A Dose of Their Own Medicine: Introductory Remarks on Medicine Buddha
Including a Short Examination of Delusions of Grandeur
Particular to the Maine Terton
12 December 2019, Hag House
Longchen Rabjampa, (Wylie: klong chen rab ‘byams pa), abbreviated to Longchenpa (1308–1364), was a major teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, recognized as one of the three main manifestations of Manjushri to have taught in Central Tibet. His major work is the Seven Treasuries, which encapsulates the previous 600 years of Buddhist thought in Tibet. Longchenpa was a critical link in the exoteric and esoteric transmission of the Dzogchen teachings. He was abbot of Samye, one of Tibet’s most important monasteries and the first Buddhist monastery established in the Himalaya, but spent most of his life traveling or in retreat.
May I be so bold as to add, Long Chen Pa was also the critical link between Asian/Tibetan wisdom and the Western path of the Grail Mysteries.
Vajrayana Romance
Wolfram completed Parzival around 1220 CE. About fifty years earlier there was a huge gabble, that ran on for centuries, about contact between Christian leaders in the West and the head of a mysterious kingdom in the East, Prester John or the Elder John. The story is heavily overwritten by Christian scribes and ideologues, and the famous letter to Pope Alexander II, dated September 27, 1177, has been proven to be a fabrication. (Lev Gumilev wrote an entire book on the topic. He brilliantly debunks the letter, explaining how it was a clever piece of ecclesiastical propaganda, but at the same time he discloses revealing details of the historical background of Mongolia at the time, details which support the thesis of an authentic East-West liaison.) Now, it is well worth noting that Wolfram, who lived at that time, incorporates the Elder John trope into the last chapter of Parzival. According to his insider view, Fierfiz the half-brother (French Lebanese) of Parzival married Repanse de Schoie, the Grail Maiden, and they both went to the Far East where they presented the “holy relic” to Elder John. This fragment of folk lore from the diaspora of the Mysteries is the leading clue in the huge story of Vajrayana Romance, “the marriage of East and West,” but more specifically, the insemination of Grail/Gnosis into the culture of Asia.
Then first in her distant journey did Repanse de Schoie find joy
And in India’s realm hereafter did she bear to the king a boy:
And Prester John they called him, and he won himself such fame
That henceforward all kings of his country were known by no other name.
And Fierfiz sent a writing thro’ the kingdoms whose crown he bore,
And the Christian Faith was honored as it has never been of yore.
(And Tribalibot was that country which as India here we know.)– Parzival, verse translation by Jesse L. Weston, Digireads.com Publishing, p 364
§ Adding these lines that describe the event of transmission of the Grail to the Orient, I am surprised to read that Repanse was the mother of Prester John, implied to be head of a lineage of kings. Mandela effect??!! I have scrupulously read Wolfram’s Parzival more times than I can count, and I don’t recall seeing that detail. Only now in seeking out that quote to add to this unit have I found it. Tribalibot is a made-up word for “the Oriental kingdom of queen Secundille.” Shambala implied somehow?
Note that Wolfram takes poetic license with the letter attributed to Prester John, already circulating around Europe when he was young. He includes it in the narrative by implication: “And Fierfiz sent a writing thro’ the kingdoms.” The allusion to the fame of Christian Faith is not necessarily an endorsement and could be ironic: Christian leaders of the time made use of the letter to hype their prestige, peddling it as a propaganda gimmick (as Gumilev explains in detail). Wolfram paid lip service to Christian orthodoxy and naive faith when it served his purposes or shielded him from accusations of heresy, but he was far from being a devout Christian. He did not identify the Graal with an actual chalice. §
Continuing with the audio… LCP lived a century after Parzival was completed. At that time, the Grail/Tibet Vajrayana link was developing in the remote fastnesses of Asia. As I have often argued, the Grail shows up in Vajrayana as a mystical trope, “the wish-fulfilling gem.” Today that gem stands central to the Shakti Cluster: it is the “Vajra Star” composed of five Diamond Sky Dakinis positioned on the petals of the internal florette.
Buddhayana Foundation
When I first visited the Marion Foundation (now Institute) in 1998, I was surprised to learn that the Buddhayana Foundation had its offices in the same building.
In 1980, Tulku Thondup (on left) came to the United States as a visiting scholar at Harvard University. Since then, he has been living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he engages in translation and writing on Tibetan Buddhism, particularly the Nyingma teachings, under the auspices of the Buddhayana Foundation. Founded and managed by Michael Baldwin and Harold Talbott, the Buddhayana Foundation is a tax-exempt organization in Marion, Massachusetts, dedicated to preserving and promoting the wisdom and traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
Longchen Nyingthig (Tibetan: ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཐིག་, Wylie: klong chen snying thig) is a terma, revealed scripture, of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, presenting a systematic explanation of Dzogchen. It was revealed by Jigme Lingpa (1730-1798).
§ Shaktas will note that the Nyingma JL lived at the moment of Sophia going lucid in her world dream. For a vivid account of his life and tertonic trials, see Apparations of the Self by Janet Gyatso.
Nying Thig is Tibetan for “seminal heart,” a term applied to the core teachings of the highest level of Vajrayana, Ati Dzogchen. The title of The Terma of Gaia Awakening, composed in Tibetan doggerel by the more recent JL, is Dorje Namkhai Khandro Nying Thig: Seminal Heart of the Diamond Sky Dakinis.
Audio gives an account of some personal incidents in the Vajrayana Romance:
At that time I already had found Secret Teachings of Tibet. Eventually, I put TT’s advice about meeting standards for authentication of a terma into a framework (below). I wonder how he would respond today if I contacted him and asked him to evaluate The Terma of Gaia Awakening against LCP and Dzogchen termas? How much you want to bet he would humbly decline to comment?
Documentary showing places where Trungpa found termas: the tour begins at 15m.
As for the standards for authentication of a terma, see this extract from an essay posted on metahistory.org in 2011:
Nine Standards
Over the course of three years since discovering the Terma of Gaia Awakening, I have come to define the criteria for authenticity that Tulku Thondup proposed, the standards for a free-lance terton. I will list them here without elaboration as that would require me to write an entire book.
1 Source determined, named: who is transmitting this terma. In this case, Gaia herself is the source of the Terma of Gaia Awakening. In turn, the terma reveals the full-spectrum, 18-channel console through which she transmits openly to the human species at large, depending on individual receptivity to her telluric frequencies.
2 The source identified: background of the Terma, allowing the terton to determine its source. Unlike channeling, telestic audition of dakini wisdom does not produce experiences in which the source declares who it is by name. As for instance, Seth told Jane Roberts who he was, or Ramtha announced his identity to j z knight. On the contrary, this process requires the terton in Gaian Tantra to identity and name the source.
3 Sky omens, astronomy, celestial timing specific to the terma. This standard entails a long process of observation and inference that allows the terton to trace how the terma was anticipated by a sequence of sky omens involving planetary and stellar patterns of an outstanding kind. In my case, I detected a pattern involving Jupiter that showed me that the Terma was due to be revealed, i.e., decoded, up to one and a half or two years before I got it. Needless to say, divining those celestial omens I did not know what I was anticipating! The elements of surprise and novelty figure strongly in terma transmission.
4 First line of instruction. Each genuine planetary terma opens with a brief and explicit line of sacred instruction: “You cannot become anything but more beautiful.” I have said before, dakini syntax is cogent, composed in lapidary grammar. Discursive drivel, metaphysical propositions that cannot be verified, elaborate claims about divine order, predictions, volumes of spoonfed speculation, wild stories of Atlantis or other worlds with no reference to the Sophianic vision story—this kind of material tells you that you are definitely NOT receiving on telluric dakini wavelengths.
5 Frame of instruction, overall design of the Terma. By this standard, the terma has to show a simplific and elegant design. Simplific, not simplistic. By simplific I mean that it has to have cogent esthetic integrity, crafted like a well-made object. It cannot be complicated with a mass of diagrams and schemas, for instance, maps of other dimensions, etc. It must be complex but elementary. Minimalist in terms of conceptual design. The Terma of Gaia Awakening presents one simple and singular schema, the Shakti Cluster.
6 Ritual elements provided by the Terma. Included in the transmission are the ritual and practical aspects that cannot be contrived or devised by male-mind abstraction. Rather, the ritual arises as a spontaneous and obvious counterpart to the opportunity presented in the instruction of the terma. In the Terma of Gaia Awakening, the ritual of the Gaian Tantra Vow is an obvious and spontaneous technique for achieving interactivity with Gaia. Along with the design features, ritual elements are also minimalist, streamlined.
7 Community entrusted with the Terma. In this case, the community that receives the Terma consists of the nine generations of the Black Time of Innocence, the Tribes of Kali. Generation one, 1945 – 1975, generation two, 1976 – 2005, and so on until 2215, the last year of Kali Yuga and the conclusion of the great Kalpa of precessional timing (25,920 years). 1945 is the birth year of the Maine terton.
8 Terton. By this standard, the biography of the terton must present a record of events that infer the role of treasure-finder, including dakini connections from an early age, supernatural interventions, lucid dreams, acts of magic and power, esthetic and voluptuary highlights, as well as whatever contributed throughout life to training and grooming the mythopoetic sensibility required to handle a terma.
And last but not least,
9 Location. A terma in the Gaian Tantras must be discovered in a place of great natural beauty, purity, and serenity, compatible with the sublime esthetic of the wisdom goddess. Her priorities are esthetic. She also requires there to be a specific historical refraction between locale and terma. A Gaian terma cannot be received just anywhere, arbritarily. For it will come forth in a place where the nightmare of history interfaces decisively with the Dreaming of the Aeon.
In the case of the Terma of Gaia Awakening, it happened in Andalucia. By no mere accident, it was received in a place of spectacular natural beauty located about fifty miles from Sanlucar de Barrameda at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River—the place from which Columbus set out for the New World.
Waterfront of modern-day Sanlucar de Barrameda
So, such are the standards to which I hold myself, and anyone else who would contribute to the expansion and extrapolation of the Gaian Tantras. Item 3 is especially crucial in the wake of Sophia’s correction. If you cannot exhibit some mastery of astronomy and star mythology, you cannot play any directive role in developing this Terma.
There is no place for metaphysics and make-believe in Gaian Tantra. Such contrivances are neither desired nor required. One-on-one veracity is the hallmark of this experiment. Interactivity with the wisdom goddess has nothing do with individual empowerment, however. It is a power-sharing arrangement, a rite of consecration, not a ploy for self-empowerment. I have described Gaian Tantra as Shaktism reinvented, Shaktism being the “worship of power.” But I revise this syntax as follows: not the love of power but the love of handling power, is the mark of a Shakta. The power you handle is telluric, erotic, infernal, voluptuary.
Everything I describe about my first-hand mystical experience in Gaian ecosorcery can be verified by independent witnesses, and should be. I do not claim to have had any spiritual revelation from the Godhead in a state of transport or out-of-the body experience in which I was shown abstract principles of cosmic order. I refuse and refute any metaphysics that derives from out-of-the body transport. I recognize only those events of mystical illumination undergone in the body, firmly grounded to the earth. I also reject all false polaric notions of male and female powers in the cosmos, and other mental contrivances that purport perfection and balance in the cosmos. While I recognize the gendering of the Aeons and telluric powers, I do not claim there is or must be a state of balance between these dyadic energies. On the contrary, there is imbalance, extremity, and asymmetry. Therein the Dance.
It is my wish that the Terma of Gaia Awakening be shared by all tribes to emerge in the Black Time of Innocence, the end of Kali’s Age, so that each kula or tribal community will find its own elaborations of termas, the basis for ritual practices of healing and learning, love, war, and earthbound magic.
jll: Andalucia; written July 21, 2011, posted February 5, 2013 with reading.
Moving On
The river Miño winding through a luxuriant valley in Galicia, Spain.
Hag House holds a commanding view looking down towards the river.
“Let it be recorded in the annals of Planetary Tantra…” On a winter day in December 2019, JLL took a close look at the manifold of LCP, who once lived as his pet racoon.
The position of Jupiter (the guru, the Terma) at LCP’s birth was 14 Capricorn ECL 284 at Nunki (sigma Sagittarii) marking the vane of the arrow drawn back by the hand of the ARCHER: exactly where it was located on 8.8.08 when the Terma of Gaia Awakening was received. Exactly. You can’t make this stuff up.
Other features in the manifold of LCP confirming the Vajrayana Romance and his diachronic (transhistorical) link to PT and the Maine terton:
- south lunar node + perigee of moon + Mercury at 15 Aries at the perihelion of Jupiter in the WHALES. The closest stars in the composite are delta and epsilon on the Cord. Delta may arguably be pictured as marking the loop around the tail of the Western-swimming WHALE. The cord represents the East-West linkage enacted through the Vajrayana Romance.
- lunar nodes aligned to the apsides of Jupiter: “Correction takes place in the apsides of Jupiter.”
- Uranus-Neptune conjunction in the claws of the SCORPION, jarring the SCALES
- Earth at 179 in the forehead of the VIRGIN
§ Medicine Buddha is a ventriloquist dummy who sits on the Maitreya’s leg. The joke is, Buddhists get a dose of their own medicine. The kick comes in a totally unanticipated turnaround: the Maitreya does not come to restore the Dharma but to demolish it. To euthanize it. Rather mercifully, however. And to make the deal even sweeter, Medicine Buddha resembles this charming creature:
It’s called a piggy bank. At the top there is a small slot for pennies and perhaps larger coins. MB has a special message for Buddhists as well as a demand that all funds and resources of the Buddhist movement today be turned over to Nemeta to support implementation of the Maitreya Process. There’s a good reason why it accepts only small change. While waiting for the funds to roll in, MB murmurs a little nursery rhyme:
There once was a Maitreya Tree
That sparkled on a hill,
And those who did the Maitri see
Corrected every ill.
The wisdom vine of Nemeta, platform of the Maitreya Process, grows on the ruined foundations of Buddhism – as if the Aeon Sophia is making the earth-touching mudra with a huge tree hand. (Banyan tree at the temple complex near Angkor Thom, Cambodia.)
jll: 12/2019 Galicia. Moon in descending node in 10 Cancer ECL 100, torso of the TWINS : north node of Jupiter, aphelion of the earth.