Secret Alias wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2023 9:33 am
Just show me an example in Buddhism where:
1. a chronology was developed from some fixed point in history
2. a "messianic figure" is said to have appeared within that chronology and predicted from that chronology (i.e. prophesies, predictions, fortune telling)
3. and where that "messianic figure" is known to have never existed.
That's what it's all about.
Why do you insist upon such strict parallels? Earlier in this thread, you were only seeking a novel upon which a religion was based. I think that you are moving the goalposts.
But bcause you are so insistant, I will tell you that I have mentioned the Kalacakra Tantra as an example of such a text and a tradition, although it is not mainstream within Buddhism.
I understand that the Kalacakra Tantra has a very elaborate calendrical system anmd is about how in another world, a benewvolent Buddhist ruler rules in peace in the world Shambhala and in a specified year in the future (which can be calculated within the Gregorian calendar) he will arrive upon our world and destroy a world-spanning Islamic empire.
Again, I have very little interest in or knowledge of the Kalacakra Tantra, which even among Buddhist sects which believe it - of which mine is not 1 - it is considered to be restricted to spiritual elites.
But a convenient introduction to the Kalcakra Tantra's claims and development, written by the scholar Dr. Alexander Berzin (PhD in 1972 from Harvard University jointly between the Departments of Sanskrit and Indian Studies and Far Eastern Languages (Chinese)) - about whom you can read here:
https://studybuddhism.com/en/who-is-alexander-berzin has been provided here:
https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-s ... kalachakra
I quote:
The Compilation of The Abridged Kalachakra Tantra
From the point of view of Western scholarship, The Abridged Kalachakra Tantra and its main commentary, Stainless Light, are probably combinations of portions written in different places at different times. It is difficult, however, to date their compilation, in Sanskrit, in their present full form.
The Abridged Kalachakra Tantra (I.27) states that 403 years before the establishment of the sixty-year prabhava (Tib. rab-‘byung) calendar cycle was the year of the lord of the mlecchas, namely Muhammad. Accordingly, the first sixty-year Kalachakra cycle began in 1027 CE. The Tibetan astrological tradition considers this the year that the Kalachakra teachings were introduced to Tibet from India. This assertion refers to the Kalachakra calendar and the calculations for preparing it.
Other Tibetan scholars have taken 1027 CE to be the year when the Kalachakra teachings entered India. Kedrub Je, however, after citing this opinion and analyzing the texts, concluded that it was difficult to say with any certainty that this was the year that Kalachakra entered India. The Kalachakra texts simply state that the first 60-year cycle starts then.
At least one place where the Kalachakra teachings would have been available by 1027 would have been Kashmir. At the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries CE, Kashmir was a center for both Buddhist and Hindu Shaivite tantra. The presence of Kalachakra teachings in Kashmir prior to 1027 could indicate that some details about the battle against the non-Indic invaders were later added to an earlier stratum. Thus, despite the Kalachakra texts predicting the non-Indic invasion to take place in 2424 CE, the texts might have been basing their description of the future battle on the past invasion of Kashmir by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1015 or 1021 and his defeat purportedly by the tantric means of Buddhist mantras. Since the Ghaznavids had already taken Multan by this time, the Kalachakra compilers could have been confusing Ismaili beliefs with those of Sunni Islam. Based on such confusion, they would have ascribed a modified Ismaili list of prophets to the Sunni invaders and incorrectly believed that Mahmud of Ghazni had declared himself Mahdi, which he never did.
Moreover, according to the Kalachakra texts, the non-Indic invasion will be launched from Delhi (Skt. Dili). Delhi, here, cannot refer to the actual city with that name, which was built only in the twelfth century CE, long after the Kalachakra literature appeared in India. The name appears in Indian literature, however, as early as the first century BCE, to refer to a larger area around what later became the city of Delhi, probably eastern Punjab. Mahmud’s attack on the Lohara fort and Kashmir, then, was, in fact, launched from Delhi.
Further, Kashmir seems to have been the likely model for the geographical description of Shambhala. Like Shambhala, the Srinagar valley of Kashmir is surrounded by a ring of snow mountains and has in its center the two-sectioned Dal Lake.
Summary
Regardless of the significance of 1027 CE and the exact date of the compilation of the Kalachakra texts, it is clear that the list of the non-Indic invaders’ prophets found in them is an adaptation of the Ismaili list. In addition, it seems quite likely that the historical reference of the invasion of Shambhala is a conflation of the Multan Fatimid Ismaili threat to the Sunni Ghaznavids in eastern Afghanistan and the attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni against the Hindu Shahis in Gandhara, Oddiyana, and the Indian Punjabi vicinity of Kashmir.
And here are other sources about the Kalacakra Tantra, from
https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-s ... bliography
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Bernbaum, Edwin. The Mythic Journey and Its Symbolism: A Study of the Development of Buddhist Guidebooks to Shambhala in Relation to Their Antecedents in Hindu Mythology. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1985.
_______. The Way to Shambhala. New York: Anchor Books, 1980.
Berzin, Alexander. "Buddhista Tantra" in Dharma-füzetek 5. Budapest: Buddhista Föiskola, 1996, 1-46.
_______. Guidelines for Receiving the Kalacakra Empowerment. Seattle: Dharma Friendship Foundation, 1989.
_______. Einführung in das Kalachakra-Tantra. Jägerndorf, Germany: Aryatara Institut, 1985.
_______. Einführung in Tantra. Munich: Aryatara Institut, 1993.
_______. "Enseñanza sobre Tantra" in Nagaryuna, no. 30, Valencia, Spain, July – Sept. 1995, 15-22.
_______. "Introduccion a los Compromisos y su Significado" in Nagaryuna, no. 3, Valencia, Spain, Oct – Nov 1988, 24-27.
_______. Introduction à l'Initiation de Kalatchakra. Lavaur, France: Institut Vajrayogini, 1986.
_______. "An Introduction to Tibetan Astronomy and Astrology" in Tibet Journal, vol. 12, no.1, Dharamsala, Spring 1987.
_______. "Kalachakra Initiatie" in Maitreya Magazine, vol.7, no.2, Emst, Holland, 1985.
_______. "Tibetan Astro Studies" in Chö-Yang, Year of Tibet Edition, Dharamsala, 1991, 181-192.
_______. "Tibetan Astrology and Astronomy" in Maitreya Magazine, vol 11, no. 4, Emst, Holland, 1989.
_______. "Tibetaanse Sternenkunde en Astrologie" in Maitreya Magazine, vol. 7, no. 3, Emst, Holland, 1985.
_______. "Tibetische Astro-Wissenschaften: Dem Karma auf der Spur" in Tibet und Buddhismus, vol. 40, Hamburg Germany, January-March, 1997.
_______. "Uvod u tibetsku astronomiju i astrologiju" in Kulture Istoka, vol. 10, Beograd, October- December, 1986.
_______. "Visualisatie" in Maitreya Magazine, vol. 9, no. 2, Emst, Holland, 1987.
Brauen, Martin. Das Mandala: Der heilige Kreis im tantrischen Buddhismus. Koln: DuMont, 1992.
Bryant, Barry. The Wheel of Time Sand Mandala: Visual Scripture of Tibetan Buddhism. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1995.
Bryant, Barry and Yignyen, Tenzin. Process of Initiation: The Indo-Tibetan Rite of Passage into Shambala: The Kalachakra Initiation. New York: Samaya Foundation and Namgyel Monastery, 1990.
Del Vico, Enrico (ed.). Kalachakra. Rome: Editalia Edizioni d'Italia, 1996.
Dhargyey, Geshe Ngawang, "Introduction à l'Initiation de Kalachakra" in Le Tibet Journal. Anduze, France: Editions Dharma, 1985.
_______. "Introduction to the Kalacakra Initiation" in Tibet Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, Dharamsala, July-September 1975; reprinted in Kalachakra Initiation, Madison, 1981. Madison, Wisconsin: Deer Park Books, 1985.
_______. Kalachakra Tantra. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1985.
Dikshit, K. N. "Buddhist Centres in Afghanistan" in India's Contribution to World Thought and Culture, Lokesh Chandra, et al. (eds.). Madras: Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee, 1970, 229-238.
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_______. "Materialien zur Geschichte des Sadanga Yoga III: Der sechsgliederige Yoga des Kalacakra Tantras," Asiatische Studien, vol. 37, no. 1 (1983), 25-45.
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Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, 3 vols. (vol. 1: The Classical Age of Islam). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974.
Hoffmann, Helmut. "Buddha's Preaching of the Kalacakra Tantra at the Stupa of Dhanyakataka" in German Scholars on India, vol. 1. Varanasi: Chowkhambha Sanskrit Series Office, 1973, 136-140.
_______. "Das Kalacakra, die letzte Phase des Buddhismus in Indien," Saeculum, vol. 15 (1964), 125-131.
_______. "Kalacakra Studies I: Manichaeism, Christianity and Islam in the Kalacakra Tantra," Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 13, no. 1 (1969), 52-73. "Kalacakra Studies I: Addenda et Corrigenda," Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 15, no. 4 (1972), 298-301.
_______. "Literaturhistorische Bemerkungen zur Sekoddeshatika des Nadapada" in Beiträge zur indischen Philologie und Altertumskunde, zum 70. Geburtstag dargebracht von der deutschen Indologie, Walther Schubring (ed.). Hamburg: Cram, De Gruyter, 1951, 140-147.
_______. "Manichaeism and Islam in the Buddhist Kalacakra System," in Proceedings of the IXth International Congress of the History of Religions 1958. Tokyo: 1960, 96-99.
Kalachakra Initiation, Madison, 1981. Madison, Wisconsin: Deer Park Books, 1985.
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_______. "The History and Geography of Shambhala" in Tibet Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, Dharamsala, July-September 1975.
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_______. The Outer Wheel of Time: Vajrayana Buddhist Cosmology in the Kalacakra Tantra. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1987.
_______. "The Paramadibuddha (the Kalacakra Mulatantra) and Its Relation to the Early Kalacakra Literature," Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 30 (1987), 93-102.
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_______. The Lost Kalacakra Mula Tantra on the Kings of Shambhala. (Kalacakra Research Publications, no. 1). Talent, Oregon: Eastern School, 1986.
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Sopa, Geshe Lhundub; Jackson, Roger; and Newman, John. The Wheel of Time, The Kalachakra in Context. Madison, Wisconsin: Deer Park Books, 1985.
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