a land of Tibet

We're floating down the Zurkhar chu towards the monastery of Samye! At least I think it's the Zurkhar chu since our Footprint Tibet puts it under the section for the Zurkhar valley. Above us looms Mount Hepori , described as one of the four sacred hills in central Tibet. Let's see , there's Mount Chakpori where the medical colleges and temples were in Lhasa, Mount Zodang Gampori in Tsetang where the Tibetan race came into being, and Mount Chuwori in Chushul which we haven't been travelling to yet although Chushul is on the drawing of last week. Mount Hepori was the location of an epic shamanic struggle between Padmasambhava and the local demons which he subdued and bound in allegiance to Buddhism. King Songsten Gampo and his Queens were able to create the geomantic temples for the people of Tibet but the arrival of Buddhism was strongly opposed by the aristocracy which held to the Bon traditions. Over a century later King Trisong Detsen ascended the throne and championed the Buddhist cause. Upon meeting Padmasambhava in Zurkhang he enlisted his aid in dealing with all the deities preventing the establishment of the new faith. This must have been a fairly complex business even more so than it seems. As I understand it demons are actually viewed as aspects of the human thought which create obstructions to development of the compassionate wisdom mind and like all other things do not inherently exist! There is even a story of Milarepa, you remember, the one who lived on nettle soup, coming home to his cave with a load of wood to find a group of demons there. He first tried being nice to them, they just laughed at him. Then he tried talking sternly to them and instructing them; they found him hilarious! Finally he recognized them as part of his own mind and welcomed them; they disappeared! Padamsambhava's struggle may have been with the mental creations of thousands of people worshipping in the Bon tradition which existed in Tibet before Buddhism's arrival. The accounts of some of the deities though are quite startling and they manifest quite powerfully in the material world so I can't easily explain this as I don't completely understand it. Anyway once the demons were subdued from Mount Hepori, the building of the first monastery in Tibet began. It was a wondrous place where humans worked on it during the day and the spirits continued on with it in the night. Very shamanic! There's a lot more to add but two as one we'll add to the notes later beautiful one!


	Through My Eyes * We're floating down the Zurkhar chu towards the monastery of Samye! At least I think it's the Zurkhar chu since our Footprint Tibet puts it under the section for the Zurkhar valley. Above us looms Mount Hepori , described as one of the four sacred hills in central Tibet. Let's see , there's Mount Chakpori where the medical colleges and temples were in Lhasa, Mount Zodang Gampori in Tsetang where the Tibetan race came into being, and Mount Chuwori in Chushul which we haven't been travelling to yet although Chushul is on the drawing of last week. Mount Hepori was the location of an epic shamanic struggle between Padmasambhava and the local demons which he subdued and bound in allegiance to Buddhism. King Songsten Gampo and his Queens were able to create the geomantic temples for the people of Tibet but the arrival of Buddhism was strongly opposed by the aristocracy which held to the Bon traditions. Over a century later King Trisong Detsen ascended the throne and championed the Buddhist cause. Upon meeting Padmasambhava in Zurkhang he enlisted his aid in dealing with all the deities preventing the establishment of the new faith. This must have been a fairly complex business even more so than it seems. As I understand it demons are actually viewed as aspects of the human thought which create obstructions to development of the compassionate wisdom mind and like all other things do not inherently exist! There is even a story of Milarepa, you remember, the one who lived on nettle soup, coming home to his cave with a load of wood to find a group of demons there. He first tried being nice to them, they just laughed at him. Then he tried talking sternly to them and instructing them; they found him hilarious! Finally he recognized them as part of his own mind and welcomed them; they disappeared! Padamsambhava's struggle may have been with the mental creations of thousands of people worshipping in the Bon tradition which existed in Tibet before Buddhism's arrival. The accounts of some of the deities though are quite startling and they manifest quite powerfully in the material world so I can't easily explain this as I don't completely understand it. Anyway once the demons were subdued from Mount Hepori, the building of the first monastery in Tibet began. It was a wondrous place where humans worked on it during the day and the spirits continued on with it in the night. Very shamanic! There's a lot more to add but two as one we'll add to the notes later beautiful one! * courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions. The information for the sketches is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje. ( please click here to return to my spinning for you!)