On Jan 6, 2007, at 12:20 PM, Richard J. Williams wrote:
The original, pre-Buddhist phurba cult originally centered around
the Horse: The Wind Horse.
There's no "pre-Buddhist phurba" - you prbably meant pre-Tibetan
Buddhist phurba. The oldest evidence of a phurba iconographic device
is dated to the Gupta Age, long after the birth of the historical
Buddha.
Yes, I was referring to it's use in Bon tantric practices which pre-
date the introduction of Tantric Buddhism to Tibeto-Himalaya. The
original phurbas--called "kilas" in Sanskrit were also used in Vedic
and pre-Vedic rites and were hand-carved from wood. Nomadic yogin-
magicians used to use them also as tent stakes--the center pole of
their tents being a ritual trident.
In fact early phurbas bear a horses head.
Maybe so, but apparently the phurba symbol is really just another
version of the pole or axis mundi, probably non-Vedic.
Actually the use of kilas in Vedic praxis was to hold sacrifices:
human, animal, whatever.
In Tantric Buddhism it's used to slay the demons, personal or
collective.
But there's no
evidence that the historical Buddha used to wield a left-handed dart
or dagger. In fact, the Shakya didn't even own a stick, according to
what I'vce read.
Shakyamuni used to hang with some pretty wild Shaivites, I'm sure he
was familiar with the use of magical or spiritual weapons. It's
actually less unusual in their culture than in the west. He was
opposed to Vedic yagyas, so I seriously doubt he would've used a
kila--they were more the choice of later tantric Buddhists.
