With a Clear Mind, we can Create a Clear World
Our consciousness is like an artist:
— Buddha
creator of all realms of existence.
All of this is created by the versatile mind.
The Cultures Close to Nature
Since ancient times, in various parts of the universe, the Inner Path has operated at the heart of numerous cultures. Even on our Earth, traces of such advanced cultures have survived from ancient times, and even today, we can encounter communities that maintain these traditions. These cultures strive to build an enlightened society, for which the path leads through purifying consciousness. The peoples of these cultures live in harmony with their inner, true nature of mind, enabling them to cleanse, maintain clarity, and balance the external forces of nature. This is possible because neither our inner mind nor the external world of nature fundamentally arise from anything other than perfectly open and free possibilities. These possibilities are not originally restricted by anything and it solely depends on us, as perceivers of phenomena, to shape what takes form from the infinite possibilities. It entirely depends on us—our consciousness’s attributes and preparedness—how we shape our world from the elusive, free, and infinite possibilities that do not limit our choices in any way.
According to Idries Shah, the great Sufi scholar
Our Mind and the World are Inseparable
Our mind and the world are inseparable; our inner selves and the external world are mutually interdependent, and the creative power of the external natural order is within our internal nature. Therefore, it is crucial in what state our mind resides. A confused, impure, tense, and violent mind creates a chaotic, suffering-filled world. In contrast, a pure, relaxed, liberated, open, gentle, and loving mind creates a world that is free and happy, where love is the primary creative force and service to the well-being of all beings—family, nation, and ultimately all beings—is selfless. Therefore, the cultures close to nature prioritize above all else the natural state of mind, which is a natural, free, gentle, and happy state free from all artificiality, force, and elaboration. This is reflected in their entire way of life, and achieving this is the ultimate aspiration of the entire society.
It is revered by buddhists, bonpos and hindus alike.
Buddhists identify Kailas with the tantric meditation deity Demcsog and his consort Dorje Pamo
Wakefulness, Dream, and Vision
The reality of individuals following the Inner Path of the cultures close to nature differs significantly from that of the individuals shaped by today’s civilization with its elaborations. Their worldview and experience are fundamentally based on different values, and they emphasize the development of different capabilities of consciousness than the Western individual conditioned for rational thinking. For them, the states of wakefulness, dream, and vision are not fundamentally distinct, just as the boundaries of the present, past, future are more easily traversable because they know from experience that the states of dream and wakefulness, past, present, and future, and even death and the experiences following death are all experiences of the same underlying mind. In their dreams and visions, they may encounter enlightened beings, gods, saints, and their intermediaries who speak to them and provide teachings, healing power, and assistance. Thus, they can easily access knowledge and help not limited by our fundamentally determining concepts of space and time, which are so crucial to us. In the heart of cultures close to nature, such enlightened divine knowledge and activity operate—and all of this arises from the nature of mind. Mind inherently possesses these attributes.
in heaven and on earth
Galloping “táltos” paripa – Scythian culture,
Issik, Inner Asia, 5-4. century BC.
Felt carpet sample – Pazyrik, Inner Asia, 6-3. century BC.
Felt carpet pattern – Pazyrik, Inner Asia, 4. century BC
Gold treasure from Nagyszentmiklós,
VII–VIII. century AD, Hungary
Enlightened Scythian Society
Herodotus writes about a particular group of Scythians known as the Argippaeans:
„The Argippaeans live at the foot of high mountains. Both men and women are bald, with flat noses and long chins. They speak their own language. They dress like the Scythians. They drink the thick black juice of a certain kind of tree fruit, sometimes mixed with milk. From the residue left after pressing the fruit, they make a cake-like food which they consume instead of meat, as they keep few sheep in their country.
They live under trees, which they surround with thick white felt for the winter, but in the summer, they remove this felt covering (similar to the Indian wigwam, a simpler form of yurt, known among the Scythians, Huns, Mongols, and Siberian peoples – translator’s note).
No one harms this people, for they hold them sacred. They have no weapons. If their neighbors quarrel, they resolve the dispute, and if someone flees to them, they find refuge from any harm. These bald people say that those living in the neighboring rocky mountains have feet like goats (goats are good climbers), and beyond the mountains, there are people who spend half the year sleeping (this may refer to people like those in Ladakh and Zanskar, who spend the extremely cold, long winter in underground cellars, pits – translator’s note). To the east of the bald men live the Issedonians (Wusun), and the northern territories are unknown to us.”
Many consider the Argippaeans to be the ancestors of the modern Kalmyks living near the Volga. However, Byung-mo Kim, a Korean historian, writes the following about them:
„The bald Argippaeans lived in present-day Pazyryk, in the highlands of the Altai Mountains. The later Scythian culture excavated in Pazyryk dates back to the 3rd century BCE. Buddhism was spreading worldwide during this time. Therefore, I assume that the Argippaeans might have been Buddhist monks and nuns. It is possible that the Scythians carried the news from the Altai region to the nomads of the steppes, who then transmitted it to the Black Sea, where Herodotus lived.” 1
Herodotus’ significant account provides information about the Scythian people living in an enlightened, sacred, peaceful, and non-violent society. His description supports the historical existence of enlightened empires – Olmo Lungring, Shambhala, Orgyen – as preserved in Buddhist and Bön traditions of Central and Inner Asia. It is believed that in these empires, the entire population attained enlightenment.
1 Byung-mo Kim, Chairman, Korea Institute of Heritage “Geography” is the Father of History
http://english.historyfoundation.or.kr/data/Newsletterlist/1004_eng/sub01.html
The Sacred World in the Ancient Tradition of the Scythians
The mandala is the pure world of enlightened mind
Experiencing the sacredness of the world is synonymous with recognizing the primordial wisdom reflected in countless phenomena. This wisdom is both ancient and youthful and can never be tainted or weakened by the transient troubles of the world.
Chögyam Trungpa
The Scythian peoples with a close connection to nature built an enlightened society. Records attest to their success in this endeavor in various places, such as the Shambala and Orgyen kingdoms in Central Asia, where tradition holds that the entire population achieved enlightenment. The perception of the sacredness of the world was instrumental in attaining enlightenment, extending to both the environment and all living beings within it. Heaven and earth, sun-moon-stars, mountains-valleys, forests-fields, grass-trees-flowers, lakes, springs, rivers, clearings, and groves were sacred to them. Additionally, nature was full of special sacred places, many of which are known today. Animals were also considered sacred, and their extraordinary powers assisted humanity. Time and all its elements were part of the path to enlightenment, as reflected in the daily life and order of festivities.
It’s form represents the typical Scythian-Hungarian symbol system, in this case, the tree of life, tree of knowledge, or tree of God.
The human body, soul, spirit, and mind were also sacred, serving as abodes of gods within. Inside the sacred body, gods dwelled in marvelous palaces. In all their activities and creative, productive work, the Scythians used the knowledge received from the enlightened ones. Therefore, the recognition of the sacredness of the world was manifested in all their creations, such as the structure, order, and functioning of the entire society, laws, communal life, and customs and rituals related to events in an individual’s life and death, the arrangement and ceremonial role of cities, villages, and even individual households and the layout of tents or houses.
The Divine Origin of Sciences and Arts
Our Scythian ancestors received both sciences and arts from the enlightened ones, who not only passed on the knowledge but also provided the methods and keys to maintain continuous communication with them. Thus, individuals could enjoy their assistance and protection while preserving their sacred connection. For agriculture and other vital tasks, they received tools and even domestic animals from the celestial beings. Simultaneously, they were aware that these beings resided not in some distant heaven but in the pure wisdom-power field within themselves.
Central Asian Bön and the Hungarian Táltos Tradition
How wonderful!
— Buddha
Everything is perfect,
just as it is.
Prehistoric Inner Path
To revive our tradition, we can draw great help from studying ancient Central and Inner Asian spiritual traditions. Tibetan masters are the contemporary bearers of the ancient Scythian-Hun knowledge. In their living tradition passed down through generations and in their numerous sacred texts, they faithfully transmit the knowledge today.
Padmasambhava, Born of the Lotus, was an enlightened master born in the Orgyen Empire in Central Asia.
He founded the Buddhist inner path in Tibet
The Scythian-Hun peoples, populating Central and Inner Asia since prehistoric times, interacted with each other in various ways: through marriage, political alliances, trade, cultural exchanges, religious ceremonies, armed conflicts, and more. An important region for the formation of peoples and cultural interactions was the Tarim Basin and the present-day northeast Tibetan areas of Gansu and Amdo, which have been connected to the vast Shang-shung Empire located in what is now North and West Tibet, which at the time had much more fertile land than today.
The Prehistoric Bön 2
Bönpo sources and D. Ermakov’s research reveal that Shang-shung Bön, ancient Chinese Wu, and proto-Mongol Bo murgel were all different but related branches of the same prehistoric Inner Path practiced by the Scythian-Hun peoples living in various regions of Inner and Central Asia, as well as Europe.
This ancient spiritual path finds its fulfillment today in the Swastika Bön, which shares many fundamental similarities with later Buddhism. Its first teacher, the enlightened Buddha Tönpa Shenrab Miwo, was born in what is now Tajikistan and its surroundings, in the ancient Olmo Lungring empire. The living tradition that continues today is passed down through generations by oral transmission, accompanied by substantial written material. It is not a religion in today’s sense, nor is it the path of shamanistic methods; rather, it is an inner path, the essence of inner development, an inner journey that primarily utilizes meditation, just like the later Scythian Sage Buddha’s tradition. It encompasses the steps of inner development described in Buddhism: the Narrow Path, the Broad Path, the Diamond Path, as well as the teachings of Great Perfection. Therefore, Bönpo masters and present-day researchers consider it the older tradition of Buddhism, originating from a previous Buddha. In our time, Tibetan Buddhist masters recognize Bön as the fifth among the four major Tibetan Buddhist traditions.
2 The following paragraph is based on research by D. Ermakov: Bo and Bön – Vajra, Kathmandu, 2008
Bön and the Hungarian Táltos Tradition
Tönpa Senrab Buddha is believed to have been born around 17,000 BCE according to tradition, although some modern researchers place his birth in the 1700s BCE. The Inner Path of Bön has profoundly influenced the spirituality of entire Eurasia for millennia, and the Scythian-Hun peoples were no exception. On the contrary, it seems that, like the other present-day inheritors of Scythian-Hun culture, we Hungarians also have this tradition in the deeper layers of our culture. It continues to define fundamental values and patterns that shape our worldview, thinking, spirituality, philosophy, and our relationship with the world, reality, ourselves, and other beings up to this day. This is clearly evident in various elements of our folk culture, such as our tales and folk art, as well as in the surviving memories of our táltos tradition, preserved, for example, in the Rábaköz region. It is well known that the táltos in Rábaköz referred to their tradition as Böün, showing a significant connection to Bön.
