Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Leprechaun in the News (St. Patrick's Day)

Pat Macpherson and Seven Jaini (Wisdom Quarterly)

Buddhism believes in leprechauns, pronounced koom-bawn-dahs. These dwarfish nature spirits ("little people") are a class of wood nymphs. Fairies (earthbound-, tree-, and flying-devas) get most of the attention. But living among them are the often overlooked kumbhandas. Their kingdom is ruled by King Virulhaka, who guards the South. This is an Indian cosmology inherited by the Buddha and shared by Hinduism, Jainism, and other ancient Eastern traditions. The cosmological details have been formalized in Buddhism's 31 Planes of Existence. Leprechauns live in a realm known as Catumaharajika, now largely discounted as mythological. These planes are, however, possible to verify for oneself through the meditative absorptions and other far less wholesome expansions of consciousness.

DANGER: Irish boys, "Don't be afraid to become priests," says Pope

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