(Mantraon) Superstitious Buddhist monks crossing a dangerous bridge: deep Tibetan chant of Om mani padme hum for calm and nervous system reset with help of internet slop
Trolls and a princess (John Bauer)
A bridge troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as "trolls" dwell in isolated areas of mountains, rocks, and caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.
In later Scandinavian folklore, trolls became beings in their own right, where they live far from human habitation, are not Christianized and brought to heel (like Zionist Hillary Clinton might like), and are considered dangerous to human beings.
A diagram of trolling, the harmful behavior of Troll Trump
Humans better not mess with us or we're going to attack them online so they can be sad.
TROLLS IN BUDDHISM: A kumbhāṇḍa (Sanskrit) or kumbhaṇḍa (Pāli) is one of a group of dwarfish, trollish, misshapen spirits among the lesser unseen beings in Buddhist cosmology and mythology [1, 2]. Kumbhāṇḍa was a dialectal form for "gourd." Due to their large scrotums or stomachs, they got their name from the resemblance. Kumbhāṇḍa may be interpreted as "pot-egg" since kumbha ("pot," like the world's largest festival, the Kumbha Mela about a pot/jar that spilled the "nectar of the gods," the amrita or ambrosia of immortality, on a few spots in India) and "egg"(anda). This was a common euphemism for "testicle." Kumbhāṇḍas had testicles "as large as pots" [1]. The terms kumbhāṇḍa (dwarf or troll) and yakṣa (ogre, Sasquatch, female yaksha = yakshi or Yeti) are sometimes used for the same creature. Yakṣa (Pali yakkha) in this case is the more general term and includes a variety of lower woodland or for the most part unseen beings inhabiting wilderness areas. More
Is Trump a troll or a childish trickster who acts like a child to bother others? Get off my bus!
WHAT KIND OF KARMA? In slang, an internet troll is a person who posts deliberately offensive or provocative messages online [1] (such as on social media, forums, chat rooms, or online video games) or performs similar behaviors offline. The methods and motivations of these subhuman trolls can range from benign to sadistic. These messages can be inflammatory, insincere, digressive [2], extraneous, or off-topic, and may have the intent of provoking others into displaying emotional responses [3], or manipulating others' perceptions, thus acting as a bully or a provocateur. The behavior is typically for the troll's amusement, or to achieve a specific result such as disrupting a rival's online activities or purposefully causing confusion or harm to other people [4]. Trolling behaviors involve tactical aggression to incite emotional responses, which can adversely affect the target's well-being [5]. In this context, the noun and the verb forms of "troll" are frequently associated with internet discourse. Since at least the 2010s, media attention has equated trolling with online harassment. The Courier-Mail and The Today Show have used "troll" to mean "a person who defaces Internet tribute sites with the aim of causing grief to families" [6, 7]. In addition, depictions of trolling have been included in popular fictional works, such as the HBO television program The Newsroom, in which a main character encounters harassing persons online and tries to infiltrate their circles by posting negative sexual comments [8]. More
Depending on the source, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them.
In Scandinavian folklore, trolls are sometimes associated with particular landmarks like bridges (sometimes said to have been formed by a troll having been exposed to sunlight).
Trolls are depicted in a variety of media in modern popular culture.
Etymology (word origin)
Jotunn, dwarf, troll, in Scandinavian lore
The Old Norse nouns troll and trǫll are variously defined as "fiend, demon, werewolf, jötunn," like the Middle High German troll, trolle, "fiend."
According to philologist Vladimir Orel, the word is likely borrowed from Old Norse, possibly developed from Proto-Germanic neuter noun *trullan, meaning "to tread, step on" [tromp, stomp, stamp]. The origin of the Proto-Germanic word is unknown [1]. Additionally, the Old Norse verb trylla means "to enchant..." More
He is known as Dàhēitiān and Daaih'hāktīn (大黑天) in Mandarin and Cantonese, Daeheukcheon (대흑천) in Korean, Đại Hắc Thiên in Vietnamese, and Daikokuten (大黒天) in Japanese. More
Machig Labdrön (Tibetan མ་གཅིག་ལབ་སྒྲོན་, sometimes referred to as ཨ་སྒྲོན་ཆོས་སྒྲོན or Ahdrön Chödron་) [1], the "Singular Mother Torch from Lab" (1055–1149) [2].
Machig Labdrön was the renowned 11th-century Tibetan tantricBuddhist master and yogini who originated several Tibetan lineages of the Vajrayana practice of Chöd (Tibetan གཅོད་).
Nyingma scholar Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche states that the Chöd tradition developed by Machig Labdrön is "a radical synthesis of the Prajnaparamita tradition and tantra guru yoga that 'cuts' through the ego" [3].
Historical texts portray Machig Labdrön as the originator of the Chöd lineage, which she developed in Tibet.
This was confirmed in her own lifetime by Indian Brahmin priests and others, and Machig Labdron's creation of the Chöd lineage is not doubted by its modern practitioners [4].
The influences of other practices on Chöd are debated. Some posit Machig Labdron may have come from a YungdrungBön [black magic shaman] family, a position that contradicts historical records [5].
Other Buddhist teachers and scholars offer differing interpretations of the origins of Chöd. Not all of them agree that Chöd has Bön shamanistic roots [6]. More
Tibetan tantric dream yoga (milam) In the yoga of dreaming (rmi lam), the yogi and yogini learn to remain aware (lucid dream) during the states of dreaming and use this skill to practice yoga in the dream... The Yoga of the Dream State is a suite of advanced tantric daily practices (sadhana) of the entwined Mantrayana (Vajrayana) lineages of Dzogchen (Nyingmapa, Ngagpa, Mahasiddha, Kagyu, and Bönpo). It consists of tantric processes and techniques in the trance bardos [liminal spaces] of dream and sleep or the Six Dharmas of Naropa, the "dream body" and the "bardo body" being identified with the "vision body" (yid lus)...
Vajrapani (Sanskrit Vajrapāṇi, Pali Vajirapāṇi, "holder of the thunderbolt," lit. meaning, "Vajra in [one's] hand") is one of the earliest-appearing bodhisattva in various sub-schools of Mahayana Buddhism.
He is alleged to be the protector and guide of the historical Buddha Gautama and rose to symbolize the Buddha's power.
Vajrapāni is also called Chana Dorje and Chador and extensively represented in Buddhist iconography as one of the earliest three protective deities or bodhisattvas surrounding the Buddha. Each of them symbolizes one of the Buddha's virtues... More
LYRICS "Death Certificate" (by Carcass): A grim myriad/ A grey kaleidoscope/ Sterile, contrasting/ Born and die/ Institutionalized/ A bleak epitaph/ An epilogue so sad
Did the 14th Dalai Lama really ask an underage little boy, a minor, to "suck my tongue" in front of cameras (unlike how he must usually do it, in private and behind closed doors)? - Yes. Is that a problem? It's a cultural thing! He has a right to make out with minors. Who are we to judge?
(Sadhguru Darshan) "Nobody expected this question from Indian Tibetan Buddhist monk (lama)"? As scandal-ridden "Sadhguru"JaggiVasudev pontificates and goes on an on with his humble brag about how "enlightened" he must be now that he, having been an agnostic atheist not interested in spirituality, he experienced "ecstasy" one day. This made him feel like a holy man (sadhu), and he wants to make the whole world blissful or at least get rich trying.
[The Pali/Sanskrit word sarana actually means "Going for GUIDANCE," NOT "going for refuge," which is a bad English translation. Early Buddhist reformer Col. Henry Steel Olcott tried to straighten out this misunderstanding more than a century ago in The Buddhist Catechism (sacred-texts.com).
But people still misunderstand and scholar mindlessly repeat the mistake without ever taking a closer look at the word and the potential confusion they are causing.
There is only one real "refuge" in the phenomenal universe, and the historical Buddha called that nirvana. Nirvana is the further shore, the real place of safety beyond rebirth. Everything in samsara is beset by disappointments and dangers on all sides.
Aside from nirvana, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the [Enlightened] Sangha are precious jewels we can resort to for GUIDANCE on the path, for encouragement, inspiration, and clarification.
We ourselves must make the effort. No one saves us but ourselves. No one can, and no one may. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha merely POINT the way.]
Going for Guidance?
Saranamor "guidance," Col. Olcott explains: "This word has been hitherto very inappropriately and erroneously rendered 'refuge' by European Pali scholars and thoughtlessly so accepted by native Pali scholars," Wijesinha Mudaliyar writes to him to point out.
Neither Pali etymology nor Buddhist philosophy justifies the translation. "Refuge," in the sense of a fleeing back or a place of shelter, is quite foreign to true Buddhism, which insists on every person working out one's own emancipation [liberation, salvation, enlightenment].
The root Sṛ in Sanskrit (sara in Pali) means to move, to go, so that saranam would denote a moving, or one or that which goes before or with another—a Guide or Helper.
I construe the passage thus: Gacchāmi, "I go," Buddham, "to the Buddha," Sâranam, "as my Guide."
The translation of the Ti-saraṇa as the "Three Refuges" has given rise to much misapprehension and has been made by anti-Buddhists a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking refuge in non-entities and believing in unrealities.
The term "refuge" is more applicable to Nirvaṇa, of which saranam is a synonym.
The [Abbot] Sumangala also calls my attention to the fact that the Pali root sara has the secondary meaning of killing, or that which destroys.
Buddham saranam gacchami [Dhammam saranam gacchami, Sangham saranam gacchami] might thus be rendered "I go to the Buddha, the Doctrine, and the [Noble] Order as the destroyers of my fears—the first by his teaching, the second by its axiomatic truth, the third by their various [enlightened] examples and precepts." Source
Nagarjuna: Nāgārjuna (from Sanskrit Nāga + Arjuna, Chinese Lóngshù 龍樹, Tibetan Klu sgrub); circa 150 – c. 250 CE) was a philosopher and Mahāyāna Buddhist monk from South India. He is considered the founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school [2, 3]. He is widely considered to be the most important Buddhist philosopher after the Buddha himself [4, 3]. Indeed, at least in Tibetan Buddhism, he is called the "second Buddha" [5]. He was a well-known defender of the new Mahāyāna movement. His treatises (śāstras) are the foundational texts of a school of Buddhist philosophy known as the teaching of emptiness (Śūnyatā-vāda) or Middle Way School of Madhyamaka...
Yeshe Tsogyal (circa 757 or 777–817 CE) [1] is also known as "Victorious Ocean of Knowledge," "Knowledge Lake Empress" (Wylie ye shes mtsho rgyal, ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ) or by her Sanskrit name Jñānasāgarā "Knowledge Ocean," or by her clan name "Lady Kharchen" [2].
She attained enlightenment in her lifetime and is considered the Mother of Tibetan Buddhism. Yeshe Tsogyal is the highest woman in the Nyingma Vajrayana lineage.
Some sources say she, as princess of Kharchen, was either a co-wife or consort of Emperor Tri Songdetsen (Trisong Detsen) of Tibet [3] when she began studying Buddhism withPadmasambhava, who became her main karmamudrā consort.
EMANATIONS: Yeshe Tsogyal is considered a manifestation of the Bodhisattva Tara. She is also considered an emanation of Prajnaparamita, Samantabhadrī, and Vajrayogini [16]. In the Life of Yeshe Tsogyel, Padmasambhava predicted that Yeshe Tsogyel would be reborn as Machig Labdrön; her consort Atsara Sale [2] would become Topabhadra, Machig’s husband; her assistant and another of Padmasambhava’s consorts, Tashi Khyidren, would be reborn as Machig’s only daughter, and so on. All of the important figures in Yeshe Tsogyel’s life were to be reborn in the life of Machig Labdron, including Padmasambhava himself, who would become Dampa Sangye [17].
Padmasambhava is a founder-figure of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism and is considered a second "buddha" of our era [4] [which at least one other tradition, sticking to the original texts, would say is impossible, given that the historical Buddha often pointed out how rare the arising of a buddha is and how few there have ever been, with only one in any epoch.]
She is known to have revealed terma ("hidden treasure") with Padmasambhava and was also the main scribe for these terma. Later, Yeshe Tsogyal hid many of Padmasambhava's terma on her own, under the instructions of Padmasambhava for future generations [2].
Born a princess in the region of Kharchen, Tibet, in about 777 CE, she fled from arranged marriages until captured for Emperor Tri Songdetsen.
Yeshe Tsogyal lived for approximately 99 years and is a preeminent figure in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism and a role model for contemporary spiritual practitioners.
Although often referred to as being Padamasambhava's main "consort," Yeshe Tsogyal was primarily a spiritual master and teacher in her own right.
Based on her spiritual accomplishments, the Nyingma and Karma Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism recognize Yeshe Tsogyal as a female buddha.
The translators of Lady of the Lotus-Born, the namtar or spiritual biography that Yeshe Tsogyal left as a terma/hidden treasure, observe:
"As Dodrup Tenpai Nyima makes clear, beings able to reveal Termas must have at least the realization of the Perfection Stage practices. On the other hand, the one who originates the Treasures must have the supreme attainment of Buddhahood. Lady of the Lotus-Born is thus a testimony of Yeshe Tsogyal's enlightenment" [5]. More
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