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Books > Mind, Body & Spirit > The Occult
This book examines Sami shamanism in Norway as a uniquely
distinctive local manifestation of a global new religious
phenomenon. It takes the diversity and hybridity within shamanic
practices seriously through case studies from a Norwegian setting
and highlights the ethnic dimension of these currents, through a
particular focus on Sami versions of shamanism. The book's thesis
is that the construction of a Sami shamanistic movement makes sense
from the perspective of the broader ethno-political search for a
Sami identity, with respect to connections to indigenous peoples
worldwide and trans-historically. It also makes sense in economic
and marketing terms. Based on more than ten years of ethnographic
research, the book paints a picture of contemporary shamanism in
Norway in its cultural context, relating it both to the local
mainstream cultures in which it is situated and to global networks.
By this, the book provides the basis for a study revealing the
development of inventiveness, nuances and polyphony that occur when
a global religion of shamanism is merged in a Norwegian setting,
colored by its own political and cultural circumstances.
The Book of the Law, the holy text that forms the basis of Thelema,
was transmitted to Crowley by the entity known as Aiwass in Cairo,
on three successive days during April 1904. Acting as a medium,
Crowley recorded the communications on hotel notepads and later
organized his automatic writing into a short, coherent document.
Aiwass/Crowley presents The Book of the Law as an expression of
three god-forms in three chapters: Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
This book answers the question to the most concealed practice in
the Bardo Todol, commonly known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
What is the true intent of the Secret of the Four Wisdoms Gathered
into the Clear Hollow Mysterious Passage of Vajrasatva? After
eliminating all other possibilities you will discover that Trekcho
and Togal are the one answer to this mystery. The encounter with
the Vajrasatva Mystery is an Imbedded Clue to Trekcho and Togal
which reveal Clear Light Evenness, not only in the after death
state, but equally in the living state. Trekcho, Letting Go and
Togal, the Four Stages of Soaring On or Skull Crossing are the
deepest secrets of Dzogchen, the Natural Great Completion. In
Nyingma these are restricted secret practices kept from the public
eye. Whereas, in the Kagyu school and Bonpo tradition these same
methods are open to one and all. You are the decider on these two
attitudes. Let your thought be lighted by the words of the Lion of
the Sakyas, "Ananda? I have set forth the Dharma without making any
distinction of esoteric and exoteric doctrine; there is nothing,
Ananda, with regard to the teachings that the Tathagata holds to
the last with the closed fist." I hope you will find the freedom of
your own experience in the detailed observations and in depth
examinations of these secret methods of Dzogchen. The text is in no
way, nor tries to be a teaching text, a manual, nor a guidebook on
Trekcho and Togal or Bardo, for I am in no way at all, a teacher,
an expert nor a guide in these practices. Nor do I ever wish to be
one. This essay is an answer to a life long question I have had
since reading the Bardo Thodol as a young person. "What is the true
meaning of Vajrasattva, the Mysterious Passageway and the Union of
the Four Wisdoms?" It just so happens that after one goes through
all possibilities of what this means one finally comes to the
sacred secret teachings of Dzogchen's Trekcho, Togal and Bardo. So
I have had to explain what little that I know about these special
secret practices to answer the primary question this text attempts
to answer. Why wade through the torrent of concepts on this when we
can go directly to the clear, most reasonable and satisfactory
answers that leave no shadow of hesitation? Vajrasattva stands for
the Primordial Clear Light Void as Love and Compassion. The secret
Mysterious Way of the pure Clear Passage of Vajrasatva is the Kati,
running from the Heart to the Eyes. Within this Kati are the Four
Lamps. From Clear Light, through the Open Kati these Lamps give
forth an arising to the Four Togal Appearances. Since it is found
in the highest wisdom texts from Dzogchen on Trekcho, Togal and
Bardo and Tibetan's favorite book on guidance in the afterlife, it
is worthy of taking a serious look.
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