Hundred Thousand Rays of the Sun [Z`i-byed tradition]

p. 4 Buddha’s pebble

"from Vulture’s Peak ... the Buddha picked up a stone about the size of a fist and squeezed it, leaving his finger imprints in this rock ... . ... In those days, Tingri was still a lake. When Buddha threw the stone, it fell into this lake, producing the sound "ding," which reverberated ... . It is from this sound that the name "Tingri" came to be."

pp. 5-6, 10 Pha-dam-pa Sans-rgyas before Naga-arjuna and S`ara-ha

p. 5

"great sages would meet together once each year, in south Palkiri in the Palki Mountains, where they reported their miracles and accomplishments before the Mahasiddha Nagarjuna and Saraha. While the others reported their powers, Dampa Sangye remained silent. ... "... Your practice is like the musk of a deer. ... musk is medicinal and cures many ailments." ...

Padampa Sangye traveled down the mountain to see whether he could find the renowned stone the Buddha had thrown in his

p. 6

previous life. When Dampa Sangye came to a certain riverbank, he saw ... where six musk deer were circumambulating and making mandala offerings. ... The Buddha’s stone had landed ... . As Dampa Sangye approached, the six deer – one doe and five fawns – all dissolved into one, and then the group of them dissolved into that very stone thrown from Vulture’s Peak so long ago. In this way, Dampa Sangye recovered the stone."

p. 10

"at the time Dampa Sangye died, he woke from the dead and told them all, "Don’t cry over me; rather, on this day ... you should dance, sing, and offer prayers.""

p. 127 protective cords

"I recited Padampa Sangye’s mantra on black protection cords; imparting blessing that would help ... avoid any obstacles. Everyone wore these cords".

p. 128 teachings

"The Buddha taught 84,000 teachings, each according to one’s own capacity, sometimes gentle and sometimes wrathful."

p. 129 colors & elements & bodily substances of the cardinal directions

direction

color

element

bodily substances

east

white

water

fluids & blood

south

yellow

earth

flesh & bones

west

red

fire

energy & warmth

north

green

wind

breath & motion

centre

dark blue

space

mind & consciousness

p. 129 the 3 syllables of specific colors at locations on one’s body

our being

colored syllable

at our __

body

white OM

forehead

speech

red AS

throat

mind

blue HUM

heart

p. 130 formless entities : protective cords to expell their influence

"Padampa Sangye ... is very dark and rich. ...

Thus the black cord is actually a deep dark blue, and it represents the Buddha’s mind. It has nine sacred knots in a row, and it protects from nine harmful things : weapons, wild animals ..., formless beings such as demons and ghosts, and so forth." {Are the "formless" (a-rupa) heavens occupied by daimones and ghosts?}

There are different kinds of ghosts. The ... god-like entities are white, ...

astrological demons are multicolored, ... and ...

demons of water and earth – are green."

p. 133 a dream of false-awakening and its aftermath

"in this dream I woke up and found the door open – and the light on. An old Nepalese woman stood there, with white-combed hair and a full set of teeth, wearing green gown and a white shawl. She didn’t move, but just looked at me intently. ... "What do you want?" I asked. And she immediately vanished. I got up and came out of my room ..., but ... I returned to my room and went back to sleep. But again the same woman appeared. This time, though,

her body had a monkey’s head

{cf. the monkey-goddess Bodish ancestress}

and it was screeching. ... I shouted ... and she vanished."

p. 137 pacifying bulls by "mooning" them

"the bulls were fighting. ... I just pulled up my robes and "mooned" both of the bulls, showing them by naked bottom. The bulls suddenly stopped fighting, looking curiously at my behind. Then, in Hindi, I told the black bull to leave. He walked away. I then asked the brown bull to sit down. The bull sat down".

p. 138 curing madness by a saint’s praesence/simulacrum

"Once there was a girl who was mentally ill. When she would come to visit me, she would behave normally ... . But when she got home, she would be crazy again. ... So I gave them this photo, ... and the girl has been fine."

pp. 150-2 lateral bodily paralysis and its cure

p. 150

"one day I ... became paralyzed on my right side. ... Suddenly, I felt pain in my right arm and right leg. ... . ... by the time I got home, I could not move the right side of my body at all. ...

p. 151

The nuns gave me a big nettle soup, which is what Milarepa drank and why he is depicted as green. ...

p. 152

My back cracked loudly, and I started to get feeling back on my right side ..., and soon I was waling all over the place."

{Nettle is renowned for its ability to cure arthritis : perhaps the paralysis was a variation of arthritis.}

pp. 153-4 recovery from lung-ailment

p. 153

"the King’s personal doctor ... thought that I had lung cancer. ...

p. 154

After the retreat, I recovered very well."

pp. 172-3 P>o-ba transference to Maha-sukhavati

p. 172, n. 1

"The text for this practice can be found at :

http://www.mahasiddha.org/store/Text.html".

[now for sale at : http://www.mahasiddha.org/store/Texts.html ]

p. 173

"after death, Powa can transfer our consciousness to Mahasukhavati".

p. 174 interrment of deities through negligence

"In the Buddhist [Vajra-yana] point of view, within the body we enshrine a hundred different deities,

42 in the heart and

58 in the head.

When we die, if the consciousness is not transferred and the body is cremated or buried, you are literally cremating or burying all the deities that reside within."

p. 176 stages in the process of dying through dissolution of the elemental bodily energies

when the __ element

dissolveth into the __ element,

then __

water

earth

"fluids in the body such as saliva ... diminish."

earth

fire

"stiffness or loss of flexibility."

fire

wind

"any part of the body will also feel cold to the touch."

wind

space

[p. 177 : "When all 21,000 types of the wind element dissolve into space, ... from a medical point of view, we are considered dead. This is called the moment of death."]

p. 177 "However, at this moment in the heart chakra, there remains the white energy that is responsible for life."

pp. 178-9 visualization by practitioner of a corpse as goddess Vajra-yogini

p. 178

"we do Powa viewing ... the form of Vajrayogini ... . Vajrayogini is a semi-wrathful female deity, red in color. ... She has three eyes that gaze upward longingly. ...

p. 179

Her body is red and a little transparent, so that you can see through it just a little."

p. 179 visualization by practitioner of central channel, with syllable /HRIS/ (/HRIH./ in sandhi before vowels), in the body

"We also visualize the central channel running from the lower part of the body to the top of the head, like a bamboo. ... From the bottom to the top of the central channel, it is free from any obstacles, very straight, clear and luminous. The wall is as thin as a lotus petal, and the stem is straight like the stem of a lotus growing in the water. It is luminous like the flame of a sesame oil lamp ... . The channel at the bottom is narrower, while at the crown it flares like the mouth of a bell {or like unto a funnel?}. At the heart center, you should visualize a pea-sized sphere, a drop that is green in color; this is the essence of our consciousness. This pea-sized representation of our consciousness is not still, but should be seen as vibrating and alive. In the middle of the green and vibrant pea-sized drop, we visualize the white sphere of the vital force in the form of a white letter HRI which symbolizes our awareness.

This HRI is not still; it flutters like a flag on a roof in the breeze."

{/HRIS/ is cognate with Hellenic /KHRISto-/ and with English /GREASE/.}

pp. 179-80 visualization by practitioner of a 10th door in the body

p. 179

"In general we have nine apertures in our body. When we do Powa, we should visualize these nine doors or apertures as blocked, because if the consciousness exits through any one of these nine doors, it will result in rebirth ... in the lower realms. We

p. 180

weed to block these nine doors and visually open a new one, which is the Brahmanical aperture at the top of the head."

p. 180 escape (liberation) from the body

"Your tongue touches the upper back gums {palate} when you pronounce the HRI. Each time HRi is pronounced, the pea-sized drop vibrates more and more intensely, and rises higher and higher until it reaches the top of the head. When the drop has reached the crown of the head, at that moment shout as loudly and forcefully as you can the syllable HIK and ... the consciousness is ejected out ...,

much like a person shooting an arrow straight up."

{In this simile, the arrow is one of the 5 flower-arrows shot from the sugarcane bow of Kamadeva, who is in this aspect often identified with one of the Mara-s.}

{If not an arrow, an airgun-beebee (or perhaps a blunderbuss-shot) would be the metaphor.}

pp. 180-1 phoba for souls of the dead collectively

p. 180

"When you do Powa for the dead, you may also consider that you are doing it for everyone else who may have died at that moment at

p. 181

other locations. Visualize all of them together flying like a flock of birds in a field when they are startled by a sudden noise."

p. 181 delivering the elements

"After delivering the consciousness,

it is time to deliver

[instead of burying alive, as on p. 174]

the buddha essence of the elements."

{These are the elemental-spirits.}

p. 190 kusuli

"Great accomplished yogis, known as kusuli, understand that suffering is caused by these imbalances; through the power of their meditation, they seek to balance the energy of suffering beings."

p. 190 the 2 groups of deities within one’s body [cf. p. 174]

"In the heart chakra reside forty-two peaceful deities, while

in the crown chakra dwell fifty-eight wrathful deities.

Thus our bodies contain one hundred peaceful and wrathful sacred beings.

Each one, enshrined in our body, is contained within a seed syllable. And the seed syllables of these hundred deities correspond to the hundred-syllable mantra of Vajrasattva."

p. 191, fn. 3 http://www.visiblemantra.org

pp. 191-2 manifestations of syllables at locations in the body

p.

location

syllable

its manifestation

191

in heart

HUM

goddess Vajra-varahi "luminous and brilliantly radiating light"

 

?

PHAT.

goddess Prajn~a-paramita

192

under the skullcup

AS (AH.)

"fire is produced ..., and it melts the body into an ocean of nectar."

 

above the skullcup

white "HA"

"bluish-red steam rises up, its warmth melting the HA"

p. 192 "The OM makes the skull cup huge,

AH transforms the nectar and

the HUM makes the contents of the cup inexhaustible".

pp. 193-4 the 2 categories of Naga-s

p. 193

"the Nagas, or serpentine water beings, ... are particularly pleased by offerings of milk and sandalwood.

There are two categories of Nagas – those who are suitable to be invited, and those who are not.

p. 194

The latter kind ... can spread epidemics and illnesses. Some carry contagious diseases on their breath, while others cause illnesses just by touching other beings. ... For these Nagas, the yogi emanates many different offering goddesses from the heart of Vajravarahi, who deliver the offerings to them."

p. 194 categories of deities "who are always to busy to come when invited"

"Chara is extremely worried that all the wealth in the universe will be stolen. He spends all of his time guarding over gold and other precious metals."

"Lagring [‘Long Arm’] ... believes that Mt. Meru ... is going to topple over, and so he is constantly trying to hold it up."

"Shongto lives in a cottage by a lake next to Mt. Meru. He is worried that an earthquake will dislodge a boulder from Mt. Meru, and that the boulder will roll into the lake and cause a flood that will wash away his cottage! So he spends all of his time scooping water out of the lake to prevent the flood."

pp. 200, 202-5 Tilo-pa & Naro-pa

p. 200

"The boy Tilopa ... truly had a vision of the deity Chakrasamvara. ... Tilopa, whose name "Tilo" means "he who sells sesame," could then physically go to the pure land of Oddiyana, where he receive teachings directly from Vajradhara, the primordial Buddha. Vajradhara gave him the instructions on Vajrayogini."

p. 202

"Before he became Tilopa the Master, he had to work selling oil. After he became a master, ... he ate a lot of fish. ... He would sit in a corner, frying and eating fish thrown away by fishermen. Occasionally his sister would help

p. 203

him. But each fish that he ate, he would liberate and transfer to the pure land. Another master and scholar named Naropa heard about Tilopa ... . ... So Naropa went were they had indicated ... . ... Tilopa instantly read his mind, ... and snapped his fingers, whereby the fish turned into rainbows. ...

Nearby in a small stream were many leeches. ... Naropa asked him, "Can’t ... I ... lie down and make a bridge for you."

p. 204

So he stretched himself over to make a bridge. As Tilopa walked on him very slowly, many leeches attached themselves to Naropa’s body. ...

So Tilopa ... took his new student to climb a building over 20 stor[e]ies high. ... From the top Tilopa ... asked Naropa, ... "Then jump." So Naropa jumped. ...

They then visited a wedding ceremony. ...

p. 205

Tilopa said, "I also need a wife, that one there in fact. Would you bring her to me?" So Naropa grabbed the bride. ...

Naropa underwent a total of twelve such dangerous ordeals, called "Naropa’s Twelve Trials." After these twelve trials, ... Tilopa, who always wore wooden sandals, took one off ... . ...

When Tilopa was ninety, he left his mortal body, leaving his instructions and transmissions to Naropa. ... To the Nepali disciples gave the transmission of the

p. 206

Vajrayogini practices. To Marpa he gave ... primarily the transmission of Vajravarahi."

Tsering Wangdu (transl. by Joshua Waldman & Jinpa) : Hundred Thousand Rays of the Sun : the sublime life and teachings of a Cho:d Master. Lulu.com, 2008.

apud Z`i-byed & Pha-dam-pa, vide :

http://www.treasuryoflives.org/tradition/Zhije-and-Chod

http://oaks.nvg.org/phadampa-sangay.html