DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.649#0073
48 MYSTIC IS51.
trod need, they go on to say, into Tibet from India via
Kashmir, in the year 1025 a.d. I cannot believe it
accidental that the beginning of the Tibetan era of
counting time, about which I shall have occasion to say
some words in a later chapter, coincides with the intro-
duction of this system. I am rather inclined to think
(though as far as I know, this has not yet been pointed
out as particularly important) that the readiness with
which this system was received made it appear at once so
important, that events were dated from its introduction.
The principal rites and formula? of mysticism and
the theories about their efficacy bear an extraordinary
analogy to the Shamanism of the Siberians, and are,
besides, almost identical with the Tantrika ritual of the
Hindus; for it promises endowment with supernatural
faculties far superior to the energy to be derived from
virtue and abstinence, and capable of leading to the union
with the deity, to the man who keeps in mind that all
three worlds exist in the imagination only and regulates
his actions accordingly. Its theories are laid down in two
series of works, which are known under the collective
titles of Dharams (in Tibetan Zung), and Tantras (in Ti-
betan Gyut). The DharanI formulae may be of con-
siderable antiquity, and it is not unlikely that already
the Mahayana leaders took some of them into their
books. The Tantras are of a more modern date, espe-
cially those of them, in which the observance of magical
practices is carried to a point which is an extreme
even for mysticism in any form. Wilson believes Tan-
trika notions to have originated in India in the early
trod need, they go on to say, into Tibet from India via
Kashmir, in the year 1025 a.d. I cannot believe it
accidental that the beginning of the Tibetan era of
counting time, about which I shall have occasion to say
some words in a later chapter, coincides with the intro-
duction of this system. I am rather inclined to think
(though as far as I know, this has not yet been pointed
out as particularly important) that the readiness with
which this system was received made it appear at once so
important, that events were dated from its introduction.
The principal rites and formula? of mysticism and
the theories about their efficacy bear an extraordinary
analogy to the Shamanism of the Siberians, and are,
besides, almost identical with the Tantrika ritual of the
Hindus; for it promises endowment with supernatural
faculties far superior to the energy to be derived from
virtue and abstinence, and capable of leading to the union
with the deity, to the man who keeps in mind that all
three worlds exist in the imagination only and regulates
his actions accordingly. Its theories are laid down in two
series of works, which are known under the collective
titles of Dharams (in Tibetan Zung), and Tantras (in Ti-
betan Gyut). The DharanI formulae may be of con-
siderable antiquity, and it is not unlikely that already
the Mahayana leaders took some of them into their
books. The Tantras are of a more modern date, espe-
cially those of them, in which the observance of magical
practices is carried to a point which is an extreme
even for mysticism in any form. Wilson believes Tan-
trika notions to have originated in India in the early