[Buddha-l] "The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum"

[jkirk]

Steve wrote the following and quoted Namkhai Norbu, but offered
no citation for the quotations.
The revised theory offered by Norbu is intriguing--I'd like to
read more about it--can Steve (or anyone else) come up with the
source for these quotations? 
A check on amazon indicates that Norbu has published a lot of
books----thus no help with this particular set of quoted
material.

Thanks for any help, Joanna
=========================================

Probably the leading expert on Zhang Zhung is Prof. Namkhai Norbu
(emeritus) who writes of this new possibility in origins:

“...the chief sacred place of Shaivism is Mount Kailash in West
Tibet, located in what at the time of the arising of Bönpo
Dzogchen was the Kingdom of Zhang-zhung, where the Bön tradition
prevailed, and where it was conserved and transmitted until its
posterior diffusion through Eastern Tibet and Bhutan. Everyone
automatically assumes that the culture, religion and philosophy
of India and China are very old and autochthonous. However, the
very opposite occurs with the culture, religion and philosophy of
Tibet: people tend to assume that they must have in their
integrity come from other countries, such as India, China, or
even Persia. This way of thinking is typical of those who are
totally conditioned by the traditions established by pro-Indian
Buddhists in Tibet. If many concepts of Dzogchen and Bön came
from Shaivism, where did Shaivism come from? Since it is supposed
to be of Indian origin, Shaivism could not have come from
elsewhere but India, whereas Bön and Dzogchen, being Tibetan,
must be something absorbed or imported from other regions and
traditions.

“What a naïve way of thinking! The Shaivas conserve the whole
history of their teachings, and according to it, their doctrine
originated in Mount Kailash. This is the reason why every year
hundreds of Shaivas go on pilgrimage from India to Mount Kailash
and circumambulate it.  
Now, where is Mount Kailash? In India or in Tibet? And if Kailash
is in Tibet and it was there that Shaivism originated, why should
it be said that Bön and Dzogchen took their concepts from India?
It is logical to hypothesize that Shaivism may have had its roots
in Bön, which prevailed in the region of Mount Kailash ever since
Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche (ston pa gshen rab mi bo che) established
it there some 3.800 years ago, and which contains its own
Dzogchen teachings, part of which may have leaked into Shaivism.”

This also explains how various Dzogchen/Mahasandhi technical
terms appear in Kashmir Shaivite texts, esp. since Kashmir was a
Buddhist kingdom prior to the arising of the Trika.

Regarding origins of specific mantras, rather than relying on
historical gymnastics or ideas of inter-religious competition
between sects, it seems more reasonable to look closely at the
origin of these tantras and their mantras in the process of
individual gnostic revelation and awakening rather than as
manipulation in an intellectual way.

Again Prof. Namkhai points out the style of their origins:

"The Tantric teachings [that constitute the Path of
transformation] appeared in our human dimension through the
visionary experiences of realized individuals such as
mahasiddhas, who had the capacity to contact other dimensions and
transmit to the human realm the teachings received in those
dimensions. The Tantric initiation arose because, once a
mahasiddha received the transmission of a practice based on the
principle of transformation, he or she used paintings or drawings
showing the respective divinities and the respective mandalas, as
well as oral explanations, in order to communicate it to others
and enable them, through the use of imagination, to transform
themselves in the prescribed way. It is said that the teachings
of Tantrism have a more symbolic character than those of the
Sutrayana because when the Mahasiddhas transmitted to their human
disciples the methods of transformation they had received, with
their respective mandalas and the figures of the corresponding
divinities, these became symbols: the garland of heads of a
manifestation began to signify this, its diadem of skulls began
to signify that, and so on."

This is more likely the origin of the many mantras of Vajrayana
IMO, rather than via cultural borrowing of some sort. One also
sees similar theories of mantric origins in Hindu tantric
metaphysics (i.e. the four-fold division of Vac or "the Word" and
the "arising of letters").

-Steve



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