One Spring day in 1912...

"He wandered absent-minded, dreaming through the undergrowth and maze of briars, and suddenly found himself next to a huge old olive tree which he had never noticed before... The next thing he knew he was leaning back into the tree, standing on its gnarled roots his head popped against the branches...

An old sensation came over him so that he was fixed on the spot, breathless, his heart pounding. It was as though he were extended into another life, along time before, and that everything that had ever been lived or loved or suffered here was coming to him, storming him, demanding to live again in him... 'Time' ceased to exist; there was no distinction between what once was and now had come back, and the dark formless present. The entire atmosphere seemed animated unearthly to him, thrusting in on him incessantly. And yet this unknown life was close to him somehow; he had to take part in it."

(The poet Rainer-Maria Rilke, in the book, ZEN POEMS OF CHINA AND JAPAN, The Crane's Bill, 1973, GROVE PRESS, New York)

Shamanism and Wicca

''Μελετώντας κανείς το σαμανισμό αποκαλύπτει την καρδιά της μαγικής εμπειρίας και θρησκευτικής εμπειρίας γενικά, και πιο ειδικά της Γουίκα. Με την τελετουργία ως μέσο εισόδου στην τελετουργική συνείδηση, ο σαμάνος ή ο Γουικανός διαρκώς διευρύνει τη γνώση του και η γνώση του είναι δύναμη. Στις μέρες μας η Γουίκα είναι μια θρησκεία με πολλές παραλλαγές. Η Γουίκα, όπως και πολλές άλλες θρησκείες, αναγνωρίζει τη δυαδικότητα στο θείο. Τιμά τη Θεά και το Θεό."

(''WICCA, A GUIDE FOR THE SOLITARY PRACTITIONER'' 1988, Scott Cunningham, Llwellyn Publications Woodbury MN)

Approaching the Tao

IF YOU CANNOT REACH IT WITH YOUR MIND,

USE YOUR BODY.

IF YOU CANNOT REACH IT, WITH WITH YOUR

MIND NOR YOUR BODY,

CRAWL UNTIL YOU DO.

Η οφιολατρεία ανά τον κόσμο

 Ο ΟΦΙΣ : ΕΓΩ, ΤΟ ΑΠΑΝ

''Ο τρομερός θεός των Αζτέκων Κουετζαλκοάτλ ήταν ένας θεός-φίδι. Στην Αυστραλία υπήρχε η λατρεία του δαιμονικού φιδιού, την οργή του οποίου προσπαθούσαν να κατευνάσουν με διάφορες τελετές οι ιθαγενείς, οι Αμπορίτζιναλς, ένα έθιμο που συνεχίζεται ως σήμερα.

 Στην Αφρική το κέντρο της οφιολατρείας ήταν η Αίγυπτος. Επίσης στο Ουάυδαχ υπήρχε και ναός όπου φυλασσονταν πενήντα φίδια! Τέλος, στην Αμερική ορισμένες ινδιάνικες φυλές απέδιδαν στο φίδι τη δύναμη να ρυθμίζει τους ανέμους." 

(Από το ομώνυμο βιβλίο ''Οφιολατρεία'' του Χρήστου Ντικμπασάνη, Εκδόσεις Δαιδάλεος 2022)

A thought on ''No boundary''

The prospect of death is not a threat from within. Wilber is not referring to physical death, rather, as he puts it ''They (the mystics) don’t mean physically dead; they mean dead to the separate-self sense.'' 

The four Tantras of Yoga

...it is of importance for the student of history and of religious origins to know that the Lamas recognize four chief classes of yogic Tantras, which may be briefly described as follows: (1) Tantras expository of the Thatness, or Ultimate Truth, and (2) of the Occult, or Mystic, Sciences; (3) the Yogini, or Shakti, Tantras; and (4) the Kalachakra Tantras.

 According to lamaic tradition, the first class had origin 'in the east' (which probably refers to eastern Bengal) in the time of King Rab-sal (Rab-gsal), who is believed to have flourished before the beginning of the Christian era. The second class arose through Nagarjuna and his followers during the second and third century of the Christian era, 'in the south' (which refers to Southern India). The third class, to which this Book and Book IV are related, is traceable to a learned teacher called Lawapa, of Urgyan (or Odyana), the ancient name of a region now comprised within the territory of Afghanistan, 'in the west' of India. It was Padma Sambhava, also of Urgyan, who first introduced and popularized among the Tibetans this class of Tantras. Padma Sambhava, otherwise known by his followers as Guru Rinpoch'e, the 'Precious Guru', is credited with having had eight Indian gurus belonging to eight different Schools of Buddhism. ... The fourth class, consisting of the Kalachakra Tantras, is said to have originated 'in the north', in Shambala, and to have been introduced into India about A.D. 600.

(From ''Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines: Seven Books of Wisdom of the Great Path, according to the late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English rendering'' by W.Y. Evans-Wentz)

A Brother Comes Down from the Hills

"I had walked far and was seated on the side of the road, hot and exhausted, when I saw him...

... I was returning from the last farewell to the dearest friend I had in the world.

His eyes looked straight ahead and he seemed not to see me slumped there in the dust. There was an eagerness about him. He looked as though he might be sensing the approach of something with wings that might arrive and take him unaware, and more than anything he wanted to meet it and be caught up in the glory. I was hardly aware of this impression before it was gone and I thought perhaps the sun had touched my head and the whole thing, even the man himself, was an illusion.''

(From ''BEHOLD WE COME'', written by Nancy Fullwood)