I was invited when I was in Dharamshala, India in January 1986 to see the Nechung Oracle in action. However, I sensed that this was beyond what I could endure as an intuitive. Because I didn't fully understand the culture then. When I returned to the U.S. to the home mostly made of glass overlooking the ocean then I lived in then from a high cliff, Geshela returned with me and my family for a couple of months to stay with us in our home with his translator who was a relative of his from Darjeeling, India.
I asked him if I was an oracle, mistakenly perceiving what an oracle was in western traditions. However, he said an oracle wasn't a spiritual person because what they had to endure would kill a spiritually oriented person like myself. "No," he said, "an oracle can only do what they do because they don't have clairvoyant abilities so they are a direct channel to the dieties that possess their bodies."
He told me my gifts were in a different direction than an oracle's because what an oracle is is a rare person who can become possessed by dieties to tell the future. He said primarily the only gift an oracle has is being opened to being possessed by the dieties protecting Tibet and the dharma.
I realized at that time I had no religious or cultural idea at that point what had been going on. I also realized not accepting the invitation to see a Tibetan Oracle in action might have saved my life because I wasn't spiritually or culturally prepared for an experience like that when I was in Dharamshala, India.
One thing I do know is that often Oracles lift off the ground and fly around the room. So, in order to keep their bodies on the ground they put a 150 pound headdress on them which a human being ordinarily could not withstand without breaking their necks. However, when a human oracle is possessed by the Dieties it keeps him from flying around the room so the monks and Tibetan Lamas in Attendance can better understand what he is saying about the future. This tradition is one of hundreds of years going back at least 500 years and maybe further to ascertain the future. So, they have developed methods to keep the human oracle alive during this process as a vessel of the dieties.
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nechung_OracleThe Nechung Oracle is the State Oracle of Tibet. The medium of the State Oracle currently resides with the current Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. Prior to the ...
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This page was last modified on 8 March 2014 at 19:12.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nechung Oracle in 1938
The Nechung Oracle is the State Oracle of Tibet. The medium of the State Oracle currently resides with the current Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. Prior to the Himalayan diaspora resulting from the annexation of Tibet by the Chinese Cultural Revolution,[1] the Nechung Oracle was the designated head of the Nechung monastery in Tibet.[2]Part of a series on Tibetan Buddhism
Contents
History
In Tibet and throughout the greater Himalayan region, oracles have, and continue to play, an important part in revelation, religion, doctrine, and prophecy. In Tibet, the Nechung Oracle and other oracles on occasion, have also played principal roles assisting governmental decision-making and providing intelligence on pressing matters of state, and perhaps most importantly aid in the provision of security for the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.
There are a number of oracular traditions within the Himalaya of which the Nechung is but one. The word "oracle" is used by Tibetans to refer to the spirit, deity, or entity that temporarily (or various styles of periodic or ongoing possession depending on the tradition) possesses or enters those men and women who act as media between the phenomenal natural world and the subtle spiritual realms. These media are, therefore, known as kuten, which literally means, "the physical basis". Post-possession, the medium may require protracted convalescence.
The tulku of the institution of the Dalai Lama consults the oracle known as the Nechung Oracle, which is considered the Official State Oracle of the government of Tibet. The Nechung was formerly a Nyingma tradition. He gives a complete description of the process of trance and possession in his book Freedom in Exile.[3]
Beginnings
Pearlman (2002: p. 94) frames the inauguration and installation of the tradition of the State Oracle by identifying key stakeholders: Padmasambhava, Samye, Vajrakilaya, Dharma, sangha, genius loci:
"When Padmasambhava consecrated Samye Monastery with the Vajrakilaya dance, he tamed the local spirit protector, Pehar Gyalp, and bound him by oath to become the head of the entire hierarchy of Buddhist protective spirits. Pehar, later known as Dorje Drakden, became the principal protector of the Dalai Lamas, manifesting through the Nechung Oracle.
The rite of the Oracle possessing the kuten is ancient, entering the tradition from the Bonpo and Ngagpa, and traditionally involves a detailed evocative liturgy including such elements as fanfare, dance, mudra and mantra to invoke the Oracle who forcefully projects their mindstream via the discipline of phowa, temporarily possessing the physical basis.
According to the Dalai Lama, "Tibetans rely on oracles for various reasons. The purpose of the oracles is not just to foretell the future. They are called upon as protectors and sometimes used as healers. However, their primary function is to protect the Buddha Dharma and its practitioners."[2]
Key prophecies
Pearlman (2002: p. 94) relates two prophecies prophesied by the Nechung Oracle: the famous prophecy that during the Year of the Tiger Tibet would encounter a grave and "great difficulty"; and the fortuitous second prophecy outlining the flight from Tibet of the Jewel of the Compassionate Ocean, an epiphet for the Dalai Lama:
"In 1947 Lobsang Jigme, the Tibetan State Oracle, prophesied that in the Year of the Tiger, 1950, Tibet would face great difficulty. In 1951, Lobsang Jigme fell ill, some say because of his repeated troubling visions, and for years was unable to walk without assistance. In 1959, after predicting the Dalai Lama's flight, Lobsang Jigme spent two months walking to India with His Holiness. His illness was eventually cured."[2]
Ceremony
Pearlman (2002: p. 94-95) describes the ritual investiture of the Nechung Oracle that is constituted by sacred symbols and iconography in the colours of the Five Pure Lights and Mahabhuta and includes lungta, bija and dhvaja:
"On formal occasions, the Kuten is dressed in an elaborate costume consisting of several layers of clothing topped by a highly ornate robe of golden silk brocade, which is covered with ancient designs in red and blue and green and yellow [colors traditionally subscribed to the Mahabhuta]. On his chest he wears a circular mirror which is surrounded by clusters of turquoise and amethyst, its polished steel flashing with the Sanskrit mantra corresponding to Dorje Drakden. Before the proceedings begin, he also puts on a sort of harness, which supports four flags and three victory banners. Altogether, this outfit weighs more than seventy pounds and the medium, when not in trance, can hardly walk in it."[4]
In addition to this regalia, when the Kuten's trance deepens, the assistants that have been supporting the medium place a headress on his head which weighs approximately 30 pounds, though in former times it weighed over 80. (Pearlman, 2002: p. 96) The circular mirror is a divine attribute and tool, known as a melong (Tibetan: "mirror"), that is a common symbol of Dzogchen and Dzogchen teachings[citation needed].
See also
Notes
- For greater detail regarding the annexation refer: Tibetan sovereignty debate.
- Pearlman, Ellen (2002). Tibetan Sacred Dance: a journey into the religious and folk traditions. Rochester, Vermont, USA: Inner Traditions. ISBN 0-89281-918-0, p.94
- The Government of Tibet in Exile. Nechung - The State Oracle of Tibet.[dead link]
- Pearlman, Ellen (2002). Tibetan Sacred Dance: a journey into the religious and folk traditions. Rochester, Vermont, USA: Inner Traditions. ISBN 0-89281-918-0, p.94-95
References
- Pearlman, Ellen (2002). Tibetan Sacred Dance: a journey into the religious and folk traditions. Rochester, Vermont, USA: Inner Traditions. ISBN 0-89281-918-0
- Havnevik, Hanna. A Tibetan Female State Oracle
External links
- Nechung - The State Oracle of Tibet
- Documentary about Tibetan oracles by David Cherniack
- CD Recording of the Nechung Monks in Dharamsala
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nechung Oracle. [show]
end quote from:
Nechung Oracle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It is interesting to me and likely to you as well that it was the Nechung Oracle who came through to tell the Dalai Lama the exact day and time to leave Tibet for India to establish the Tibetan government in Exile there.
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