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Vajrayana is highly influenced not only by Shaivic tantra in Northern India but also the Greek and Zoroastrian practices of modern Afghanistan/Pakistan/Tajikistan. Lama Glenn Mullin has stated that the Nyingma school was brought in from primarily Persian texts that were translated into Tibetan. Bonpo's later iteration seems to have come from Tajikistan nearby. We also see proto-Vajrayana preserved in the Shingon school of Japanese Buddhism. Manichaeism seems to have been an influence as well with many calling Mani the Buddha of Light.

The Dutch word for witch is ‘heks’. Oh, Google ‘etymology heks’: likely from the word “heka”.

One of my favorite songs sung in Arabic Listening to alot of flamenco lately, trying to figure out how to accompany singers and dancers on guitar. Particularly fascinated with Bulerías.

The gypsies relieved me of a considerable amount of money by giving me a false fortune-telling. But it's good that they were very courteous to me, it's nice to deal with such people

I also got a reading from Eric about some health issues I was having. He struck me as a nice guy, well-intentioned, and knowledgable about ayurveda and the body in general. I will say, however, that his psychic take on what was going on for me did not match up with diagnostic lab work I received a few days after my reading.

oldie but a goodie.

interesting. nyingma was "founded" (if that is such a thing) at the height of the abbasid caliphate. the persian world at that time was highly academic and more liberal that most would think. as I understand, most of western scientific knowledge--medicine, astronomy, mathematics, etc.--has its roots in the ancient persian world, although our history books have overwritten much of their discoveries with western names. imagine trying to do multiplication tables with roman numerals, instead of the arabic, base-ten ones we use today. al-khwarizmi, who wrote the treatise al-jabr (i.e. "algebra"), was an interesting character. the extent that the buhddist knowledge was brought in from persian texts (rather than sanskrit) does not mean that they were not buddhist texts, since the abbasid academics would have translated and studied those texts. buhddism was widespread in the califate, and promoted in certain castes at different times. perhaps the abbisid-buhddists had their own treatises and understandings, although I suspect the parchment they were written on has long decayed, or was destroyed by the mogols. you have to wonder how much ancient knowledge was lost in the destruction of the baghdad library. one thing is for sure, the ancient world was highly interconnected, much more than most would think. so it should not be surprising that people were sharing ideas, methods and techniques across cultures, and that for a particular school of thought, that there is usually no one, single dogmatic source for the knowledge. the extent that vajrayana borrowed knowledge and techniques from cultures other than ancient india, does not mean that it is not buhddism, nor impinge on its validity as a course of study.

So I stay away for a month and come back to the tail end of the thread about the demise of TDB morph into bears and Egyptian magic.

And likely English has the verb ‘to hex’ from ‘heka’.

Agreed . How can anyone involved in the western magical tradition NOT appreciate Tool ... even if one does not like that type of music . I was presenting a little agricultural talk as a way of explaining my 3:4 observation * ( not 'theory' as it is an observation from nature ) . I draw a triangle on the whiteboard and label each corner N P K - nitrogen , phosphorous , potassium ; the three main elements needed for good soil and plant growth . BUT more is needed , the 'micro nutrients ' ( much smaller amounts ) . So I draw a line across the inside the bottom left corner to represent them . There are three main micro nutrients and a bunch of lesser ones , so now we can label the three points of this triangle in the corner of the bigger one . and also draw a line across its inner bottom left for the lesser ones and guess what ... within that there are three major ones and a bunch of lesser ones . I paused and looked at the drawing ... it only just dawned on me .... hey ! Thats a fractal ! Fractal ; in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales, and in describing partly random or chaotic phenomena such as crystal growth and galaxy formation. * its in my PP .

Heka of Seshat of course.

I have a childlike trust in God, it is my biggest treasure. I am sorry for your loss.

In addition to the eight specific techniques, 掤, 捋, 挤, 按, 采, 挒, 肘, 靠 (peng, lu, ji, an, cai, lie, zhou, and kao); there are other types of 劲 that can be described and were an important part of my training. They were collectively referred to as 發手 or 八 大 勁. The formal and descriptive names of the methods are below in Hanzi with the short, informal names we used in English. Some may object to the use of the word strength, substitute whatever you prefer, it's the English word my teacher most often used when discussing them. 1. 靈 蛇 吐 珠 (纏 絲 勁). Coiling strength 2. 葉 底 藏 花 (按, 才履 寸 勁). Pushing strength 3. 隨 步 探 珠 (波 浪 勁). Wave strength 4. 禦 步 擒 龍 (螺 旋 勁). Revolving strength 5. 移 形 拿 穴 (認 穴 陽 勁. Striking vital point 6. 陷 陣 破 敵 (靠 打 陰 勁). Covert strength 7. 如 封 似 閉 (分 合 勁). Integrated strength 8. 引 進 落 空 (折 疊 勁). Folding strength These are related to the fajin methods you describe but not as firmly related to specific techniques; rather they are more descriptive of combinations and categories of energies that are important in playing tui shou and in martial applications. I don't know if you've come across these in your training or study but thought I'd share as they are very valuable concepts and methods and worthy of deep exploration.

Yep, love me some Tool! Definitely one of my favourite bands, I've seen them live 4 times lol. Danny Carey is most certainly a practitioner of Enochian magick- "Faaip de Oiad" (Lateralus) is Enochian for "Voice of God," it such an interesting closing track to the album, wouldn't call it a song per se...but if you know, you know Lot's of other esoteric elements are woven into their work as well. yes! I'm fully of that blog you posted above, interesting stuff.

this guy has had too many snacks at the garden parties over the years and went for a refreshing dip in a nearby river while also secretly hoping a salmon would jump into his mouth. (even though he is already stuffed)

a basically and near perfect teacher and doctrine does not necessarily make for a basically and near perfect student that is looking for such, and who once they GET their hands on same and wrap their heads around it they then will be in the ballpark of "enlightenment"... for enlightenment is right under our noses and is not found out there somewhere or with near perfect memorization of doctrine from someone or school, although such pointers can be of great use while on the wheel. their enlightenment is theirs, not ours via only intellectual or partial knowledge of same.

No it is not, I do not know who made it endlessly fascinating tho, and so are great souls ❤️

Is this your blog @Surya? When I recently bought a new chess set, I selected one with HUGE pawns. The designer of the set is a chess master himself and I believe designed them with this in mind.

I would offer a geographical view point. Tibet is the most inaccessible part of the world. While it certainly had exchanges with the outside, but would it have been so narrowly restricted.

Religion is itself just another cage, but “spirituality” was how I became aware there were bars.

OMG and you are a Tool fan 🤟 (and thus a Bill Hicks fan 😝) Anyone into magick SHOULD be into Tool, lyrically, musically, imagery, ALL is magick 😁 Have seen Enochian symbols on their gear as well. The universe, God, and us all a fractal of course.

Wow! Love all you said there a lot! 😁 some of these references I know, others have me making note of them to wander down yonder one days past, but this guys work came immediately to mind when I read your response and wonder if you read his work or saw a video presentation of his? https://www.my-big-toe.com

Yes me as well! And the more it happens now (it has greatly increased over my years of practice) the deeper my gratitude for each and every thing becomes. And yes only “exactly what I need,” never what I WANT. Nothing there, dead tree. I have confronted a deep loss to our family recently and it has accelerated me a bit and changed me very deeply in good ways. And my only explanation for our loss I am left with is it’s a “mystery” of God. And the crazy thing is I am ok with it, it’s odd to me, as what has appeared to be a person who has traveled in this body for the last 54 years, that person I thought I knew would not be comforted in anyway by something he would have called “laughable and naive, like a child” and who knew that was just what I had to become to see with clarity and find peace 🙏

It seems to me that some energies are low vibration and therefore dark to my observation. Some energies are so high in vibration that they are beyond my seeing and therefore also dark in my observation The first time I saw that was a dark unicorn approaching this solar system. Its body was very dark with white fringes where the energies dropped down into the range of my vision (Unicorns I see as white seem to work with the healing of planets, and the black unicorns seem to work with the healing of stars)

This seems to happen every now and then 😑 I am finding the more money they ask for, the less they have to really offer. I hate seeing good people taken advantage of.

Agreed. The explosive force of Jin is a "result" of an opponent not being able to handle the speed of yin yang change. This is a very important framing to perceive Jin. Without this understanding, practitioners in combat will try to "insist" some explosive result on opponents. Real fighting does not work like that. With ting Jin, you will KNOW when the opponent's body is unable to catch up to the change. And you set up as you said, the potential energy from transformation in a way, where once you issue, you know that Jin equation is too much for the particular opponent to hua, and they end up releasing that energy in an aggressive and explosive way. Insisting on specific things to happen in taiji Quan, like explosive fajin, goes against the principles of taiji, and will result in one not being able to do that. Fajin is something you set up conditions for, and "allow" to happen. It is closer to an observed result.