Bhutan: Enlightenment thru sex, drugs, rock?

Drukpa Kunley (1455–1529), also known as Kunga Legpai Zangpo, Drukpa Kunleg (Tibetan འབྲུག་པ་ཀུན་ལེགས་, brug pa kun legs), and Kunga Legpa, the Madman of the Dragon Lineage (Tibetan འབྲུག་སྨྱོན་ཀུན་དགའ་ལེགས་པ་, 'brug smyon kun dga' legs pa), was a Tibetan Buddhist lama, missionary, and poet in the Drukpa Kagyu lineage of the [Himalayan Bon sorcery-influenced] Vajrayana Buddhist Mahamudra tradition [1].

• "Crazy wisdom," divine madness (yeshe cholba)?
• Crazy wisdom or just crazy? (dhamma musings)
• The Enlightenment Trap: Obsession, Madness and Death on Diamond Mountain by Scott Carney (Foxtopus Ink)

He was trained at Ralung Monastery under siddha Pema Lingpa. However, by the age of 25, he had returned his monastic [Vinaya] vows [2] to take a wife, whose name was Tsewang Dzom (tshe dbang 'dzom) [3]. He is often counted among the Nyönpa ("Mad Ones"). He is considered to have been a reincarnation of Saraha [4]. More

The Enlightenment Trap: Obsession, Madness and Death on Diamond Mountain

(Audiobook) Author Scott Carney has 4.3 out of 5 stars (with 137 reviews). The 2023 edition of The Enlightenment Trap includes two new chapters, photography, and updated total revision.

In 2012, 38-year-old Ian Thorson's search for spiritual transcendence ended in tragedy on a remote Arizona mountaintop. His wife, a woman anointed as a goddess by an eccentric Buddhist community, held him in her arms as he slowly died from dehydration and dysentery.

For Scott Carney, a journalist and anthropologist who lived in India for six years, Thorson's death was just the most recent iteration of an unspoken epidemic that connected intensive meditation and mental instability.

The Enlightenment Trap explores how Tibetan Buddhism in the West morphed from its roots in the Himalayan foothills into a fundamentally new American religion. For Thorson, the entry point into this new faith was Geshe Michael Roach, the supreme spiritual leader of Diamond Mountain University.

Carney unravels the cult-like practices of Diamond Mountain to illuminate the uniquely American tendency to mix and match Eastern religious traditions like LEGO pieces. The result is that for some, enlightenment is a synonym for almost god-like powers, and achieving it can become more important than life itself.

Aided by Thorson’s private papers and cutting-edge neurological research, the book reveals the profound impact of intensive meditation on the brain.

Carney exposes stories of miracles and black magic, sexualized rituals and tantric rites from former Diamond Mountain acolytes. The Enlightenment Trap is a gripping work of investigative journalism that reveals how the path to enlightenment can be riddled with danger.

Tsechu Mask Dance Festival, Bhutan (video)

Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; EBSLanguage (EBS 외국어 학습); Tapas Photography

(Part 4) "In Search of a Celestial Kingdom," onward to Bhutan's capital Thimphu for a Tsechu ("Day Ten"), the kingdom’s grand festival (영어로 하는 세계테마기행, Themes Around the World).

Indigenous Himalayan shamanic influences color Teschu masked dance festivals (TP).

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Bhutan's famed Tiger's Nest monastery (AW)

High in the last Himalayan Buddhist kingdom -- now a democracy after the final king stepped down to modernize the country rich in unspoiled resources but more interested in Gross Domestic Happiness than Gross Domestic Product -- there is an ancient festival underway.

Hindu sadhu far below on the Ganges (TP)

Bhutan's Vajrayana Buddhism, which blends indigenous shamanism (Bon) and Tibetan/Chinese Mahayana universalism, devotees take part in a colorful annual display.

Tsechu is a masked dance festival that lasts for several days and celebrates the life of Guru Rinpoche, who brought Buddhism to Bhutan.

Tsechu: "Day Ten"

Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

Dance of the Black Hats (Stephen Shephard)

Tsechu (ཚེས་བཅུ།), literally "Day Ten," is an annual Bhutanese religious festival held in each district or dzongkhag of Bhutan on the tenth day of a month of the lunar Tibetan calendar, the month depending on the place.

Tsechus are religious festivals of the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism (Bhutanese Vajrayana). They are large social gatherings that perform the function of social bonding among people from remote and very spread out villages.

Buddhist India, Arunchal Pradesh (TP)

Large markets congregate at fair locations, leading to brisk commerce (Dancing on the Demon's Back: the Dramnyen Dance and Song of Bhutan, Elaine Dobson, John Blacking Symposium: Music Culture and Society, Callaway Centre, Univ. of Western Australia, July 2003). The Thimphu and Paro tsechus are among the largest in terms of participation and audience. More

Hemis Monastery: Main ALTAR Room

CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Twiga_269/flickr (ॐ FEMEN); William Henry

Colorful walls and murals of Hemis Gompa with visions of stylized unseen beings

Himalayas: Hemis golden Buddha lovingly wrapped in prayer flags (twiga_269)

Hemis Monastery: Main Prayer Room Hemis Monastery (twiga_269/flickr.com)

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Why do they call it an "altar"? It is, according to William Henry, because this special place has the power to alter the individual who stands in it. One enters an altered state and is altered. In ancient Egypt there were special altar stones (i.e., red granite) key in this transformation.

LADAKH, J&K, India - Hemis Monastery: Main Prayer Room Hemis Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, 45 km from the local capital of Leh, Ladakh, Buddhist India. The monastery was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi King Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honoring Padmasambhava is held here in early June. More + Photos

Lama's desk: swastika (akasha deva Vril symbol) rug, skull hand drum, cash money, vajra, bell yoni, chant book, incense bowl, Vajrayana Buddhism-Bon shamanism (Twiga_269/WQ)

Arriving at Hemis Gompa, Ladakh, India (twiga_269/flickr.com)

• Kun ~ Ladakh 2014 (Album: 16)
• Tibet Buddhism (Group: 10,028)
• Hinduism and Buddhism (Group: 4,985)
• Buddhist (Group: 9,301)
• Buddhism (Group: 46,281) 

Altered by Altar Stones?
William Henry (williamhenry.net)

Energy centers: the great pyramids of the Giza Plain, Egypt (sun-surfer.com)

It is an impressive fact that Nashville, Tennessee, my home, is the only city in the world that has reinterpretations of two mythic temples from antiquity. Both are among the finest in existence.

 

One temple is the “Queen of Heaven” Athena’s Parthenon, “Virgin-temple,” 438 B.C., Athens, Greece.
 

Sumer and Sumeru are connected (WQ)

The other is a $55 million 2,200-foot long rod laid out and growing on 19 acres. By a masterstroke of synchronicity, it is patterned like the world axis, Mount Meru [Sumeru, the Axis Mundi], the cosmic pillar or axis at the center of the world ascended by [the] Buddha and known throughout the ages as the model for all Trees of Life....

The Nashville gilgal’s [a circle of stones, usually 12] floor is made of red, white, and blue granite that sparkles in the sunlight. That’s because, as researchers such as Christopher Dunn and Freddy Silva note, red granite is loaded with quartz crystal. This "firestone" is a formidable conductor of energy, which is why it is the tuner of choice of the ancient stone workers of Egypt and Britain. (Remember, after all, Meru is described as an antenna).

• Buddhism's great Sumeru (Mt. Meru) was an antenna?

Granite is considered a masculine stone. Limestone, which is associated with water, is considered to have feminine properties. Together, the granite floor and limestone pillars charge the Court of Three Stars with positive and negative polarity, just like an electrical circuit.

 

Etched into this granite "tuner" is a trinity of 15-foot wide pentacles -- a protective symbol known as Solomon’s Seal…and the star of Ishtar or Athena. At their center is the logo for Tennessee, a triceps, a triangle or trinity formed of three diamonds. One of the most powerful ancient symbols, the triceps is an ancient Nordic symbol of divine force, power, and protection.

It symbolizes the A U M trinity. It matches the alchemical symbol called the caput mortum, the skull or death’s head, the starting point for Enki’s alchemical work of transforming a human -- the impure or base metal -- into pure gold. More

11-year-old US boy made lama (video)

Sarthak Gupta; Wisdom Quarterly; TopNews.in; Telegraph.co.uk
(Barcroftmedia, Nov. 2011)

Former Boston school boy, 11-year-old Jigme Wangchuck, whose new name is Galwa Lorepa, was discovered two years ago to be the reincarnation of Galwa Lorepa, the high priest and founder of one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Jigme claims to have realized his future destiny after a dream about his previous life. He will spend the next ten years studying at the Dali Monastery. His mother Dechen Martsa, father Choesang Martsa, and his sister Norzom Martsa moved from their US home to live nearby (link).

In 2009 an 11-year-old American schoolboy was anointed the head of a Buddhist sect in Darjeeling, India, as the reincarnation of a high-ranking lama who died more than 750 years ago.

• 11-year -old Jigme named Buddhist high priest
• 5-year-old American lama found in Minnesota

Jigme Wangchuk, a 5th grade student of St Peter’s School in Boston, will be known as His Holiness (HH) the Second Galwa Lorepa, head of the Drukpa sect. The first Galwa Lorepa died in 1250 in Tibet.

The US-born Wangchuk -- now revered by hundred of thousands of followers in Nepal, Bhutan, and Ladakh (Buddhist India) as the rinpoche (high priest) of the Drukpa Sangag Choeling Monastery in Darjeeling -- told HT at the monastery:

“It’s a big transition. I do miss being a cheerful schoolboy. I miss my home, my grandparents, aunts and uncles. However, being a rinpoche is a great honor.” More

Live Webcast: 3rd Annual Drukpa Council

Tenzin Namgyel (The Buddhist Channel, Aug 23, 2011)

Leh, Ladakh (India) - Devotees and pilgrims are currently now in Leh, the capital of the Indian state of Ladakh, to attend the third annual Drukpa council (ADC), that begins from August 22. The council is being presided over by His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa Rinpoche, the spiritual head of the Drukpa lineage. More

• Live Webcast link: drukpa.tv/index.php/live-webcast

Himalaya village caught between culture and nature
Navin Singh Khadka, BBC News, 24 August 2011
Humla, Nepal - An ethnic community in Nepal's remotest Himalayan district, bordering Tibet, says it has been struggling to save its unique Buddhist culture from being uprooted by floods from a glacial lake. More

Don’t worry, be happy
MAJORIE CHIEW, The Star, August 21, 2011
A spiritual leader expounds on his ideas for finding true contentment in life.

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia - HAPPINESS has to come from within us. When a jolly monk says this, people tend to listen. More

Bhutan: The Dragon Kingdom (video)

(blog.sub-studio.com)

• The Dragon Kingdom (Journeyman Pictures)

The country and its people promote non-materialistic values and live in harmony. However, by opening their borders, it is opening a Pandora's box. It is now just a matter of time before the flood of Western information and Chinese expansionism corrupts this Buddhist gem. Humans may not be suitable for ruling as Naga ("Dragon") Kings. We make "modern" material and scientific advances, but perhaps at the price of our spirituality and sanity. We envy and are constantly trying to get back to Shangri-la, as the Bhutanese will soon be trying. The American Ron Teaguarden (Dragon Herbs) has already made inroads establishing a company to extract Bhutan's herbal wealth and native medicinal lore. But soon the extraction of its natural resources as large-scale capital commodities begins.

• The "Gross Domestic Happiness" of Bhutan (video)

CLICK TO ENLARGE (bhutanecoventure.com)

Monks Walk Himalayas for Environment

Drukpa lineage monks: "monastic environmentalists" (drukpa-fr.org)

KRIPA KRISHNAN MANALI, India (Press Trust of India) - Dressed in their deep red robes, monks and nuns of a 800-year-old Buddhist sect have begun a walking-journey (pad-yatra) to promote environmental conservation and spread awareness about the indis-criminate use of plastics and motor vehicles.

Led by their spiritual leader, the Gyalwang Drukpa, 600 monks are traveling across the snow-clad Himalayas in the month-long "walkathon." It will culminate in the Hemis Festival in Ladakh, India (Hemis Gompa) later next month.

"The journey (yatra) is a way of embracing the 'walking life,' which is beautiful and stress free. Why should we quit walking for cars and helicopters, when they cause so much damage to nature?" the Gyalwang Drukpa asked reporters here before commencing the walkathon on May 25, 2009.

The walkathon is expected to gather more volunteers and fellow Drukpas along the 400-km stretch. The Drukpa leader says he is expecting up to 1,000 followers to join him en route. They will talk to villagers about the environment and also distribute pamphlets and reusable canvas bags.

"We want to spread the message of environmental protection and are not marching for Buddhism. The aim is to interact with people living in the remotest corners of the Himalayas and get to know nature more intimately," the spiritual leader said.