The Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich (1395 AD)

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Journal Éveillé is an informal exploration of awakened mind in the art of poetry....

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"All will be well and all will be well and every kind of thing shall be well.” (Julian of Norwich)

"Julian of Norwich is one of the subtlest writers and profoundest thinkers of the Middle Ages, and the earliest woman writer in English. Her Revelations describe a loving and merciful God and a positive vision of humanity....Julian's optimistic theology speaks of a loving and merciful God and of God as our mother, and her beliefs are of particular interest in relation to the position of women and the church. "

"The Revelations of Divine Love is a 14th-century book of mystical devotions written by Julian of Norwich. It includes her sixteen mystical visions and contemplations on universal love and hope in a time of plague, religious schism, uprisings and war. Published in 1395, it is the first published book in the English language to be written by a woman.......

During her early life, the Black Death hit the city of Norwich three times. It is estimated that the plague killed about a third of England's population in one single epidemic. People died so quickly and in such numbers that "the dead could not receive proper burial and in the worst of times, lay stacked in carts like so much cordwood, or in hastily dug pits on the edge of town, or simply where they fell, in the streets"......Seeing these images may have affected Julian, who was just six years old when the plague first hit Norwich. Although she does not speak of the plague directly, her book shows a deep sensitivity to suffering and dying."

"Julian spent much of her life as an anchoress, or religious recluse.... in the early 13th century, laywomen had themselves enclosed for life in a small chamber in a church....They were part of a spiritual movement which began with the desert fathers in the 4th century, whereby holy men and women, known as anchorites (or anchoresses), withdrew completely from the world, choosing a life of solitude consisting of a daily ritual of liturgy and prayers. In a macabre ceremony that included the Office of the Dead, ( The rite actually involved receiving the sacraments of the dying and reading of the Office of the Dead over her as she was bricked up in her cell.)....various prayers were said as someone was bricked up in a small room within a church, with only a small window to receive the sacrament and a slit affording a view of the altar.....The word “anchoress” — most were women — comes from a Greek word, anachoreo, meaning “to withdraw or retire.” The most famous anchoress may have been Julian of Norwich, who died in 1416......While the lifestyle was rigorous — involving a strict cycle of prayer throughout the day as well as work, often at handicrafts for financial support, as well as a Spartan diet — an anchoress was not lonely. In fact, as we look to centers of faith in our Year of Faith, an anchoress’ cell could became a center of faith for the town, with most people confiding in her...."

"Some of her teachings, however, stray towards the deep end of heresy. This is especially true of her position on the nature of the human soul, which can be said to be semi-gnostic in many respects.... The problem arises in her discussion on the nature of the human soul and, more specifically, the soul’s sinless nature.. . . 'I understood with absolute certainty that there is in every soul to be saved a godly will that never has assented to sin, and that never will. This will is so good that it never wills evil, but always wills good, and, in the sight of God, does good' ....within the soul, a portion of God’s will that is without sin. Indeed, this portion of will is not just a gift of God but, rather, is viewed as a deposit of God's very nature within the human soul. Julian “. . . could see no difference between God and our substance: it was all God, so to speak." This view is very gnostic. ".....Divine Love and Semi-Gnosticism: Heretical Tendencies In The Thought of Julian of Norwich....by: Gregory S. Neal

"Julian’s emphasis on God’s love and desire for human salvation becomes more significant when one thinks of the period in which she wrote. The Black Death came not only in 1349; it came again and again for over a century. The Church on whose faith Julian relied was in schism, with two or more popes claiming authority, from 1378 to 1417. Monastic writers and parish priests were teaching that all this was a punishment from an angry God. It is as if Julian saw the need to offer an antidote to the pervasive fear of sin and death and damnation."....http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual-and-devotional-poets/christian/julian/.

"Sin, says Julian, turns out to be “no thing.” This has been a controversial passage in Julian’s work. But she is quite clear: “Nowhere in all that was revealed to me did I see a trace of sin,” she writes. “And so I stopped looking for it and moved on, placing myself in God’s hand, allowing him to show me what he wanted me to see.” In Julian’s exceedingly practical view, “sin has no substance, not a particle of being, and can only be detected by the pain it causes.” When we make mistakes and create suffering, we humble ourselves and God loves us all the more. For those of us non-Christian and post-modern types, try substituting the word sin for shame, or blame, or even karma. In other words, we screw up, but that only opens the tender heart of the cosmos where we can find refuge and come back into wholeness."....http://mirabaistarr.com/all-will-be-well-the-radical-optimism-of-julian-of-norwich/

"TS Eliot is that closing part of “Little Gidding,” the culmination of his “Four Quartets.”.....one phrase in particular, “And all shall be well and/All manner of thing shall be well.” Eliot is, of course, not the author of that phrase. He lifted it from Dame Julian of Norwich. Julian, her person and theology and in particular that little line which Eliot echoed “And all shall be well and/All manner of thing shall be well”

Non-dualism in Eckhart, Julian of Norwich and Traherne: A Theopoetic Reflection By James Charlton......"Meister Eckhart, Mother Julian of Norwich and Thomas Traherne are interpreted as 'theopoets' of the body/soul who share a moderate non-dualism. Their work is brought within the ambit of non-dual Hinduism. Specifically, their passion for unitive spiritual experience is linked to construals of both 'the Self' and 'Awakening', as enunciated by Advaita Vedanta."

Julian and the Buddha.....Common Points along the Way.....by : Joanne P. Miller

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New Mexico

December 2016

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Celtic Bards and Central Asian Gesar Singers

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"Bard.....The word is a Celtic loan word from Scottish Gaelic bàrd, Irish bard, Welsh bardd. ....In medieval Gaelic and Welsh society, a bard (Scottish and Irish Gaelic) or bardd (Welsh) was a professional poet, employed to compose eulogies for his lord ...... In other Indo-European societies, the same function was fulfilled by skalds, rhapsodes, minstrels and scops, among others. A hereditary caste of professional poets in Proto-Indo-European society has been reconstructed by comparison of the position of poets in medieval Ireland and in ancient India in particular.......Bards sang the songs recalling the tribal warriors' deeds of bravery as well as the genealogies and family histories of the ruling strata among Celtic societies. The pre-Christian Celtic peoples recorded no written histories; however, Celtic peoples did maintain an intricate oral history committed to memory and transmitted by bards and filid. Bards facilitated the memorisation of such materials by the use of metre, rhyme and other formulaic poetic devices."

Bards of the Gesar Epic...."The Epic of King Gesar....... (Geser Khan, Кесар, Kesar), is an epic cycle, believed to date from the 12th century, that relates the heroic deeds of the culture hero Gesar, the fearless lord of the legendary kingdom of Ling... It is recorded variously in poetry and prose, chantefable or shuochang being the style of traditional performance, and is sung widely throughout Central Asia.......Some 100 bards of this epic are still active today in the Gesar belt of China....Besides stories conserved by such Chinese minorities as the Bai, Naxi, the Pumi, Lisu and Yugur, versions of the epic are also recorded among the Balti of Baltistan, the Burusho people of Hunza and Gilgit, and the Kalmyk and Ladakhi peoples, in Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, and among various Tibeto-Burmese, Turkish, and Tunghus tribes......The epic is composed of a very large body of versions, each with many variants, and is reputed by some to be the longest in the world."

"Like the outstanding Greek epics, Indian epics and Kalevala, King Gesar is a brilliant pearl in the world's cultural treasure....

"It has been proposed on the basis of phonetic similarities that the name Gesar ......may have been a Turkic language, since kaiser (emperor) entered Turkish through contact with the Byzantine Empire, where Caesar (Καῖσαρ) was an imperial title. Some think the medium for this transmission may have been via Mongolian Kesar. The Mongols were allied with the Byzantines, whose emperor still used the title. Numismatic evidence and some accounts speak of a Bactrian ruler Phrom-kesar, ] specifically the Kabul Shahi of Gandhara, which was ruled by a Turkish From Kesar ("Caesar of Rome"), who was father-in-law of the king of the Kingdom of Khotan around the middle of the 8th century AD....... In early Bon sources, From Kesar is always a place name, and never refers, as it does later, to a ruler.....In some Tibetan versions of the epic, a king named Phrom Ge-sar or Khrom Ge-sar figures as one of the kings of the four directions – the name is attested in the 10th century and this Phrom/Khrom preserves an Iranian form (*frōm-hrōm) for Rūm/Rome. This eastern Iranian word lies behind the Middle Chinese word for (Eastern) Rome, namely Byzantium (phrōm-from)."

"Traveling Bards or Ballads of India......India had for a very long time subscribed to the oral tradition of passing knowledge, wisdomand history. Hence, books were written very late into civilization and yet some like the RigVed were considered the oldest in the historical world......everything was memorized and passed on..... knowledge and history was passed through in arather unique manner. They were formed as couplets, verses, poetry and stories......formed into visualand performance material to be passed on to other civilizations via trade routes.....Pravachans usually have a religious theme, usually the life of a saint or a story from one of India’s epics re-told....pravanchan pundits were often wellversed in the various languages and were highly educated and well-trained in knowledge....The second tradition was Kathakalakshepa. Any story with Sangeetabhinaya or musiccoupled with anecdotes was called Kathakalakshepa....the story was carried through songs and compositions in Indian languages...the storyteller, usually proficient inclassical music, interspaced the main story with music, dance and sub-stories......The third style was a folk narrative, accompanied by some musicalinstrument. The stories chosen were normally heroic ballads."....By Dhara Kothari

"There are at least five theories that attempt to explain the extraordinary connections and resemblances that can be found between European and Indian languages and culture, including: the Kurgan hypothesis, the Anatolian hypothesis, the Harappan Theory...."

Druids, Fili and Bards.....Irish fili, plural filid is usually translated as “poet,” ....Filid comes from the same Celtic root as the Welsh word gweled “see,” and it seems that one of the functions of the filid was that they were seers..... the fili was of a higher social status than the druid.....after the decline of the druid class with the introduction of Christianity..... The lowest of the three groups in social status are the baird, a lower order of poets, called by the Greeks (via reference to the Gaulish varieties) bardoi and by the Romans bardi."....www.digitalmedievalist.com/opinionated-celtic-faqs/druids

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Northern New Mexico

November 2016

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Friedrich Schiller...German (1759 – 1805)

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Journal Éveillé is an informal exploration of awakened mind in the art of poetry....

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"Friedrich Schiller (German: 1759 – 1805) ......poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. They frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of short satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision."

"During most of his short life, he suffered from illnesses that he tried to cure himself........Schiller read Rousseau and Goethe and discussed Classical ideals with his classmates. At school, he wrote his first play, The Robbers, which dramatizes the conflict between two aristocratic brothers: the elder, Karl Moor, leads a group of rebellious students into the Bohemian forest where they become Robin Hood-like bandits, while Franz Moor, the younger brother, schemes to inherit his father's considerable estate. The play's critique of social corruption and its affirmation of proto-revolutionary republican ideals astounded its original audience. Schiller became an overnight sensation. Later, Schiller would be made an honorary member of the French Republic because of this play. The play was inspired by Leisewitz' earlier play Julius of Tarent, a favourite of the young Schiller.....In 1780, he obtained a post as regimental doctor in Stuttgart, a job he disliked. In order to attend the first performance of The Robbers in Mannheim, Schiller left his regiment without permission. As a result, he was arrested, sentenced to 14 days of imprisonment, and forbidden by Karl Eugen from publishing any further works........He fled Stuttgart in 1782, going via Frankfurt, Mannheim, Leipzig, and Dresden to Weimar. Along this journey he had an affair with an army officer's wife Charlotte von Kalb. She was at the centre of an intellectual circle, and she was known for her cleverness and instability. Schiller needed help to extricate himself from his family and friends.....Schiller settled in Weimar in 1787. In 1789, he was appointed professor of History and Philosophy in Jena, where he wrote only historical works."

"In 1790, Schiller married Charlotte von Lengefeld (1766–1826). ....Schiller returned with his family to Weimar from Jena in 1799. Goethe convinced him to return to playwriting. He and Goethe founded the Weimar Theater, which became the leading theater in Germany. Their collaboration helped lead to a renaissance of drama in Germany.....The first significant biography of Schiller was by his sister-in-law Caroline von Wolzogen in 1830.....In 2008, Schiller was voted as the second most important playwright in Europe after William Shakespeare."

"Schiller wrote many philosophical papers on ethics and aesthetics. He elaborated Christoph Martin Wieland's concept of die schöne Seele (the beautiful soul), a human being whose emotions have been educated by reason, so that Pflicht und Neigung (duty and inclination) are no longer in conflict with one another; thus beauty, for Schiller, is not merely an aesthetic experience, but a moral one as well: the Good is the Beautiful. His philosophical work was also particularly concerned with the question of human freedom....... Schiller wrote two important essays on the question of the sublime (das Erhabene), entitled "Vom Erhabenen" and "Über das Erhabene"; these essays address one aspect of human freedom—the ability to defy one's animal instincts, such as the drive for self-preservation, when, for example, someone willingly sacrifices themselves for conceptual ideals."

Dramas:

The Robbers (Die Räuber): The play strongly criticises the hypocrisies of class and religion, and the economic inequities of German society; it also conducts a complicated inquiry into the nature of evil.

Intrigue and Love (Kabale und Liebe): Reminiscent of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Schiller develops his criticisms of absolutism and bourgeois hypocrisy in this bourgeois tragedy.

Don Carlos: This play marks Schiller's entrée into historical drama. The Marquis Posa's famous speech to the king proclaims Schiller's belief in personal freedom and democracy.

The Wallenstein Trilogy: These plays follow the fortunes of the treacherous commander Albrecht von Wallenstein during the Thirty Years' War.

Mary Stuart (Maria Stuart): This history of the Scottish queen, who was Elizabeth I's rival, portrays Mary Stuart as a tragic heroine, misunderstood and used by ruthless politicians, including and especially, Elizabeth.

The Maid of Orleans (Die Jungfrau von Orleans): about Joan of Arc

The Bride of Messina (Die Braut von Messina)

William Tell (Wilhelm Tell)

Demetrius (unfinished)

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"A pivotal work by Schiller was On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters (Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen), first published 1794, which was inspired by the great disenchantment Schiller felt about the French Revolution, its degeneration into violence and the failure of successive governments to put its ideals into practice..... Schiller wrote that "a great moment has found a little people"; he wrote the Letters as a philosophical inquiry into what had gone wrong, and how to prevent such tragedies in the future. In the Letters he asserts that it is possible to elevate the moral character of a people, by first touching their souls with beauty, an idea that is also found in his poem Die Künstler (The Artists): "Only through Beauty's morning-gate, dost thou penetrate the land of knowledge."

Spieltrieb ....."On the basis of Spieltrieb, Schiller sketches in Letters a future ideal state (a eutopia), where everyone will be content, and everything will be beautiful, thanks to the free play of Spieltrieb. ....Schiller's Letters ... aim at remaking of civilization by virtue of the liberating force of the aesthetic function: it is envisaged as containing the possibility of a new reality principle....Letters put forth the notion of der sinnliche Trieb / Sinnestrieb ("the sensuous drive") and Formtrieb ("the formal drive").....Schiller transcends the dualism between Formtrieb and Sinnestrieb with the notion of Spieltrieb ("the play drive")."

"Ludwig van Beethoven said that a great poem is more difficult to set to music than a merely good one because the composer must rise higher than the poet – "who can do that in the case of Schiller? In this respect Goethe is much easier," wrote Beethoven."

"A few famous musical settings of Schiller's poems.....Beethoven's setting of "An die Freude" (Ode to Joy) in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony....... Johannes Brahms' choral setting of "Nänie" ......and "Des Mädchens Klage" by Franz Schubert, who set 44 of Schiller's poems."

Quotations.....
"Respect the dreams of thy youth." (Posa, in: Don Carlos)
"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens", which means "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain" (Talbot, in: The Maid of Orleans)
"Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in any truth that is taught in life." (Max in The Piccolomini, act 3, scene 4)
"Eine Grenze hat die Tyrannenmacht", which means "A tyrant's power has a limit" (a Swiss freedom fighter, in: Wilhelm Tell)
"The voice of the majority is no proof of justice." (Talbot, in: Maria Stuart)
"It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons." (Franz in The Robbers)
"Live with your century but do not be its creature." (From On the Aesthetic Education of Man)

"Mary Stuart (German: Maria Stuart) is a verse play by Friedrich Schiller that depicts the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots. The play consists of five acts, each divided into several scenes. The play had its première in Weimar, Germany on 14 June 1800. The play formed the basis for Donizetti's opera Maria Stuarda (1835).....On 23 September 2012, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a production translated by David Harrower, adapted for radio by Robin Brooks and produced/directed by Gaynor Macfarlane. The cast included Meg Fraser as Mary, Alexandra Mathie as Elizabeth, Matthew Pidgeon as Mortimer, Robin Laing as Leicester, Richard Greenwood as Burleigh and Paul Young as Shrewsbury.....The Stratford Shakespeare Festival ran a production in 2013."

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

November 2016

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Pema Lingpa ...Bhutan...1450-1521 AD

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Pema Lingpa .... (1450-1521).... "Padma Lingpa was an important tertön from Bhutan, listed as the fourth of the five sovereign terma revealers. ..Pema Lingpa was born in Chel, part of the central Bhutanese region of Bumthang known as the “Wheel of Dharma.” ......he prophesied that in the future he would return as Longsal Nyingpo in the pure land of Pemako, and that those connected with him would be reborn in Pemakö as his students.....

He is also credited with opening the hidden valley (bas yul) of Khampa Lung (kham pa lung).....Beyul (Tibetan: སྦས་ཡུལ, Wylie: sbas-yul) are hidden valleys often encompassing hundreds of square kilometers......Tertöns may reveal them from terma at specific and appropriate times. Their locations were kept on scrolls (lamyig or neyig) hidden under rocks and inside caves, monasteries and stupas. They are places where physical and spiritual worlds overlap and Tantric practice effectiveness increases with multiple perception dimensions......Earthly beyuls share significant characteristics with Shambhala, which is the greatest hidden valley....."

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Padma Lingpa's Dzogchen Song ...

"The emptiness in the seeing which is called Vision
Transcends definition as something or nothing;
When seeing, is there nothing there?
But if there is an object of sight, there is no Vision.

The profundity that is called Meditation
Lies beyond the presence or absence of mental images;
When there is no mental image there is no object of meditation,
And when there is a point of reference there is no act of meditation.

He whose moral action is called spontaneous activity
Has gone beyond the possibility of choice;
When there is no bias or discrimination, there is no perfect action,
And when there is no accepting or rejecting, where is moral action?

Source: http://keithdowman.net/list-of-teachings-on-dzogchen.html

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Major textual revelations of his include....
Crystallization of the Tantra of Luminous SpaceThis is considered the first of his thirty-two terma.
The Great Compassionate One
The Darkness-Dispelling Lamp
The Attainment of Longevity, Combining Gems with the Path
The Three Black Teachings
The Cycle of Small Activities
The Gathering of Samantabhadra’s Intention
Lama Jewel Ocean
Indestructible Garland of Long-life Instructions
The Protector Maning
Vajrapāṇi the Tamer of Spirits
Kīla, the Utterly Secret Vital Razor
Red Hayagriva that Defeats Arrogance
Lama Drakpo
The Lama Norbu Gyatso

Source...http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Pema-Lingpa/3000

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Nyoshul Khenpo..... A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage
Sarah Harding (trans.).....The Life and Revelations of Pema Lingpa (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2003).

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Northern New Mexico

November 2016

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Drukpa Kunley (Bhutan: 1455–1529) The Divine Madman

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"Drukpa Kunley (1455–1529), also known as Kunga Legpai Zangpo, Drukpa Kunleg (Tibetan: འབྲུག་པ་ཀུན་ལེགས་, Wylie: 'brug pa kun legs), and Kunga Legpa, the Madman of the Dragon Lineage (Tibetan: འབྲུག་སྨྱོན་ཀུན་དགའ་ལེགས་པ་, Wylie: 'brug smyon kun dga' legs pa), was a monk (Mahamudra) in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, as well as a famous poet, and is often counted among the Nyönpa. After undergoing training in Ralung Monastery under siddha Pema Lingpa, he introduced Buddhism to Bhutan and established the monastery of Chimi Lhakhang there in 1499.
He was known for his crazy methods of enlightening other beings, mostly women, which earned him the title "The Saint of 5,000 Women". Among other things, women would seek his blessing in the form of sex. His intention was to show that it is possible to be enlightened, impart enlightenment, and still lead a very healthy sex life. He demonstrated that celibacy was not necessary for being enlightened. In addition, he wanted to expand the range of means by which enlightenment could be imparted, while adding new evolutionary prospects to the overarching tradition. He is credited with introducing the practice of phallus paintings in Bhutan and placing statues of them on rooftops to drive away evil spirits. Because of this power to awaken unenlightened beings, Kunley's penis is referred to as the "Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom" and he himself is known as the "fertility saint". For this reason women from all around the world visited his monastery to seek his blessing.
Visitors to Drukpa Kunley's monastery in Bhutan are welcome to enjoy a short trek up a hill. The monastery is very modest, only one smallish building, but it contains a wood-and-ivory lingam through which one can obtain blessings from the monk in residence."

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Poems and songs of Drukpa Kunley:

I am happy that I am a free Yogi.
So I grow more and more into my inner happiness.
I can have sex with many women,
because I help them to go the path of enlightenment.
Outwardly I'm a fool
and inwardly I live with a clear spiritual system.
Outwardly, I enjoy wine, women and song.
And inwardly I work for the benefit of all beings.
Outwardly, I live for my pleasure
and inwardly I do everything in the right moment.
Outwardly I am a ragged beggar
and inwardly a blissful Buddha."

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"Drukpa Kunley continued on to Jayul where he found a company of intoxicated, Small Tent People from Bhutan, singing songs and drinking chung (Tibetan Beer) on the roof of the Jayul fort during a Sacramental Offering to the Gods and Protectors. The Governor Chogyal Lingpa was present and enjoying himself. Kunley joined them and was offered chung. Later he was asked to sing a happy song, and he sang them this:

'Happily I am no common ritualist Lama
Gathering followers, power and wealth,
Without time to experience the fullness of life.
Happily I am no scholarly monk
Lusting after novice lovers,
Without time to study the Sutras and Tantras.
Happily I do not stay in a Mountain Hermitage
Entranced by the smiles of the nuns,
Without time to ponder the Three Vows.
Happily I am no Black Magician
Taking the lives of other people,
Without time to cultivate Compassionate Mind.
Happily I am no Shaman of the charnel ground
Lending myself to gods and demons,
Without time to sever the root of confusion.
Happily I am no householder or father
Fighting to put food in dependants' mouths,
Without time to wander in pleasant places.'

He was served more chung, and that night he stayed with the nun Yeshe Tsomo.

Source: Dowman, Keith (1980) The Divine Madman

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Divine Bhutan and the Well-hung Lama......by Beth Whitman:
"Our guide on this 12-day tour is Tshering. Always smiling, he wears traditional garb, a gho, which resembles a heavy robe with white turned up sleeves. He shares one of the more popular stories about the Divine Madman with us...... “A man was eager to have his thangka (religious banner) blessed by the Lama. When he went to visit him, instead, the Divine Madman peed on it.”..... The story goes that the man was so furious, he went to the Madman’s brother demanding an explanation...... “Upon unrolling the thangka in the presence of the Madman’s brother,” Tshering continues, “he saw that the urine had turned to gold.”
We continue eastward toward the Bumthang Valley in Central Bhutan. We pick up speed along what is jokingly referred to as the country’s only straight road. I’m riding shotgun when suddenly the women all scream. The driver smirks as he hits the brakes. This is obviously not the first time he’s made such an abrupt stop......Out the left side of the bus, we see two of the largest painted penises yet. Each is the height of the house it protects. The women pile out and take pictures......With legends like this, it’s no wonder sexual behavior and the sanctity of marriage are loosely interpreted in Bhutan today. Kinley, another guide, explains the loose rules around marriage......“When a man and woman sleep together, the next day they are married.”......Bhutanese relationships are fluid. As quickly as a couple might be married (without a license or ceremony) they can just as easily divorce.......In some communities, women practice polyandry, marrying more than one man at a time......While the practice is lawful, things are changing. Most Bhutanese today choose just one spouse. The fourth king, who abdicated the throne in 2008 to his son, has four wives, all sisters. His son, however, has said he will only marry one woman."
Excerpts from: http://www.perceptivetravel.com/issues/0111/divine_bhutan.html

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Brown, L.; B. Mahew; S. Armington; R. Whitecross (2009).
Choden, Karma (2014). Phallus: Crazy Wisdom from Bhutan.
Dargey, Y. (2001)History of the Drukpa Kagyud School in Bhutan (Thimphu).
Dowman, Keith (1980) The Divine Madman: the sublime life and songs of Drukpa Kunley (London).
Stein, R. A. (1972). Tibetan Civilization. Stanford University Press

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

November 2016

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Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)

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“Jane Austen attacked her society’s absolute, dichotomized notions of masculinity and femininity, humans and nature, the moral and immoral, conduct books and Gothic novels, the sublime and the beautiful, religion and science, the public and the private, and gestured towards a worldview which recognized the multiplicity of reality.”….https://brettshollenberger.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/the-moral-landscape-of-the-gothic-heroine-an-ecofeminist-reading-of-northanger-abbey/

"There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.”…Mansfield Park

“Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security…..Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815), Northanger Abbey (1818) and Persuasion (1818)….Her novels were published anonymously and brought her little fame during her lifetime.”

“It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?” ……Pride and Prejudice

“Part of Austen's fame rests on the historical and literary significance that she was the first woman to write great comic novels. Samuel Johnson's influence is evident, in that she follows his advice to write "a representation of life as may excite mirth”….Her humour comes from her modesty and lack of superiority, allowing her most successful characters, such as Elizabeth Bennet, to transcend the trivialities of life, which the more foolish characters are overly absorbed in…. Austen used comedy to explore the individualism of women's lives and gender relations, and she appears to have used it to find the goodness in life, often fusing it with "ethical sensibility", creating artistic tension.”….Polhemus, Robert M. "Jane Austen's Comedy" 1986.

“I am determined that only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony. So, I shall end an old maid, and teach your ten children to embroider cushions and play their instruments very ill.” …..Pride and Prejudice

“A parody of the Gothic novel, Northanger Abbey……. As a satire of the Gothic novel, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey quietly subverts the systems of Western patriarchy reinforced by the genre and its literary predecessors, questioning the structural domination of women and nature…..In Northanger’s plot, this model of reliably unreliable intentional inversion gestures towards a postmodern inquisition of the potential for any absolute reality. ….the Biblically ordained and immutable structures of patriarchy look as artificial and excessive as the Gothic tropes. The absolute language of the conduct book was the norm, not the exception, and far from being removed from its own argument that the Gothic offered an absurd, oppressive, and dangerous vision of reality, Austen here incriminates every ‘moral’ statement descended from on high that reinforced the domination of women and their culturally conditioned ignorance….. The Gothic heroine was stupid because convention dictated it; Catherine and her gender were only stupid because they had been socialized to be so…..Northanger Abbey challenged the absolute prescriptions presented by the dominating ideologies of patriarchy…..the Gothic romance derived from forms popular in Austen’s England: Greek mythology (Cupid and Psyche, Orpheus and Eurydice, Demeter and Persephone), fairytales popularized by oral tradition and by the collections of Charles Perrault (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella”), and narrative theodicy (the Eve story in Genesis, Pandora).”….The Moral Landscape of the Gothic Heroine by Brett Shollenberger…..An Ecofeminist Reading of Northanger Abbey…..https://brettshollenberger.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/the-moral-landscape-of-the-gothic-heroine-an-ecofeminist-reading-of-northanger-abbey/

"I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love," said Darcy.” ― Pride and Prejudice

“Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.” ― Mark Twain

“Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else's eyes….”

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

November 2016

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Shams Tabrizi (1185–1248 AD)

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Shams Tabrizi.....Shams-i-Tabrīzī.... (Persian: شمس تبریزی‎‎) (1185–1248 AD) is credited as the spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi and is referenced with great reverence in Rumi’s poetic collection, in particular Diwan-i Shams-i Tabrīzī (The Works of Shams of Tabriz). Tradition holds that Shams taught Rumi in seclusion in Konya for a period of forty days, before fleeing for Damascus. The tomb of Shams-i Tabrīzī was recently nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“After several years with Rumi in Konya, Shams left and settled in Khoy. As the years passed, Rumi attributed more and more of his own poetry to Shams as a sign of love for his departed friend and master. Shams was a sun ("Shams" means "Sun" in Arabic) shining the Light of Sun as guide for the right path evading darkness for Rumi's heart, mind, and body on earth. The source of Shams' teachings was the knowledge of Ali ibn Abu Talib, who is also called the father of sufism.”

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Excerpts from Shams of Tabriz’s 40 Rules of Love…..

Rule 2…..The path to the Truth is a labour of the heart, not of the head. Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind. Meet, challenge and ultimately prevail over your nafs with your heart.
Rule 4…….Intellect and love are made of different materials. Intellect ties people in knots and risks nothing, but love dissolves all tangles and risks everything. Intellect is always cautious and advices, ‘Beware too much ecstasy’, whereas love says, ‘Oh, never mind! Take the plunge!’ Intellect does not easily break down, whereas love can effortlessly reduce itself to rubble. But treasures are hidden among ruins. A broken heart hides treasures
Rule 5…..Most of problems of the world stem from linguistic mistakes and simple misunderstanding. Don’t ever take words at face value. When you step into the zone of love, language, as we know it becomes obsolete. That which cannot be put into words can only be grasped through silence.
Rule 6…..Loneliness and solitude are two different things. When you are lonely, it is easy to delude yourself into believing that you are on the right path. Solitude is better for us, as it means being alone without feeling lonely. But eventually it is the best to find a person who will be your mirror. Remember only in another person’s heart can you truly see yourself….
Rule 17……The whole universe is contained within a single human being-you. Everything that you see around, including the things that you might not be fond of and even the people you despise or abhor, is present within you in varying degrees.
Rule 19….Fret not where the road will take you. Instead concentrate on the first step. That is the hardest part and that is what you are responsible for. Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will follow. Don’t go with the flow. Be the flow
Rule 21….When a true lover of God goes into a tavern, the tavern becomes his chamber of prayer, but when a wine bibber goes into the same chamber, it becomes his tavern. In everything we do, it is our hearts that make the difference, not our outer appearance. Sufis do not judge other people on how they look or who they are. When a Sufi stares at someone, he keeps both eyes closed instead opens a third eye – the eye that sees the inner realm.
Rule 22…..Life is a temporary loan and this world is nothing but a sketchy imitation of Reality
Rule 25…..There are four levels of insight. The first level is the outer meaning and it is the one that the majority of the people are content with. Next is the Batin – the inner level. Third, there is the inner of the inner. And the fourth level is so deep it cannot be put into words and is therefore bound to remain indescribable.
Rule 26….The universe is one being. Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible web of stories. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all in a silent conversation. Do no harm. Practice compassion.
Rule 28…..The past is an interpretation. The future is on illusion. The world does not more through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness. If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment.
Rule 30….A Sufi never apportions blame. How can there be opponents or rivals or even “others” when there is no “self” in the first place?
Rule 31…..If you want to strengthen your faith, you will need to soften inside. For your faith to be rock solid, your heart needs to be as soft as a feather.
Rule 33….While everyone in this world strives to get somewhere and become someone, only to leave it all behind after death, you aim for the supreme stage of nothingness. Live this life as light and empty as the number zero. We are no different from a pot. It is not the decorations outside but the emptiness inside that holds us straight. Just like that, it is not what we aspire to achieve but the consciousness of nothingness that keeps us going.
Rule 34…..Submission does not mean being weak or passive. It leads to neither fatalism nor capitulation. Just the opposite. True power resides in submission a power that comes within. Those who submit to the divine essence of life will live in unperturbed tranquillity and peace even the whole wide world goes through turbulence after turbulence.
Rule 38…..At every moment and with each new breath, one should be renewed and renewed again. There is only one-way to be born into a new life: to die before death.
Rule 40…..A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western. Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.

Reference: The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak…..The Forty Rules of Love is a book written by the Turkish female author Elif Shafak. Her book is inspired by Rumi’s message of love and his companionship with his spiritual master Shams of Tabriz. …..https://thevisionweekly.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/shams-of-tabrizs-40-rules-of-love/

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“According to contemporary Sufi tradition, Shams Tabrizi mysteriously disappeared: some say he was killed by close disciples of Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi who were jealous of the close relationship between Rumi and Shams, but according to many certain evidences[citation needed] he left Konya and died in Khoy where he was buried. There are several sites that claim to his grave, one in a remote region of the Karakoram in Northern Pakistan at a place called Ziarat, near the village Shimshall. Sultan Walad, Rumi's son, in his Walad-Nama mathnawi just mentions that Shams mysteriously disappeared from Konya with no more specific details”.

Ziarat is a shrine of a saint, Hazrat Shamas…..Shimshal Valley ….due to its difficult approach, Shimshal has emerged as one of the rarely visited permanent villages in Pakistan. Beyond the main village, there are their summer pastures known as Pamirs….Shimshal شمشال (in Urdu) is a village located in Gojal Tehsil of Hunza District, in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan formerly known as Northern Areas of Pakistan. It lies at an altitude of 3,100 m above sea level and is the highest settlement in Hunza Valley of Pakistan….. The people of Shimshal are Wakhi and they speak the Wakhi language….

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Rumi was born in 1207, in what is now know as Afghanistan. It was a period of remarkable social and political turbulence. The 13th Century was the era of the crusades; also the area where Rumi lived was under constant threat of Mongol invasion. The great upheavals Rumi faced during his life is said to have influenced much of his poetry.

Rumi met many of the great Sufi poets. For example, as a young boy he met the Sufi Master, Attar. Attar is said to have commented about Rumi…
“There goes a river dragging an ocean behind it.”

“However the most important turning point in Rumi’s life was when he met the wandering dervish Sham al- Din. Sham was eccentric and unorthodox, but was filled with heart - felt devotion, that sometimes he couldn’t contain. Sham appeared to be quite different to the respectable and prestigious scholar, (as Rumi was at that point.) However Rumi saw in Sham a divine presence. This meeting and their close mystical relationship was instrumental in awakening Rumi’s latent spirituality and intense devotion. It was at this point Rumi abandoned his academic career and began to write his mystical poetry.”

http://www.wordsof.net/va/rumi/

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

November 2016

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Goethe and Hafiz: West–Eastern Diwan & The Ghazal

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"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832).....The encounter of Goethe with Hafiz's ghazals became so inspiring to Goethe, that he produced his own West-östlicher Diwan and "led the way to the discovery of Persian poetry by the Romantics", ....His west-ostlicher, and collection of poetry in general, gradually came to function as "an influential model for religious and literary syntheses between the ‘occident’ and the ‘orient’ in the 19th century"....Shusha Guppy, Three Journeys in the Levant, 2001

"West–östlicher Divan (West–Eastern Diwan) is a diwan, or collection of lyrical poems, by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was inspired by the Persian poet Hafez....West–Eastern Diwan was written between 1814 and 1819, the year when it was first published. It was inspired by Goethe's correspondence with Marianne von Willemer and the translation of Hafez' poems by the orientalist Joseph von Hammer. An expanded version was printed in 1827. It is part of Goethe's late work and the last great cycle of poetry he worked on.....The work can be seen as a symbol for a stimulating exchange and mixture between Orient and Occident. The phrase "west–eastern" refers not only to an exchange between Germany and the Middle East, but also between Latin and Persian culture, as well as the Christian and Muslim cultures. The twelve books consist of poetry of all different kinds: parables, historical allusions, pieces of invective, politically or religiously inclined poetry mirroring the attempt to bring together Orient and Occident.....For a better understanding, Goethe added "Notes and Queries", in which he comments on historical figures, events, terms and places."

English Version Online.....https://archive.org/details/westeasterndivan00goetuoft

"The Ghazal (Arabic/Persian/Urdu: غزل) is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in Arabic poetry in Arabia long before the birth of Islam. The term ghazal is of North African and Middle Eastern origin. Its root term in Arabic is " gh-zl " and is derived from the Arabian panegyric qasida. The structural requirements of the ghazal are similar in stringency to those of the Petrarchan sonnet. In style and content it is a genre that has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its central themes of love and separation...Understanding the complex lyrics of ghazals required education typically available only to the upper classes. "

"Ghazals were written by Rumi and Hafiz of Persia; the Azeri poet Fuzûlî in the Ottoman Empire; Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal of North India; and Kazi Nazrul Islam of Bengal. Through the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the ghazal became very popular in Germany during the 19th century; the form was used extensively by Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866) and August von Platen (1796–1835). The Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali was a proponent of the form, both in English and in other languages; he edited a volume of "real Ghazals in English". Ghazals were written by Moti Ram Bhatta (1866 - 1896 A.D.), the pioneer for Ghazal writing in Nepali language."

"Sufism....It is not possible to gain a full understanding of ghazal poetry without at least being familiar with some concepts of Sufism.[citation needed] Many of the major historical ghazal poets were either avowed Sufis themselves (like Rumi or Hafiz), or were sympathizers with Sufi ideas. Most ghazals can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the Beloved being a metaphor for God or the poet's spiritual master. It is the intense Divine Love of Sufism that serves as a model for all the forms of love found in ghazal poetry.....Most ghazal scholars today recognize that some ghazal couplets are exclusively about Divine Love (ishq-e-haqiqi). Others are about "earthly love" (ishq-e-majazi), but many of them can be interpreted in either context."

"Hafiz represented to Nietzsche a prime example of Dionysian ecstatic wisdom, which he extolls so extensively in his philosophy. Goethe's admiration for Hafiz and his "Oriental" wisdom, as expressed in the West-östlischer Divan, has been the main source of attracting Nietzsche's interest in this Persian poet. There is even a short poem in Nietzsche's Collected Works, entitled An Hafis. Frage eines Wassertrinkers (To Hafiz: Questions of a Water Drinker)."

"Nietzsche held very high interest and respect for Persians. For example, where he speaks about the Persian notion of history and cyclical Eternal Time, he writes: "I must pay tribute to Zarathustra, a Persian, for Persians were the first who thought of history in its full entirety." and further adds: ""It was much more fortunate if Persians became masters of the Greeks, than the very Romans."

"The study of Avestic and ancient Persian literature in the west began in the 18th century with scholars investigating Zoroastrian texts brought in from Bombay, India. It was the Frenchman Anquetil Duperron who first translated the Vendidad in 1759, followed by works of Sir William Jones and Sylvestre de Sacy, who worked on Pahlavi texts."

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"Amir Khusro's Persian ghazal Nami danam chi manzil buud shab:

nemidanam che manzel bood shab jayi ke man boodam; be har soo raghse besmel bood shab jayi ke man boodam. pari peykar negari sarv ghadi laleh rokhsari; sarapa afat-e del bood shab jayi ke man boodam.

I wonder what was the place where I was last night, All around me were half-slaughtered victims of love, tossing about in agony. There was a nymph-like beloved with cypress-like form and tulip-like face, Ruthlessly playing havoc with the hearts of the lovers."

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

October 2016

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Zarathustra, Zoroaster and Friedrich Nietzsche

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"Nietzsche (1844-1900), is best known as a philosopher of culture. His insightful critique of Western civilization in its different stages, classical, medieval, and modern, bears witness to his vast erudition and profound concern regarding the historical development of human culture, particularly in relation to ethical norms. But his spirit of enquiry goes well beyond European borders and in many instances and contexts he refers to the great Asiatic cultures of China, India, and Persia.....Nietzsche was a brilliant student of classical philology and later occupied its chair at the University of Basel. His profound knowledge of Greco-Roman culture and history permeates his writings, appearing in innumerable discussions and references. His studies of classical philology and his deep immersion in Greek and Latin literature also introduced him to the ancient history of Persia and its culture, .....fragments left in his notebooks (Nachgelassene Fragmente), there are many references to the ancient Persians. Nietzsche’s concern with Persia is well reflected in his choice of “Zarathustra” as the prophet of his philosophy and the eponymous hero of his most popular work, Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra). He shows no particular interest in Persian history after the rise of Islam, though he does make occasional allusions to Moslems, including one reference to the Assassins (Zur Genealogie der Moral [On the Genealogy of Morals], Part III, Fragment 24). Among the prominent figures of Persian history from the Islamic era the name of the poet Sa‘di is mentioned once in his notebooks, while there are several references to Hafez." ....... http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia

"Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (German: Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen, also translated as Thus Spake Zarathustra) is a philosophical novel by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885 and published between 1883 and 1891. Much of the work deals with ideas such as the "eternal recurrence of the same", the parable on the "death of God", and the "prophecy" of the Übermensch, which were first introduced in The Gay Science."

"The book chronicles the fictitious travels and speeches of Zarathustra. Zarathustra's namesake was the founder of Zoroastrianism, usually known in English as Zoroaster (Avestan: Zaraϑuštra). Nietzsche is clearly portraying a "new" or "different" Zarathustra, one who turns traditional morality on its head. He goes on to characterize "what the name of Zarathustra means in my mouth, the mouth of the first immoralist:"
For what constitutes the tremendous historical uniqueness of that Persian is just the opposite of this. Zarathustra was the first to consider the fight of good and evil the very wheel in the machinery of things: the transposition of morality into the metaphysical realm, as a force, cause, and end in itself, is his work. [...] Zarathustra created this most calamitous error, morality; consequently, he must also be the first to recognize it. [...] His doctrine, and his alone, posits truthfulness as the highest virtue; this means the opposite of the cowardice of the "idealist” who flees from reality [...]—Am I understood?—The self-overcoming of morality, out of truthfulness; the self-overcoming of the moralist, into his opposite—into me—that is what the name of Zarathustra means in my mouth.
— Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, "Why I Am a Destiny", trans. Walter Kaufmann

"ZOROASTER iii. ZOROASTER IN THE AVESTA Zaraθuštra is considered the founder of the Mazdayasnian religion who lived in Eastern Iran during the end of the second millenium BC.... According to Zoroastrian tradition, at the age of 30 Zaraθuštra encountered Ahura Mazdā .....About Zaraθuštra’s time and homeland we have to refer primarily to the Old Avestan texts.....The Younger Avesta describes or refers to an ideal Zaraθuštra: He is the person who lived fully according to the will of Ahura Mazdā and practiced the religion he was fostering in a perfect way......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zoroaster-iii-zoroaster-in-the-avesta

"HAFT KEŠVAR (seven regions), the usual geographical division of the world in Iranian tradition....The concept of the “seven regions” had Indo-Aryan roots (Geiger, pp. 302-3) and despite some claims (e.g., Herzfeld, pp. 684-85), was independent of Mesopotamian world view (Boyce, Zoroastrianism I, p. 134, n. 29), ......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/haft-kesvar

"A second tradition handed down by the Greeks goes back to the Hellenistic era, saying that Zaraθuštra appeared 258 years before the “coming of Alexander....(356 BC – 323 BC)” Most probably, this dating originated with Aristoxenos, who lived at the end of the fourth century BC and was a disciple of Aristotle...Apollodoros gave a more precise calculation: in 570 BCE Pythagoras met with Zaraθuštra."......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zoroaster-iii-zoroaster-in-the-avesta

"Zoroaster’s homeland. Avestan geography only refers to eastern Iranian regions, and within the texts there is a clear preference for the land of Airyanəm Vaējah......Arguments that put Zaraθuštra’s homeland in the region east of Mashad and in the area of Bactria in Afghanistan (Humbach, 1991, pp. 40-44) have gained greater acceptance. W. Hinz (1961, pp. 22-23) reckons with Zaraθuštra’s origin from Chorasmia or Bactria, before he left his homeland (Y. 46) and went to Kešmar (i.e., modern Kāšmar in Khorasan Province, Iran), where the Šāh-nāma places his activity (see, e.g., Jackson, p. 255 ff.). ".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zoroaster-iii-zoroaster-in-the-avesta

"Nietzsche’s deepest interest and admiration for the Persians manifest themselves where he discusses their notion of history and cyclical time. This Persian concept of time resembles to some degree his own concept of the circle of the Eternal Recurrence, expressed in a highly poetic and dramatic manner in his Zarathustra. Through this concept Nietzsche emphasizes the cyclical nature of cosmic time and the recurrence of all beings in every “circle”: “I must pay tribute to Zarathustra, a Persian (einem Perser): Persians were the first to have conceived of History in its full extent” (Sämtliche Werke, XI, p. 53). In this fragment Nietzsche uses the Persian word hazār referring to the millennial cycles (hazāra) in ancient Persian religious beliefs, “each one presided by a prophet; every prophet having his own hazar, his millennial kingdom.” In Also Sprach Zarathustra, he speaks of the great millennial (“grosser Hazar”) kingdom of his own Zarathustra, as “our great distant human kingdom, the Zarathustra kingdom of a thousand year,” (“Das Honigopfer”[The Honey Sacrifice,] Part IV)."....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia

"In another posthumously published fragment, he deplores a lost historical opportunity: “It would have been much more fortunate had the Persians become masters (Herr) of the Greeks, rather than have the Romans of all people [gerade die Römer] assume that role” (Sämtliche Werke, VIII, p. 65). In this note, Nietzsche implicitly expresses once more his radical opposition to Greek metaphysical thought, as developed by Socrates and Plato, and its later prevalence in Western world through the supremacy of Greek culture within the Roman Empire. This process ultimately led, at the hands of the Church Fathers, to the integration of the Platonic metaphysics, as developed in Rome by the Neoplatonists, within the theological doctrines of Christianity. Nietzsche considered this whole historical development as constituting an ascetic and nihilistic worldview that denied and reviled the reality of this-worldly existence in the name of an illusory, eternal, and other-worldly life. Therefore, he thought that if the Persians rather than the Romans had been successful in gaining dominance over Greece, the predominance of their positive outlook towards worldly life and time would have prevented such a lamentable event in human history.".......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia

"Nietzsche, as a student of philology, lived at the time of great advancement in the study of the Avesta and Indo-Iranian philology, and he was certainly not oblivious of the achievements in this field. But it is by no means certain that he had ever read Anquetil-Duperron’s translation of Zend Avesta. It could be said that his selection of the name of Zarathustra and allusions to his solitude in the mountains for ten years, and a concept like hazār (see above), testify to a broad acquaintance with Zoroastrian traditions and doctrines.".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia

"In the entire text of Nietzsche’s Zarathustra one finds only one indirect allusion to the Persians and their beliefs (Zarathustra I, “On the Thousand and One Goal”), while there is an abundance of references and allusions to the Bible, reflecting his perennial struggle and obsessive concern with Judeo-Christian beliefs and their impact on human history....Zarathustra is a central figure in Nietzsche’s poetical representation of his philosophy because the opposition to morality and moralism stands at the heart of his critical historical thought..".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia

"Nietzsche made several references to “Zoroaster” in his early writings. This familiar name in European languages, of Greek origin, was used in his notebooks of 1870-71, about a decade before writing Also Sprach Zarathustra. There he speaks with great admiration of Zoroaster and his religion and, in a short note, as elsewhere (see above), implicitly expresses his sympathy for the historically not improbable possibility that Zoroastrianism could have well triumphed in ancient Greece: “Zoroaster’s religion would have prevailed in Greece, if Darius had not been defeated.” (Sämtliche Werke, VII, p. 106). Also in his posthumously published work of the same period, Die Philosophie im tragischen Zeitalter der Griechen (Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks), he refers to the probable influence of Zoroaster on Heraclitus (Sämtliche Werke, I, p. 806; English tr. P. 29). The name of “Zarathustra,” as such, first appears in Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (The Gay Science, fragment 342), published in 1882. Nietzsche inserts here the first fragment of the prologue to Also Sprach Zarathustra, i.e. Zarathustra’s prayer before the sun. This fragment appears in the following year in the published text of the first part of Zarathustra."........http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia

"As Nietzsche admits himself, by choosing the name of Zarathustra as the prophet of his philosophy in a poetical idiom, he wanted to pay homage to the original Aryan prophet as a prominent founding figure of the spiritual-moral phase in human history, and reverse his teachings at the same time, according to his fundamental critical views on morality....The original Zoroastrian world-view interpreted being on the basis of the universality of the moral values and saw the whole world as an arena of the struggle between two fundamental moral elements, Good and Evil, depicted in two antagonistic divine figures. Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, in contrast, puts forward his ontological immoralism and tries to prove and reestablish the primordial innocence of beings by destroying philosophically all moralistic interpretations and evaluations of being."..........http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia

" In the intellectual outline of his life and works, Ecce Homo, Nietzsche describes his reasons for choosing Zarathustra as harbinger of his philosophy:.....What the name of Zarathustra means in my mouth, the mouth of the first immoralist: for what constitutes the tremendous historical uniqueness of that Persian is just the opposite of this. Zarathustra was the first to consider the fight of good and evil the very wheel in the machinery of things: the transposition of morality into the metaphysical realms as a force, cause, and end in itself... Zarathustra created this most calamitous error, morality, consequently, he must also be the first to recognize it.... To speak the truth and to shoot well with arrows, that is, Persian virtue ----Am I understood? ---The self-overcoming of morality, out of truthfulness; the self-overcoming of the moralist, into his opposite---into me---that is what the name of Zarathustra means in my mouth (trans. Kaufmann, pp. 327-28)."............http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia

"Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, like the original Zarathustra according to Zoroastrian tradition, goes to the mountain for meditation when he is thirty years old, and, like him, descends ten years later to convey his message to humanity. The early Zarathustra, at the dawn of the metaphysical history of humanity, after having long dialogues with his God of goodness, descends from the mountain to proclaim the heavenly message that interprets being in moralistic terms of Good and Evil; while the “second” Zarathustra, at the end of this history, descends to announce, first of all, the dreadful news which has immense consequences for human life and thought: the death of God."...............http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia

"Sa‘di and Hafez are the only Persian names of the Islamic era mentioned in Nietzsche’s writings.....Goethe’s admiration for Hafez and his “Oriental” wisdom, as expressed in West-östlisches Divan, has been the main source of attracting Nietzsche to the Persian poet. ....There is even a short poem in Nietzsche’s collected works, entitled An Hafis. Frage eines Wassertrinkers (To Hafez: Questions from a Water Drinker). The poem celebrates the insightfulness of Hafez and his poetical achievements. At the end, he asks Hafez, as a “water drinker,” why he demands wine while he himself has the power of making everybody intoxicated (Sämtliche Werke, XI, p. 316). It must be remembered that, for health reasons, Nietzche himself was apparently a lifelong abstainer. He considered “alcohol and Christianity” as the two harmful narcotics for the European soul, and particularly pernicious in regards to the German Geist (see “Was den Deutschen abgeht,” fragment 2, in Götzen-Dämmerung [Twilight of the Idols])."............http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

October 2016

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Tibetan Literature

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Journal Éveillé is an Informal Exploration of the Natural Mind in the Arts of Language and Poetics

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"Despite a literary tradition going back thirteen centuries, Tibet generally has had a culture in which many important types of knowledge—not just of personal experience, but of history, philosophy and science, too—were transmitted orally..... "Verse"—metrically regulated composition—is an excellent mnemonic device, and so it should not surprise us that a tremendous amount of Tibetan literature is in verse. From among the vast number of versified works found in their language, Tibetans have separated out certain pieces because of their greater concentration of rhythm, image and meaning, their heightened "imagery" (gzugs), "vitality" (srog) and "ornamentation" (rgyan). These works are designated in Tibetan by at least three separate terms: glu (songs), mgur (poetical songs) and snyan ngag (ornate poetry).

Poetry: "a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm" (Webster's: 887a) that in the West we call "poetry," .....

"Glu, mgur and snyan ngag are interrelated in subtle and important ways, but they are distinguishable. Indeed, one may see the movement from glu to mgur to snyan ngag as reflecting both the evolution of "poetry" in Tibet from ancient to more recent times and the spectrum of poetic styles, from that of popular, oral, indigenously rooted works, to that of monastic, literary, Indian-inspired compositions."

The Gesar epic (sgrung).

"Glu, mgur and snyan ngag (along with the Gesar epic corpus) together roughly comprise the Tibetan poetic canon. Glu, which remains in Tibetan as a general term for "song," is the earliest, most indigenous, most secular, and most orally and musically oriented of the genres. mGur, which originally was either a synonym or a subdivision of glu, came eventually to denote a more Buddhistic type of "song," and might be either Tibetan or Indian in its inspiration, oral or written in its style. sNyan ngag, "speech [agreeable] to the ear," is an ornate, written, Indian-inspired type of Buddhist (and occasionally secular) poetry that did not appear until the thirteenth century, well after the other two genres."

Excerpts are from: Tibetan Literature...Studies in Genre, pp. 368-392....by Roger R. Jackson http://www.thlib.org/encyclopedias/literary/genres/genres-book.php#!book=/studies-in-genres/b22/

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"The Tibetan script was developed from an Indic script in the 7th century during the Tibetan Imperial period......Chinese authorities impose Lhasa Tibetan on Amdo Tibetan speakers, because they are both considered part of the same language for political reasons.....Throughout most of Tibetan history, its literary works have been strongly influenced by Buddhist thought: they are mostly religious, historical, and biographical texts, or a mixture of these genres. There are also collections of folktales (for example, those involving the trickster figure Akhu Tönpa), and works dealing with the ancient Bön religion, which preceded Tibetan Buddhism..... The Gesar epic in particular is the key subject of study by the Chinese state, and was revived with the end of the clergy's monopoly on political power, since the Gelugpa monasteries forbade the epic literary genre......The most popular Tibetophone literary magazine in Qinghai, "Light Rain" (Drang Char), was founded in 1981, popularizing the short story genre in Tibet....... The influence of Chinese poetry, and of Western poetry in Chinese translation, began to make itself felt after the Four Modernizations. Despite these influences, critics and editors gave priority to stories and poems with traditional settings. Most new work takes the form of poetry."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_literature

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The Language Divide: Identity and Literary Choices in Modern Tibet ...by P Schiaffini - ‎2004

The Exotic Other and Negotiation of Tibetan Self: Representation of Tibet in ... By Kamila Hladíková

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

September 2016

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Rudaki (c. 880 -941 AD) ... Father of Persian Poetry

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Journal Éveillé is an Informal Exploration of the Natural Mind in the Arts of Language and Poetics....

Click Here to View the Main Index

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"Rudaki......(Persian: ابوعبدالله جعفر ابن محمد رودکی‎‎, Tajik: Абӯабдуллоҳ Ҷаъфар Ибни Муҳаммад, entitled آدم الشعرا Ādam ul-Shoara or Adam of Poets), also written as Rudagi (858 - c. 941), was a Persian poet, and is regarded as the first great literary genius of the Modern Persian, who composed poems in the "New Persian" alphabet. Rudaki is considered a founder of Persian classical literature. His poetry contains many of the oldest genres of Persian poetry including the quatrain..... Only a small percentage of his extensive poetry has survived....He was the first who impressed upon every form of epic, lyric and didactic poetry its peculiar stamp and its individual character. He is also said to have been the founder of the diwan, or the typical form of the complete collection of a poet's lyrical compositions in a more or less alphabetical order, which all Persian writers use even today. He was also very adept singer and instrumentalist.".... Sassan Tabatabai, "Father of Persian Verse: Rudaki and His Poetry", Amsterdam University Press

"Abu 'Abdollâh' Jafar ibn Mohammad Rudaki (c. 880 CE-941 CE) was a poet to the Samanid court which ruled much of Khorâsân (northeastern Persia) from its seat in Bukhara. He is widely regarded as "the father of Persian poetry, for he was the first major poet to write in New Persian language, following the Arab conquest in the seventh and eighth centuries, which established Islam as the official religion, and made Arabic the predominant literary language in Persian-speaking lands for some two centuries. In the tenth century the Caliphate power, with headquarters in Bagdad, gradually weakened. The remoteness of Khorâsân, where Rudaki was based, provided a hospitable atmosphere for a "renaissance" of Persian literature. Persian poetry-now written in the Arabic alphabet-flourished under the patronage of the Samanid amirs, who drew literary talent to their court. Under the rule of Nasr ibn Ahmad II (r. 914-943), Rudaki distinguished himself as the brightest literary star of the Samanid court. This book presents Rudaki as the founder of a new poetic aesthetic, which was adopted by subsequent generations of Persian poets. Rudaki is credited with being the first to write in the rubâi form; and many of the images we first encounter in Rudaki's lines have become staples of Persian poetry.".....Father of Persian Verse: Rudaki and His Poetry (Iranian Studies Series) ......by Sassan Tabatabai (Editor)

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Ju-yi Muliyan

The Ju-yi Mulian we call to mind,
We long for those dear friends long left behind.
The sands of Oxus, toilsome though they be,
Beneath my feet were soft as silk to me.
Glad at the friend's return, the Oxus deep
Up to our girths in laughing waves shall leap.
Long live Bukhara! Be thou of good cheer!
Joyous towards thee hasteth our Amir!
The moon's the prince, Bukhara is the sky;
O Sky, the Moon shall light thee by and by!
Bukhara is the Mead, the Cypress he;
Receive at last, O Mead, thy Cypress tree!

Abu Abullah Rudaki (d. AD 940)

Translated by A. J. Arberry, 1958

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Northern New Mexico

September 2016

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Longchenpa (1308-1364)....Natural Perfection and Radical Dzogchen

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Journal Éveillé is an Informal Exploration of the Natural Mind in the Arts of Language and Poetics....

Click Here to View the Main Index

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Longchenpa (Tib. ཀློང་ཆེན་པ་, Wyl. klong chen pa), also known as Longchen Rabjam (Tib. ཀློང་ཆེན་རབ་འབྱམས་, klong chen rab 'byams), ‘Infinite, Vast Expanse of Space’, or Drimé Özer (1308-1364), was one of the most brilliant teachers of the Nyingma lineage. He systematized the Nyingma teachings in his ‘Seven Treasures’ and wrote extensively on Dzogchen. He transmitted the Longchen Nyingtik cycle of teachings and practice to Jikmé Lingpa, and it has since become one of the most widely practised of traditions.

The Natural Freedom of the Nature of Mind (Tib. སེམས་ཉིད་རང་གྲོལ་, Semnyi Rangdrol; Wyl. sems nyid rang grol) - part of Longchenpa's Trilogy of Natural Freedom. It has three chapters, related to the Ground, Path and Fruition, and it contains the oft-quoted lines:

Since everything is but an illusion,
Perfect in being what it is,
Having nothing to do with good or bad,
Acceptance or rejection,
One might as well burst out laughing!

ཐམས་ཅད་མཉམ་རྫོགས་སྒྱུ་མའི་རང་བཞིན་ལ། །
བཟང་ངན་བླང་དོར་མེད་པས་དགོད་རེ་བྲོ། །

thams cad mnyam rdzogs sgyu ma'i rang bzhin la//
bzang ngan blang dor med pas dgod re bro//

Translation: Longchen Rabjam, The Practice of Dzogchen, translated by Tulku Thondup, Snow Lion, 2002

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Northern New Mexico

September 2016

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Poetry and the Practice of Discovering Space

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Journal Éveillé is an informal exploration of awakened mind in the art of poetry....

Click Here To View The Main Index

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"The everyday practice of dzogchen is simply to develop a complete carefree acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit. We should realise openness as the playground of our emotions and relate to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.....When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop the feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the entire universe. We should open ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind. This is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of self-protection.....Vast unoriginated self-luminous wisdom space is the ground of being - the beginning and the end of confusion. The presence of awareness in the primordial state has no bias toward enlightenment or non-enlightenment. This ground of being which is known as pure or original mind is the source from which all phenomena arise. It is known as the great mother, as the womb of potentiality in which all things arise and dissolve in natural self-perfectedness and absolute spontaneity. All aspects of phenomena are completely clear and lucid. The whole universe is open and unobstructed - everything is mutually interpenetrating..... The nature of phenomena appears naturally and is naturally present in time-transcending awareness. Everything is naturally perfect just as it is. All phenomena appear in their uniqueness as part of the continually changing pattern. These patterns are vibrant with meaning and significance at every moment; yet there is no significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment in which they present themselves...This is the dance of the five elements in which matter is a symbol of energy and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a symbol of our own enlightenment. With no effort or practice whatsoever, liberation or enlightenment is already here.....The everyday practice of dzogchen is just everyday life itself. Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to reach some "amazing goal" or "advanced state.".... We are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing......All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely free from all concepts of past, present and future. They are experienced in timelessness.....Our experience becomes the continuity of nowness. Why bother with attempting to establish an illusion of solid ground?"

Dzogchen Practice in Everyday Life
by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
http://www.nyingma.com/dzogchen1.htm

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"The relationship of mahasukha, great bliss, to vajra passion?.....It is the meeting point, ultimate communication. There is no chaos to the dance any more....Vajra passion doesn't particularly inspire you to fill the space at all, rather than use the space....in terms of limitless passion, I don't think you can do anything at all, because you become completely powerless....Vajra passion, open passion, transcendental passion...doesn't inspire you to fill the space immediately at all....It inspires you to create more space. So you don't decesssarily have to do anything immediately... instead you enjoy the space more.....Passion contains wonderful, skillful communication...we feel completely natural and open...it is like pure gold because you don't see only the surface, you see the whole way through...Applying passion with wisdom, you could see the whole process and not only be fascinated and overwhelmed by the exterior alone...."(Volume Two: The Path Is the Goal...page 621)
..."...the ground or canvas on which experience is painted....the canvas had never known colors yet, it's an open canvas. Even if you paint on the canvas, it remains white, fundamentally speaking. You could scrape off the paint."... Volume Six: Glimpses of Space ...(page 34)

"....Complete trust in confusion...seeing the confused quality as the truth of its own reality...that is the ground. You begin to develop space."...... Volume Six: Glimpses of Space ...(page 35)

The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa

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"The Longde (klong-sde) or "Space Series" of Dzogchen teachings.....Longdé is translated as "Space Division" or "Space Series" of Dzogchen and emphasises the emptiness (Wylie: strong pa) or spaciousness (Wylie: klong) aspect of the Natural State...... the basic primordial state; the nature of mind-itself (which is contrasted with normal conscious mind). .....

Excerpted from Space, Awareness, and Energy: An Introduction to the Bonpo Dzogchen Teachings of the Oral Tradition from Zhang-zhung, by John Myrdhin Reynolds, Snow Lion Publications

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Dzogchen Poem from "Eye of the Storm"

The Revelation of All Things As One:
The Root of All Experience

As one, completely free of attributes,
the yogin is like the flight-path of a bird in the sky;
in the unstructured, unoriginated, matrix
how can there be any inflated projections?

The Identity of Samsara and Nirvana:
The Fallacy of Inner and Outer

Inner and outer are one, the inner the outer itself,
so there is no ulterior field to realize;
under the power of a mistaken dichotomy,
samadhi lacks ultimate sameness.

The Reality of Vajrasattva

Vajrasattva, vast exalted spaciousness,
in the all-good expanse of existential space,
is the utterly pristine, dynamic process of liberation,
never begun, never-ending and conceiving nothing.

Complete and Perfect Dzogchen

Totally complete, nothing excluded,
unchanging, Dzogchen is simply present;
boundless, like space,
nothing is dependant upon anything else.

Immediate and Spontaneous Enlightenment

In the field of ordinary understanding lies pure pleasure,
which itself is the pristine purity of mundane existence;
through the concentration of finite light focused therein
the entire ten directions of space are illuminated.

These are the first five verses of the Dorje Sempa Namkhache Lung in the order given in the Dochu and translated accordingly to the Dochu commentary.... The Namkha Che is the realization of Garab Dorje who recited it when a child. It was given to Pagor Vairochana by Shri Singha in Oddiyana and was one of the first five translations of the Semde tantras made at Samye in Tibet. It is considered to be the root text of the Semde Series.

Eye of the Storm: Bairotsana's Original Transmissions
by Keith Dowman

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"The Buddha, wandering in the forest one day, was approached by a man who was struck by his countenance, and who asked, "What are you? Are you a saint, a yogi, a savior?" And the Buddha replied: "I am awake."....This simple original wakefulness is empty of all fixed qualities other than its own nature...This is "basic space'.....Longchenpa: "Everything is the adornment of basic space and nothing else."

Moonlight Leaning Against an Old Rail Fence: Approaching the Dharma as Poetry

(2015).....By Paul Weiss

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"Lungta and the four dignities symbolize the play of the five elements, out of which all phenomena are formed. The lungta symbolizes space, the ground of all manifestation; in fact, in astrological texts lung ta is sometimes spelt ཀློང་རྟ་, longta, 'horse of space'. "

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

September 2016

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Dzogchen Texts, Clear Perception & Poetic Expression

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Journal Éveillé is an informal exploration of awakened mind in the art of poetry....

Click Here To View The Main Index

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"The mark of one's speech at this point is that one's voice is soothing and enchanting, like songs sung by the children of kumbhandhas. In addition, various words of Dharma, legends, and knowledge of linguistics, poetry, and composition naturally emerge."...Dudjom Lingpa (1835-1904)

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"In general, the Dzogchen teachings are found only in the old unreformed Tibetan schools of the Buddhist Nyingmapas and the non-Buddhist Bonpos. In both cases, these teachings are substantially the same in meaning and terminology, and both traditions claim to have an unbroken lineage coming down to the present time from the eighth century and even before. Both of these schools assert that Dzo gchen did not originate in Tibet itself, but had a Central Asian origin and was subsequently brought to Central Tibet by certain masters known as Mahasiddhas or great adepts.".....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/dzogchen.html

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Heart of the Great Perfection: Dudjom Lingpa's Visions of the Great Perfection......By Dudjom Lingpa (1835-1904)...
"This is the citta lamp of the flesh and whose trunk is the hollow crystal kati channel. The term fluid distant lasso lamp is collectively given to all three, which are known as the three lamps of the vessel ...The Lamp of the Flesh, Citta (Tibetan: tsitta sha'i sgron ma) is located at the heart......

Naked Awareness: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.....By Karma Chagme:
"Inside it is the so-called "lamp of the empty bindus," and it is like the ... the citta lamp of the flesh, located in the heart; the lamp of the hollow crystal kati channel, ..."

"The quintessence of the apertures is called the fluid Lasso lamp. That consists of three kinds of lamps of the vessel. Although the three kinds of lamps of the vessel are given three names, in reality they refer to the same thing, like a root, trunk, and fruit. Thus, in the context of the path, they are simply called the fluid lasso lamp....The mark of one's speech at this point is that one's voice is soothing and enchanting, like songs sung by the children of kumbhandhas. In addition, various words of Dharma, legends, and knowledge of linguistics, poetry, and composition naturally emerge. Appearances arise as symbols and as scriptures, and the meaning of all oral transmissions and practical instructions flows forth like the current of a river. Words of melodious songs and so on inspire others' perceptions of the world, and their minds are blessed."...Dzogchen: Thodgal (Leap-Over) Instructions by Dudjom Lingpa... ....http://www.theopendoorway.org/Dzogchen-Thodgal.htm

"Quoting from the Jinzhu jing .. or Tantra of the Golden Pearls (Tib. gSer phreng), Fahai on the basis of the Dayuanman guanding (82a) explains thus :
From the Jewel Palace of the Heart (xin baogong) to the Ocean of the Eyes [yanhai, i.e., the pupils] there is a connecting vessel which is called in Tibetan "Kati." It is opalescent, transparent, and soft. Empty in its interior (neikong), it is not engendered by the mother’s red blood and the father’s white semen (fumu hongbai jingxue), which "some people call sun and moon." ...http://texts.00.gs/rDzogs-Chen_in_China.htm

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John Myrdhin Reynolds. The Golden Letters, p. 307......kati: “a crystalline translucent nerve or channel connecting the heart with the eyes.” John Myrdhin Reynolds. The Golden Letters, p. 307.

Crystal Kati Channel....."According to the custom of some teaching traditions, you are first introduced to the view, and upon that basis you seek the meditative state. This makes it difficult to identify awareness. In the tradition presented here, you first establish the meditative state, then on that basis you are introduced to the view. This profound point makes it impossible for you not to identify awareness. Therefore, first settle your mind in its natural state, then bring forth genuine quiescence in your mind-stream, and reveal the nature of awareness.

Position your body with the seven attributes like before. Steadily fix your gaze in the space in front of you, into the vacuity at the level of the tip of your nose, without any disorderliness or duplicity. This is the benefit of this gaze: in the center of the hearts of all beings there is the hollow crystal kati channel, which is a channel of primordial wisdom. If it points down and is closed off, primordial wisdom is obscured, and delusion grows. Thus, in animals that channel faces downwards and is closed off, so they are foolish and deluded. In humans that channel points horizontally and is slightly open, so human intelligence is bright and our consciousness is clear. In people who have attained siddhis and in bodhisattvas that channel is open and faces upwards, so there arise unimaginable samādhis, primordial wisdom of knowledge, and vast extrasensory perceptions. These occur due to the open quality of that channel of primordial wisdom. Thus, when the eyes are closed, that channel is closed off and points down, so consciousness is dimmed by the delusion of darkness. By steadily fixing the gaze, that channel faces up and opens, which isolates pure awareness from impure awareness. Then clear, thought-free samādhi arises, and numerous pure visions appear. Thus, the gaze is important.

In all treatises other than the Tantra of the Sun of the Clear Expanse of the Great Perfection and the Profound Dharma of the Natural Emergence of the Peaceful and Wrathful from Enlightened Awareness, the hollow crystal kati channel is kept secret, and there are no discussions of this special channel of primordial wisdom. This channel is unlike the central channel, the right channel, the left channel, or any of the channels of the five chakras; it is absolutely not the same as any of them. Its shape is like that of a peppercorn that is just about open, there is no blood or lymph inside it, and it is limpid and clear. A special technique for opening this is hidden in the instructions on the natural liberation pertaining to the lower orifice, great bliss, and desire. The lower yānas do not have even the name of this channel.

Thus, while steadily maintaining the gaze, place the awareness unwaveringly, steadily, clearly, nakedly, and fixedly, without having anything on which to meditate, in the sphere of space. When stability increases, examine the consciousness that is stable. Then gently release and relax. Again place it steadily, and steadfastly observe the consciousness of that moment. What is the nature of that mind? Let it steadfastly observe itself. Is it something clear and steady, or is it an emptiness that is nothing? Is there something there to recognize? Look again and again, and report your experience to me! Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava's Teachings on the Six Bardos Paperback – June 15, 1998

Note: kati: “a crystalline translucent nerve or channel connecting the heart with the eyes.” John Myrdhin Reynolds. The Golden Letters, p. 307.

Golden Letters: The Three Statements of Garab Dorje, First Dzogchen Master by John Myrdhin Reynolds (Translator)

"The teachings of Dzogchen, which directly introduces the practitioner to the Nature of Mind, were first expounded by Garab Dorje in the country of Uddiyana and later went to India and Tibet. The essence of Garab Dorje's message is "The Three Statements that Strike the Essential Points." Patrul Rinpoche wrote a brilliant commentary, together with practices entitled "The Special Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King"

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The Flight of the Garuda: The Dzogchen Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism by Keith Dowman (Translator)

Translations of four sacred texts of the Dzogchen tradition: Secret Instruction in a Garland of Vision, The Flight of the Garuda, Emptying the Depths of Hell, and the Wish-Granting Prayer of Kuntu Zangpo.

Flight of the Garuda conveys the heart advice of one of the most beloved nonsectarian masters of Tibet. Ordained as a Gelug monk, the itinerant yogi Shabkar was renowned for his teachings on Dzogchen, the heart practice of the Nyingma lineage. He wandered the countryside of Tibet and Nepal, turning many minds toward the Dharma through his ability to communicate the essence of the teachings in a poetic and crystal-clear way. Buddhists of all stripes, including practitioners of Zen and Vipassana, will find ample sustenance within the pages of this book, and be thrilled by the lyrical insights conveyed in Shabkar's words.

Along with the song by Shabkar, translator Keith Dowman includes several other seminal Dzogchen texts. Dzogchen practice brings us into direct communion with the subtlemost nature of our experience, the unity of samsara in nirvana as experienced within our own consciousness. Within the Nyingma school, it is held higher than even the practices of tantra for bringing the meditator face to face with the nature of reality.

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Exerpt of an interesting discussion online via dharmawheel.net.....Ordinary Mind, Thamal Gyi Shepa and 'Baby Rigpa'......

Post By monktastic.....
"Hello, me again with questions regarding the natural state :) (As a disclaimer: I attended Norbu Rinpoche's teachings online last week, and will be visiting Lama Yeshe next year, so I'm not trying to avoid formal instruction!)......It has been said that one's initial experiences of rigpa may deserve the title "baby rigpa," and even before that, perhaps "natural mind" or "ordinary mind". Tsoknyi Rinpoche says:
"This short moment of recognizing can surely be called mind essence. You can also name it natural mind or ordinary mind, although natural mind is better in this case. It might be a little too early to call it the rigpa of the Great Perfection. But as this state gets more clarified -- you could say more refined -- and becomes the authentic state of rigpa according to Dzogchen teachings, then at that point it will deserve its name. On the other hand, it is also possible that someone might recognize the state of rigpa from the very beginning.

In the beginning, just let it be whatever it is, however it is; just let whatever is known be that, without hope and fear. We call this continuity, however brief it might be, Baby Rigpa. … In the same way, whatever is initially seen as being the view is exactly what you allow to continue.

Dzogchen meditation is to sustain the continuity. It is to give Baby Rigpa breathing space. Up till now, he has been suffocating...

In the Dzogchen tradition, of course, it is imperative to get a pointing out instruction first. In Mahamudra (particularly in the style of Thrangu Rinpoche, who was my first Mahamudra teacher), one may arrive at a first glimpse of thamal gyi shepa via vipashyana meditations. It is my understanding that this initial glimpse may not be as "deep" a recognition as one may receive from a full-blown pointing-out, and that this is okay. With the tiniest glimpse of ordinary mind, one may refine one's view by repeatedly allowing oneself to recognize it, as well as by deepening it with further vipashyana meditations (e.g., coming to experience more deeply that perceptions are mind, that thoughts are mind, etc.)."

Source:..http://dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?t=10283

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"Discovering drala is indeed to establish ties to your world, so that each perception becomes unique. It is to see with the heart, so that what is invisible to the eye becomes visible as the living magic of reality." (Trungpa: Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior ....1984..pg 105)

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"The Nature of Mind is not only ... primordial purity (ka-dag), but it is equally characterized by a luminous clarity (gsal-ba) and intrinsic awareness (rig-pa)……the light of awareness that illuminates our world. ... This inner light (nang >od), the light of awareness, resides in the hollow space inside ... a maroon-colored carnelian stone decorated with white crystals ... . This inner light of awareness proceeds from the hollow space ..., moving upward through the kati channel, to the two ... lenses to focus this light. The two ... are the gateways for the emergence into outer space of this inner light of awareness…..Thus, this light and the images that appear in this light, are actually something internal ..., but here they manifest in the empty space in front of oneself. The light ... is projected ... out through the lenses of the two eyes into the space in front, much like one is watching a cinema show. This process may be compared to a magic latern or a projector. ...The objects that appear are not really outside oneself. ……http://texts.00.gs/Practice_of_Dzogchen_in_the_Zhang-Zhung_Tradition,_2.htm…..Practice of Dzogchen in the Zhang-Zhung Tradition of Tibet: Translations from the The Gyalwa Chaktri of Druchen Gyalwa Yungdrung, and The Seven-fold Cycle of the Clear Light By:John Myrdhin Reynolds (translator)

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

September 2016

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