Scythian-Hungarian philosophy had a profound influence on the cultures of Eurasia, including the Central Eurasian Scythian Belt, as well as the peripheral cultures of Europe, Iran, India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Polynesia and the American Indians. It also had a significant influence on the development of Bön, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity.
Some of the Key Tenets of Scythian Philosophy and Inner Spiritual Path:
- The nature of reality: Scythian philosophy teaches that reality is not what it seems. What we experience as reality is a complex and illusory world created by our minds. The true nature of all beings is fundamentally pure and enlightened. The fundamental nature of reality is the lack of inherent self-identity. The fundamental nature of reality is consciousness, which is ultimately unconditioned.
- The path to enlightenment: Although all beings are inherently enlightened, divine in nature, we do not realize this, and therefore we experience suffering. Liberation is the state of freedom from suffering and is achieved through the practice of compassion, wisdom and skillful means. The path to enlightenment is a journey of self-discovery. It involves understanding the true nature of reality and overcoming our attachments to conditioned existence. All beings have the capacity to attain enlightenment.
- Compassion is the most important quality of the enlightened warrior, the practitioner of the Scythian inner spiritual path.
- The practice of meditation: Meditation is the most important practice in the tradition of Scythian philosophy. It is a way of training the mind to be aware of the present at all times and to see the world as it really is.
- The power of visualization: Visualization is a powerful tool for spiritual growth. It involves creating mental images of the sacredness of the world and the beings in it, which can help us develop our understanding of the teachings and experience the true nature of reality.
- Karma is the law of cause and effect and our actions determine our future experiences.
- We should strive to live according to the principles of truth, compassion and wisdom.
The main tenets of Scythian-Hungarian philosophy are often summarised in very pithy metaphors, such as those used to introduce Hungarian stories:
“There was, there was not; once upon a time, on this side of the Tisza, beyond the Danube, and even beyond the Sea of Óperenciás, on the seventieth island of the Sea of Fire, there was a terribly small garden. In this small garden there was a terribly large garden.”
„There was, there was not; it was across the Sea of Óperenciás, and on this side of the glass mountains; there was a fallen in, fallen out oven that had not even a tiny sidewall; where it was good it was bad, where it was bad it was good; yet seventy-seven baking trays of scones were baked in it. Three naked gypsy children walked up to it, each shuffling the scones down the front of his shirt.”
Our Hungarian tales are the treasure trove of the essential spiritual teachings of the enlightened masters, one of the main sources of the philosophy and practical guidance of the Scythian-Hungarian Inner Path. Apart from the tales, the main sources are the vast body of teachings of the great Scythian masters preserved in the scriptures of Buddhist, Bonpo, Taoist and other traditions, and the oral instructions of the masters handed down from generation to generation.
There was, there was not – explanation:
The fundamental dual nature of mind and reality, its ambiguity and multi-layered meaning. There are two truths: apparent truth and ultimate truth. The story takes place at the level of illusory truth. Truth, indeed reality itself, is a matter of perspective. The basic nature of reality is the constant movement between being and non-being.
The seventieth island of the sea of fire – explanation:
The island is the isolated mind. The sea of fire is the wall erected by the isolated mind to separate itself from others and from reality. Fire and water are extreme opposites, as can be the wandering thoughts and feelings of the confused mind. The burning water shows that the confused mind is not only tossing between extremes, but that it is suffering and consuming itself in the process.
Small garden in which the big garden is located – explanation:
The small garden is the mind, the big garden is the world. The world is in the mind. The world is created by the mind. The movement of the mind creates the things of the world.
Oven with wall fallen in, fallen out – explanation:
It means that the world is an ungraspable appearance. The play of phenomena between being and non-being is constantly going on, and we are tossed back and forth between the two.
There was, there was not – explanation:
“There was, there was not” – “once there was, there was not” – is a philosophical proposition with many implications and applications. It is the basis of all Hungarian tales, and it is the approach that appears in all tales. The recognition of this truth is the basic premise of all tales. In the practice of the Inner Path, this is the meaning:
“Somewhere, sometime, you must accept something as truth.
But if you cling to it too much,
Even if the truth comes to you personally and knocks on your door,
You’re not going to open it.”
This gives the right way to recognize the truth, which is all the more important at the beginning of the story because the story is about the truths of the Inner Path. For followers of the Inner Path, ‘there was, there was not’ also means that we have been enlightened, happy, pure and perfect since beginningless time. But we cannot recognize this. Therefore, from time to time, out of infinite compassion for beings, enlightened teachers assume an illusory body and come among us. By example and teaching, they show us apparent truths that can lead us to the path of pure truth. Such teaching is the fairy tale. They do this because truth is “inconceivable, inexpressible, never born, never ceasing, of the same nature as infinite space”, like the light of our miracle deer, which is “lit without being lit, and extinguished without being extinguished”.
“I prostrate myself to my pure mind
Which is the inner teacher,
The source of all good, visible and invisible.
Beings are always in time and space,
If beings are in time,
My inner teacher in time dances a magic dance.
If beings are in space,
My inner teacher does a magic dance in space.
If you examine it well, you’ll never stay anywhere,
You’re a mere apparition.
To all that never stays,
The teacher within, I prostrate.”
“Seen from afar, the scarecrow appears as a man.
What else appears then but your own mind.”
The man who appears in the mind through delusion instead of the scarecrow gives a sense of external reality. In truth, this image is only the mind’s imagination, like a dream image appearing in the mind, like waves appearing on the water. Just as the wave cannot be separated from the water, so this image is the mind itself.