Tag Archives: religion

Devils Outside, Devils Inside, Devils of the View: Patrül Rinpoche’s Text on Diagnosing and Avoiding Maras, Part II

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Painting of maras attacking the Buddha, by Balinese artist Pande Ketut Bawa

Here is part II of a multi-part series in which I share a preliminary translation of a text on Maras – ‘demonic’ obstacles on the spiritual path – by the nineteenth century Tibetan Buddhist teacher Patrül Rinpoche. As I mentioned in Part I, this text is Patrül’s reworking of an earlier text by the twelfth century Kadampa master Chegompa (see Part I for more details). In the opening section of the text, Chegompa describes the Four General Maras – these maras are ‘general’ because they are overarching, they encompass the obstacles and challenges of samsaric broadly. In this next Part, Chegom outlines three levels of specific or particular maras – chedrak ki dü, བྱེ་བྲག་གི་བདུད་ – namely, outer level maras, inner level maras, and secret level maras. There are six types for each level, making eighteen specific maras in total. The scheme of ‘outer, inner, secret’ – chi nang sang sum, ཕྱི་ནང་གསང་གསུམ་ in Tibetan – will be familiar to many readers. It is an ubiquitous framework in Tibetan Buddhism and charts a spectrum from other beings and gross, external, objective reality on one end, to more internal, intangible, personal, and subjective experiences and orientations on the other. Let’s dive right into the translation (I’ll include some reflections on the section at the end!).

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Four Common Devils: Patrül Rinpoche’s Text on Diagnosing and Avoiding Maras, Part I

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A nineteenth century tangka painting of the Buddha conquering maras, housed at Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, purchased from the Collection of Navin Kumar, New York. See here for more details.

In the interest of starting to post here a bit more regularly, I figured I would share, in installments, a rough translation of an interesting Tibetan text I came across recently. The text is by Dza Patrül Rinpoche (1808 – 1887 – Patrül has become the quasi-standard English phoneticization, but it could just as well be Peltrül), a prominent scholar-practitioner of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, who is perhaps best known today for his extensive commentary on the ngöndro, i.e. the foundational, preliminary practices of the Longchen Nyingthig system, called ཀུན་བཟང་བླ་མའི་ཞལ་ལུང་ Künzang Lamé Zhelung, ‘The Direct Oral Instructions of the Guru who is one and the same as Samantabhadra’, better-known as ‘Words of My Perfect Teacher’. The text I’d like to share here is, also included in Patrül Rinpoche’s collected works and is titled བདུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་བརྟགས་ཏེ་སྤོང་ཚུལ་གྱི་མན་ངག་བདུད་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ ‘Complete Victory over Mara: Pith Instructions on how to Diagnose the Causes of Mara or Obstructing Demons and the Methods for Avoiding Them’. I cited the final paragraph from this ‘Complete Victory over Mara’ text in a recent interview I did with Steve James on the Guru Viking podcast on the Tibetan concept of gek or obstacles which arise in the course of meditation and spiritual practice. As it happens, the text is not an original composition, but as Patrül explains in the colophon, is his reworking of a chapter by the same name found in ‘The Heap of Precious Pith Oral Instructions’ མན་ངག་རིན་ཆེན་སྤུངས་པ་ Mengngak Rinchen Pungpa, a treatise by the influential Tibetan Kadampa master Chegompa, who was born in 1130. Patrül Rinpoche notes that he has summarized the original chapter, has edited its wording slightly, in order to rework it into ‘notes’ or a more bulleted form (ཟིན་ཐུན་དུ་སྤེལ་བ་). This is very kind of him, since it makes the key points of Chegompa’s chapter easier for students like us to access, study, and memorize. Since there’s so much of interest in the text, I’d like to share it in its entirety here, with a few personal reflections along the way.

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Alien Gurus and The Mother of the Soul: On the Etymology of the Tibetan Word Lama and Why More Occultists Should Learn to read Tibetan

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I’ve written about LAM, the according-to-some extraterrestrial entity which English ritual magician Aleister Crowley is supposed to have contacted, in an earlier article about ‘Tibetan aliens’ which I shared on this blog before. The term LAM is synonymous with a specific drawing which Crowley produced, and which some occultists say is a portrait of a specific spiritual/alien entity. Now, occultists have many different opinions about who or what LAM is or was, about whether this picture is even a picture of an entity at all, and about the extent to which whatever entity or spiritual principle the image may represent is important or interesting. Some claim the image of LAM is Crowley’s spiritual self-portrait, others that it is a picture of Crowley’s Guru or Holy Guardian Angel. Some say it a portrait of Lao Tzu or another Taoist sage, of a disincarnate Tibetan lama, or the likeness of some other sort of priest or sorcerer. Others argue it is a stylized representation of penis-in-vagina (ritual?) intercourse, while yet others claim that it is one of the earliest representations of the now stereotypical ‘grey alien’ extraterrestrial (this last position seems to have gone especially viral online in the late 90s and 2000s).

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Shut up and Recite! Naropa’s Pith Instruction on Mantra Practice

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The Great Siddha Naropa, who is famously associated with Six ‘Dharmas’ or Completion Stage yogic disciplines.

Yesterday, the Naldjor Facebook page, a wonderful resource for texts and images related to Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and Yoga, shared a short text composed by Naropa, the famous Bengali Mahasiddha or ‘greatly accomplished’ Tantric saint who lived and taught in the 11th century (Naropa was famously put through great trails by his Guru Tilopa after he left his life as a monastic professor behind. For a brief summary of his life, see the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism’s entry for him shared on Tsadra’s Buddha Nature Project page, which is incidentally where I also got the above image from. The text in question has to do with mantra recitation and it is a mengngak མན་ངག་ or upadesha in Sanskrit – that is, a text of ‘pith, oral instructions’. Mengngak are usually related to meditation, medicine, or ritual practice and in this text Naropa gives a list of twenty-one do’s and don’ts regarding mantra practice for practitioners who want to cultivate ngak ki nüpa, སྔགས་ཀྱི་ནུས་པ་, i.e. ‘mantric efficacy’ or ‘power’. The Naldjor page administrator requested that English translations of the text be shared, so I thought I would offer one here. Naropa’s text was also one of the many sources Dr Nida Chenagtsang drew on when writing his Tibetan-language book on mantra healing and some of Naropa’s instructions appear in Dr Nida’s own ‘do’s and dont’s’ chapter from the book (see here for my rough translation). Dr Nida also often refers to points from Naropa’s text in his classes, so I thought it would be useful to share a full translation, along with some brief commentary. I will give the full text and translation below, followed by a few explanations about terminology and translation choices. I have put asterisks alongside the points which have variant renderings or interpretations.

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No More Metaphors: Milarepa’s Teaching to a Ngakpa about the Magic of True Siddhas

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A statue of Milarepa, in his characteristic green colour, from Helambu, Nepal, and Wikipedia.

I was recently reading through Tsangnyön Heruka’s 15th century (1488 to be exact) biography of the celebrated 11th century Tibetan yogi and cultural hero Milarepa. Tsangnyön Heruka – the ‘crazy tantric yogi from Tsang’ (1452 – 1507) – reorganized and codified Milarepa’s biography from various sources, and separated this out from Milarepa’s མགུར་འབུམ་ gurbum or compendium of spiritual teaching songs. Gur is a Buddhist/tantric textual genre for which Milarepa is most famous, and refers to songs or poems which accomplished spiritual adepts are said to compose on the spot to convey in musical and poetic form key spiritual truths for audiences.

While perusing Tsangnyön Heruka’s collection of Milarepa’s songs I came across a narrative which he calls སྔགས་པའི་ཞུས་ལན་གྱི་སྐོར་ ‘Concerning Questions-and-Answers with a Ngakpa’. Readers here will probably know that my doctoral research as a cultural anthropologist was focused on Tibetan Buddhist ngakpa, or non-celibate, non-monastic tantric householders and sorcerers. I find Milarepa’s exchange with this unnamed ngakpa quite beautiful and interesting, so I thought I would share my own translation of it here. Garma C.C. Chang translated this song into English in the 60s in his ‘The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa’ (Vol. 2). I’ve reproduced his translation at the end of this post. While it has many lovely qualities, I feel that it doesn’t quite capture the thrust of some of Milarepa’s responses, which I’d like draw out more here. The gist of the short narrative is that an unnamed ngakpa from དབུས་ཕྱོགས་ Üchok, Wüchok, the region of Central Tibet, comes one day to have an audience with Milarepa. Milarepa’s yogi disciple Seban Repa asks this ngakpa what type of གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ druptop or siddhas there are where he’s from. Siddhas – literally ‘spiritually accomplished ones’, people with spiritual attainments – are yogis who have achieved various spiritual powers, ranging from mastery of psychic and healing abilities, magical powers, to meditative attainment and complete Buddhahood. Seban Repa’s opening salvo is effectively, ‘How powerful/realized are your yogis and sorcerers back home, yogi-sorcerer?’ The visiting ngakpa explains that the siddhas in his region are of such calibre that they are served or waited upon by non-human beings. It is at this point that Milarepa chimes in with a provocation:

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On Interactions with Spirits in Tibetan Buddhism: New Interview on the Guru Viking Podcast

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A 19th century Tibetan tangka or religious painting depicting Nyenchen Tanglha, an important Tibetan territorial protector deity associated with the sacred mountain range of the same name

A quick note to say I have a new interview up on the Guru Viking Podcast, hosted by Steve James. This one is supposed to be the first of three chats focusing on human-spirit interactions and relationships in different esoteric or magical traditions. Here’s some links, and a list of topics we touched on, as prepared by Steve for the time stamps. Let me know what you think!

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Guru Viking Interview on Sexual Yoga, Dakinis, and Queer Tantra

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yeshe tsogyal

The great Khandro, Dakini or Yogini of Tibet, the princess who became a Buddha Yeshe Tsogyal

(This particular image of Yeshe Tsogyal is from a specific practice involving the Khandro that was revealed by the 17th century Tibetan treasure-revealer Tagsham Nuden Dorje who is said to have been a reincarnation of Yeshe Tsogyal’s sexual yoga partner Atsara Salé. The lineage for this practice is held by Namkha Drimed Rinpoche, see here for more information. See here as well for more on this blog regarding Yeshe Tsogyal’s life and exploits)

Hi, friends!

Here’s the information regarding a further podcast I recently did with Steve James of the Guru Viking podcast, as part of a series of interviews connected with my PhD dissertation on Tibetan tantric Buddhist non-monastic, non-celibate yogis and yoginis. In this interview, Steve quizzed me a little about some issues connected with gender and sexuality in Tibetan tantric Buddhism. I am hardly an expert in (or the best person to be mouthing off about!) the experiences of women in Vajrayana, but I hope that some of what we discussed here will be of use and interest.

Here’s Steve’s list of the topics we talked about along with the relevant links:

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Second Guru Viking Interview on Ngakpa: Definitions, Vows, and Tantric ‘Magic’

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File:Guru padmasambhava statue.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

(A photo from the building of the statue of Guru Rinpoche, the ‘original ngakpa’, on Samdruptse hill in Namchi, Sikkim. The statue is 135 feet tall and is said to be the largest statue of Guru Rinpoche currently in existence. More here)

Just a quick post to let everyone know that my second interview with Steve James of the ‘Guru Viking’ podcast is now up. In this one I talked (as usual, a lot), about definitions of ngakpa (sngags pa, སྔགས་པ), or Tibetan Buddhist tantric yogi householders, and their social roles. We also skimmed the surface of the broad lake of the topic of samaya or tantric vows, ngakpas’ hair, clothing and comportment, and the siddhi, or the spiritual acommplishments or powers that are thought to come from their dedicated practice of tantric yogic disciplines.

Here’s Steve’s breakdown of the episode, along with the YouTube video, and a link to the various places the interview can be found:
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Interview on the Guru Viking Podcast

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Guru Viking interview image

Hi there –

Just a quick post to let readers know that an interview I recently did for Steve James’ ‘Guru Viking’ Podcast has now gone live. This is the first of a series of interviews that Steve is hoping to put out where he quizzes me about my life, interests, and research, so it offers a broader overview of how I became an anthropologist focused on the study of Tibet and esotericism. Have a listen, if you feel so moved!

Here’s Steve’s introductory blurb for the interview, along with his time-stamped summary of the contents of what turned out to be a great chat. Would never have thought I’d see ‘Childhood Vision of Jesus’ indexed next to my face, but this world and every mind is indeed full of wonders that never cease.
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White Robes, Matted Hair: My PhD Thesis on Tibetan Tantric Householders Now Available for Download

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A detail from the medical thangka paintings commissioned by the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Regent, tantric yogi-doctor Desi Sangye Gyatso (1653 – 1705), as accompanying illustrations for the teachings in the Gyushi (rgyud bzhi) or ‘Four Medical Tantras’, the core textbook of exoteric Tibetan medicine. The detail depicts representative examples of the “two communities of Buddhist renouncers and virtuous spiritual guides who are [valid] objects for offerings/reverence”, that is, the community of ‘shaved-headed, saffron robed monastic renouncers’ and the ‘community of long-haired, white robe-wearing tantric yogi/nis or householder renouncers’ known as ngakpa/ma.

Great news, friends!

My full PhD dissertation in cultural anthropology, titled ‘White Robes, Matted Hair: Tibetan Tantric Householders, Moral Sexuality, and the Ambiguities of Esoteric Buddhist Expertise in Exile’ is now available open-access to download via ProQuest. It’s over 500 double-spaced pages and has more typos than I’d like, but it earned me a doctorate.

Here’s the thesis abstract and link for those who’d like to download and read it. I hope that whatever small insight and merit might be in its pages may spread and bring benefit!

 

“White Robes, Matted Hair: Tibetan Tantric Householders, Moral Sexuality, and the Ambiguities of Esoteric Buddhist Expertise in Exile

by Joffe, Ben Philip, Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder, 2019, 542; 27663085

Abstract (Summary)

This dissertation offers an ethnographic study of ngakpa/ma (sngags pa/ma, m.f.)–Tibetan Buddhist non-monastic, non-celibate tantric yogis and yoginis–living in the Tibetan diaspora. Like monks and nuns, ngakpa/ma are professionally religious, yet unlike their monastic counterparts they can marry, have families, and pursue worldly work. Living in ‘the village’ like ordinary laypeople but also spending much of their time in retreat or working as ritual specialists for hire, ngakpa/ma occupy a shifting, third space between monastic renunciation and worldly attachments. Based on roughly five years of fieldwork research conducted in Tibetan and Tibetan Buddhist communities in India, Nepal, Northeastern Tibet, and the United States, this thesis explores how ngakpa/mas’ historically decentralized, morally ambiguous esoteric expertise has become implicated in various projects of cultural preservation and reform for exile Tibetans, even as it has come to circulate and have meaning well beyond the purview of ethnic Tibetan communities and interests. Chapters One to Five offer an overview of how ngakpa/ma and ngakpa/ma orientations have been pinned down (or have failed to be pinned down) in exile, via language; gendered divisions of labor; in physical space and permanent institutions; through hair, clothing, and embodied comportment; and as part of new family and career trajectories. Chapters Six to Nine examine how contentious esoteric tantric yogic practices, associated with sexuality and Tibetan medicine in particular, are being popularized and reframed in exile in new ways and for new audiences as part of increasingly transnational networks of exchange. In these chapters, I underscore the polysemous quality of tantric practices, and reflect on my own collaborations with a Tibetan ngakpa-doctor to translate and share information on Tibetan tantric yogic practices more widely. In conclusion, I assess trends and quandaries that have dominated the academic study of secrecy and esoteric religions and highlight the implications and value of an ethnographic approach to researching tantric traditions.”

 

https://www.proquest.com/docview/2335180529/40E2D01DF314534PQ/2