Research Into the Myths, Legends, Influences, Historical Accounts and Various Levels of Meaning of The Ancient Kingdom of Shambhala
August 2008
email....okarresearch@gmail.com
Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, one of the leading scholars of the nineteenth century, broke the sectarian confinement and forged a deep understanding of rival philosophies. With great courage and ability, this fine scholar compiled the basic teachings of all Tibetan Schools in his encyclopaedic work "The Five Great Treasures".
The most significant Bon teacher in the Rimay movement was Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-1935)..."HEART DROPS OF DHARMAKAYA.....Dzogchen Practice of the Bon Tradition".
Current research focuses on .....Shiwa Okar and Shenlha Okar.........Primordial Purity and the relationship of the Five Elements of Dzogchen and the 4 Dignities in the the Shambhala Teachings of Chogyam Trungpa....... Of particular interest are the ancient traditions of .... Persian Mithraic......Shang Shung & Tibetan Bonpo......Tibetan/Uighur Manichaeism....the Kalachkra tradition and the Islamic conquest of Central Asia.........
In the Kalachakra text's list of Prophets we find mention of the "White-Clad One", probably referring to Mani. Buddhists believe that Buddha himself gave this Root Kalachakra Tantra in the ninth century B.C. and that the First Kalki King of Shambhala wrote The Abridged Kalachakra Tantra in the second century B.C. The Kalachakra Tantra appeared in India in the late tenth century and was probably written about this time. It predicts the coming of an Islamic Messiah figure named Mahdi about 2424 AD. In the Kalachakra text we read:
If you ask who propagated the Dharma of the mlecchas, it says, "Adam, Noah, and Abraham of the asura (caste) and, from the naga caste, the five others with tamas: Moses, this one, and The White-Clad One, Muhammad, and The Emanation. That eighth one will be the blinded one. The seventh will manifestly come to the cities of Baghdad and so on in the land of Mecca." Those with these names of non-Buddhists, and so on, will propagate the Dharma of the asuras. Among these, the one called "The White-Clad One" is Mahamayin. That one will propagate the Dharma of the asuras and so on in the cities of the land of Mecca and so on. If you ask what kind of land is that, it says, "(It is the place) in this world where the asura caste will have the form of the powerful, merciless mlecchas." A Commentary on Difficult Points Called "Padmini"
Click here Exploration on the Lalo Prophets of the Kalachakra
Click here for notes on Kalachakra and the possible discussion of Islam
The Turkic Ghaznavids conquered Kabul in the 980s. It was at about this time that the Kalachakra teachings openly appeared in India, transmitted in visions to two Indian masters attempting to reach Shambhala. Although the Muslim Ghaznavids tolerated Buddhism and Hinduism in Kabul, they smashed the Ismaili Islamic state of Multan in north central Pakistan in 1008. The Ismaili Fatimids in Egypt were the rivals of the Ghaznavids for supremacy over the entire Muslim world. After this victory, the Ghaznavad ruler Mahmud of Ghazni, driven undoubtedly by greed for more land and wealth, pressed his invasion further eastward as far as Madhura, south of Delhi. He looted and destroyed the wealthy Buddhist monasteries that lay in his path. When the Ghaznavad troops pushed northward from Delhi, however, and tried to invade Kashmir, the Kashmiri King Samgrama Raja, a supporter of both Buddhism and Hinduism, defeated them in 1021. This was the first attack on Kashmir by a Muslim army. The Kalachakra Tantra reached Tibet from Kashmir in 1027, the year predicted by the First Kalki.
"SHAMBHALA...."In 624 AD, a Moslem invasion weakened the Kingdom of Shambhala."(Roerich: 1974..pg 753) (Geoffrey Hopkins: 1985..pg 60)
"622 AD is the first year of the new Mohammedian era according to the Islamic tradition...Year of Hegira (flight from Mecca)...
in 624 C.E., a non-Indic religion will arise in Mecca. Because of a lack of unity among the brahmans?people and laxity in following correctly the injunctions of their Vedic scriptures, many will accept this religion when its leaders threaten an invasion. To prevent this danger, Manjushri Yashas united the people of Shambhala into a single "vajra-caste" by conferring upon them the Kalachakra empowerment. By his act, the king became the First Kalki ?the First Holder of the Caste. ........... As the founding of Islam dates from 622 C.E., two years before Kalachakra? predicted date, most scholars identify the non-Indic religion with that faith. Descriptions of the religion elsewhere in the Kalachakra texts as having the slaughter of cattle while reciting the name of its god, circumcision, veiled women, and prayer facing its holy land five times a day reinforce their conclusion.
In 624 AD the Sassian Shah Yazdigird is defeated by the Arabs at the battle of Nahavand...In Iran, the great Sassanian dynasty collapsed in the 7th century under the Arab onslaught...."in the era of the Mlecchas, the starting year of the Kalacakra chronology is the first year of the Hijra, calculated from the year 624 AD."..(Roerich:1949...pg 753)....
624 AD...'the Emperor Heraclkes captures the Persian residence of Ganzaca (Ganjak) with its cosmic throne room." (Sacral Kingship: 1959..pg 484)...
633 A.D. (5383) Muhammad declares himself the prophet of God and originates Islam. It is well known that Muhammad's principal teacher was the Assyrian monk Sargis Bkheera. This accounts for the extraordinary doctrinal similarity between some aspects of Islam and the Assyrian Church of the East. For example, according to Assyrian Church doctrine, there is no awareness of passage of time between the moment of death and final judgement; final judgement occurs immediately even though thousands of years may have passed on Earth. Islam holds this same view. It is also noteworthy that the Koran states that in the day of final judgement the angels of Allah will speak to man in Assyrian.
632 AD....Muhammad died in 632 AD, beginning an expansion of the Muslim Empire in central Asia...11th year of Hegira (Flight from Mecca)... He died in the evening of the twelfth of Rabi?al-Awwal (June 8, 632 A.D.) at the age of sixty-three.
624 AD..(Arabic Historians)......"The Great Battle of Badr took place two years after the Hijra in 624 AD. This was the first battle that the believers ever engaged in with the disbelievers, and it is, by far, the most famous and most renown, becuase of the several extraordinary events that occured during it. Rasoolullah (saws) had encouraged the Muslims to oppose the Quraish caravan which was returning to Mecca from Sham." ......At this battle the pagan army from Sham consisted of 950 warriors.........
They went to Wad! al Qura where they tarried a while and then proceeded northward until they reached Adhri'at near the frontier of al Sham,
In The Abridged Kalachakra Tantra, Manjushri Yashas, the First Kalki ruler of Shambhala, predicts that the leader of a future non-Indic religion will invade his land. This non-Indic religion will have a line of eight great teachers: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mani, Muhammad, and Mahdi. Most scholars identify this religion as Islam in general, but their conclusion needs scrutiny. .......The Kalachakra texts say that Muhammad, the founder of the non-Indic religion, will be born in the city of Baghdad in the land of Mecca. Baghdad, the capital of the Arab ‘Abbasad Caliphate (750 – 1258), was built only by Caliph al-Mansur in 762. Muhammad was born in Arabia in 570. Since the Kalachakra texts first appeared in written form in India at the end of the tenth or beginning of the eleventh centuries, Manjushri Yashas was speaking of Islam during the early ‘Abbasad period.
In 624 AD the Sassian Shah Yazdigird is defeated by the Arabs at the battle of Nahavand...In Iran, the great Sassanian dynasty collapsed in the 7th century under the Arab onslaught...."in the era of the Mlecchas, the starting year of the Kalacakra chronology is the first year of the Hijra, calculated from the year 624 AD."..(Roerich:1949...pg 753)....
ZHIDAG....."Tibetan Buddhists believe that there are countless types of beings other than humans and animals. Some are more powerful, happier, and more intelligent than humans, and others less so. Usually if there is no common karma or karmic connection, beings of different types will not encounter each other. Spirits are not necessarily births of the ancestors from a particular locality, but may have come from any kind of birth or realm." (Hidden Teachings of Tibet)
FRAVASHIS......"A class of higher intelligence that are ancient Persian guardian warrior spirits. The 19th day of every month is consecrated to them. King Phraortes' (647 BC) Persian name is derived from the term."(Dhalla:1963..pg 235)..... "Hence Finite Time and Finite Space control man's destiny from the cradle to the grave. Yet the whole of the macrocosm is kept in being by the Fravashis (Dralas ??), the spiritual powers that are indissolubly linked with each human being and with humanity as a whole. Finite time-space, then, is not a kenoma, an empty nothingness, but a pleroma, a 'full' and vital organism...."...(Zaehner..1961..pg 150)...
"We are working with iconography as a journey, rather than as entertainment or excitement or cultural fascination. We are talking about personal experience, how we actually see this world. There is a basic iconographic pattern in the universe, like the existence of the seasons and the elements, but how we react to that is individual.""....(Trungpa: Dharma Art.:1996...pg 94)
Of particular interest is information on the main Shambhala deity.........the Shambhalian "God of Gods"........Shiwa Okar...(Shiwa'i Od'kar)...... "The body of the Bon Deity Shen - Lha Okar is white...In the Bon tradition his ontological status is that of a bonku, 'unconditioned being' or 'supreme being', corresponding to the Buddhist category of dharmakaya...His association with light suggests Manichaean influences....The colour of his body is like the essence of crystal...his ornaments, attire, and palace are adorned by crystal light..."................"Shenlha Wokar, the Bon deity who is the source of the lineage of teachings of the Dzogchen (rDzogs chen), the Great Perfection, in the lands of Lha, Nyen, and Lu". ....Kungtuzangpo gave the teachings to Shenlha Okar who passed them to Shenrab Miwo who taught them in Zhang Zhung............From the white pure light arises the deity Shenlha Okar at the center of the mandala.........Lama Tenzin Wangyal"
Click here For Thangka of the Bon Peaceful Deity - Shiwa'i Lhatsog
The Following Published Texts Are Important in This Research:
Chogyam Trungpa..."Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior"...1984........
Campell, Leroy A......"Mithraic Iconography and Ideology"....Leiden:1968......Persian and Avestan sources........
Norbu, Namkhai "Drung, Deu, and Bon: Narrations, Symboloic languages, and the Bon traditions in ancient Tibet"... 1995.......descriptions of the Drala and Werma deities... translation of important Bon Texts...
Wangyal, Tenzin....."Healing with Form, Energy and Light.....The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra and Dzogchen"....2002...... overview of the..... Shamanic ...Tantric....and Dzogchen teachings and practices of Tibet.....outlines of descriptions from the imporant Bon texts...........
Rigden Kings.....Historical Timetable......Werma and Drala Deities.....Kalachakra.....Ancient Sham (Iraq, Persia and Syria)......Calah and Kalapa......Bon & Shambhala....Tibetan Manichaeism......Shenlha Okar.......Scorpion Seals......Mounted Equestrian Warrior Deities......Terms & Concepts.......Bibliography
These are unedited research notes focusing on actual historical traditions......including the great pre-Islamic cultures of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Central Asia...... .... Persian Mithraic......Shang Shung & Persian Bon-po......Tibetan Manichaeism.......Northern Silk Route and Iranian Buddhism.......Early Tibetan Tantric Nyingma.........Altaic Shamanic Kam.......Japanese Elemental Shinto..... Pre-Islamic Sufism.......Manichaeist Taoism...... Greek and Roman Lodge "Mystery Religions"...... French Celtic Druidae and Catharic Traditions...... Sham Ash Sun Gods...... Khazaric Semitic Kabbala....... Indo-Iranian (Aryan) Sky Gods & Earth Goddesses.... Kashmiri Tantric Shaivism, etc.........Numerous viewpoints are sought and presented.....no conclusions are drawn.
Notes on the Cathar Christians.....the Shambhalians (Manichaeans or Bonpos) of France?......"Within each person there is a spark of life that was un-touched by the material world.......any movement that tended toward the spiritual was a movement towards pure white light.......tendancies towards the material world led to diminished brilliance.....the Christians called these extremes Good and Evil........some people claim that the Cathars descended from the Essenes, similar to the Nogomils or the Lollards who were exterminated in England....the Cathar story is a Holocaust story.....their history in southern France and their command of genocide by the Pope of Rome is quite tragic.....Pope Innocent the Third in 1209 launched a crusade against them.....He called in Simon de Montford to slaughter, and extinguish their power, their religion....."
The Shambhala Teachings and Tibetan Manichaeism........"In A.D. 1000 the Arab historian Al-Beruni wrote: "The majority of the Eastern Turks, the inhabitants of China and Tibet, and a number in India belong to the religion of Mani, the Buddha of Light"........
MANICHAEISM.........The Five Elements are at the core of 2nd Century Manichaeism........According to Mani the First-Man now emanates sons as a man who puts on his armor for the combat. These five sons are the five elements opposed to the five aeons of darkness: Clear Air, Refreshing Wind, Bright Light, Life-Giving Waters, and Warming Fire. He put on first the aerial breeze, then threw over himself light as a flaming mantle, and over this light a covering of water; he surrounded himself with gusts of wind, took light as his lance and shield, and cast himself downward toward the line of danger........
Küntu Zangpo is one of the peacful Bon deities, his name means "The All-Good" and he is seen as the supreme deity of all knowledge and has strong links to Shenla Okar in the sense that both are hierophanies of the bönku or "The body of Bon", the ultimate Truth..... Küntu Zangpo is Künzang Akor which means "The All-Good cycle of A", "A" being the last letter in the Zhan Zhung-alphabet ....the White A......
The Shambhala Diet & the Manichaen Diet ........
"NYIDA: The vegetarian diet of Shambhala. Nyi stands for yellow and green foods, primarily vegetables and fruits, and da for white foods such as milk, yogurt, cheese and tofu....
One of the main principles of the Manichaeans was a vegetarian diet of mainly green and yellow foods. Supposedly, light was concentrated in these foods......
"Is Manicheism the source of the Dzogchen teachings of Tibetan Buddhists. Beginning with an ancient Persian form of Zarathustrianism which penetrated the Tibetan region in the 5th Century BC, and followed by a heretical Pudgalavadin form of Buddhism in the 3rd century BC, both of which pave the way for the influx of the teachings of Mani in the late 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th centuries AD.
This Manichaean faith became totally dominant in northern Tibet when the Uighur King converted to Manichaeanism in 762 AD. ....
"According to Kuznetsov, Bon was introduced to Tibet in the fifth century BC, when there occurred a mass migration of Iranians from Sogdhiana in north-east Iran to the northern parts of Tibet.." .....June Campbell: "Traveller in Space"..
In the 3rd century B.C.E. emerged the Pudgalavadins from the Hinayana school of Buddhism, who derive their name from the word pudgala, meaning 'person'. The Pudgalavadins claimed that for reincarnation to take place, there had to be a continuous person who was reincarnated again and again, thus requiring a kind of individual soul, not an autonomous self, but a soul in constant transformation. This view was criticised by other Buddhist sects who said that Pudgalavadin teaching implied the reality of a self and, therefore, contradicted the basic Buddhist teaching of anatman (no self). These Pudgalavadins were persecuted in India but flourished in Central Asian Bon areas where they, with the possible influence of Mani and Manichaeanism, seem to have developed into, or merged with, the Dzogchen teachings of the Great Perfection in Tibet. An early form of this Dzogchen then possibly evolved into Ch'an and Zen and spread eastward.
Manichaeanism entered into Tibet and northern India at the end of the third century A.D. By 670-692 existed in strength in eastern Turkestan where the Uighur Turks were intermixing with Iranians and Scyths. Manichaeanism, along with Buddhism, became extremely prevalent in this area. Manichaeanism tended to express itself in Buddhist terminology in this land and itself was part Buddhist, yet Manichaeanism has many elements considered inharmonious with traditional Buddhist ideas. This Buddhist Manichaeanism mix, of which Mani would have been proud, possibly had a profound influence on Mahayana Buddhism which would soon become the dominant form of Buddhism. Manichaean elements are especially discernible in Buddhist schools such as the pure land sect and continued to influence the unique development of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet. Thus these forms of Buddhism speak of a central deity, a light land, 5 elements in need of redemption, and other traditional Manichaean teachings.
Dzogchen, The Supreme Highest Yoga Tantra, Atiyoga, Dzogchen, or Great Perfection is said,according to both early Bon and Nyingma sources, as well as by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye (19th century Nyingmapa scholar and adept) to have come from the northwest into Tibet. Dzogchen is also said by these early writers to come from Persian sources and to have existed in Tibet before Padmasambhava came in the eighth century. We concur with this assessment and suspect that Dzogchen originated with the insights of Mani the Persian Messenger of Light and the Manichaean message which came into the area from the northwest.
There is also a tradition that Dzogchen,and Padmasambhava, come from a place called Oddiyana in Shamballa. Texts from this same Tun huang site identify Oddiyana as "Shamis en Balkh" in modern day Balkh, Afghanistan where many ruins, Buddhist stupas and monasteries exist. This is the town oft associated with Padmasambhava, and Rabia and Rumi as well. Although Padmasambhava is usually thought to be Indian, it is possible that he is from the Afghanistan region also associated with his name.
Later Bon is perhaps the mixture of older Iranian Bon with the Pudgalavadin Buddhism that entered Tibet before more traditional forms of Buddhism. We are told by Kongtrul and Longchenpo that Nyingma split off from the Bon Religion when the "new translations" period began in Tibet after Padmasambhava. Scholars are now concluding that Padmasambhava did not begin Nyingma as later tradition asserts, only incorporated it from the older Bon/Nyingma tradition that preceded him. They also report that the Central Asian Dzogchen View is common to and found within not only Bon, but also the Nyingmapa lineage, as well as in some northern Indian elements of the Sikhs, Nathas, and Bauls.
Recent discoveries in Tun huang caves seem to indicate that a pre-Buddhist form of Dzogchen teachings in the Tibetan region and Central Asia area became the Taoist alchemical tradition of yoga that evolves into Ch'an and Zen. Both Zen and Dzogchen teach the concept of sudden enlightenment in contrast to other Buddhist schools that teach gradual unfoldment. Within Tun huang texts we also seem to see non-Taoist texts transforming into Taoist texts and Central Asian Buddhist liturgy transforming itself into Taoist liturgy. One scholar writes that this type of pre-Buddhist Zen like Dzogchen teaches that there is no permanent self nor immortal part nor reincarnation. One must first develop an immortal body and personhood by uniting solar and lunar souls. This last teaching is similar to to some mandaean and Manichaean teachings on the soul and Ziwa and Noorah light bodies. A early form of Dzogchen may possibly have evolved into the Ch'an and Zen traditions that one encounters farther eastward."