User talk:B9 hummingbird hovering/Avadhuta Gita

Template

• http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:Inductiveload/Sandbox2

• http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:Inductiveload/Sandbox2#verse3

Template ready

The template is ready for general use at {{complex script verse}}. You can see its use at the sandbox page above (but that won't last forever, it'll be overwritten eventually). The template also has full documentation, which you can see at the template page. Main points:

• You don't need "br" tags in the translation, the line breaks will be done automatically
• You do need to put each line of original and transliterated text in the correct parameter "s1", "s2", "r1", "r2", etc of the template.
• You do need to avoid using "|", as this will break the template. The sanskrit version is fine, but the ASCII pipe symbol has syntactic meaning in the templates.

Any questions, ask me on my talk page. I'll be happy to hear, as it means the documentation needs improving. Good luck, and I hope you find Wikisource a nice place to contribute. Welcome! Inductiveload (talk) 07:06, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

It seems this is not your main talk page! I somehow didn't read the address carefully, and that you've been here a while. Well, I hope this new template answers those questions you asked before (if I understand your meaning). Inductiveload (talk) 09:20, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Avadhuta Gita page created

I made you an Avadhuta Gita front page to get you started. You can start adding text to the subpages right away! Inductiveload (talk) 07:08, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

You'll also need to license your translation (I assume it is yours) appropriately. A free license such as the GFDL or CC-BY is required for Wikisource. You can also release into the Public Domain for a truly free work. If it is not yours, you need to state where it is from, as well as the appropriate license (eg {{pd-old}}). If you need help with licensing, best to ask in IRC, others can go into more detail better than I. − Inductiveload (talk) 07:37, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Misc

A spontaneous song and philosophical poem attributed to Rishi Dattatreya and reputed to have been transcribed by two of his disciples according to the Nath tradition which may or may not have been originally transcribed in Sanskrit. I intuit that there may be many extant manuscripts in different languages awaiting study yielding differences, absences and accretions. Confoundingly, little information is available on the historicity of extant manuscripts as yet. I pray this will change. I hold that neither age nor lineage determines the value of a cultural token. This text is unarguably a key example of 'extreme' nondual philosophy and has been held a such by at least two historical personages of note native to the tradition as far as my Internet investigation has so far yielded. I have been meditating on why this Gita has received such minimal Western scholarly attention which in truth both is and is not a mystery. This text is not a strong 'philosophical' text, it makes few arguments. Scholars love to argue. That is one rationale. Another is that this text really isn't understood unless it is approached through a view of which Dzogchen is privy. Another is that the text has concealed itself as all great secrets do. Secrets have a way of keeping themselves. The value of this relic resides in its stream of nondual song from the absolute truth available in the relative. In the darshana of this song we enter the absolute even if we are still in the relative. Importantly, this text holds within it the nondual transmission, it even gives the pointing out instruction a Sanskrit nomenclature. It is worshipful. I have come to this text through a vast library of literature and dedicated spiritual reflection and transpersonal inquiry and uncompromising and uncompromised discipline. I view the Avadhuta Gita through the fullness of my lived and living spirituality, embodied. This text partakes of Dzogchen discourse. Or as time may show, Dzogchen partakes of the discourse of this song. Advaita Vedanta has not received the same treatment as Dzogchen and the Buddhadharma traditions. I feel in the truth of my bones, that this text is more appropriately placed within the tradition of Yoga than Advaita Vedanta. Buddhadharma and Advaita Vedanta are entwined traditions, as is the puzzlebox of yoga. I move that there is a sensibility in that nondual traditons themselves are nondual. Dzogchen, also known as Ati Yoga, or 'extreme' Yoga is a living tradition, a nondual tradition that is being transmitted by certain human teachers, as well as non-human. Advaita Vedanta may be transmitted from traditional lineages as well but not so widely nor accessible, at least on the face of it. Sanskrit has always been a love of mine. I do not perceive Sanskrit as being more nor less holy than any other language but there is something important about Sanskrit as an ancient language of spells, prayer, philosophy and many kinds of scientific knowledge and poetry, plays and other literature. It is only that I know of Tibetan through my beginning study of primary resources of Dzogchen texts and the technical language of those texts and their Sanskrit analogues that this text may be identified as being of considerable importance for the historicity of the nondual traditions. It may be a post-Shankaran construction or it may be more ancient or it may be only a few hundred years old. Shankara's Nirvana Shatakam reads as its executive summary. Indeed, I proffer that the lineage of the text resides in the two terms 'sahaja' and 'nirvana'. But by the grace of the lineages of Dharma may it finally enter open discourse as it deserves. The 'rlung' the lineal transmission of the prana and vayu of this song may be lost or it may be living, but what I may do through my creativity and visceral prayer is enter into direct darshana with Dattatreya and indeed the essence of this Gita through opening a mandala and magical invocation. The traditions have a way of continuing.

User:B9 hummingbird hovering/Avadhuta Gita/Personal note

Personal note

I intend to be rigorous and creative with my engagement of this text. The nature of the text incites the interplay of 'identity' and 'unity' or subjectivity and Subjectivity (as there is no true objectivity nor subjectivity for that fact, but we do have a sense of agency and with that, are: beingness if not existence). The textual engagement will be scholarly but also personal and reflective. I can not do otherwise in my treatment and honor the text as a living document, a testament of spiritual success.

Jigme Lingpa was as a youth poor. He did not have the money nor contacts to enjoin teachings and to gather initiations and empowerments. Yet, he listened, watched, reflected on the teachings he was privy to through serving other initiates and whilst cleaning. In this he is an anomaly to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition which lauds the direct, formal Guru-Disciple relationship. He learned from everything, integrating it with his experience. He later took initiations yes, but only to demonstrate the importance of such in the tradition and to ripen his mindstream. Especially, Jigme Lingpa had a powerful visionary and imaginary life. This is so important to the flesh, blood and magic of the spiritual life lived in the world. There is a powerful analogue with this narrative of Jigme Lingpa and that of Dattatreya who by tradition is identified as the avadhuta in the Uddhava Gita spoken of by Krishna in the Bhagavat Purana, the sacred fool who learned from twenty-three non-human Gurus and one human, a prostitute. There is an appropriateness to this, but its refinement in time will be keen. Well, in this I enter heartfully with faith into the mysterious hoop of hope.

User:B9 hummingbird hovering/Avadhuta Gita/Introduction

Introduction

I am perplexed why the Avadhuta Gita has received such minimal treatment by Western scholarship. I am entering into this nondual tradition through the entirety of my lifepath, learning, sprituality and scholarship.

In this playful project on Wikisource the English both is and is not mine. I will paste what has already been released into the public domain until I rework it and refine it and make it my own beast. So Wikisource has a unique offering... My notebook is playing up so I may only do a little bit each day. My notebook isn't recharging, it is becoming fiddly. Hence, I need to print out the Avadhuta Gita to chant as a daily sadhana and I have started reading 'Apparitions of the Self' an English rendering and commentary on the relfective autobiographies of Jigme Lingpa by Janet Gyatso because it feels appropriate to do it in tandem.

Dharma: 5000 years of dialogue regarding the one and the many: oceans, tributaries, droplets

For example, Marlow (1954: p.35) relates the pedigree within the Vedic tradition of the metaphor of water and traces it to the Tenth Mandala of the Ṛg Veda and particularly Hymn X.168 and Hymn X.190:

In Ṛg Veda X.190 and X.168 water is the primary principle, which develops into the world through time, samvatsara (year), kāma (desire), puruṣa (intelligence), and tapas (warmth); and in X.190 water is pictured or assumed as the first principle.^[1]

McEvilley (2002: pp.23-66) charts "the Problem of the One and the Many" within the mutually iterating traditions of India and Greece, amongst others, and draws upon the abovementioned work of Marlow (1954).^[2] Mañjuśrīmitra discusses the mindstream in relation to the problem of the one and the many in the Bodhicittabhavana.^[3] The "argument of neither one nor many (gcig du 'bral ba'i gtan tshigs)" constitutes the pervasive theme of w:ŚāntarakṣitaŚāntarakṣita's Madhyamakālaṃkāra which discusses the mindstream.^[4] Mipham's Speech of Delight (rgyan gyi rnam bshad) a commentary on Madhyamakālaṃkāra, rendered into English by Doctor (2004), is an exegesis of the one and the many and thus the mindstream, within Ati Yoga.

Pudgalavāda ruminations of the mindstream as a function of the problem of the one and many may be found in their grappling with the relationship of a succession, stream or continuum of lifetimes that were somehow individual but also collective and in a relationship and mutually determining. Reading the following it should be born in mind that the Pudgalavāda was at one time the ascendant form of Śrāvakayāna,^[5] as Priestley states the Pudgalavāda:

...thought of some aspect or dimension of the self as transcending the aggregates and may have identified that aspect with Nirvana, which like most early Buddhists they regarded as an eternal reality. In its involvement with the aggregates through successive lives, the self could be seen as characterized by incessant change; but in its eternal aspect, it could be seen as having an identity that remains constant through all its lives until it fulfils itself in the impersonal happiness of Parinirvana. Although their account of the self seemed unorthodox and irrational to their Buddhist opponents, the Pudgalavādins evidently believed that only such an account could do justice to the Buddha's moral teaching, to the accepted facts of karma, rebirth and liberation, and to our actual experience of selves and persons.^[5]

Vasana are the flow of the mindstream whilst the grace of primordial purity is the substrate of the Mindstream. 'Mindstream' in sentence case specifically denotes ekacittatva, the Unitary Mind, Universal Mind or One Mind; whereas 'mindstream' in lowercase generally denotes noise or 'poisons' in the mindstream, a mind in which there is separation from unity. I should say in passing that the Mindstream Doctrine which has been very important for my spiritual discipline and worldview though under the general charge of Buddhadharma, the tradition that has been its custodian into the present age, is also none-other than the mind-river mentioned in the Rig Veda. The divergent narrative of the Mindstream Doctrine may arguably be construed as an accretion on the mind-river of the Rig Veda and to this we may yield and move on. As an aside, it is important to remember that the Indus Valley Civilization in its origins was a river culture. The discourses of Anthropology, Deep Ecology, Ecolinguistics and Environmental Psychology amongst others have shown how the environment informs the formation of the human mindset, particularly in metaphorical extension and language formation. The 'Indus' within the term Indus Valley Civilization denotes the Indus River. It is from the Indus in Indus River that the term Hindu arose as a phonemic corruption. The term Hindu originally was not a self-identifying term, it was a name given to the practitioners of Sanatana Dharma from without, that is from outside their culture and speech community. Only later did it become accepted and utilized as a self-identifying term by peoples native to the culture of Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana holds the semantic field 'eternal' and is etymologically and semantically related to 'santana' which is the 'continuum' or 'stream' in citta santana, 'mindstream'. We start with this, because the key to any form of spirituality and worldview is understanding the mind and the stream of consciousness is the conduit through which we perceive and experience all that is. All that is simply, is a representation, a construction, an interiority within our minds that we project outwards into an illusion of spatiality and this is an optical illusion. Remember that all the sensory perception really happens in our minds and our mind constructs, represents and unarguably alters what is, our human brain and each individual mind has a shared though distinct way of perceiving the world. Indeed, if there is anything beyond our minds we may never know in truth. Such narratives and investigations by Science and Philosophy are voluminous. Science cannot in truth answer this question. Consciousness is confounding as an point of investigation because we can never separate the mind as a scientific control which is endemic to the replicability or repeatability of a scientific process and the isolation of variables. This is just a primer to important themes in this text and the culture of which it is a relic and information by the way. Rig Veda Mandala 10, Hymn 121, verse 7-8 and importantly it is with verse 7 that the primordial waters arise which contain the 'universal germ' (Hiranyagarbha) from whence comes the fire (of consciousness) which resulted in the devas' unity and in verse 8 that the river and all that goes before is associated with 'cit' (which in internal phonemic rules of Sanskrit grammar changes to 'cid' before an 'a' phoneme):

आपो ह यद बर्हतीर्विश्वमायन गर्भं दधानाजनयन्तीरग्निम।

ततो देवानां समवर्ततासुरेकःकस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम॥

āpo ha yada barhatīrviśvamāyana garbhaṁ dadhānājanayantīragnima /

tato devānāṁ samavartatāsurekaḥkasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema //

What time the mighty waters came, containing the universal germ, producing fire,

Thence sprang the Gods' one spirit into being. What God shall we adore with our oblation?

यश्चिदापो महिना पर्यपश्यद दक्षं दधानाजनयन्तीर्यज्ञम।

यो देवेष्वधि देव एक आसीत कस्मैदेवाय हविषा विधेम॥

yaścidāpo mahinā paryapaśyada dakṣaṁ dadhānājanayantīryajñama /

yo deveṣvadhi deva eka āsīta kasmaidevāya haviṣā vidhema //

He in his might surveyed the floods containing productive force and generating Worship.

He is the God of gods, and none beside him. What God shall we adore with our oblation?

1. Marlow, A. N. (1954). "Hinduism and Buddhism in Greek Philosophy". Philosophy East and West 4, no. 1, APRIL 1954. The University Press of Hawaii. Source: [1] (accessed: January 10, 2009) p.35
2. McEvilley, Thomas (2002). The Shape of Ancient Thought. Allworth Press. ISBN 1 58115 203 5. pp.23-66
3. Mañjuśrīmitra (author), Kunpal Tulku (translator) (1995). The Cultivation of Enlightened Mind (Bodhicittabhavana). Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa. Source: [2] (accessed: Saturday January 10, 2009)
4. Śāntarakṣita (author), Padmakara Translation Group (translators) (2005). "The Adornment of the Middle Way: Shantarakshita's Madhyamakalankara with Commentary by Jamgön Mipham". Boston, USA: Shambhala. ISBN 1 59030 2419 9 (alk.paper). p.39
5. Priestley, Leonard (2005). "Pudgalavāda Buddhist Philosophy" in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Source: [3](accessed: September 18, 2008)