Reference to "Sky-gazing" in Vijnana-bhairava

[dwight at unixg.ubc.ca]

Dear Mr. Shailendra,

Your reference to "sky-gazing" in the "Vijnana-bhairava" I think has little
to do with astronomy or the like. It is a technique for merging the
spacious of the
mind which is clear, radiant and empty with its similitude the sky. In the Bud-
dhist tantric work called the "Prajnaparamita-upadesa" by the Brahmin Aryadeva
which is a seminal founding work of the "Chedika" tradition (gcod) which
only survives in Tibetan, it recommends that the practitioner "blend his
mind with the vastness of the sky". This same practice which turns up in
Kasmir Saivite texts concerned with Pratyabhijna/Trika philosophy is also a
core practice of the "Santimaha" (rdzogs-chen) and mahamudra traditions
existings in Tibet and deriving from Indian sources. It is also a practice
in some existing Nath tradi- tions of India, but I am sure it does not
pertain to astronomy. Many of the living Gurus of some of these traditions
would verify this if asked.

                                                Dwight A. Tkatschow
                                                Ritsumeikan Institute
                                                University of British Columbia
                                                (dwight at unixg.ubc.ca)

 

Original-Received: from 
                   ellis.uchicago.edu by midway.uchicago.edu Sun, 24 Oct 93 
                   14:07:54 CDT
PP-warning: Illegal Received field on preceding line
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 93 14:07:09 CDT
From: james nye <jnye at midway.uchicago.edu>
To: indology at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Konkanasth Brahmins
In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 22 Oct 93 22:10:10 BST
Message-Id: <CMM.0.90.4.751489629.jnye at ellis.uchicago.edu>

Jitendra Khare inquired about the history of Konkanasth Brahmins last week.

Maureen L. P. Patterson has worked with the kulavrttantas of Maharashtra
Brahmins for many years.  She has a large personal collection of the texts.

The Oriental and India Office Collections of the British Library shows
several volumes in its several catalogs which may be of use.
  Konkanastha athava Citpavana ....  A 1916 imprint in Marathi.
  Gotramalika.  "A lits of gotras and family names of Brahmans of the
    Konkan."  1868 imprint.
  Others could be found using the subject catalog of the Marathi colletion.
James Nye
 


> From mehta at kc235-2.mgmt.purdue.edu 24 1993 Oct U 14:13:35
Date: 24 Oct 1993 14:13:35 U
From: "Mehta, Shailendra" <mehta at kc235-2.mgmt.purdue.edu>
Subject: RE: Reference to "Sky-gazing" in Vijnana-bhairava

Dwight A. Tkatschow writes:
_______________________________________________________________________________

 In the Bud-
dhist tantric work called the "Prajnaparamita-upadesa" by the Brahmin Aryadeva
which is a seminal founding work of the "Chedika" tradition (gcod) which
only survives in Tibetan, it recommends that the practitioner "blend his
mind with the vastness of the sky". This same practice which turns up in
Kasmir Saivite texts concerned with Pratyabhijna/Trika philosophy is also a
core practice of the "Santimaha" (rdzogs-chen) and mahamudra traditions
existings in Tibet and deriving from Indian sources. It is also a practice
in some existing Nath tradi- tions of India, but I am sure it does not
pertain to astronomy. Many of the living Gurus of some of these traditions
would verify this if asked.                                                    
                                 ______________________________________________

Thanks very much for the leads. Do you have any references to translations and
published originals of the works you cite ? I should add that I was pleasantly
surprised to find that Natha sects also practice these methods of meditatitive
star gazing. I have seen many works in their tradition without ever finding a
reference to these practices.


Shailendra.