Vaj wrote: > Actually the phurba cult has been known in the west for many > decades, esp. due to Alexandra David-Neel's description of it > in regards to levitating yogins. > Alexandra David-Neel probably got her first phurbu from Lama Yongden in 1912. In "The Golden Child" Eddie Murphy asks the Lama for the magic dagger. According to Swami Rama of the Himlayas, Swami Brahmanand gor his Sri Yantra from his teacher, Swami Krishanand of Sringeri. At any rate, my point was that there are many and sundry devices used for transcending.
> 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. > 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. 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.
