Saturday, December 21, 2013

Ma Gyud Tantra & The Female Aspect of the Natural State

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Dzogchen Explorations

Okar Research

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"….. the Bön Three Root Mother Tantras known as the Ma-rgyud Sangs-rgyas rGyud gSum (pr. Magyu Sangye Gyu Sum), the Three Buddhahood Tantras, using the commentary by Mi-lus bSam-legs (pronounced Milu Samlek), the Prince of the region of Tazig around the 7th or 8th century….Hidden in the 8th century, these texts were rediscovered in the 10th century by Guru rNon-rtse ."

Bon Mother Tantra, or Ma Gyud….The Mother Tantras (ma rgyud) represent an important esoteric tradition of Bon belonging to the system of A dkar ba [the way of the white A], the seventh in the [stages of] Nine Ways of Bon (theg pa rim dgu)…..Among the Bon Tantras, the Mother, and the Father Tantras (pha rgyud) comprise the highest classes….Their method of practice is transformation (bsgyur ba), and whereas in the Father Tantras the generation stage (bskyed rim) is emphasized (including intricate visualizations of deities and their mandala), in the Mother Tantras the completion stage (rdzogs rim) is stressed…http://bon-encyclopedia.wikispaces.com/ma+gyud

"The male aspect represents the emptiness quality and the female aspect the clarity of the Natural State, which is usually inverted in other tantric texts."....THE MOTHER TANTRAS.....by Marco Alejandro Chaoul

BASIC GOODNESS...(kunshi ngangluk kyi gewa)..."Every human being has a basic nature of goodness, which is undiluted and unconfused. That goodness contains tremendous gentleness and appreciation...we have an actual connection to reality that can wake us up." (Trungpa:1984..Pg 31)

…"In Bon Dzogchen it is stated that all of reality is pervaded by a transcendent principle called "All Good". It has a male aspect called Kuntu Sangpo and a female aspect, Kungtu Sangmo, and is a "universal reality of dynamic potentiality".(Powers: 1990 p.440)

"The Mother Tantra is attributed within the [root] texts themselves to Kuntu Zangpo (Kun tu bzang po [Skt. Samantabhadra, "Totally Good One"]), the Primordial Buddha Himself; a characteristic that is shared with other Bon and Nyingma high tantra and dzogchen texts. And has the quite unique characteristic that the male aspect represents the emptiness quality and the female aspect the clarity of the Natural State, which is usually inverted in other tantric texts. Furthermore, the Mother Tantra is also unique among the Higher Tantras as a whole because, whereas it does employ the transformational process of the Kyerim [generation stage] and the Dzogrim [completion stage], its overall view is that of Dzogchen. Dzogchen is the highest teaching in this tradition, and its method of practice is of self-liberation (rang grol) into the non-dual single essence (thig le nyag gtig)."…http://bon-encyclopedia.wikispaces.com/ma+gyud

Bon-po text: Ye-shes ni-ma lha'i rgyud or "Tantras of the Gods of the Sun of Wisdom"……
Bon gods: Bon-sku Kun-tu bsang-po is supreme, he is the All-good or Father Heaven. With him goes Mother Earth, Ma-btsun-pa. The Garuda god, Cha-khyung or Bya-khyung whose cult may be associated with the sacred eagle or griffon art in Asian nomad archeology. The Gods of the White Quarter are benevolent, the Gods of the Dark Quarter are malignant. All these together are designated by the title Gods of the Svastika. The prophet of the Bon was the great teacher, Shen-rap."….http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Tib.htm

"Kesar, the legendary Bon king, is like King Arthur. He is a Bon hero; with seven teachers or uncles he went to war; his wife was 'Bru-gu-ma. There is a large myth cycle concerning him, with songs which Bon believers sing in defiance of Lhasa."….http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Tib.htm

…… "the Root Texts of the Secret Mother Tantra are said to be originated in the dimension of Bon (bon sku), shared by the male and female Primordial Buddhas in the "Eternal Divine language" (gyung drung lha'i skad), then transmitted in Sanskrit to a retinue of skygoers amongst whom the principal was Zangza Ringtsun (bZang za ring btsun, "Goodwife Longexcellence"), an emanation of the great Chamma(Byams ma, "Loving Mother"). The Teachings of the Mother Tantra were revealed by her to three teachers who propagated the Mother Tantra in three different among the Nagas in the netherworld, and Milu Samlek (Mi lus bsant legs) among humanity on earth."…….http://bon-encyclopedia.wikispaces.com/ma+gyud

Bon texts: often with titles of each text written in two languages….. They are the Shang-shung ska or "language of Shang-shung" and the gYung-drung lha' i skad or "language of the Swastika gods." The Tibetan language is called the language of men or gang-zag mi-wo'i skad, or in short form mi-wo'i skad. Texts are written in gold and silver on thick black paper, or else in black or red ink on plain pages with the title pages black with gold writing."…http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Tib.htm

"According to the Secret Mother Tantra texts, Milu Samlek then composed three commentaries in order to elucidate their meaning, and transmitted the teachings to his disciple Mushen Namkha Nangwa Dogchen (dMu gshen nam mkha' snang ba'i mdog can). The latter, after practicing on the slopes of Mount Kailash, bestowed the initiation and instructions to the Bon pandit Anu Tragtak (A nu 'phrag thag)f who in turn handed this teachings down to Sene Gau (Sad na ga'u) of Zhang Zhung. Sene Gau translated the teachings from Zhang zhung to Tibetan. It was during his time that the first persecution of Bon teachings and practitioners took place, under the reign of the Tibetan Buddhist king Drigum Tsenpo (Gri gum btsan po, ca. 683 B.C.E.), and therefore, "the custodianship of these texts of the ma rgyud was delivered by Sad ne ga'u into the hands of the six Dakinis of the Path, the Jarama (bya ra ma) or watchers, who served as the 'treasure protectors'." Under king Trisong Detsen (Khri srong Ide btsan, 790-848 C.E.) the Bonpos suffered a second persecution, and it was not until the twelfth century that the Secret revelation of the Mother Tantras were rediscovered by Guru Nontse (Gu ru rnon rise) in the rock of Dungpor (Dung phor bkra shis) near the village of Tanag (rTa nag) in the central province of Tsang, hence this collection of Terma became known by the name of the Dung phor ma. Guru Nontse then gave this collection of teachings to Zhonu (gZhon nu). But the Secret Mother Tantra Cycle was not the only Mother Tantra Cycle."…..http://vajrayana.faithweb.com/ACollectionOfStudiesOnBon.pdf

"Within the Bon tradition, there are three cycles of Mother Tantras: Outer, Inner, and Secret. For each, there is a root text or texts with a body of exegetical and liturgical works subordinate to the root text. … Milu Samlek wrote separate commentaries for each of the three cycles, but this study will focus on the Secret cycle (gsang skor). The Outer Cycle (phyi skor) and Inner Cycle (nang skor), named rNam dag padma klong gi dkyil 'khor and Kun gsal byams ma chen mo'i rgyud respectively, were discovered at different times by different people. For example the Inner Mother Tantra texts were excavated earlier — Namkhai Norbu places it in 956 C.E.— by the Terton Trotsang Druglha (Khro tshang brug lha)….. It is interesting to note that, three generations after their rediscovery, the laving Mother [Inner Mother Tantra] texts were given to gZhon nu and were then passed along the same lineage with the Secret Mother Tantra literature."………..http://vajrayana.faithweb.com/ACollectionOfStudiesOnBon.pdf

"This year, Lopon and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will teach from the Bön Three Root Mother Tantras known as the Ma-rgyud Sangs-rgyas rGyud gSum (pr. Magyu Sangye Gyu Sum), the Three Buddhahood Tantras, using the commentary by Mi-lus bSam-legs (pronounced Milu Samlek), the Prince of the region of Tazig around the 7th or 8th century….Hidden in the 8th century, these texts were rediscovered in the 10th century by Guru rNon-rtse [pr. Guru Nontse]. These Tantras have an emphasis on practices of the Completion Stage, rDzogs-rim" ….and have six main practices, which can be said to be somewhat similar to the Six Yogas of Naropa. In the case of the Bön Mother Tantras, the six are: 1. The expedient use of Means (mainly devoted to breath control)
2. The expedient use of Dreams
3. The expedient use of Fear (the prac- tice of “cutting,” gCod , pr. chöd)
4. The expedient use of Projection (the practice of Transference, “Pho-ba” pr. phowa)
5. The expedient use of Death (teachings on the Intermediate State, “Bar-do”)
6. The expedient use of Sleep.

Bibliography….
The Myth of Shangri-La by Peter Bishop.
My Journey to Lhasa, by Alexandra David-Neel.
Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrer.
Flight of the Wind Horse, by Niema Ash.
A Mountain in Tibet by Charles Allen.
On Ancient Central Asian Tracks, by Sir Aurel Stein.
Unbounded Wholeness: Dzogchen, Bon, and the Logic of the Nonconceptual By Anne C. Klein, Tenzin Wangyal
Mandala Cosmogony: Human Body, Good Thought and the Revelation of the Secret Mother Tantras of Bon (Asiatische... by Dan Martin (1993)
Loseries-Leick, Andrea. “Symbolism in the Bon Mother Tantra.” In Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Fagernes, 1992, edited by Per Kværne, vol. 1, pp. 501-506. Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 1994.
Martin, Dan, Mandala Cosmogony: Human Body Good Thought and the Revelation of the Secret Mother Tantras of Bon, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1994.
Karmay, Samten G., The Little Luminous Boy: The Oral Tradition from the Land of Zhangzhung Depicted on two Tibetan Paintings, Bangkok: White Orchid Press, 1998.
Walter, Michael L. “The Tantra 'A Vessel of Bdud Rtsi,' a Bon Text.” Journal of the Tibet Society 6 (1986): 25-72….A translation of a Bön (bon) Mother Tantra. The Tibetan title is Bdud rtsi bum pa'i rgyud, and it is found in the third volume of the Collected tantras of Bon (Bka' 'gyur rgyud sde'i skor).

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

J. Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2013

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