ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
¹ See video: Remembering the Masters—Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro
² Benedictory Verses for The Clarifying Light: A Prophecy of the Future by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2020, Lotsawa House. Retrieved on Wed Jun 10 15:16:09 2020 GMT
³ mChan bu Ma ‘ongs lung bstan gsal byed sgron me. TBRC W8LS19467. 1 vols. [s.l.]: [s.n.], [n.d.].
⁴ Tibetan Prophecy: One Decade Left retrieved on Mon Apr 4 12:46 2022 GMT
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
As If Filled With Blood
For me, it was hard to see what this phrase might mean, and I hoped it wasn't actually referring to a valley filled with human blood. But then news of a leak of twenty-one thousand tons of heating oil, which is dyed red to distinguish it from diesel fuel, which is more heavily taxed by governments, had entered a river in Siberia after the tank holding it had collapsed. This happened in the Article Circle, and it is a harbinger of many more to come.
Here is what the scene from space, over two days, looked like:
The Ambarnaya River above, in the photo, flows into Lake Pyasino, a major body of water and source of the Pysaina River.
A heating oil tank near Norilsk, Siberia, collapsed in May, 2020. More than 21,000 tons of heating oil was dumped into the Ambarnaya River ecosystem and a state of emergency was declared.
This has helped to vividly bring out the meaning of this part of the prophecy for me: it refers to the over-exploitation of the natural world, which has seen forests cut down, waterways and air polluted, a huge number of species made extinct, and natural habitats destroyed. Unfortunately, the spill has still left its mark, as can be seen in the next photo, which is the same river two years later in 2022:
Why are these such important events for this prophecy? Because they mark the beginning of something that we have never seen before, so they point to this time — not to the past as some have said, in their attempts to undermine this prophetic text.
The problem is that the Arctic tundra has been seen as the perfect place to put very bad waste, simply because it was frozen year-round, and has been like that for tens of thousands of years. This 'leak' of heating oil, is the veritable tip of the iceberg:
Many of us picture the Arctic as largely untouched wilderness. But that has long-since ceased to be true for all of the continent. It is also home to oilfields and pipelines, mines and various other industrial activities. The corresponding facilities were built on a foundation once considered to be particularly stable and reliable: permafrost. This unique type of soil, which can be found in large expanses of the Northern Hemisphere, only thaws at the surface in summer. The remainder, extending up to hundreds of metres down, remains frozen year-round.
Accordingly, permafrost has not only been viewed as a solid platform for buildings and infrastructure. "Traditionally, it's also been considered a natural barrier that prevents the spread of pollutants," explains Moritz Langer from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). "Consequently, industrial waste from defunct or active facilities was often simply left on-site, instead of investing the considerable effort and expense needed to remove it." As a result of the industrial expansion during the cold war, over the decades this led to micro-dumps full of toxic sludge from oil and gas exploration, stockpiles of mining debris, abandoned military installations, and lakes in which pollutants were intentionally poured. "In many cases, the assumption was that the permafrost would reliably and permanently seal off these toxic substances, which meant there was no need for costly disposal efforts," says Guido Grosse, who heads the AWI's Permafrost Research Section. "Today, this industrial legacy still lies buried in the permafrost or on its surface. The substances involved range from toxic diesel fuel to heavy metals and even radioactive waste." (Thawing permafrost poses environmental threat to thousands of sites with legacy industrial contamination. Nature Communications, 2023; 14 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37276-4)
And they are continuing:
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Be Energetically Devoted To This
This means actively carrying out the prescriptions contained within this prophecy.
Note the continued reminders in this prophecy to put this teaching into practice, to write about the prophecy, sharing and promoting it, and practicing the Great Responsiveness Meditation, for the omninclusive benefit of all sentient beings (that includes you).
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Feathers Will Grow On Mountains
Meaning, perhaps, that volcanic flows will be dispersed. Such flows often have an appearance not unlike downy feathers as they slide down the side of a volcano:
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Irrational Trust
By “irrational trust” is meant that one merely holds this text close to their heart as a kind of blanket to protect themselves from the suffering all around them, while completely ignoring the actions that the prophecy instructs us to do.
So by not writing about this text, not sharing it with others, not reciting the Surangama Mantra, and not practicing the Great Responsiveness Meditation it refers to, one is completely ignoring the prescriptions for how to reduce suffering, to generate merit, and to protect ourselves and others, while still expecting a positive result. That is irrational.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Making It Known
Note, again, the prescription to make this text known, by sharing it, and by promoting it. The rest of the paragraph explains the merit and benefits to be gained by doing so — both for oneself, as well as for the benefit of all beings This prescription is repeated over-and-over again in this prophecy.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
One’s Actions Will Merely Contribute To Evil Happenings
This refers to the way that even actions meant to be of benefit, will become corrupted so that they cause harm. It also refers to the insidious economic reality today that what one does 'for work' is often seriously problematic for the survival of other people, animals at large, and the planet as a whole. We see the inescapable results of our actions today in the ever-accelerating warming of our atmosphere, destabilization of the climate (change), and its often deadly, but always destructive, effects on human existence. This is happening today on scale that has never before been experienced by humans. This alone is incontrovertible evidence that the prophetic text collated by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, which mentions this corruption of acts of body, speech, and mind, is targeted to this time, and this time alone.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Prophecy? Or Predicting Trends?
There are two parts to this prophetic text: the first is a general prediction about the “evil 500 year period” that will occur when the Buddhist Teachings (the "Dharma") has been lost, and a more specific section that follows the general one, in which dates are given for events to come during the period 2026 thru 2032.
There is some question, at least in some circles, as to the actual dates meant (please read the discussion of my analysis in The Rational Meaning Of The Tibetan Prophetic Warning For 2026-2032); however, since Chökyi Lodrö died in 1959, perhaps “prediction,” in the sense of “prophecy,” is not the correct meaning to take from these writings.
I would suggest that in this instance, with Chökyi Lodrö writing about the near future, the second part of this text could be more accurately called the writings of a futurist who has studied contemporary trends and projected them into the future in order to make predictions about it based on those current trends at the time he was writing.
For example, there is a recent review of empirical evidence compared to trend predictions in the 1972 MIT study named "The Limits to Growth." Here is what KPMG (the accounting firm) had to say about the results:
In the 1972 bestseller Limits to Growth (LtG), the authors concluded that, if global society kept pursuing economic growth, it would experience a decline in food production, industrial output, and ultimately population, within this century. The LtG authors used a system dynamics model to study interactions between global variables, varying model assumptions to generate different scenarios. Previous empirical-data comparisons since then by Turner showed closest alignment with a scenario that ended in collapse. This research constitutes a data update to LtG, by examining to what extent empirical data aligned with four LtG scenarios spanning a range of technological, resource, and societal assumptions. The research benefited from improved data availability since the previous updates and included a scenario and two variables that had not been part of previous comparisons. The two scenarios aligning most closely with observed data indicate a halt in welfare, food, and industrial production over the next decade or so, which puts into question the suitability of continuous economic growth as humanity’s goal in the twenty-first century. Both scenarios also indicate subsequent declines in these variables, but only one — where declines are caused by pollution — depicts a collapse. The scenario that aligned most closely in earlier comparisons was not amongst the two closest aligning scenarios in this research. The scenario with the smallest declines aligned least with empirical data; however, absolute differences were often not yet large. The four scenarios diverge significantly more after 2020, suggesting that the window to align with this last scenario is closing. Gaya Herrington, 2021. Update to limits to growth: Comparing the world3 model with empirical data. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2021; 25: pages 614–626 which has been published after peer review in final form.
While thinking of Chökyi Lodrö as a futurist might overcome some reader's reticence to take this prophetic teaching as potentially very important to their life and possible suffering during these large-scale crises all coming together, it does ignore the traditionally described super-mundane perceptual abilities (siddhis) wrought by dedicated lifelong mind-training, such as that undertaken by Chökyi Lodrö, who was, according to written histories, the "master of masters" in the regard of all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism – certainly not someone who should be easily dismissed.
Perhaps Science will one day catch-up and 'discover' that there are such enhanced perceptual abilities brought about by meditation. But in the meantime, we can still benefit from futurist Chökyi Lodrö’s thoughts on what is here now, and what is to come.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Putting Samsaric Suffering On Hold
The Inner Spontaneous Sounds which accompany the naturing of this world and every being it encompasses has a very unique effect on those that meditate upon them.
When we can focus our attention on these sounds at a deep level, we cutoff the normal fears, horror, pain and suffering, doubts, and most importantly, the debilitating thoughts, that can overwhelm us and cause us great suffering during an extreme event in our lives, even if it is just the current project we are working under great stress to complete.
That’s the result of the practice of Avalokitasvara — Great Responsiveness Meditation. It’s why he became the avatar of selfless loving compassion for all beings in the world, and for all those who want to follow in his footsteps. And it is why the Śūraṅgama Sūtra has that name, which means “the sutra of heroic progress.”
And the result of this practice is why you can be invincible, being impervious to everything that can wear you down, block your way, or seemingly be insurmountable, while being completely present and high-functioning in any crisis—and at any moment—in your life.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Residences of Politicians Will Become Deserted
Today, as I write this, the whole world is experiencing a deadly global pandemic, facing the ongoing destruction of the ecological balance of nature everywhere on Earth, watching riots, cities burning, one nation invading another and slaughtering civilians with abandon, and police summarily executing people in the street in full view of the public. Economic imbalances are rampant, leaving the vast majority of all human beings living precariously from day to day. And our democratic systems of government have been co-opted for controlling the governed, rather than freeing them, while disenfranchising the least powerful and most vulnerable. And those most responsible for fixing these problems, helping us out of these troubles, are absent from their posts. Some are even hiding from one or more of these troubles on their mega-yachts at sea, off-grid compounds far from the epicenters of suffering that these individuals, and their accomplices, are most directly responsible for. Some are even fanning the flames of chaos and disorder in order to cause even greater destruction of both our way of life, as well as our ability to continue living at all. This is the meaning of the prophecy phrase: “residences of politicians will become deserted.”
The translator of this text, Stephen B Aldridge, held a similar view. He said (in 2002):
I feel that the primary emphasis of this text is on the collapse of the biosphere and the terrible disruptions that will accompany this collapse. News reports indicate that this is already happening. What this text speaks to most emphatically is the need for connection to the natural world, to oneself, and to base community not on an old system of guilt and prohibitions, but on a realized, deeply-felt knowledge of one’s connection with all other life.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Ten Impure Practices
The Ten Impure Practices are violations of the Ten Major Bodhisattva Precepts, which are:
- Not to kill or encourage others to kill.
- Not to steal or encourage others to steal.
- Not to engage in licentious acts or encourage others to do so. (A monk is expected to abstain from sexual conduct entirely.)
- Not to use false words and speech, or encourage others to do so.
- Not to trade or sell alcoholic beverages or encourage others to do so.
- Not to broadcast the misdeeds or faults of the Buddhist assembly, nor encourage others to do so.
- Not to praise oneself and speak ill of others, or encourage others to do so.
- Not to be stingy, or encourage others to do so.
- Not to harbor anger or encourage others to be angry.
- Not to speak ill of the Buddha, the Dharma or the Sangha (the Triple Jewel) or encourage others to do so.
Even a cursory look at this list will identify the major extant characteristics of our societies today, except for those that are strictly Buddhist-related, so specifically these apply to us most directly: 1,2,3,4,7,8, and 9.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
The Evil "Five Hundred" Time Will Emerge
The evil Five Hundred year Time, referenced in the prophecy, is the last stage of the various ages, or periods, of the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. This is the period in which the profound meaning of the Buddha’s teachings is lost, and buddhists no longer put them into practice in their lives. This will occur due to many contributing causes, perhaps one of which is the secularization of Buddhist doctrines.
One example is “Mindfulness meditation” as it is currently taught. This modern variant of shamatha meditation is an example in which a practice has been shorn of its traditional setting and explanatory frameworks, and is practiced for what were once considered the side-effects, and not the goal, of meditating, but which today are touted as the benefit of meditating.
This final time period is characterized in various texts, including the prophecy compiled by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, by civil and personal unrest, strife, famine, and natural disasters.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
E-Ma-Ho Pen-No Pen-No So-Ha Mantra
The pronunciation of this mantra is “e-ma-ho pen-no pen-no so-ha.”
Emaho means “How Marvelous!” It is an exclamation of wonder or amazement.
Pen-no means “may it be beneficial!” and this is repeated twice.
Soha means “so be it” or more literally, “well said”.
The syllables “pen no”, which are actually spelled “P H A N - N O”, the first syllable is short for “phan-pa” which means : benefit, help, service, welfare, etc, with adjectival meanings such as useful, and so on. The syllable “no” is a grammatical ending case, in which one repeats the last letter of the preceding word in Tibetan, adding the vowel “o” which is a mark of an ending case.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
This Spiritual Work Has One, No Secondary Meaning
This point is made here for a second time. Its point is that there is no esoteric meaning hidden in the words of the prophecy. They mean exactly what they say. So, for example, when this prophecy says to practice the Great Responsiveness Meditation, one should not take that to mean something else, like some other, more familiar, practice, but should immediately begin to practice the Great Responsiveness Meditation of Avalokitasvara, which can be found in the Surangama Sutra. The practice of Avalokitasvara is not any of the practices that use, or merely refer to, Avalokitasvara.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
This Text Will Reverse The Contributory Evil Causes Of This Time
By practicing the Great Responsiveness Meditation, we will foster within ourselves the conditions for the growing presence of Responsive Naturing in our lives, touching everyone that we meet with kindness, respect, and consideration, until such time as we have completely reversed our socially inculcated self-centered focus and concern, relieving all those we meet from the suffering that our egoic concerns are a contributory cause of.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Time of Fearfulness
Many examples of this are present today, so much so that a new word was coined to characterize the majority of humans today who are living a precarious life, fearful of losing the little that they have, fearful of being killed even by police who are supposed to uphold the law, fearful of pandemic and epidemic disease passed on by others, fearful of environmental hardship and collapse: that word is “precariat.”
“Precariat” is a portmanteau created by the British economist Guy Standing merging “precarious” and “proletariat.” It was created to indicate people suffering from “precarity,” or the condition of existence without predictability or security.
The intended meaning is economic insecurity, and thus, living with financial unpredictability, but we today are all faced with a new precarious existence without the possibility of returning to any previous kind of normal—at least not for the duration of our lifetimes, nor that of our children and grandchildren.
You can see this in the weather, as much as in our failing economic system—and see it most clearly in the ruining of our democratic systems of government, which are now trivialized, increasingly impotent to serve our needs, and repeatedly hacked by powerful extremists and billionaires creating a looming danger to our very lives.
Note, that “proletariat” comes from the Latin proletarius, meaning “producing offspring,” and the modern use in Marxist theory to indicate the class of wage-earners was only slightly changed by Guy Standing in his portmanteau to indicate those today who specifically lack any kind of job security.
For my needs, I wish to go back towards a less restrictive meaning, closer to the original Latin sense, that includes as a class all of us that produce, as opposed to consuming, life—and in this case “life” refers to the very basis of our ability to exist, if not thrive in this world, rather than simply producing offspring as in the original Latin meaning.
This specifically creates a distinction between those that destroy the means of life via ecocide, versus those that nurture life through their respectful and considerate way of being in the world.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།