacred peak on which Isa-Masiha, surrounded by the disc of the sun, is said to have appeared to a king of the Sakas, according to the Bhavisya purana. The other sacred mountain in Uddiyana was Mt. Ilam (referred to as Mt. Ilo by the Tibetans), which lies south-east of the old capital. It is hard to say what "North" means in this context. It could be taken as North within the Dhanakosa district, or north in the sense of up the Swat River. It is also possible that the mountain was the renowned Tirich Mir, North of the Lotkho Valley in the Chitral.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm

"Later, when his studies were complete, the young man received the full ordination of a Buddhist monk and was given the title of Master (acarya) from the King. Thus he was known as Acarya Pramodavajra....It is by this name (or the familiar Tibetan translation, Lopon Gah-rab Dorje) that he is best known.....As a Buddhist monk , Acarya Pramodavajra lived a purely monastic, disciplined life for many years. This discipline as a monk prepared him for the contemplative life. At first he studied many texts, many fine scriptures and profound metaphysical treatises, acquiring a vast wealth of knowledge. Then with time he more and more turned away from scholastic studies, to sit in quiet meditation. He meditated in his monastery cell and in the caves and forests of the Kingdom of Uddiyana.....At some point in the maturation of his spiritual evolution, he received the blessed Empowerment and Transmission of the profound Mahayoga teachings of the Secret Matrix Tradition (Guhyagarbha-tantra) from the renowned personal guru of the King of Uddiyana, the great white-robed saint Mahasiddha Kukkuraja. After that he retired into retreat on the slopes of Mount Suryaprakasa in the north, where he performed mantra practice in a small grass hut.".........http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm

"Modern name Koh-i-Mor located in the Paropamisade region between the river Kunar and Swat in the land of Ashvakas. This name, however, refers to the Meru mountain of Chitral, Tirich Mir, distinct from the Deva-Meru in modern Diamar….The Venus Blueprint: Uncovering the Ancient Science of Sacred Spaces….By Richard Merrick

The Venus Blueprint: Uncovering the Ancient Science of Sacred Spaces….By Richard Merrick

"Land of Tirich Mir and Kafir Kalash.....Ask anyone where Chitral is, and one may get a blank look since this land of Tirich Mir and the Kafirs, people of the lost world, is obscured behind the Lowari Top, which due to its inaccessibility generally keeps the tourist and holiday makers at bay. But those who dare to venture and reach out to Chitral Valley, find themselves in a different world - overlooked by the mighty Tirich Mir, standing at a height of 7,692 metres as part of the Hindu Kush mountain range, and located in the far reaches of Pakistan. Chitral is also famous for the Shandur Festival, which is held each year and where polo is played at the highest polo ground of the world at a height of 3,719 metres. The beauty of Chitral lies as much in its rustic, mountainous terrain, as in its warm hearted and friendly inhabitants. Since it is a land high up in the mountains, at such places legends fascinate the on lookers. One such legend describes Chitral as an abode of genies and fairies in times when no one lived here and locals still look up to the Tirich Mir, which they believe still has the castle of fairies.".....http://pakistanpaedia.com/oth/chitral/chitral.html

"There also is a general pattern of belief in mountain fairies now often called by their Persian name, Peri, but still called Apsaras in the Rājataraṅgiṇī, Suchi (súči, now often called Peri), who help in hunting and killing enemies, and the Varōti, their violent male partners. They live in the high mountains, such as Tirich Mir, but in late autumn they descend to the mountain meadows. The Jach (j.ac.) are a separate category of female spirits of the soil or of special places, fields and mountain pastures.....Noted linguist and Harvard professor Michael Witzel summarizes the Kalash religion with this description: "In myth it is notably the role of Indra, his rainbow and his eagle who is shot at, the killing of his father, the killing of the snake or of a demon with many heads, and the central myth of releasing the Sun from an enclosure. Ritual still is of IIr.type: Among the Kalash it is basically, though not always, temple-less, involving fire, sacred wood, three circumambulations, and the *hotṛ. Some features already have their Vedic, and no longer their Central Asian form (e.g. dragon > snake)"....M. Witzel.....(Extract from: The Ṛgvedic Religious System and its Central Asian and Hindukush Antecedents. A. Griffiths & J.E.M. Houben (eds.). The Vedas: Texts, Language and Ritual. Groningen: Forsten 2004: 581-636

"Higher Realms.....The uppermost realm on the Wheel of Rebirth is that of the devata. There are four highest devas or gods of which two, Indra and Brahma, appear most often in Buddhist scriptures where Indra, ruler of the upper realm, is called Shakra (Pali: Sakka.) In the orthodox Indian view, Brahma is the Intelligence that can be compared to the deity of the western religions, but he does not have that role in Buddhism. Shiva (in Tibetan, Lha Chen) also plays an important role; in fact his god-realm is called Shambhala.....In the Buddhist view, these gods and goddesses are, for the most part, considered to be highly evolved bodhisattvas.....The gods are waited upon by Apsaras -- beautiful attendants and messengers, and gandharvas -- heavenly dancers and musicians. (The dakini can be included in both these categories.) ....Tibetan tradition, Buddhist or not, has a large variety of these kinds of beings. A distinction is made between the deities and the local or worldly spirits. The former are objects of Refuge, while the latter may be considered as protectors but not usually sources of Refuge. Often they are propitiated in return for services rendered.".....http://www.khandro.net/mysterious_spirits.htm

"Dralha..... in Tibetan, dgra lha..... (dgra-) word ends in the syllable lha, and it is a kind of god....Drala spelt sGra bla begins with the syllable sgra which means sound, and continues with la that here means "a type of individual energy that is endowed with protective functions" (Norbu 1995.) For example, seng- ge'i sgra means the lion's roar. It is also possible to write and hence, refer to sgra'i lha since sGra means a sound or cry, but using lha here instead of la conveys the meaning of a sound deity.....The Tibetan term lHa standing alone means god or deity -- usually it refers to one of the devata, a being of the highest realm in the context of The Wheel of Existence. [The syllable LHA found in transliterated Tibetan is pronounced HA.]"........http://www.khandro.net/mysterious_spirits.htm

"Chitral forms Pakistan's north-western border with Afghanistan along the Hind Kush mountain range. The mountain passes that connect Afghanistan with Pakistan were the routes used by the Alexander the Great and his troops, who called the Hindu Kush "Parapamisus" meaning mountains over which no eagle can fly. After Alexander, Tartar hordes of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane also passed through, specially through the inaccessible Baroghil Pass (3,798 m or 12,460 ft) in the Upper Chitral (bordering the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan, which was once considered to be the rout to the famous Silk Route. Chitral has been traditionally and, except for a brief spell uninterruptedly, ruled by the Mehtars who claim themselves as ancestors the Tartar ruling family of Tamerlane....

"King Ja...Kukuraja was a mahasiddha within the lineages of Esoteric Buddhism and he was contemporaneous with Indrabhuti of Sahor in Oddiyana (also known as King Ja) and Kambalapada (also known as Lawapa).....Some sources hold that it was Kukuraja who prophesied the birth of Garab Dorje, the founder of the human lineage of the Nyingmapa Dzogchen Tantra teachings.".... Dorje, Jikdrel Yeshe (Dudjom Rinpoche, author), & translated and edited: Gyurme Dorje and Matthew Kapstein (1991).

"Historical chronicles reveal that in 2nd A.D Chitral was under the rule of a Buddhist ruler Jai Paul, then the middle period is perceived to be ruled by Kalash rulers, Rajawai, Bazik and Bula singh. However, the Kalash suffered heavy casualties in a series of skirmishes with the troops of Shah Nadir Rais, the ruler of Rais Dynasty....An early Sanskrit inscription at a village called Barenis (27 miles away from Chitral) of about AD 900 records that the country was Buddhist, under King Jaipal of Kabul. It is believed that Upper Chitral was under Buddhist influence in the past and even today there are a few rocks in Torkhow area known as "Kalandar-i-Bohtni" (Mendicant of Stone). It is a figure of a stupa; the upper part of which has been cut into the figure of Buddha "....A Short History of Chitral and Kafirstan.....by Mohammad Afzal Khan

Chronicles of Early Janjuas.....By Hussain Khan

"Sites of Gandhara Grave Culture (Proto historic Period) - The grave burials date back to era in between the Indus Valley Civilization and the arrival of Achaemenian in 600 B.C. These graves assume tourist and archeological attractions for the reason that Chitral has never been a part of ancient Gandhara."

"Note the role of the Apsarases as leading warriors to heaven: in the Epic (HARA 2001), in the Rājataraṅgiṇī, for which cf. the Germanic Walkyries (WITZEL 1997b, n. 48); for the Kalash Varōti < vātaputrī, cf. gandharva.....Varōti who are the more violent and angry male partners of the Suchi, reflecting the later Vedic (and typical medieval Kashmiri) distinction between Apsarases and Gandharvas. Certain mountains are the favored seats of the fairies, especially the impressive, 7708 m high pyramid of the Kailāsa-like Tirich Mir in the North of Chitral (~ Meru KaṭhB, Meros Arrian, Anabasis 1.6; Sumeru, Pāli Sineru; cf. *devameru, Shina díamer = Nanga Parbat, CDIAL 6533). In late autumn, the Peri descend to the high mountain meadows."....M. Witzel.....(Extract from: The Ṛgvedic Religious System and its Central Asian and Hindukush Antecedents.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

January 2015

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Sunday, February 1, 2015

Nuristān & Uddiyana: Land of the Enlightened

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Nuristān (Persian/Pashto: نورستان‎), also spelled Nurestān or Nooristan.... "Land of light"....Nuristan, meaning Land of the Enlightened....

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"The Nuristan province territory fell to the Maurya Empire, which was led by Chandragupta Maurya. The Mauryas introduced Hinduism and Buddhism to region, and were planning to capture more territory of Central Asia until they faced local Greco-Bactrian forces. Seleucus is said to have reach a peace treaty with Chandragupta by given control of the territory south of the Hindu Kush to the Mauryas upon intermarriage and 500 elephants....Alexander took these away from the Indo-Aryans and established settlements of his own, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus (Chandragupta)....."

"Afghanistan's significant ancient tangible and intangible Buddhist heritage is recorded through wide-ranging archeological finds, including religious and artistic remnants. Buddhist doctrines are reported to have reached as far as Balkh even during the life of the Buddha (563 BCE to 483 BCE), as recorded by Xuanzang who refers to the first two lay disciples of Buddha, Trapusa and Bhallika responsible for introducing Buddhism in that country. Originally these two were merchants of the kingdom of Balhika, as the name Bhalluka or Bhallika probably suggests the association of one with that country. They had gone to India for trade and had happened to be at Bodhgaya when the Buddha had just attained enlightenment."

"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 Dharma Fellowship was originally founded by personal request of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (1923-1981), ....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

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"According to the scholar Pliny, the city of Kapiśi (also referred to as Kaphusa by Pliny's copyist Solinus and Kapisene by other classical chroniclers) was destroyed in the sixth century BCE by the Achaemenid emperor Cyrus (Kurush) (559-530 BC). 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. 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.

Click on the map to enlarge

"Kapisa is related to and included Kafiristan. Scholar community holds that Kapisa is equivalent to Sanskrit Kamboja......Kapiśa (= Kapisha), the ancient Sanskrit name of the region that included historic Kafiristan; which is also given as "Ki-pin" (or Ke-pin, Ka-pin, Chi-pin) in old Chinese chronicles. That name, unrelated to the Arabic word, is believed to have, at some point, mutated into the word Kapir. This linguistic phenomenon is not unusual for this region. The name of King Kanishaka, who once ruled over this region, is also found written as "Kanerika", an example of "ś" or "sh" mutating to "r"....A number of legends about Kanishka, a great patron of Buddhism, were preserved in Buddhist religious traditions. Along with the Indian kings Ashoka and Harshavardhana, and the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Milinda), he is considered by Buddhists to have been one of the greatest Buddhist kings."

"In the old tradition of the 84 Mahasiddhas that 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), while to the South was Lankapuri. A tenth century king of Uddiyana, named Indrabhuti, had a sister called Laksminkara, who married King Jalendra of Lankapuri. It was to this Lankapuri, with its famous Malaya mount, that Pramodavajra traveled when he left Uddiyana."….http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm

Gesar & Kapisa-Udyana….."The success of the Turk Fromo Kesaro in overwhelming an intrusive Arab army, sometime between 739-745, may have formed the historic core behind the Gesar epic in Tibet......In the records of the earliest rulers of Ladakh, Baltistan and Gilgit, whose countries were later overrun by incursive Tibetans, royal ancestry is connected to the Bactrian Gesar."..... Vohra, Rohit (1996). "Early History of Ladakh: Mythic Lore & Fabulation: A preliminary note on the conjectural history of the 1st millennium A.D..... p. 217.... writes that these coins with the title Fromo Kesaro appear to refer to the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 AD)....Chinese:烏散特勤灑:MC:uo-sân d'ɘk-g'iɘn ṣai=*Horsān tegin šāhi 'Tegin, king of Khurasan'), ruler of the Second Turki Śāhi dynasty at Kapisa-Udyana, whose reign was between 738 and 745 C.E., and who is identified with the 'Frōm Kēsar' (拂菻罽婆: Fúlǐn jìpó:North Western Tang of the Tang shu. See: Harmatta & Litvinsky 1999, pp. 376,380).

"In 672 an Arab governor of Sistan, Abbad ibn Ziyad, raided the frontier of Al-Hind and crossed the desert to Gandhara, but quickly retreated again. The marauder Obaidallah (Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad) crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul in 698 only to meet with defeat and humiliation."… ..http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm

"The expansion of the Arabs spread along two fronts: the first moved through Nishapur to Herat, Merv and Balkh, reducing the northern provinces of Persia; the second passed south by way of Sistan (Sijistan) to the Helmand. In 650 Abdallah ibn Amr began the yet further push forwards across the desert of the Dasht-i-Lut. He was followed over the years by succeeding Moslem armies which, through continuous raids, massacres and looting, systematically transformed the wondrous flower-garden of Persian civilization and Mazdean or Buddhist culture into a scorched wasteland."....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm

"The Turkish Shahi kingdom of Kapisa-(with Kabul on the south as its capital) for many centuries remained unconquered and primarily Buddhist. In 663 A.D. Ibn Samurah fought his way into Kabul, but his success was only temporary. Nevertheless, reading the T'ang Annals, we note that a party of Uddiyanean ambassadors presented themselves at the Chinese Court in 665 A.D., and granting the length and hardships of the journey, it is practical to assume that the embassy's presence was a direct response to Ibn Samurah's raid. Kapisa's strength, backed by the armies of Imperial China, acted as a major bulwark against Islam penetrating the Pamir, and significantly protected Uddiyana.....In 672 an Arab governor of Sistan, Abbad ibn Ziyad, raided the frontier of Al-Hind and crossed the desert to Gandhara, but quickly retreated again. The marauder Obaidallah (Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad) 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. The Hindushahis recaptured Kabul and the rest of their Kingdom after the death of the conqueror Yaqub but never again maintained Kapisa as their capital." -From a History of Uddiyana and the life of Padmasambhava.....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm

"Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad (Arabic: عبيد الله بن زياد‎) was an early Muslim general and governor for the Umayyad Caliphate.....He was the son of Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan. After his father's death in 673, Ubayd became the Governor of Kufa and Basra and later Khurasan. He also minted coinage, which survives to this day. In 674 he would cross the Amu Darya and defeat the forces of the ruler of Bukhara what would become the first known invasion of the city by Muslim Arabs."....The Arab Conquests in Central Asia By H. A. R. Gibb ... 2007

"The Dardic languages or Dardu are a sub-group of the Indo-Aryan languages natively spoken in northern Pakistan's Gilgit Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern India's Jammu and Kashmir, and eastern Afghanistan....According to a model by Asko Parpola, the Dardic languages are directly descended from the Rigvedic dialect of Vedic Sanskrit.....The Nuristani languages (نورستاني) are one of the three groups within the Indo-Iranian language family, alongside the much larger Indo-Aryan and Iranian groups....The Nuristani languages were often confused with each other before concluding a third branch in Indo-Iranian, and also accounting many Burushaski loanwords present in Dardic."

"According to tradition, Padmasambhava was native to Udyana....a major reason for so many Indian Buddhist sages coming to Central Tibet from Kashmir, and notably, the famous Padmasambhava from Uddiyana, was the simple fact that Tibet then ruled much of this region.....It is often reported that 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. The Dharma Fellowship notes that between “720 and 726 the King of Baltistan moved his seat to Gilgit out of fear of the Tibetan advance.....Although the King of Baltistan remained loyal to his alliance with China, the nobility and peoples of Baltistan are said to have gone over to the Tibetan side. ....Mention of tribute from the King of Kapisa in 748 ascertains that by that date Uddiyana had become a vassal state.”....A Short History of Ladakh - Thrangu Rinpoche.....http://www.rinpoche.com/stories/ladakh.htm#_ftnref5

"Garab Dorje (dga' rab rdo rje, Skt. Surati Vajra, Prahevajra, Pramoda Vajra)......his mother was a nun, the daughter of King Uparaja (Dhahenatalo or Indrabhuti) of Uddiyana. Garab Dorje received all the tantras, scriptures and oral instructions of Dzogchen from Vajrasattva and Vajrapani in person and became the first human vidyadhara in the Dzogchen lineage. Having reached the state of complete enlightenment through the effortless Great Perfection, Garab Dorje transmitted the teachings to his retinue of exceptional beings. Manjushrimitra is regarded as his chief disciple. Padmasambhava is also known to have received the transmission of the Dzogchen tantras directly from Garab Dorje’s wisdom form.....Garab Dorje means 'Indestructible joy.'".....http://www.rangjung.com/authors/Garab_Dorje.htm

"Baltistan is a mountainous region, borders Gilgit in the west, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region (China) in the north, Ladakh in the east, and the Kashmir Valley in the south....The region is inhabited principally by the Balti people of Tibetan descent. The vast majority of the Tibetan population adheres to Islam."

Click on the map to enlarge

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

January 2015

John Hopkins...Northern New Mexico

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