Saturday, November 09, 2019
Formic Acid
In plants it is the oxalic acid that provides the basic life-giving substance. Oxalis clover, rhubarb, and wood sorrel have lots of oxalic acid, and there we can taste the sour acid element more easily than in most vegetables. In the animal kingdom, specifically in the stinging insects, it is the formic acid that plays a major role. Formic acid (formica=ant) is the poison we feel when an ant bites us, or a wasp or bee stings us. Each of these species produces a variation of formic acid.
As the bees and wasps receive nectar and pollen from the flowers, they are able to take in some of this oxalic acid, but they do not only take, they also give to the plants. As these insects fly and crawl through nature, they distribute formic acid. An old forest ranger in Germany once told me that wherever ants are missing in forests, the plants lose their vitality and die more quickly than if there is an ample amount of these insects around. Thus, ant colonies are being reestablished and protected in European forests to keep the trees healthy.
This formic acid, in finest dilution, wafts through the air, and in Spring the germinating seeds and budding perennials receive this formic acid that has been produced the year before. These insects not only produce the poison in order to sting, but it is exuded constantly and given off to the atmosphere in the finest dilutions where it remains, ready to serve as the plants spring tonic. So, on such a basic level, these stinging insects are the nurturers of life on earth since they provide something so essential to plants, which, in turn provide food, directly or indirectly, to all other beings.
Each one of these two acids acts as an invigorator, as a boost to the life processes for the other kingdom. It is with the help of these minute quantities of formic acid that the earth's entire plant life grows and thrives. And, on the other hand, it is the plants oxalic acid that stimulates and invigorates the animal and human kingdoms.
The commonly accepted image we have of life being based on fight and competition, with the survival of the fittest, loses its sting when we consider these grand, symbiotic, mutually beneficial, interrelationships.
Let us take a closer look at the role these acids play in our very own lives. As we eat our spinach, broccoli, chard, carrots, fruit and berries, we also take up the oxalic acid contained in them. Now a mysterious transformation occurs; we are able to change this acid into our very own formic acid. Actually, one can achieve this very process in the chemical laboratory. Glycerin is added to oxalic acid in a retort; when heated, carbon dioxide escapes and the steamy vapors condense to and behold formic acid. Similarly, we have small amounts of glycerin in our body and the fire of our digestion is able to instigate this transformation in us.
Just as our entire endocrine processes those governing growth, health and reproduction function by virtue of miniscule amounts of the secretion created by the pituitary gland, these same miniscule amounts of formic and oxalic acid provide the basis for life processes in our body. Let us be reminded that without deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), no life on Earth would be possible. It is this process of transforming oxalic acid into formic acid that allows us to live as spiritual beings in a physical body (as described in Rudolf Steiner's lectures, Bees). We are still at the very beginning of a science investigating life itself that takes processes, chemical transformations, into account and not only the substances themselves.
For our life on Earth we depend on the vast numbers of individual stinging insects, which enliven the plant kingdom with their formic acid. Our attitude toward these insects will have to undergo a drastic revision, away from disdain, anger, and fear toward one of gratitude and respect, toward nurturing and partnership instead of killing or exploitation.
We can now understand that our lives depend on honeybees, ants, wasps, and hornets. But why does the honeybee take a special place among all these formic acid-producing insects? In contrast to the solitary and bumble, carpenter and orchard bees, or hornets and wasps, the honeybees live through the winter as a colony of 10,000-20,000 individual workers. By the end of March, they may have already doubled their numbers and by summer solstice may reach 40,000-60,000 in number. Bumble and orchard bees, wasps and hornets have only young queens surviving the winter, and it takes two to three months until a colony of several hundred insects can do their enlivening work in nature. The vast numbers of honeybees flying already in early Spring not only contribute to the much needed pollination, but to the amount of formic acid released into nature.
by Gunther Hauk Gunther_Hauk.htm
unsafe practices for inner awakenings.
There are of course unsafe practices for inner awakenings. However many are characterized by the nature of the substance - the herb or the metal or the magician and so forth - so that revelatory incurrences are tainted as it were, with the colors of association. In other words, if I am to employ some means to illumination, that very assistance will necessarily afflict what it is that I see. If I ingest an illuminatory herb or plant, the plant itself shall conjure its dreams, its visions, its ways of viewing the world and me. Therefore it is no accurate communion with the self-soul or into the vacant spirit-space either. This is because the herb/plant has only a limited access to comprehension and is not permitted into the holy interiors of Man. Equally if one were to employ a metal in ritualistic conjuring, then the perception would fain to its (the metal's) approval.
If I am reliant upon another individual to stimulate me artificially into such awakening then I do so via his perception, his experience, also, and by this there can be no 'self' discovery, but moreover a binding with the other fellow, along with explicit misconceptions of one's own interior.
-B.Hive
It doesn't require any particular effort to eat salt for a week in an attempt to descend to subearthly realms, and then eat no salt for a week in an attempt to ascend into higher elemental realms. That takes no effort at all, but there is also nothing to be gained from it except the worst kinds of illusions. Inner work is the only way to really accomplish something in the spiritual world. And inner work, if it is really taking place, will by its very nature lead you to the right thoughts and keep you from getting into trouble with regard to the spiritual world. Without it, however, we are subject to perversions of mystical thinking, and people have every right to laugh at us then.
If I am reliant upon another individual to stimulate me artificially into such awakening then I do so via his perception, his experience, also, and by this there can be no 'self' discovery, but moreover a binding with the other fellow, along with explicit misconceptions of one's own interior.
-B.Hive
It doesn't require any particular effort to eat salt for a week in an attempt to descend to subearthly realms, and then eat no salt for a week in an attempt to ascend into higher elemental realms. That takes no effort at all, but there is also nothing to be gained from it except the worst kinds of illusions. Inner work is the only way to really accomplish something in the spiritual world. And inner work, if it is really taking place, will by its very nature lead you to the right thoughts and keep you from getting into trouble with regard to the spiritual world. Without it, however, we are subject to perversions of mystical thinking, and people have every right to laugh at us then.
Sunday, November 03, 2019
Spiritual Streams that Proceed from the Great Masters of Wisdom
But meditation words are magic words that open soul portals so that divine life can move in. That's why one shouldn't speculate with one's intellect about meditation words, but should open the soul for forces that are higher than merely intellectual ones. If one speculates about them with one's intellect then only forces that are already in one become active. But higher forces are supposed to awaken. One shouldn't want to solve riddles in one's meditation words, one should let them solve riddles, for they're much wiser than the intellect can ever be. That's why one should let them work on one and take in what they permit to flow into one's soul, let them live completely in one's soul.
Meditation words were born from the laws of the spiritual world and didn't arise through speculation. Something special lives in every vowel. Each of the vowels has a different sound value. And just as the soul feels the effect of sounds, so it should devote itself to the pictures that the words mediate to it. In meditation one should try to think as concretely as possible, and to be as far away as possible from abstract ideation.
Let's take a meditation formula that most of you know. In the first line:
"In pure rays of light"
one can imagine something like palely gleaming moonlight that represents the soft light of the Godhead that flows through creation. This mental image should live quite clearly and intimately in the soul at the words:
"In pure rays of light
Gleams the Godhead of the world."
Then come the lines:
"In pure love to all beings
Radiates the godliness of my soul."
Now one tries to permeate soft moonlight completely with one's love, to pour it into oneself, so that the mild light begins to radiate through the warmth of one's love, and in the flood of rays one feels the Godhead glowing in one's soul. In the following words:
"I rest in the Godhead of the world,"
one tries to imagine that divine-spirit is flowing all around one. One can feel as if one were in a lukewarm bath, entirely embedded in divine substance that envelops one's whole being like a mild bath.
"I will find myself
In the Godhead of the world"
With these words one can think of a distant light tower that radiates over to one, and can permeate oneself with the feeling that one will find one's own self in divine things.
But it's not only the pictures that live in the soul during meditation that draw us towards the divine and open the soul's portals. A deep wisdom and a high divine life has also been placed into the vowels. It makes a difference whether this or that vowel resounds in the soul. Let's take the vowel i. This always expresses a centralizing, a striving toward the center. The a(h) means something quite different. It's an expression of an inner worship of the divine. The i strives towards the center of the universe, whereas the a(h) remains distant and bows before the Holiest in devotion. So if we look at our formula:
"In den reinen Strahlen des Lichtes"
in the first i the soul strives towards the divine center, in a(h) it retreats devotedly, and in the second i it hurries towards the divine again. In the second line we have the ae:
"Erglaenzt die Gottheit der Welt."
The ae represents a weakened ah. The worshipful devotion of the ah changes in ae to shy reverence. In holy, shy reverence a man doesn't dare to approach God. But in the following o the soul hurries to embrace the divine completely with sacred love and intimacy. The oalways expresses an embracing that is full of love. The following line:
"In der reinen Liebe zu allen Wesen,"
the i again leads the soul directly into the divine center. Then in ah of-
"Erstrahlt die Goettlichkeit meiner Seele,"
the soul again becomes devotion completely. And just as the shy reverence of ae in the second line changed into an intimate embracing of the divine, so in the fourth line the full, warm worshipping of the ah weakens into a shy wanting to embrace that hardly dares to touch the Godhead in oe. In the fifth line,
"Ich ruhe in der Gottheit der Welt"
the u predominates. This always expresses a resting, a being embedded. Now the soul has been fused with the divine in blessed quiet. In the last two lines,
"Ich werde mich selbst finden
In der Gottheit der Welt,"
the soul is led (i) ever deeper into the center of the world.
This is just one way of understanding the formula, and one small part of the deep wisdom that rests in it. It would be confusing if I wanted to tell you all the deep secrets that are hidden in it. There's no letter and no sign in it that doesn't have a deep, deep meaning. That's the way the divine word of creation resounded when it once let the universe arise. You once heard it sounding, but your souls weren't aware of it yet. At that time you descended from the spirit, and you'll go back there in full consciousness. Born out of the spirit, living in an earthly body, you'll return to the divine spirit of the world through the power of the spirit.
-Rudolf Steiner
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA266/English/UNK1998/19071205e01.html
Meditation words were born from the laws of the spiritual world and didn't arise through speculation. Something special lives in every vowel. Each of the vowels has a different sound value. And just as the soul feels the effect of sounds, so it should devote itself to the pictures that the words mediate to it. In meditation one should try to think as concretely as possible, and to be as far away as possible from abstract ideation.
Let's take a meditation formula that most of you know. In the first line:
"In pure rays of light"
one can imagine something like palely gleaming moonlight that represents the soft light of the Godhead that flows through creation. This mental image should live quite clearly and intimately in the soul at the words:
"In pure rays of light
Gleams the Godhead of the world."
Then come the lines:
"In pure love to all beings
Radiates the godliness of my soul."
Now one tries to permeate soft moonlight completely with one's love, to pour it into oneself, so that the mild light begins to radiate through the warmth of one's love, and in the flood of rays one feels the Godhead glowing in one's soul. In the following words:
"I rest in the Godhead of the world,"
one tries to imagine that divine-spirit is flowing all around one. One can feel as if one were in a lukewarm bath, entirely embedded in divine substance that envelops one's whole being like a mild bath.
"I will find myself
In the Godhead of the world"
With these words one can think of a distant light tower that radiates over to one, and can permeate oneself with the feeling that one will find one's own self in divine things.
But it's not only the pictures that live in the soul during meditation that draw us towards the divine and open the soul's portals. A deep wisdom and a high divine life has also been placed into the vowels. It makes a difference whether this or that vowel resounds in the soul. Let's take the vowel i. This always expresses a centralizing, a striving toward the center. The a(h) means something quite different. It's an expression of an inner worship of the divine. The i strives towards the center of the universe, whereas the a(h) remains distant and bows before the Holiest in devotion. So if we look at our formula:
"In den reinen Strahlen des Lichtes"
in the first i the soul strives towards the divine center, in a(h) it retreats devotedly, and in the second i it hurries towards the divine again. In the second line we have the ae:
"Erglaenzt die Gottheit der Welt."
The ae represents a weakened ah. The worshipful devotion of the ah changes in ae to shy reverence. In holy, shy reverence a man doesn't dare to approach God. But in the following o the soul hurries to embrace the divine completely with sacred love and intimacy. The oalways expresses an embracing that is full of love. The following line:
"In der reinen Liebe zu allen Wesen,"
the i again leads the soul directly into the divine center. Then in ah of-
"Erstrahlt die Goettlichkeit meiner Seele,"
the soul again becomes devotion completely. And just as the shy reverence of ae in the second line changed into an intimate embracing of the divine, so in the fourth line the full, warm worshipping of the ah weakens into a shy wanting to embrace that hardly dares to touch the Godhead in oe. In the fifth line,
"Ich ruhe in der Gottheit der Welt"
the u predominates. This always expresses a resting, a being embedded. Now the soul has been fused with the divine in blessed quiet. In the last two lines,
"Ich werde mich selbst finden
In der Gottheit der Welt,"
the soul is led (i) ever deeper into the center of the world.
This is just one way of understanding the formula, and one small part of the deep wisdom that rests in it. It would be confusing if I wanted to tell you all the deep secrets that are hidden in it. There's no letter and no sign in it that doesn't have a deep, deep meaning. That's the way the divine word of creation resounded when it once let the universe arise. You once heard it sounding, but your souls weren't aware of it yet. At that time you descended from the spirit, and you'll go back there in full consciousness. Born out of the spirit, living in an earthly body, you'll return to the divine spirit of the world through the power of the spirit.
-Rudolf Steiner
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA266/English/UNK1998/19071205e01.html
Friday, November 01, 2019
The Credo- Rudolf Steiner
This document gives a clear picture of just how immersed was Steiner in the inner life, in the quest for the divine. Some years after his death, the archives published a remarkable document from Steiner’s early years, which was found in 1944. He had titled it “Credo” which in this context means, “What I believe”. It should be clearly kept in mind that this document, in its youthful idealism and simplicity of assertions, does not represent how the mature age Steiner would speak to his students. It is of value in that it presents a very clear statement about his view of spirituality and service to the divine, as the purpose of life. He was only 27 yrs old when he wrote this,
The “Creed”:
The realm of the Idea1 is the origin and sustaining principle of all Existence. In it is never-ending harmony and joyous tranquillity. Any part of Creation which this realm did not illumine, would be something dead and without being, and would have no part of the life of the universe. Only that which derives its existence from the {archetypal} Idea, has significance on the cosmic Tree, from which all things are created.2
The Idea is self-evident Spirit, Spirit sufficient unto itself, in itself, with itself. The individual must have the Spirit indwelling, otherwise it falls away, like a dry leaf from the tree, and would have been, anyway, whilst there, without purpose.
Now, the human Being, when it has become fully conscious {an adult}, feels and knows itself as a separate Being. It also has implanted within its being, the yearning for the Idea. This yearning drives it on, to overcome the separateness, and to let the Spirit come into life within his or her being, so that the soul may become like the Spirit.
Everything which is egotistic, everything which forms the person into this definite, separated-self, must be cast away, this is what the human being must strip away, for this it is, which obscures the light of the Spirit. That which derives from sensual lust, instinctive drives and passions, is desired only by this egotistic self. Therefore, the human being must destroy this selfish will in itself. Instead of seeking that which he or she as a separate being wants, the human being should want that which the Spirit, the Idea, in him wills and seeks. Guide the “Separate-Being” towards this goal, hearken to the voice of the Idea within you for that alone is divine !
What one wants as a separate-being is, within the circumference of the universe, worthless. It is a worthless point, disappearing within the flow of Time. What one wills “in the Spirit”, as it were, that is in the centre, for then, the central Light of the Universe comes into being within us: such a deed is not subject to the flow of Time.
When someone acts as an isolated individual, they remove their ‘self’ from the closed chain of cosmic activity, they are separated away from this. When a human being acts ‘in the Spirit’, she or he then lives ever more into the universal processes of the Cosmos. Destroying all self-centredness, this is the foundation of the higher life. For whoever lets this Selfhood die, shall find an eternal existence. That which is mortal in us in our separate-self.
This is the true meaning of these words of Goethe, “Whosoever does not die before death, shall perish at death”. This means, whoever does not make an end to egotism during the earthly life, shall not have a part of the universal life, which is immortal. For such a person never existed within this greater Life, and had no real existence.
1 This is the famous realm of archetypal Thoughts, of Plato and early esoteric wisdom.2 This unusual phrase refers to a very effective and evocative metaphor, deeply linked to the older Germanic and Celtic worldview; the “Welt Esche” or cosmic Ash tree, from which all the realms in the cosmos have their origin.
There are four fields of human activity in which the human Being deadens all egotism and fully dedicates himself or herself to the Spirit. These are: Knowledge, Art, Religion and loving dedication to an individual in Spirit. Whoever does not live in at least one of these four activities, does not really live at all. Knowledge is devotion to the universe, in Thought; Art is devotion to the universe in sense-perception; Religion is devotion to the world – through the life of Feeling; dedicated Love is devotion with all of ones’ spiritual forces, being directed towards something that appears to one as a worthy member of the Cosmos.
Knowledge is the most spiritualized form of selfless devotion, Love the most beautiful form. For love is truly a heavenly radiance shining into the life of daily existence. Devout, truly spiritual Love ennobles the innermost fibre of our being, it refines and uplifts everything that lives in us. This pure, devout love transforms the entire soul-life into something that is akin to the Universal-Spirit. To love in this most exalted sense means to bear the breath of the Heavens into that realm where there is usually to be found only the most detestable egotism and mindless lust.
One must first know something of the holiness of Love, before one can speak about Spirituality (piety). If a person has made the journey out of the separated condition, through one of these four activities, and merged into the divine life of the Idea (Spirit), then that person has attained to that, for which a seed of yearning was placed in his or her heart: the union with the Spirit. For this is the true destination of the human. Whoever who lives in the Spirit is free, for they have extricated themself from everything of secondary significance. Nothing compels him or her to act, except a coercion which he gladly undertakes, for such a person has recognized the task at hand as the highest duty of all.
Let truth be lived: lose yourself in order to find yourself again within the Cosmic-Spirit !
R. Steiner, ca. l888 (27 years old)
Translated by Dr. Adrian Anderson
The “Creed”:
The realm of the Idea1 is the origin and sustaining principle of all Existence. In it is never-ending harmony and joyous tranquillity. Any part of Creation which this realm did not illumine, would be something dead and without being, and would have no part of the life of the universe. Only that which derives its existence from the {archetypal} Idea, has significance on the cosmic Tree, from which all things are created.2
The Idea is self-evident Spirit, Spirit sufficient unto itself, in itself, with itself. The individual must have the Spirit indwelling, otherwise it falls away, like a dry leaf from the tree, and would have been, anyway, whilst there, without purpose.
Now, the human Being, when it has become fully conscious {an adult}, feels and knows itself as a separate Being. It also has implanted within its being, the yearning for the Idea. This yearning drives it on, to overcome the separateness, and to let the Spirit come into life within his or her being, so that the soul may become like the Spirit.
Everything which is egotistic, everything which forms the person into this definite, separated-self, must be cast away, this is what the human being must strip away, for this it is, which obscures the light of the Spirit. That which derives from sensual lust, instinctive drives and passions, is desired only by this egotistic self. Therefore, the human being must destroy this selfish will in itself. Instead of seeking that which he or she as a separate being wants, the human being should want that which the Spirit, the Idea, in him wills and seeks. Guide the “Separate-Being” towards this goal, hearken to the voice of the Idea within you for that alone is divine !
What one wants as a separate-being is, within the circumference of the universe, worthless. It is a worthless point, disappearing within the flow of Time. What one wills “in the Spirit”, as it were, that is in the centre, for then, the central Light of the Universe comes into being within us: such a deed is not subject to the flow of Time.
When someone acts as an isolated individual, they remove their ‘self’ from the closed chain of cosmic activity, they are separated away from this. When a human being acts ‘in the Spirit’, she or he then lives ever more into the universal processes of the Cosmos. Destroying all self-centredness, this is the foundation of the higher life. For whoever lets this Selfhood die, shall find an eternal existence. That which is mortal in us in our separate-self.
This is the true meaning of these words of Goethe, “Whosoever does not die before death, shall perish at death”. This means, whoever does not make an end to egotism during the earthly life, shall not have a part of the universal life, which is immortal. For such a person never existed within this greater Life, and had no real existence.
1 This is the famous realm of archetypal Thoughts, of Plato and early esoteric wisdom.2 This unusual phrase refers to a very effective and evocative metaphor, deeply linked to the older Germanic and Celtic worldview; the “Welt Esche” or cosmic Ash tree, from which all the realms in the cosmos have their origin.
There are four fields of human activity in which the human Being deadens all egotism and fully dedicates himself or herself to the Spirit. These are: Knowledge, Art, Religion and loving dedication to an individual in Spirit. Whoever does not live in at least one of these four activities, does not really live at all. Knowledge is devotion to the universe, in Thought; Art is devotion to the universe in sense-perception; Religion is devotion to the world – through the life of Feeling; dedicated Love is devotion with all of ones’ spiritual forces, being directed towards something that appears to one as a worthy member of the Cosmos.
Knowledge is the most spiritualized form of selfless devotion, Love the most beautiful form. For love is truly a heavenly radiance shining into the life of daily existence. Devout, truly spiritual Love ennobles the innermost fibre of our being, it refines and uplifts everything that lives in us. This pure, devout love transforms the entire soul-life into something that is akin to the Universal-Spirit. To love in this most exalted sense means to bear the breath of the Heavens into that realm where there is usually to be found only the most detestable egotism and mindless lust.
One must first know something of the holiness of Love, before one can speak about Spirituality (piety). If a person has made the journey out of the separated condition, through one of these four activities, and merged into the divine life of the Idea (Spirit), then that person has attained to that, for which a seed of yearning was placed in his or her heart: the union with the Spirit. For this is the true destination of the human. Whoever who lives in the Spirit is free, for they have extricated themself from everything of secondary significance. Nothing compels him or her to act, except a coercion which he gladly undertakes, for such a person has recognized the task at hand as the highest duty of all.
Let truth be lived: lose yourself in order to find yourself again within the Cosmic-Spirit !
R. Steiner, ca. l888 (27 years old)
Translated by Dr. Adrian Anderson
Who are the Dugpas?
Dugpas therefore are human beings, and not demons or elementals. Blavatsky wrote that they were found more in Western Tibet and Bhutan. They perform their rites during the New Moon period, when certain benign influences are at their lowest.
The Mahatma stated that Adepts also keep dugpas (or ex-dugpas) to test candidates for discipleship, “to do our scavengers’ work, and to draw out the latent vices — if there be any” (ML, p. 232) “with the sole object of drawing out the whole inner nature of the chela, most of the nooks and corners of which would remain dark and concealed for ever, were not an opportunity afforded to test each of these corners in turn” (ML, p. 223). One such probationer tested was Edmond FERN, who failed and was later expelled from the Theosophical Society.
Blavatsky stressed that it is essential for aspirants to maintain purity if dugpaship is to be avoided.
-http://www.theosophy.ph/encyclo/index.php?title=Dugpa#
Who Are the Dugpas in Theosophical Writings?
by David Reigle, June 2009
In the early Theosophical writings, H. P. Blavatsky used the term “dugpa” for the various non-Gelugpa orders of Tibetan Buddhism, namely, for the Kagyupa, Nyingmapa, and Sakyapa orders. In doing this, she followed the usage of Western writers of the time. These writers indiscriminately termed all of these orders as “Red Caps,” “Shammars,” and “Dugpas,” or “Dukpas.”
Blavatsky additionally used the term “dugpa” for followers of the non-Buddhist Bon religion of Tibet. We know that Blavatsky used the books of these writers because she often quotes them.
Indeed, she drew the term “Kiu-te,” a phonetic spelling of the Tibetan rgyud sde that long baffled researchers, from Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa, published in London in 1876 (2nd ed. 1879).
The editor of this book, Clements R. Markham, writes about the dugpas or dukpas in his Introduction:
In the middle of the fourteenth century a great reforming Lama arose in Tibet, named Tsong-khapa, . .. His reforms led to a schism in the Tibetan church. The old sect, which resisted all change, adhered to their dress, and are called Shammars, or Dukpas, and Red Caps. Their chief monastery is at Sakia-jong, and they retain supremacy in Nepal and Bhutan. (p. xlvi)
As may be seen, Markham lumped together all those who did not follow Tsongkhapa’s new order, the Gelugpas, as the “old sect,” calling them “Shammars, or Dukpas, and Red Caps.”
Moreover, in the then prevailing ignorance of things Tibetan, he stated that the headquarters of the Red Caps is at Sakia-jong.
. . . the great monastery of Sakia-jong (Sankia of D’Anville), the headquarters of the Red Cap sect of Buddhists. (p. xxviii)
In fact, Sakia-jong, or Sakya-dzong, is the headquarters of only one “red cap” order, the Sakyapas. Markham did, however, give information from Brian Hodgson that would place the actual dugpas in Bhutan, not at Sakya-dzong in Tibet.
While the Gelukpa, or Yellow sect, is in the ascendant in Tibet, the adherents of the older, but now heretical Red sect, still have a large monastery at Sakia-jong, and have retained supremacy among the Buddhists in Nepal and Bhutan, on the slopes of the Southern Himalaya. . . . Mr. Brian Hodgson, who is unrivalled in his knowledge of the Cis-nivean Himalayan races, divides the inhabitants of the region between the Kali and the Monass into ten tribes, the Cis-Himalayan Bhotias or Tibetans in the upper zone, the Sienwar, Gurung, Magar, Murmi, Newar, Kirati, and Limbu, in Nepal; the Lepcha in Sikkim, and Lhopa or Dukpa*
(Bhutanese) in Bhutan.
*footnote: Lho is the native name of Bhutan. Lhopa is therefore a territorial designation, while Dukpa refers to their belonging to the Red Cap sect. (p. lii)
Notice that already Markham refers to the red caps with the pejorative term “heretical.” We will return to this shortly.
But at present we must find out just who the dugpas or dukpas really are. Markham shows in his footnote that he understands Dukpa to refer to the Red Cap sect. It is followed in Bhutan, in agreement with Brian Hodgson, and also in Sikkim according to Markham.
The Lepchas of Sikkim are ruled over by a dynasty of Rajahs originally from Lhasa, who have always been under the dominion of Tibet, and of the Buddhist religion and Dukpa (Red Cap) sect. (p. lxxxii)
Again, Markham equates the Dukpa with the “Red Cap” orders in general. But in fact, dugpa or dukpa is ’brug pa, the Kagyu sub-order that prevails in Bhutan, not in Sikkim. That this is a separate order or “sect” of Tibetan Buddhism was made known in an earlier book also quoted by Blavatsky, Buddhism in Tibet, by Emil Schlagintweit, published in Leipzig and London in 1863. Under the heading, "Buddhist sects in Tibet," pp. 72 ff., he lists nine orders: the Nyigmapa, Urgyenpa, Kadampa, Sakyapa, Gelukpa, Kargyutpa, Karmapa, Brikungpa, and Brugpa. The ninth and last he describes as: The Brugpa (also Dugpa or Dad Dugpa) sect has established a particular worship of the Dorje (Vajra, or thunderbolt), which descended from heaven and fell upon the earth at Séra in Eastern Tíbet. This sect seems, moreover, to be particularly addicted to the Tantrika mysticism, in which the Dorje is considered as a very important and powerful instrument. (p. 74)
Here we see that the Dugpa is a distinct order of Tibetan Buddhism, the Brugpa, and not the “red caps” in general, who would be all of the orders except the Gelugpa, or “yellow caps.”
But not until L. Austine Waddell’s 1895 book, The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism (London: W. H. Allen & Co.) was this error among Western writers addressed. Waddell correctly describes the Dug-pa (’brug pa) as a sub-sect of the Kagyupas, pointing out that the name Dug-pa has been wrongly used in European books. Under the heading, “The Kar-gyu-pa Sect,” he writes: The next great sub-sect is the Dug-pa* [*footnote: 'brug-pa . . .], which also arose with a pupil of Mila-rä-pa’s disciple, Dvag-po. .
Much confusion has been caused in European books by misusing the name Dug-pa, employing it as a synonym for the “red-hat” sect, which properly is the Ôi∫-ma. (p. 68)
But Waddell introduces a new error here, in saying that the “red-hat” sect is properly the Nyingma. In fact, all the orders except the Gelugpa wear red hats when hats are used. He no doubt meant that only the Nyingmas are entirely unreformed.
Under the heading, “The Ôi∫-ma-pa Sects,” he writes further:
The wholly unreformed section of the Låmas was, as we have seen, named Ôi∫-ma-pa, or “the old school.” It is more freely than any other tinged with the native Bön or pre-Buddhist practices; and celibacy and abstinence are rarely practised. This is the real “red-hat” sect of Låmas, and not the Dug-pa as is stated in European books. (p. 72)
So we see that early European writers on Tibet referred to all the non-Gelugpa orders of Tibetan Buddhism as Dugpas.
Moreover, even in Waddell’s book we notice a rather pejorative tone in his description of the “red-hats.” There was, historically, actual fighting and warfare between Gelugpas and Kagyupas for supremacy and state rule. This inevitably produces ill-will and prejudice. Markham notes in his book that a Chinese emperor attempted to reconcile the two factions.
As regards Tibet, an embassy had been sent to Lhasa by the Em peror Kang-hi, to reconcile the Yellow and Red Cap factions, . . .
The prevailing attitude of prejudice between the two parties is clearly portrayed in the 1774 account written by George Bogle, found in Markham’s book: It may be necessary to state that there are two sets of clergy in Tibet, distinguished by, and classed under the names of, Yellow Caps and Red Caps. The Dalai and Teshu Lamas are at the head of the Yellow Caps; the Red Caps have their own Lamas and monasteries. In times of old there were violent disputes between them, in which the Yellow Caps got the victory, as well by the assistance of the Tatars as by their superior sanctity. But as I adhere to the tenets of this sect, and have acquired my knowledge of religion from its votaries, I will not here say much upon the subject, lest it should be thought spiteful. I may be allowed, however, just to mention two things, which must convince every unprejudiced person of the wicked lives and false doctrines of the Red Caps. In the first place, many of the clergy marry; and in the next, they persist, in opposition to religion and common sense, in wearing Red Caps. The priests who now visited us were of this last sect. There might be about eight of them. Each held a staff in one hand and a rosary in the other. They formed into a circle, and began to chant their prayers, which, as I understood they were put up for my welfare, I was in no haste to interrupt. At length, to show them that, however hostile to their principles, I bore them no personal grudge, I dismissed them with a few small pieces of silver." (pp. 179-180)
Thus, not only did Blavatsky follow the usage then current, of referring indiscriminately to all the non-Gelugpa orders of Tibetan Buddhism as “Red Caps,” “Shammars,” and “Dugpas” (including also the non-Buddhist Bons), she also followed the then current prejudice against these orders. Whether or not there is any basis to this prejudice beyond historical animosities is another question. For now, I will conclude with a quotation from Blavatsky indicating that she did believe there were among these orders dugpas in the sense in which she often used the term, as black magicians or “Brothers of the Shadow”:
In the East, they are known as the “Brothers of the Shadow,” living men possessed by the earth-bound elementaries; at times—their masters, but ever in the long run falling victims to these terrible beings. In Sikkim and Tibet they are called Dug-pas (red-caps), in contra-distinction to the Geluk-pas (yellow-caps), to which latter most of the adepts belong. And here we must beg the reader not to misunderstand us. For though the whole of Bhûtan and Sikkim belongs to the old religion of the Bhons, now known generally as the Dug-pas, we do not mean to have it understood that the whole of the population is possessed, en masse, or that they are all sorcerers. Among them are found as good men as anywhere else, and we speak above only of the élite of their Lamaseries, of a nucleus of priests, "devil-dancers," and fetish worshippers, whose dreadful and mysterious rites are utterly unknown to the greater part of the population. (Blavatsky Collected Writings, vol. 6, pp. 197-198)
Mme. Blavatsky wrote:
Dugpas (Tib.). Lit., “Red Caps,” a sect in Tibet. Before the advent of Tsong-ka-pa in the fourteenth century, the Tibetans, whose Buddhism had deteriorated and been dreadfully adulterated with the tenets of the old Bhon religion,—were all Dugpas. From that century, however, and after the rigid laws imposed upon the Gelukpas (yellow caps) and the general reform and purification of Buddhism (or Lamaism), the Dugpas have given themselves over more than ever to sorcery, immorality, and drunkenness. Since then the word Dugpas has become a synonym of “sorcerer”, “adept of black magic” and everything vile. There are few, if any, Dugpas in Eastern Tibet, but they congregate in Bhutan, Sikkim, and the borderlands generally.[1]
In one of his letters, Master K.H. wrote to A. P. Sinnett:
In our mountains here, the Dugpas lay at dangerous points, in paths frequented by our Chelas, bits of old rag, and other articles best calculated to attract the attention of the unwary, which have been impregnated with their evil magnetism. If one be stepped upon a tremendous psychic shock may be communicated to the wayfarer, so that he may lose his footing and fall down the precipice before he can recover himself. Friend, beware of Pride and Egoism, two of the worst snares for the feet of him who aspires to climb the high paths of Knowledge and Spirituality. You have opened a joint of your armour for the Dugpas — do not complain if they have found it out and wounded you there.[2]
Drukpa Lineage
The word "dugpa" was frequently used by Mme. Blavatsky and the Masters in a generic sense to refer to all "red-cap" or "red-hat" sects of Tibetan Buddhism, that is, the Nyigmapas, Kagyupas, Sakyapas, and the pre-Buddhist natives Böns. These are the non-reformed sects that did not follow Tsongkhapa’s new order, the Gelugpas.
As David Reigle showed, this general meaning for the word "dugpa" was prevalent during Blavatsky's time. This mistake was corrected in 1895 by L. Austine Waddell’s book, The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism, where he states that the Dug-pa are a sub-sect of the red-cap sect Kagyupa.[3] This sub-sect eventually came to be the main school of Buddhism in Bhutan, known as the "Drukpa Kargyu".[4]
Mme. Blavatsky wrote an article in line with this view, where she uses the term "dugpa" in a more restricted way, applying it to the Nyingmapas and Shammars in Bhutan:
The "Dug-pa(*) or Red Caps" belong to the old Nyang-na-pa sect, who resisted the religious reform introduced by Tsong-kha-pa between the latter part of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries. It was only after a lama coming to them from Tibet in the tenth century had converted them from the old Buddhist faith so strongly mixed up with the Bhon practices of the aborigines--into the Shammar sect, that, in opposition to the reformed "Gyelukpas," the Bhootanese set up a regular system of reincarnations.
(*) The term "Dug-pa" in Tibet is deprecatory. They themselves pronounce it "Dög-pa" from the root to "bind" (religious binders to the old faith): while the paramount sect--the Gyeluk-pa (yellow caps)--and the people, use the word in the sense of "Dug-pa" mischief-makers, sorcerers. The Bhootanese are generally called Dug-pa throughout Tibet and even in some parts of Northern India.[5]
However, even this reference to this particular Bhutanese sect should not be taken in a too general way. In reference to the Brothers of the Shadow, Mme. Blavatsky wrote:
In Sikkim and Tibet they are called Dug-pas (red-caps), in contra-distinction to the Geluk-pas (yellow-caps), to which latter most of the adepts belong. And here we must beg the reader not to misunderstand us. For though the whole of Bhûtan and Sikkim belongs to the old religion of the Bhons, now known generally as the Dug-pas, we do not mean to have it understood that the whole of the population is possessed, en masse, or that they are all sorcerers. Among them are found as good men as anywhere else, and we speak above only of the élite of their Lamaseries, of a nucleus of priests, "devil-dancers," and fetish worshippers, whose dreadful and mysterious rites are utterly unknown to the greater part of the population.[6]
Shammar
When Blavatsky uses the term "shammar" she is not referring to the tribe of Shammar (Arabic: شمّر "Šammar") which around 1850 ruled much of central and northern Arabia, from Riyadh to the frontiers of Syria and the vast area known as Al Jazira in Northern Iraq. She refers to an offshoot of the Böns:
The Shammar sect is not, as wrongly supposed, a kind of corrupted Buddhism, but an offshoot of the Bön religion—itself a degenerated remnant of the Chaldean mysteries of old, now a religion entirely based upon necromancy, sorcery and sooth-saying. The introduction of Buddha’s name in it means nothing.[7]
There are references to this use of the term in the 19th century. For example, in a book on the history of Hindustan we find:
Two sects divide the votaries of Buddha, the Gyllookpa [Gelug-pa], distinguished by robes of yellow cloth, and the Shammar, clothed in red. In ancient times, the latter are reported to have been the most numerous; till the Gyllookpa assembling a mighty army, drove them from their possessions, and forced them to take refuge in Bootan, whose inhabitants are all of that sect.[8]
As David Reigle showed, this general meaning for the word "dugpa" was prevalent during Blavatsky's time. This mistake was corrected in 1895 by L. Austine Waddell’s book, The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism, where he states that the Dug-pa are a sub-sect of the red-cap sect Kagyupa.[3] This sub-sect eventually came to be the main school of Buddhism in Bhutan, known as the "Drukpa Kargyu".[4]
Mme. Blavatsky wrote an article in line with this view, where she uses the term "dugpa" in a more restricted way, applying it to the Nyingmapas and Shammars in Bhutan:
The "Dug-pa(*) or Red Caps" belong to the old Nyang-na-pa sect, who resisted the religious reform introduced by Tsong-kha-pa between the latter part of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries. It was only after a lama coming to them from Tibet in the tenth century had converted them from the old Buddhist faith so strongly mixed up with the Bhon practices of the aborigines--into the Shammar sect, that, in opposition to the reformed "Gyelukpas," the Bhootanese set up a regular system of reincarnations.
(*) The term "Dug-pa" in Tibet is deprecatory. They themselves pronounce it "Dög-pa" from the root to "bind" (religious binders to the old faith): while the paramount sect--the Gyeluk-pa (yellow caps)--and the people, use the word in the sense of "Dug-pa" mischief-makers, sorcerers. The Bhootanese are generally called Dug-pa throughout Tibet and even in some parts of Northern India.[5]
However, even this reference to this particular Bhutanese sect should not be taken in a too general way. In reference to the Brothers of the Shadow, Mme. Blavatsky wrote:
In Sikkim and Tibet they are called Dug-pas (red-caps), in contra-distinction to the Geluk-pas (yellow-caps), to which latter most of the adepts belong. And here we must beg the reader not to misunderstand us. For though the whole of Bhûtan and Sikkim belongs to the old religion of the Bhons, now known generally as the Dug-pas, we do not mean to have it understood that the whole of the population is possessed, en masse, or that they are all sorcerers. Among them are found as good men as anywhere else, and we speak above only of the élite of their Lamaseries, of a nucleus of priests, "devil-dancers," and fetish worshippers, whose dreadful and mysterious rites are utterly unknown to the greater part of the population.[6]
Shammar
When Blavatsky uses the term "shammar" she is not referring to the tribe of Shammar (Arabic: شمّر "Šammar") which around 1850 ruled much of central and northern Arabia, from Riyadh to the frontiers of Syria and the vast area known as Al Jazira in Northern Iraq. She refers to an offshoot of the Böns:
The Shammar sect is not, as wrongly supposed, a kind of corrupted Buddhism, but an offshoot of the Bön religion—itself a degenerated remnant of the Chaldean mysteries of old, now a religion entirely based upon necromancy, sorcery and sooth-saying. The introduction of Buddha’s name in it means nothing.[7]
There are references to this use of the term in the 19th century. For example, in a book on the history of Hindustan we find:
Two sects divide the votaries of Buddha, the Gyllookpa [Gelug-pa], distinguished by robes of yellow cloth, and the Shammar, clothed in red. In ancient times, the latter are reported to have been the most numerous; till the Gyllookpa assembling a mighty army, drove them from their possessions, and forced them to take refuge in Bootan, whose inhabitants are all of that sect.[8]
-http://theosophy.wiki/en/Dugpa
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