Seeing the Color Red/Auschwitz:
Moloch:
An ancient Middle Eastern deity children were sacrificed to.
A
few Minutes and Seconds/ Vienna and Bratislava:
Kitsch:
Cultural junk.
Blitzkreig:
Lightning war.
A
population of Competing Systems/Bulgaria:
BS:
Abbreviation for Bullshit.
Glimpsing
a Fetal Recognition/Greece:
Ganachakra:
Tibetan word for a feast offering at the end of a long puja.
Samsara:
Sanskrit for the world of illusion. What most humans consider
" real. "
Caught
in a vicious circle/Israel:
Grockingly: A nonsense word invented for speed-reading in the
USA.
Via
Delorosa: The path of the crucifixion.
Mikvah:
A Jewish ceremonial bath.
Buddah
meeting Ahura Mazda/Jordan:
Essenes:
Ancient Jewish monastic sect.
Ahura
Mazda: The Zorastrian god of light. Who fight Angra Manyu the
god of darkness. The origin of the Judeo-Christian concept polar
opposites fighting in the universe.
Land
of Subtle Rhythm/New Delhi and North Bengal:
Kalu
Rinpoche: A big Tibetan Shampa Kagyu saint. The author met his
recent reincarnation and traveled with him throughout India.
Shatrel
Rinpoche: Another Tibetan saint from the Nyingma lineage.
Bokar
Rinpoche: A famous Kagyu Lama who is instructing the new Kalu
Rinpoche. The author took refuge with this Lama in 1991 in San
Fransisco. Taking refuge means you take on the Buddhist vows
and commitments and thus also receive the blessings and protections
for the Vajrayana path.
Lama
Wangchen: A young Lama who instructed the author for a few years.
Called the " Little Kalu " because in a previous life
spent many years meditating in the same cave with the old Kalu
Rinpoche.
Libretto
of Karma/Bodgaya:
Samantrabhadra
puja: A big ceremony with the holy Tibetan yabyum as its major
center of gravity.
Bero
Khentse: A Kagyu lama closely affiliated to the Karmapa.
A
Strange Curved Space/Kathmandu:
Bodhicitta:
Sanskrit for universal compassion.
The
Challenge and the Glory:
Feeling
Gross Concussions/Japan:
Rinne
Tensho: Japanese for reincarnation.
So
Deska: Japanese for " Is that so? " A common Japanese
social phrase.
Shinto:
The original animist religion of Japan.
Ki:
Japanese for mind energy. Chi in Chinese.
Bunraku:
Japanese puppets.
Satori:
A sudden illumination. A play on the atomic flash and sudden
enlightenment.
Yostebito:
A homeless wanderer.
Samurai:
A Japanese warrior. They were often yostebito.
Geisha:
A Japanese female entertainer.
Kansai:
Central Japan where Osaka is situated.
Awaji-Shima:
A large island off Osaka. Supposably the original home of Japanese
culture. Today a conservative farming community being invaded
by Japanese yuppies.
It's Ancestral Clairvoyance/Kathmandu:
Terma: A crucial word which means hidden treasure. Often hidden
teachings revealed in psychic visions and then written down.
Cannanites:
The original pagan inhabitants of Palestine.
Mudra:
Sanskrit for special hand gesture used in meditation.
Confucian:
Ancient Chinese philosophy for optimal social organization.
Asana:
Sanskrit for physical yogic poasture. Related to the mudra which
are sometimes called hand asanas. Asanas are body mudras?
Zorastrians:
Followers of an ancient Persian religion that focused on the
polar struggle between good and evil forces. The foundation
stone of Judeo-Christian-Muslim beliefs. A fatal kind of dualistic
moralism.
Mayan:
Advanced Pre-columbian Indian civilization on the Yucatan peninsula
in what is today Mexico and Guatemala.
Osiris:
The Egyptian god that was resurrected after being chopped into
pieces. Has a close similarity to the story of Jesus.
Marduk:
The ancient Mesopotamian god of war. The first big patriarch
deity that toppled the female deity Tiaamat. Zorastrian influences
come from this mythology.
Dilgo:
The great Dilgo Khentse. The young incarnation of the previous
master who died in 1991. The author has three crucial meetings
with Dilgo in 1997 in a life and death struggle for spiritual
redemption.
Lethe:
The mythological Greek river that's crossed to get to the long-suffering
underworld.
Angra
Manyu: The Zorastrian devil and enemy of Ahura Mazda.
Mugabe:
The local Black dictator of Zimbabwe, the former white colony
of Rhodesia.
Sylvia
Plath: A famous feminist American poet that committed suicide
in the early 60's. Plath was a follower of the Egyptian goddess
Isis.
Emily
Dickenson: America's greatest poet. She wrote in strange haiku-like
sentences in New England during the American Civil War. Her
work is strangely close to Buddhism. Dickenson is very much
a jnani yogini.
Shiites:
The majority Muslim sect in Iran that triggered the Iranian
revolution in 1979 and fomented the current global Muslim surge.
Yabyums:
The holy consort couples. A central idea in both Black and White
Stress and especially in Challenge and Glory.
Mohanjedaro:
The " oldest " known civilization situated near the
Indus river in what is today the Sind province of Pakistan.
Today the area is dangerous and infested with thieves.
Pashupatinath:
Nepal's nickel and dime version of India's Veranasi where bodies
are burned in the open. A powerful place.
Five-hundred
Mile an Hour Rip tides/Bhutan:
Surya:
The great Indian sun god.
Rimed:
Another extremely critical word. Tibetan for multi-denominational.
The name of a religious movement in Eastern Tibet that encouraged
the preservation and practise of multiple forms of Vajrayana
worship. Both Kalu Rinpoche and Dilgo Khentse come from this
region and are major protectors of the author. The Rimed movement
is a contrast to the Gelupas who under the Dalai Lama attempted
to centralize political and religious control from their capital
in Lhasa in Central Tibet. The attempt failed. Tibet was too
big and to sparsely populated. The author uses the word Rimed
in a generic sense for the entire planet.
Karmapa:
The head of the Kagyu order. The Kagyu succession struggle is
showcased in Harvest of Gems.
Sissy:
American slang for childish in a girl-like sense. Often derogatory.
Dzong:
A Bhutanese fortress/monastery. Hundreds are scattered all over
Bhutan.
Je
Kenpo: The religious head of Bhutan. A crucial post: The Bhutanese
pope. The last one physically vanished at death when he achieved
the rainbow-body of illumination. The author paid his respects
at the Je Khenpo's crypt even though the body was no more.
Dasho:
Honorific Bhutanese term used for addressing high officals.
Chanjul
Rinpoche: A great Bhutanese Lama.
Samarzinka
gompa: Gompa is Tibetan for monastery.
Paro:
The most sacred valley in Bhutan and also the location of Taksang
monastery and Bhutan's only airport.
Empowerment:
A secret teaching received orally or mentally by a practitioner.
Often without conscious knowledge of a transmission. A seed
planted for reaping in future lives. One of the most miraculous
events one can have on the spiritual path.
Guru
Rinpoche: A popular Tibetan name for Padmasambhava. The founder
of Tibetan Buddhism.
Taksang
Monastery: The most sacred site in Bhutan. Padmasambhava meditated
for many months in a cave located close to the monastery which
is over a thousand years old. It burned down to the ground a
few months after the author visited it.
Inner-vortices/Eclipse
Equinox/ Southern Bengal:
Esplanade:
Calcutta's main street.
Baksheesh:
Universal term for a bribe often handed under the table.
Rishis:
The ancient Indian forest sages.
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