chris likes superstitions...written 4-12-10?

chris likes superstitions...4-12-10?
female deities:
slowly slowly I am beginning to think more..introspect more...but I dont have long sustained thoughts... and by that I mean thinking of this in terms of a pilgrimage and therefore having spiritual inspiration... I had done a lot of mantras from a wrathful deity when I fist start walking and it was a hard path... today I did green tara for a while (tibetans chant her mantra when they travel, for protection).. as an aside the little when I go into churches it is easier and easier for me to see madonna and tara..as same....(explain why a few rows down)

also thinking of 'the black market of the mother-dakini energy' that judy simmer brown spoke of...Dakinis are seldom sweet...especially enlightened ones...often the appear grotesque and wrathful...they push you to the edge when you've gotten too complacent in your practice... I wonder how much my experience on this path holds some of their presence...
Wind:
dakinis can also be quite earthly and un-elightened and like fairies or spirits of trees and wells they too are related to the elements... I heard of wind dakinis up where planes fly having the power to pull down planes if angered.. Carlos Castaneda was taught that in Yaki indian traditions winds are a female force... which might be a danger to men... there was some described ritual of a woman lying naked spread eagle on a hill, drawing in the winds from all directions to give her power... today the winds played with me.. yesterday too I got a taste of more wrathful wind... depending on the direction according to Castaneda the winds 'deities?' (not sure if he would use that word) are wrathful or compassionate... North most wrathful, south most maternal... today it felt playful and a bit maternal... mostly I was pushed from behind... at one point from the side..and I got pushed across my walking path letting me know the power of that energy..
Dog:
Paulo Coehlo wrote a book about the walk across to santiago,it was autobiographical, ...he talks about meeting with a dog..who at first was quite ferocious and dangerous to him... until something turned in his own mind.. I think the dog followed him for days..i dont quite remember how it resolved..but basically once he no longer saw the dog as a problem he wasnt...
I have a bit of fear of dogs... and have been glad the once i've met had been kept behind gates... yesterday I met small loose dogs ..no problem...today slightly bigger... but the really scary looking dark wolfish one was actually the friendly one... I remember back to turkey with more loose dogs..were q and I got charged by two large seemingly territorial dogs... I grabbed q's hand out of fear...like a little kid... once I realized the dogs were just going to escort us and not attack after the initial charge I was able to calm down... i've come a long way from that time...but still dogs worry me a bit... i've not seen human tracks as much as dog tracks in the dry mud I have walked on...making me think of Paulo Coehlo's dog... and then I had my dark dog go peacably enough today..
Cat:
another little superstition... black cats in america are considered bad luck...Therefore I was surprised how many black cats I ran across especially in umbria, ...clearly, well taken care off pets... so I suspect the superstition does not esist here... since my first day walking I have seen black cats pop up ahead of me on my path..so I jokingly decided it's the same one keeping an eye on me and always walking just a bit ahead of me.. again I saw it today in the farm fields.. just pop up... while in umbria I cam across the deliciously grotesque fairy and oger like dolls at a gift shop and the lady explained to me that these creaters provided good luck espically the first glance your eyes have on them... one that stuck out because it was a little different was Puss in Boots... I guessed he was good luck for travel, but he is over all good luck...so my little black cat mascot to me is the umbrian puss-in-boots keeping me safe...

warning: so this is a tangent...totally about trying to find some parallels to what I am experiencing in an ancient catholic land... as a tibetan buddhist... prob not of interest to anyone not also into this little religion...
why would it be neccesary for me to see Madona as Tara … or in fact convert christian iconography into something buddhist... well maybe not improtant... but I remember hearing in nepal..that one lama had advised a new buddhist student who was traveling in europe that one could view Madonna as Tara and Jesus as Heruka (a semi wrathful deity).. In tibetan buddhism, your view is crucial, so how you see things can push you towards enlightenment or towards further obscuration..this has to do with mind tranformation..if you see things already as pure and perfect as if from an enlightened mind...than this little trick of the imagination starts not being a trick at all but slowly transforms the mind... this is a peculiarity from tibetan buddhism..thinking of it, the christians do have the idea of sacred outlook seeing everything infused with the divine, so i think this part is very similar..(except instead of all belonging to a singularity, instead all is also empty and luminous...but i wont get into that) .so from a varjayana perspective, where all things are seen as pureland and all beings as the deity... all sound as mantra..
...religious buildings and centers have power from devotion...i've heard the pagan view, there are on lielines... I prefer the idea that any place that has had thousands of worshippers who come with strong devotion and do prayers or practice there for hundreds of years...well that place starts having a certain power from the collective human enerrgy of spirituality... I think this is just as woo woo as lielines theory, probably...but i've heard this view confirmed in sufism .. I buddhism i''ve heard that said about mantras.. that have been said millions of times by countless beings.. develop power just through that... and from the (tibetan) buddhist perspective: Since it is my mind thinking + feeling this...the blessing does not come from outside but within me...but since I still have obscurred view, my conviction is made stronger if I have some sort of 'outside' validation...ie knowing the place has been a pt of worship by the masses... this is one reason I like to seek out holy sites from all tradtions...it's not the religion that matters but the state of the mind of those who come in spiritual pursuit... therefore since it is all my mind...really it is my view that is important ...so seeing cities on hills as mandalas with mt neru in center and palace on top full of enlightened energy is one view I can take as the landscape and and ancient villages I approach become more and more beautiful... it's not hard to hold those visions in this place... saint statues in churches, might have been christian, but they share the energy of compassion and had realizations enough where they become capable of displaying the impossible..if you do believe in the miracles that are credited to them...
there are different manifestation of buddha deities in tibetan buddhism... this is a culture that has living incarnate buddhas or at least realized beings that can controll their rebirth.. known as boddisatvas... when they apear as human that aspect is their nirmakaya form... in the thankapaintings often you see buddha energy anthropomorphised into human form but in form of ancient indian royality, this is the sambokakaya form of buddhas, so like madona represented as a queen with a crown and ornaments and fine garments so too, Tara in her many forms is represented as a queen with jewel ornaments and the finest silks...okay so she's half naked...but same same! So I do think it is interesting that there is the aspect of catholasism simmilar to tibetan buddhism of both jesus an madona sometimes shown as royalty.. I think it indicates their having achieved an 'above ordinary' spiritual state... much like enlightenement perhaps? The final body of buddha is the dharmakaya which like god (well sort of)...can not be depicted because it is beyond concept... this is a rather long winded excuse for seeing Madona as Tara... oh white tara a little different from madona only in that she has eyes on her hands and feet and middle of her forhead..like madona holds a flower and wears a crown..she is primarly the good health long life deity... and in her mantra is the word mama...i think catholics pray to madonna as the mother...yes? Same same again!!
anyway...apparently I am thinking too much and not paying attention to the sore feets as much..

..also in order for this to really be a pilgrimage again from buddhist view... I have to see with what motivation I approach it... if my mind is spending time thinking about pt a to pt b... and not perhaps about how each step purifies negative karma... or some such...well then all I have is an ordinary walk.. if I remember to think about how what every I accomplish here removes obscuration, blinders, hindrances to my seeing reality more clearly and how that will enable me to be of benefit to all sentient beings... well if I remember that and the more I remember that then it really is a pilgrimage... otherwise it's just a long walk with blisters and perhaps some decent food and a few memento photos (okay shit loads of photos)... it's day 8 I am only now gaining some reigns over my mind that has been floundering to just get the hang of this type of trip..so that I can actually check and ask myself whether any of the above is happening...