Tibetan Milarepa was a bad wizard?

The Tibetan Book of the Dead (video)

Visit Hemis Gompa, the Buddhist monastery where Jesus Christ studied, Ladakh

One week in Ladakh, India (formerly Tibet): How and what to do (Talk Travel)

Dead Man's Guide to Afterlife: Bardo Thodol

(The Mystery Library) Could a 1,300-year-old Vajrayana Buddhist manuscript from Ladakh (once Tibet, now India) hold the secret to reincarnation (rebirth), the afterlife, and the nature of consciousness?

Let's travel through the Bardo, the intermediate state between lives where consciousness goes after the death of the body, and where it seeks the path to the light or ends up reincarnating.

The Bardo Thodol, or "The Tibetan Book of the Dead," offers great insights into how the ancients viewed consciousness.

Still in use today to guide the deceased through their voyage into the afterlife in remote parts of Tibet and India, notably in the Himalayan region of Ladakh, the teachings in The Bardo Thodol resonate with recent discoveries in the field of quantum physics.

• Researchers investigate possible transitional phase between life and death

It may be the ultimate piece of the puzzle to the mystery that is consciousness. (Matter, it seems, is derivative, and consciousness is primary, says theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate Max Planck, and the Buddhist Abhidharma or "Dharma [Explained] in Ultimate Terms" would seem to agree).

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 An old man is dying
• 01:35 The Chikhai Bardo
• 03:05 The Chonyid Bardo
• 03:58 The Sidpa Bardo
• 05:33 Carl Jung
• 06:15 Max Planck
• 07:17 Perceptual studies

Embark on this spiritual exploration to together discover the ancient wisdom that has captivated minds for centuries. 

• Earth has six continents not seven, radical new study claims

Subscribe to The Mystery Library for more insightful content. Remember to leave a like to support this work and click the bell icon to receive notifications on latest uploads. #BardoThodol #Reincarnation #TibetanBookOfTheDead #AfterlifeJourney #BuddhistPhilosophy #CycleOfRebirth #SpiritualEnlightenment #KarmaRebirth #TibetanBuddhism #LifeAfterDeath #SpiritualAwakening #MeditationLife #AncientWisdom #QuantumConsciousness #PastLifeMemories #EnlightenmentPath #ChonyidBardo #SidpaBardo #NearDeathExperience #MysticalExperiences

• The Mystery Library, March 8, 2024; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Hidden Tibetan Buddhist Monastery: Zanskar

BBC via Danny Bull, Feb. 11, 2023; CC Liu, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Hidden Tibetan Buddhist monastery | Our World: Return to Zanskar | BBC full doc

(Danny Bull) This is a journey into the heart of the Zanskar Valley, following two travelers who are returning after 30 years. It is a region lost in time with centuries-old monasteries built into rock faces and caves. This film looks at the unique Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist culture of Zanskar and how the local people are dealing with change following road construction into their once isolated valley. Viewers end up at one of the most stunning Buddhist monasteries on the Zanskar river, Phuktal Gompa, sometimes spelled Phugtal, where there was a unique prayer ceremony in progress and an opportunity to speak to monks (lamas) who have lived there for decades.

#zanskar #zanskarvalley #tibet #tibetanmusic #tibetanbuddhism #buddhism #philosophy

The last Buddhist kingdom: Bhutan (video)

THIS IS LIFE IN BHUTAN: The most isolated country in the world?

(Lifeder En) June 10, 2023. This video embarks on a journey full of charm and mystery through Bhutan, a majestic kingdom located in the heart of the Himalayas. See its culture, preserved in its purest state due to its geographical isolation and its strong devotion to Buddhist traditions. Get to know what life in Bhutan is like, from the serenity of its ancient Vajrayana Buddhist monasteries to the joy of its colorful festivals. Discover the impressive fortresses called dzongs, silent witnesses of Bhutan's rich history. Understand the monarchy, which stepped aside for the sake of progress and modernity, an integral part of the country's history, ethnic groups, what the people are like, and much more. 

Own-created or licensed content. Other materials used: pastebin.com/L7EWuHRa

Native Americans and Tibetans are too similar

Regular contributor Hendon Harris (Chinese Discover America, 2/13/23); Dalai Lama; Marcia Keegan, Tibetans and Native Americans; Dhr. Seven, Xochitl (eds.), March 4th, Wisdom Quarterly

Tibetan Goloks from Amdo: Tibetan cowboys and Indian,s hats, fashions (pinterest.com)

Meeting Hopi tribal elders in Calgary, Dalai Lama (thegreatgathering.org)

Cowboy hat given to welcome the 14th Dalai Lama to Native lands (tibetoffice.com.au)

Were Anasazi Native Americans Buddhists

Buddhism arrived in America before Columbus

Q: If two different societies thousands of miles apart and separated by the vast Pacific Ocean have an irregular surplus number of similar beliefs and customs, one must at some point at least admit that these two groups of people -- even though far apart -- certainly appear to have had an ancient connection, right?

A: Right. Unless it's all a coincidence.

Q: True, one similarity could be a coincidence, but could all of these?

A: Not likely. There must be an underlying connection.

• [EDITOR'S NOTE: In modern Ladakh/old Tibet, near Hemis Gompa, I saw unbelievable black-and-white photographs of Native Americans or indigenous Mexicans -- with characteristic features of our American Indians: dark skin, Asiatic features, turquoise jewelry, bolo ties, braided black shiny hair, sunbeaten and weathered faces, white cotton clothes, cowboy hats... What were these doing here? How could Natives be known in faraway Asia? These were no Americans but Tibetan cowboys and "Indians" dressed as cowpokes. The similarities were shocking and painfully striking. I had seen the girls at Boudhanath (Eyes of Buddha) Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, nearly riot around a wandering salesman. I went over on my motorcycle. As the crowd separated and gave way to the bike, to my great disbelief and dismay I saw the cause of the commotion -- Madonna posters, yes, that Desperately Seeking Susan star dressed like a virgin. Any Western token, the Himalayans wanted in! So that they would have been into old Western photographs of cowboys and Injuns would not have been out of the questions. But these were parallel peoples of the Southwest, living in Pueblos like the great Potala Palace and revolving their lives around buffalo, hairy cows and bulls of the plateau and Plains, genetic bison. Above, the 14th Dalai Lama dons a cowboy hat, which looks ridiculous to us, all part of his charming humor, but would not be at all out of place in rural Tibet.]

Tibetans and Native Americans: From the Roof of the World to the Land of Enchantment

Neutered Kokopelli

A book by Marcia Keegan (author and illustrator), Valerie Shepherd (editor), Debra Snyderman (editor), and Carol O'Shea (editor) points to a strong Tibetan connection.

Here is a short list of connections, each of which would require a lifetime of work by anthropologists. Even then, few have made the connection and tied these customs together:

• Tibetan Buddhists and Four Corners Puebloan peoples use masks in religious ceremonies
• Use of phallic symbols (Kokopelli)
• Celebration of the Ghost Dance
• Celebration of the Rain Dance
• Origin and use of mandalas (circles, geometric patterns)
• Origin and use of the ancient swastika (manji)
• [Is the swastika a Native American symbol?]
• [Whirling Log of Native Americans is a swastika]
• [Ancient symbol hijacked by evil - BBC Culture]

Buddhist missionaries visited America.

[Indian historian Dr. Ranajit Pal made the connection between the Buddha and modern Afghanistan, ancient Scythia/Shakya Land or Kapilavastu, more likely Kabul and Bamiyan and Mes Aynak, because young Prince Siddhartha who would become the Buddha was raised in three seasonal capitals, the Buddha's birthplace. So Buddhist missionary monks coming from Afghanistan and neighboring China to America before Christopher Columbus, born Cristoforo Colombo, is not as odd as it may first sound.]

History of Buddhism in America (Rick Fields)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Marcia Keegan's latest book is a chronicle of the similarities between two ancient cultures -- Buddhist and Native American -- that have sustained the human legacy through epochs of change.

While our current worldview has been shaped by the Renaissance in Europe and the Industrial Revolution there and here, the Native American and Tibetan cultures were thriving in a world of isolation from modernity, maintaining their own traditions handed down through their elders.

Kokopelli is a very phallic figure.

Native American stories of emergence, world cycles, and ceremonies are as alive today as they were in prehistoric times.

Tibetan Buddhist (and pre-Buddhist Bon) rituals date back to a root culture called the Shang Shung (Zhangzhung), pre-dating 10,000 years ago. It is the indigenous culture of the Tibetan Plateau in what the Chinese now call China (which amounts to half the landmass of Beijing's conquered empire/occupied territory).

"Tibet" is a massive part of "China," and the ruling Han Chinese know it (John Oliver/HBO).

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Both cultures have co-evolved without any recorded contact between each other until 1979, during the 14th Dalai Lama's first historic visit to North America.

Marcia Keegan was there to arrange the initial meeting between a Hopi elder and the Dalai Lama's delegation.

The Hopi greeting of the Dalai Lama, welcoming home, signified the fulfillment of one of their great prophecies.

In response, the Dalai Lama asked, Where did you get your turquoise [jewelry]? This question signified a recognition of their shared values and aesthetic.

The subsequent dialog between the two leaders explored many commonalities, which revealed their basic human and cultural values that have sustained the spiritual, economic, and governance of the two cultures through centuries of change in the world.

 H.H. Tenzin Gyatso is one of us.

These have been codified in cosmologies that respect the dignity of the individual, the sacredness of nature, and the importance of ceremony as a condition of living.

Although their ceremonies and detailed spiritual beliefs differ, the core human values are the same. They are defined by their land [great plains full of bison/yaks], Puebloan architecture, decorations, cultural practices, customs, mountains, valleys, spirits, mandalas, sand paintings, ritual dances, petroglyphs (rock carvings and art), creation myths, prophecies, and gatherings.

This book, rich in images, captivates readers and offers them a rare glimpse of the heritage of their common human legacies.

Southwest Indian Cookbook (Marcia Keegan)

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Author Marcia Keegan, through her insightful text and photographs, allows us to draw our own conclusions as to what is important, questioning our values in relationship to two ancient and dynamic cultures that have contributed to humankind in metaphysical (non-material) ways.

The conclusions we draw are our own. The choices we make have their own results for the world we live in. Enjoy this book, ponder the comparison of similarities not only of two ancient cultures but also of the world you live in. It is never finite and always subject to change. From the roof of the world to the land of enchantment

Last Week Tonight w/John Oliver: Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama, LastWeekTonight, 1/23/23; Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Who is the current {14th) Vajrayana Buddhist "pope-king" of Tibet? (dalailama.com)

The Dalai Lama | The 50 best travellers in the world (Conde Nast Traveller)

Q: Why does Wisdom Quarterly like John Oliver so much? A: He's got cajones with the Dalai Lama.

Season 10 trailer: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

(LastWeekTonight) Funnyman John Oliver returns on February 19, 2023, with the HBO show that bravely explores the greatest issues of our time -- like what types of horses are hottest, and why.

Who cares about the British Monarchy (and the future royal Antichrist)?

Connect with Last Week Tonight with John Oliver [and the Dalai Lama] online by subscribing to the YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens, on Facebook like your mom would, on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news, or just visit the official site for all that other stuff at once.

Shock News of the Day

HH the 14th Dalai Lama - International Campaign for Tibet (savetibet.org)

• The Richest Man in the World Takes on Elon Musk
• The Dalai Lama's gold Rolex: He likes his watches | British GQ (gq-magazine.co.uk)
• 'Stonehenge of the North', built in 3500 to 2500 BC, opens up to the public
• Fossil brain undoes 350 million years of scientific understanding
• Archeologists find ancient Roman engraved gems in UK bathhouse drain
• ‘UFO Ball’ identified by Pentagon as Spy Balloon Allegedly Belongs to the Chinese Government
• Neil deGrasse Tyson on UFOs and aliens in space | Watch
• Suspected Bigfoot Spotted Crossing Snowy Field in Utah
• Frankenfish monsters: Alligator-Catfish Hybrids Are Being Spawned in an Alabama Lab
• China clones 'super cows,' uddering in Cold Milk War. America must respond
• Christians: “You’ve Gone too Far”. (msn.com)
• Archeologists find 5,000-year-old tavern in Iraq, refrigerator still intact
• Instead of Predicting Length of Winter, Groundhog Simply Dies

Nepal: What is Newar Buddhism? (video)

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit Newar Buddhism; Zero Degree Nepal, 7/16/20

Vajrayana Buddhism of the Newar, Nepal

(Zero Degree Nepal) Nepal is known as the "Land of the Himalayas." According to Hindu myth, the great Himalayas are believed to be the abode of the gods and goddesses (devis and devas).

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva transformed into Kwan Yin

Nepal is a multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious country, where two of the world’s dominant religion, Buddhism and Hinduism coexist in harmony. Buddhism includes a wide variety of beliefs and spiritual practices. 

The two traditions, Mahayana and Theravada, are the main branches of Buddhism. However, everyone follows the basic principles of the teaching of the historical Buddha -- though Mahayana seems to ignore him otherwise in favor of devotion to "Cosmic Buddhas" like Amitabha and Vairocana.

The teaching of universal friendliness (metta) and compassion (karuna) are common, but practices vary among schools and disciplines. The Vajrayana tradition, also known as Newar Buddhism, is classified as part of Mahayana.

It includes practices using tantras, mantras (magical incantations), mudras (hand poses), and mandalas (sacred geometry circles) and the visualization of the Buddha and other deities. Vajrayana is popularly known as Tantric Buddhism that developed over 2,000 years ago in ancient Nepal.

Newari Buddhist chariot at the Temple of Annapurna, Machindranath Jatra (wiki)

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It is strongly influenced by Hinduism and Brahmanism. Newar Buddhists still perform their duties and rituals (dharma), passing along ancient knowledge and scriptures from generation to generation. Most people are only familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, due to its media attraction in the Western world.

For many, the idea of Buddhism only means monks with shaved heads and their saffron, yellow-, and maroon-colored robes. When visitors come in contact with the Newar Buddhist community of Nepal, they are amazed by the sight of the common lay Buddhists practicing this ancient tradition.

Most Nepali Newars follow Hindu traditions. However, the Shakya, Bajracharyas, and many other Newar Buddhist castes follow Buddhism.

The Newar Buddhist community practices Vajrayana Buddhism with unique customs and rituals. Newars are the original inhabitants of Nepal's Kathmandu Valley.

They have a distinct way of life, cultural customs, and spiritual traditions. The rich history, knowledge, rituals, and art of the Newari has turned the Kathmandu Valley into a living museum that attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world.

Religious and cultural festivals play a major part in the lives of the Newari people of Kathmandu.

Video: Suman Track. Art & Music: Mela. Location: Swayambhu. Copyright: Zero Degree Travel & Tours. #nepalnow #spiritual #buddhism #culture #heritage #PromoteNepal #PauseNow #traveltomorrow #artandmusicmela #zerodegreetravels #omsingingbowl

• Buddhism in Nepal

Buddhism of the Newar people

Newar Vajracharya priest (Kamal Ratna Tuladhar)

Newar Buddhism is the form of Vajrayana Buddhism practiced by the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal [1, 2].

It has developed unique socio-religious elements, which include a non-monastic Buddhist society based on the Newar caste system and patrilineality.

The ritual priestly (guruju) caste, vajracharya (who perform rituals for others) and shakya (who perform rituals mostly within their own families) form the non-celibate religious clergy caste, while other Buddhist Newar castes like the Urāy act as patrons.

Uray also patronize Tibetan Vajrayana, Theravada, and even Japanese clerics [3]. It is the oldest known sect of the Vajrayana tradition outdating the Tibetan school of Vajrayana by more than 600 years.

Although there was a vibrant regional tradition of Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley during the first millennium, the transformation into a distinctive cultural and linguistic form of Buddhism appears to have taken place in the 15th century, at about the same time that similar regional forms of Indic Buddhism such as those of Kashmir and Indonesia were on the wane.

As a result, Newar Buddhism seems to preserve some aspects of Indian Buddhism that were not preserved in Vajrayana schools elsewhere. More

Shambhala, the spiritual Buddhist kingdom

Holly Gary, grunge.com, Aug. 2, 2022; Pat Macpherson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Helena Roerich translated The Secret Doctrine by Madame Blavatsky (Atlas Obscura).

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Inside the story behind Shambhala, the spiritual Buddhist kingdom that was never discovered

Madame Blavatsky and Theosophists in Asia

It may be part of human nature to imagine there's a place out there free from strife and full of knowledge. Certainly, more than one culture has this concept.

One such place is the Buddhist Kingdom of Shambhala in Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain mythology.

Shambhala is Sanskrit and means "place of peace" or "place of silence" (IndiaDivine.org). This myth dates back more than a thousand years and varies depending on the source.

However, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains agree that Shambhala is both a physical and a spiritual place (Atlas Obscura). While there is debate on where the physical Shambhala is located, according to ThoughtCo., it is between the Himalayan mountains and the Gobi Desert.

All the citizens of Shambhala have achieved enlightenment, so it represents a Buddhist ideal. The tantalizing myth of Shambhala has led quite a few people into the Himalayas to try to find it. It has attracted the attention of everyone from hippies and spiritualists to Christian missionaries to the NAZIs and Soviets.

In the 1920s, a Russian couple named Nicholas and Helena Roerich made one such expedition. They had escaped Russia just before the revolution of 1917 and were living in the United States.

Helena Roerich (pictured above) had translated The Secret Doctrine by Madame Helena Blavatsky, a Russian spiritualist (Atlas Obscura).

The book mentioned Shambhala, claiming that finding it was a shortcut to enlightenment. The Roerichs began to seriously believe in Shambhala, and Helena Roerich claimed to have received a message from an otherworldly being telling her to go there. More

Magnificent History of Bhutan's Royal Family

The Magnificent History of Bhutan's Royal Family

(Real Royalty, Asia's Monarchies, March 20, 2021) Sponsored by Foxy Games, see more at bit.ly/3toNDjS. Bhutan's governing party pledged recently to follow the policies of the absolute monarchy it is replacing, after it won a landslide in the country's first parliamentary elections. This remote, beautiful country truly is in the throes of a noble experiment. What makes this experiment unique is that this move towards democracy has been initiated by the ruling monarch himself. From Elizabeth II to Cleopatra, Real Royalty peels back the curtain to give a glimpse into the lives of some of the most influential families in the world, with new full-length documentaries posted every week covering the monarchies of today and all throughout history.

Content licensed from Off The Fence to Little Dot Studios. Any queries, please contact us at: owned-enquiries@littledotstudios.com.

Tibet's secret Buddhist temple (video)

David Bickerstaff (NOWNESS, 11/16/15); CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

CIA operative and media creation against China?

Let's go on a visual journey to the fifth Dalai Lama’s private meditation chamber. The current Dalai Lama incarnation, Tenzin Gyatso, is the fourteenth in line, the spiritual and temporal leader (pope-king) of the Yellow Hats, a Tibetan Buddhist sect which holds sway only in Tibet except among the dominant Han Chinese who occupy the country. Read the full feature on NOWNESS: bit.ly/1RYQy9F.

• bit.ly/facebook-nowness
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• Defunct on Google+: google-nowness

Dalai Lama to drop new album 7/6 (video)

14th Dalai Lama (dalailama.com, June 8, 2020); Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Dalai Lama: Inner World, "Compassion"

The Dalai Lama jumps on Zoom, June 7, 2020

Coming soon, a sacred offering from the current Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) of mantras and teachings set to music. Listen to “Compassion” (innerworld.lnk.to/Compassion), which is taken from the album Inner World that drops July 6th, coinciding with the Dalai Lama’s 85th birthday. Newsletter available at fanlink.to/InnerWorld_Newsletter.

• fanlink.to/InnerWorld_Instagram
• fanlink.to/InnerWorld_Facebook
• fanlink.to/InnerWorld_Twitter
• fanlink.to/InnerWorld_YouTube...
• fanlink.to/InnerWorld_Website

What u think, Adam? - Interesting, your holiness

Dalai Lama recorded by Junelle Kunin with music by Abraham Kunin. Executive produced by Junelle Kunin and Charles Goldstuck. Produced by Abraham Kunin. Mixed by Aaron Nevezie at The Bunker Studio. Mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound.

Artwork by Ella Brewer and Tiffany Singh. Animation by Kajsa Råsten.

Correction: the Tibetan text in the video should read འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས། but was incorrect due to unfortunate issues with software to present it accurately. Music in this video licensed to YouTube by Create Music Group, Inc. (on behalf of Gaden Phodrang Foundation of the Dalai Lama and Khandro Limited).

Potala Palace: If Buddhism has a pope, which it does not, this is his "Vatican." Tibet's capital, Lhasa, now occupied by Han Chinese, would be his Holy See. Like Rome, it was the center of an empire.

Ancient Buddhist Kingdom of Afghanistan (video)

NHK via Svart3n, 9/09; Text: Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, P. Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ancient Buddhist Kingdom in Afghanistan

World's largest Buddha statue, Bamiyan (NatGeo)

Bamiyan, Afghanistan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There's good reason for that. Although the CIA and Pakistan's intelligence service [(ISI) conspired to have the artificially-created "Taliban" blow it up and cause worldwide outrage, Bamiyan -- the Buddha's hometown according to Dr. Ranajit Pal (ranajitpal.com).

The Silk Road was a crossroads in Scythia

It was at least of the three seasonal capitals of the Scythians/Shakyians country or janapada in ancient Central Asia, the "Shakya Land" called Gandhara in those days, which later became Sakastan, the "Country of the Sakas" (Sakae, Scythians, Shakyians, etc.)

Afghanistan and neighboring Indo-Pakistan continue to yield up archeological treasures, including the world's largest Buddha statue, a 1,000 foot reclining Buddha thought to rest somewhere in the vicinity of the two massive standing Buddhas that were destroyed. There is a third standing Buddha in a nearby valley.

The future of the Bamiyan Buddhas
(NATO in Afghanistan, Save 1st, March 2nd, 2011) On the 10th anniversary of the CIA/ISI-Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, it will be decided whether to go ahead and reconstruct the famous statues with the fragments from the explosion that remain. The people of Bamiyan say it's important that the world never forget the dark days of the former (and current) regime in their province.

Saving Mes Aynak

And nearby Mes Aynak is the site of the world's oldest and largest Buddhism monastic complex, 4 square km site threatened to be destroyed by a Chinese mining concern more interested in copper, gold, and rare earth minerals than Buddhist cultural riches.

While Afghanistan was the farthest point from civilization until the British ruled in India and conducted the Great Game spying against the Russian Empire, the USA really brought this Silk Road transcultural area to world attention by carrying on the longest war in its history.

Afghanistan used to be "Russia's Vietnam," and now it's "America's Second Vietnam," an unwinnable quagmire and military disaster replete with human rights abuses, large-scale war crimes, and endless turmoil.

"Chahârbaiti Koshki" by artist Gada Mohammad, from the album Afghanistan: The Traditional Music of Herât licensed to YouTube by The Orchard Music (on behalf of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings / Auvidis-UNESCO).

Time Travel in Tibet: collapsed empire

Mark Stevenson (academia.edu); Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

INTRODUCTION

The central soteriological [means of salvation] vision of Buddhism in Tibet is [allegedly] the same as that in Buddhism elsewhere: it is founded on the Four Noble Truths that describe cyclic existence (’khorba, “turning, going around,” Sanskrit saṃsāra, “continued wandering”) as pervaded by suffering (sdugbsngal), and it possesses instructions on the practices needed for the achievement of peace.

Nevertheless, as elsewhere, the Buddhist traditions of Tibet have been marked by developments that in some cases they shared with other Mahāyāna traditions, and others that can be identified as being specifically [uniquely] Tibetan.

The development of specifically Tibetan theories (lta ba), practices (sgrub thabs), and institutions (chos lugs, gzhung lugs, ’gro lugs) is, of course, what most stands out in phrases like “Tibetan Buddhism” or “Buddhism in Tibet.”

Nevertheless, the phenomena I explore in this chapter are instances of remarkable ways in which the history of Buddhism and its development in Tibet faced particular problems relating to time and history.

Looking into those problems has something to tell us about religion in Tibet now, in the past, and in the future (“the three times,” dus gsum), as well as about some more general problems in the study of religion. This is an “institutions” approach, rather than a doctrinal one, although the two are related.

There are a number of interesting things Tibetans have done with time over the ages, the three most obvious being, in rough chronological order:

• (1) canonical revelations known as tantras (Tibetan brgyud, continuum);
• (2) noncanonical revelations hidden in the landscape during Tibet’s early empire and discovered at a later date, or termas (gter ma, treasures); and
• (3) tulkus (sprul sku, “apparitional embodiments”), lines of "enlightened" teachers who continue to return and teach in human form for centuries. Focusing on tantra, terma, and tulku, three more or less well-known institutions that continue to generate curiosity about Buddhism in Tibet, is one way of accomplishing an overview of how Tibetan religion has been transmitted, how it has been renewed, and how it has been practiced over the centuries.

It will also provide insights into some of the historical processes underlying Buddhism’s development in Tibet and how well placed it is to continue in the immediate future.

Each of the three -- tantra, terma, and tulku -- may be understood as temporal technologies that enabled Buddhism in Tibet to flourish, but they pose a number of interesting problems for Tibetan religion in our own time, leading one to ask if Tibetan religion is about to face a crisis, what that question tells us about religion in general, and also what it says about our own time (in the sense of both this “twenty-first century” and our own construction of time including our relationship to it)….

Time in Buddhism, or any religious tradition, is not a simple matter (or at least it isn’t when scholars and mystics get hold of it: Eliade 1969; Wayman 1969; Tachikawa 1998), and neither is Buddhism’s development in Tibet...

TIME IN BUDDHISM

In addressing the question of time in this essay is interested in time in relation to soteriology [the study of doctrines of salvation] and “life-time,” rather than to questions of what time is made up of and whether or not it exists, and if it does exist, in what way it is real (questions Buddhist thinkers entertained in many places and times).

The discussion is going to get complicated enough without going too far into cosmology, and there are considerable differences around these questions within Buddhist tradition....

It is perhaps easiest and quickest to begin with a comparison. Buddhism takes a very different stance than Christianity, for example, in its general orientation to time, life, and eternity. Indeed, they head in opposite directions.

Christianity in the main sees each person as beginning at one point in time (when they are born) and ideally entering eternal life when they depart this world. The arrow of [linear] life-time begins at a single point and ideally goes forward forever, the proper destiny for a person being eternal life.

In the Buddhist traditions life has already been eternal. Neither time nor the chain of lives has a beginning, and the problem is how to bring cyclic existence [and all its suffering] to an end. While there are great aeons that are described as being to some extent cyclical, with universes and gods coming into and going out of existence, the mind-stream of individuals is beginningless, proceeding through an infinite number of lives and life-forms.

It is the beginningless series of lives that is to be brought to an end at the achievement of nirvana (mya ngan las ’das, "the transcendence of suffering"), the cessation of the causal chain that involves an individual in cyclic existence.

While there are debates in the tradition relating to the nature of karma and continuity (Sharma 1993), or the unchanging and unborn nature of the real (Prasad 1988), individuals turn through cyclic existence life after life; this is the general backdrop to the Indian worldview within which the Buddha’s four noble truths were developed, and the Buddha’s teaching makes little sense outside it.

Indeed, the requirement in the "Delineation of Monastic Discipline" (’Dul ba lung rnam ’byed, Sanskrit Vinaya-vibhaṅga) that the wheel of life (srid pa’i khor lo, Sanskrit bhava-cakra) be displayed in a temple (gtsug lha khang, Sanskrit vīhāra) is precisely “for the purpose of meditation upon the four noble truths” (Rechung 1989: 39).

Surrounded by impermanence – in the figure of death – those who fail to extinguish the cycle of ego-maintaining reactive emotions (desire, aversion, ignorance) continue endlessly to spin through the wheel as hell-beings, ghosts, and animals, rarely ever rising to a human or godly [deva] existence, rapidly descending again if they should fail to use a superior birth to attend to the task of awakening.

Ongoing study of the Tibetan manuscripts from the Dunhuang cave temples (a busy transcultural conduit of Buddhism north of Tibet, seventh to tenth centuries for Tibetan manuscripts) reveals that the conception of time held by the Tibetan imperial court and elite prior to the introduction of Buddhism was considerably different from both patterns described above, consisting of four great eras beginning with a happy time of humans and descending through three subsequent eras of degeneration when a new cycle of four eras was initiated through a revival of the cult honoring the king’s sacredness or divinity....

TANTRIC TIMELINES

Buddhism came to Tibet quite late, around about a thousand years after the Buddha’s passing. Ancient legend suggests evidence of earlier piecemeal contact, but there is no suggestion of any significant foothold in Tibetan culture until the reign of Songtsen Gampo (Srong btsan sgam po, circa 617–49/650), with a concerted translation program under way by the time of the reign of Tri Songdetsen (Khri Srong lde btsan, 755/756–97).

While China and Central Asia were initially important sources for much of the translation effort, there was at the same time a degree of prestige and authority given to Indian sources and teachers. Traditions concerning doctrinal debates at Samyé (Tibet’s first monastery, founded late eighth century) suggest the existence of a growing desire to avoid China in the context of Central Asian power machinations.

India, separated by the high Himalaya, allowed more selective cultural contact, and Buddhism’s origins in India were becoming emblematic of authenticity and textual authority, an impression that was only assisted by the rise of the Buddhist Pāla empire (750–1174) and its monastic-cum-tantric universities in northeastern India.

The late arrival of Buddhism in Tibet and the fact that it came at a time of dynamic religious activity in northern India and Central Asia has left modern historians of religion with a plethora of questions regarding the periodization of texts and doctrines, but it is unlikely that Tibetan converts in the eighth century saw things that way.

Not only had there been a flourishing array of doctrinal, cosmological, and ritual innovations since the passing of the Buddha – from which an entire new approach to Buddhist soteriology, the Mahāyāna, had developed – the entry of Buddhism into Tibet coincided with the appearance of the first self-conscious tantric Buddhist traditions in the Indian subcontinent in the mid- to late-seventh century (Davidson 2002: 24; Gray 2009: 2; Weinberger 2010: 138).

The Mahāyāna and the tantric traditions the Tibetans would come to call the Adamantine Vehicle (Sanskrit Vajrayāna) or the "Vehicle of Mantras" (Sanskrit Mantrayāna) entered Tibet at the same time... More

[The collapse of the Tibetan empire]

Loveable CIA Operative with the son of the former CIA chief, world-renowned religious figure and former Tibetan Emperor Tenzin Gyatso (14th Dalai Lama) and then-US Wannabe-Dictator George W. Bush with his adoring amateur art (AP).

The collapse of the Tibetan empire after the assassination of emperor Lang Darma (gLang dar ma, r. 838–842) in 842 had a number of significant consequences for the direction of the development of Buddhism in Tibet.

What centralizing authority had been present in the imperial court at Lhasa (Rasa) disappeared, taking with it the sponsorship it had been able to offer the monasteries. The collapse of the imperial administration also meant the disbanding of the army in a manner that Ronald Davidson has compared to the situation in Western Europe after the Black Death – dominated by wandering bands of armed men (Davidson 2005: 18).

The breakup of organized monastic religion also meant a temporary retardation of Tibetan interaction with Buddhist north India, which in turn meant that the tantras that were popular after the revival of Buddhist institutions in the middle of the eleventh century – that is to say the tantras of the newly emerging indigenous lineages, or New Orders (Sarma, gsar ma) – emphasized practices that did not exist in the earlier period (Davidson 2005: 216).

Unexpectedly, the breakup of the empire also cleared the way for the full indigenization of Buddhism, what Davidson has styled, again drawing European parallels, a “Tibetan Renaissance.” In Tibetan historiography this new era is known as “the later spread of the doctrine” (bstan pa phyi dar), in contrast to that of the imperial period, “the earlier spread of the doctrine” (bstan pa snga dar).

The authority, organization, and resources for regrouping would eventually come from the old aristocratic clans, but this did not end up being directed toward a revival of centralized royal institutions; rather, local lords competed to establish themselves as the new Buddhist authorities while merchant families dominated the trans-Himalayan trade in texts.

The fate of the original royal line remains something of a mystery, perhaps a sign of the royal household’s tenuous reliance on other aristocratic families. Those same aristocratic families were eventually responsible for investing in bringing a renewal of Buddhist teachings from India, and as fate would have it, the flourishing Buddhist Pāla empire was still waiting for them not all that far south of the Himalayas, the number of its monastic universities now expanded.

At the same time, it would not be long before Buddhism in India and Central Asia was annihilated by Muslim invasions – one of the stimuli for the appearance of the millenarian Wheel of Time Tantra (Sanskrit Kālacakra-tantra) traditions in the eleventh century – while Mongolian armies took control of the territory to Tibet’s north.

Before he left this earth (or was hounded out of Tibet), Padmasambhava is believed by Tibetans to have secreted a large number of texts in the landscape of their country as “treasures” (gter ma) to be rediscovered at a future time when they would be of greatest spiritual benefit. Probably the most famous of these is The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bar do thos grol, “Liberation through Hearing in the Intermediate State”), first discovered by Karma Lingpa (Karma gling pa, 1352–1405) in the fourteenth or fifteenth century.

While terma revelations were later developed into a threefold typology of “earth,” “knowledge,” and “pure vision” depending on the form of access the recipient (gter ston, treasure revealer) was given, the earliest revelations were associated with material remains left from the old empire (Davidson 2005: 213–215; Doctor 2005: 40). The sudden “discovery” of treasures in the tenth century probably emerged out of disagreement regarding the relative roles of lay and monastic interests in the “later dissemination.”

Davidson argues that the earliest “discoverers” of treasures in the tenth and eleventh centuries were lay mantrins (practitioners of secret mantra) with old aristocratic connections who had kept the embers of Buddhism glowing and who were now marginalized with the return of monasticism. They were committed to an older vision of the Buddhist tradition that allowed an alternative to the new Indian traditions and translations dominated by more influential parties (the translation effort required privileged access to resources to fund travel and expertise):

[I]n the late tenth century the ancient Tibetan traditions were suddenly faced with alternative Sarma voices… in response, the older aristocratic lineage holders began to build on a practice that had already been initiated by Central Asian and Chinese monks, that texts could be revealed in the target civilization. (Davidson 2005: 216)

The Tibetan Empire was once vast.

The treasure texts of the Nyingma Great Perfection were more than just one more innovation in the presentation of the Buddha’s teachings. They were keyed into the traditional protectors and autochthonous spirits of Tibet’s landscape, they offered a new “tradition” that identified the Buddhist emperors and other key figures of the former dynasty with Buddhist deities, they bore the imprimatur of the great Buddhist emperor Tri Songdetsen, and most important of all they opened a door of continuing communication with Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra, and other revered guides to spiritual development, in the process having Padmasambhava raised up as a “second buddha,” a status that would eventually be accepted by all Tibetans whatever their denominational allegiances.

In essence the terma are important to the Nyingma (rNying ma, “old order”) traditions in providing continuous renewal to the authority of Padmasambhava, bypassing the India so important in the New Order traditions while opening up a new space for spiritual expression.

Later treasures also develop an intricate mythology through the hagiographies of Padmasambhava’s 25 great disciples, among them Emperor Tri Songdetsen. At the same time, with Indian models driving intellectual fashion the Nyingma adherents were faced with the irony of the “old” becoming unconventional… in more ways than one!

Given the shaky historical ground on which tantric texts stood, it was unlikely that opponents were going to want to push too hard in questioning the termas’ credentials (Doctor 2005: 39).

Even in early Buddhist traditions there are anticipations of the decline of the true teachings after 500 years and their virtual disappearance until “rediscovery by a future Buddha” (Williams 2009: 12), and it may even be said the Mahāyāna tradition was founded upon Nāgārjuna’s (ca. 150–250) retrieval of the Perfection of Wisdom from the realm of the nāga serpents.

We find with the terma tradition, not for the first time in history, fideistic thinkers using skepticism as a fundamental defense in their arguments for faith. (Davidson 2005: 212; Gallagher and Greenblatt 2000: 163–165).

Treasures allowed the authority of the past to continue on as a physical, living presence and influence in the present, many terma contained prophesies that allowed the past to be extended into the future, and in the present they were not averse to incorporating or imitating new Indian material taken from the New Orders. When the terma traditions of the Nyingma were eventually taken up by the other orders, the holy land of India was no longer a viable source of renewal.

Empires, countries, city-states rise and fall.

The Buddhist Pāla empire (750–1174), which had ruled in ancient Bengal [modern Bangladesh, the southeastern extent of the Tibetan Empire] for over 400 years, came to an end, and with further portioning up of India between Muslim powers by the thirteenth century Buddhism in India had practically disappeared. As the influence of the subcontinent receded, the deification of the old religious kings of Tibet in the terma texts as earthly embodiments of buddhas and bodhisattvas would have consequences for native Tibetan conceptions of saintliness.

TIME: THE SPACE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A HIERARCHY
With the influx of Indian Buddhist doctrines during the later spread of the doctrine in Tibet, new schools or orders of Buddhism emerged centered on particular lineages of teachers and the texts and practices they transmitted.

The Sakya and Kagyu orders have their origins in this new fluorescence in eleventh-century Tibet, and their emergence as “new orders” also had the effect of consolidating the earlier tradition as the Nyingma (“old order”). The Gelug order was founded much later by followers of the great reformer Tsongkhapa (Tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357–1419) in the early fifteenth century, but it also inherited the monastic mantle of the Kadampa (bKa’ gdams pa) order -- whose roots are found in the eleventh-century missionary activity of Atiśa already noted above.

There were other movements, many later salvaged through the nonsectarian movement (ris med) of the nineteenth century, but that these four traditions have gone on to remain active in the twenty-first century is testament to the importance of the eleventh-century foundations of the Tibetan traditions. It may be one of the ironies of history that this flourishing was a result of the disappearance of strong centralized power.

At the end of the twelfth century India may have been declining as a source of Buddhist inspiration, but Tibet was poised to become the new nexus of Buddhist learning. Before long the increasingly powerful Mongolian khans and princes to Tibet’s north were taking an interest in Tibetan learning and territory.

A Mongol invasion of Tibet in 1244 resulted in an alliance between the Sakya order and Mongol power, with the Sakya hierarch Chögyal Pagpa (Chos rgyal ’Phags pa, 1235–80) becoming “imperial preceptor” (ti shri, Chinese dishi, 帝师) to Qubilai Qan [Kubla Khan?] (1215–94), and his nephew being made “chief ruler” (dpon chen) with authority over the thirteen “myriarchies” of Tibet under Mongol overlordship from 1268.

This was not the first time Tibetans had served as imperial preceptors in lands to their north (Sperling 1987: 34): the Kagyu order had been cultivating a relationship with the Tangut court (Mi nyag, Chinese Xixia, 西夏) just prior to the first attacks following Činggis Qan’s [Genghis Khan?] (1162–1227) coronation in 1206 (the Tangut capital eventually falling in 1227, the year of Činggis’s death).

It is probably no coincidence that at this time the Karmapa hierarchs of the Kagyu order emerged as a formal system of reincarnating lamas, the first such reincarnation line in what would become an institution that remains unique to Tibetan Buddhism.

It is difficult not to see the emergence of the tulku institution in terms of ongoing rivalry between the Kagyu and Sakya orders at this time in relation to larger powers outside Tibet... More