Songs of realization

Encyclopedia

Songs of realization also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...

: दोहा; Romanized Sanskrit: Dohaa; Oriya

Oriya language

Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...

: ପଦ) are sung poetry forms characteristic of the tantric movement in both Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

and in Vajrayana

Vajrayana

Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

. Doha

Doha (poetry)

namshka:For the town in Kuwait, see Doha and For the city in Qatar, see DohaDoha is a form of self-contained rhyming couplet in poetry...

is also a specific poetic form. Various forms of these songs exist, including caryagiti , or 'performance songs' and vajragiti (Sanskrit: vajragīti, Tibetan: rDo-rje gan-sung ), or 'diamond songs', sometimes translated as vajra songs and doha (Sanskrit:dohā), also called doha songs, distinguishing them from the unsung Indian poetry form of the doha

Doha (poetry)

namshka:For the town in Kuwait, see Doha and For the city in Qatar, see DohaDoha is a form of self-contained rhyming couplet in poetry...

. According to Roger Jackson, caryagiti and vajragiti "differ generically from dohās because of their different context and function", the doha being primarily spiritual aphorism

Aphorism

An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form.The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates...

s expressed in the form of rhyming couplets whilst caryagiti are stand-alone performance songs and vajragiti are songs that can only be understood in the context of a ganachakra

Ganachakra

A gaṇacakra is also known as tsog, gaṇapuja, cakrapuja or gaṇacakrapuja. It is a generic term for various tantric assemblies or feasts, in which practitioners meet to chant mantra, enact mudra, make votive offerings and practice various tantric rituals as part of a sadhana, or spiritual practice...

or tantric

Vajrayana

Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...

feast. Many collections of songs of realization are preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon

Tibetan Buddhist canon

The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a loosely defined list of sacred texts recognized by various sects of Tibetan Buddhism. In addition to sutrayana texts from Early Buddhist and Mahayana sources, the Tibetan canon includes tantric texts...

, however many of these texts have yet to be translated from the Tibetan language

Tibetan language

The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...

.

Although many of the songs of realization date from the mahasiddha

Mahasiddha

Mahasiddha is a term for one who cultivates those teachings that lead to becoming perfect. They are a type of eccentric yogini/yogi in both Sanatan Dharma and Vajrayana Dharma, given by Siddhartha. Mahasiddhi are those practitioners, or tantrikas who have gained sufficient understanding and are so...

of India, the tradition of composing mystical songs continued to be practiced by tantric

Vajrayana

Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...

adepts in later times and examples of spontaneously composed verses by Tibetan lama

Lama

Lama is a title for a Tibetan teacher of the Dharma. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term guru .Historically, the term was used for venerated spiritual masters or heads of monasteries...

s exist up to the present day, an example being Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso. The most famous Tibetan composer of songs of realization is Milarepa

Milarepa

Jetsun Milarepa , is generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and poets. He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.- Life :...

, the 11th century Tibetan yogi

Yogi

A Yogi is a practitioner of Yoga. The word is also used to refer to ascetic practitioners of meditation in a number of South Asian Religions including Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.-Etymology:...

whose mgur bum, or 'The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa' remains a source of instruction and inspiration for Tibetan Buddhists, particularly those of the kagyu

Kagyu

The Kagyu, Kagyupa, or Kagyud school, also known as the "Oral Lineage" or Whispered Transmission school, is today regarded as one of six main schools of Himalayan or Tibetan Buddhism, the other five being the Nyingma, Sakya, Jonang, Bon and Gelug...

school.

Rangjung Dorje

Rangjung Dorje

Rangjung Dorje was the third Karmapa, an important figure in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. He reportedly produced a spontaneous black crown at the age of three and declared himself to be the mindstream reimbodiment of Karma Pakshi...

(1284–1339) wrote a 'doha' (Sanskrit) entitled Distinguishing Consciousness from Wisdom (Wylie: rnam shes ye shes ‘byed pa).

Caryagiti songs

A renowned collection of Buddhist carygiti, or mystical songs, is the Charyapada

Charyapada

The Charyapada is a collection of 8th-12th century Vajrayana Buddhist caryagiti, or mystical poems from the tantric tradition in eastern India. Being caryagiti , the Charyapada were intended to be sung. These songs of realization were spontaneously composed verses that expressed a practitioner's...

, a palm-leaf manuscript of the 8th-12th century text having been found in the early 20th century in Nepal. Another copy of the Charyapada was preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon

Tibetan Buddhist canon

. Miranda Shaw describes how caryagiti were an element of the ritual gathering of practitioners in a tantric feast

Ganachakra

The feast culminates in the performance of tantric dances and music that must never be disclosed to outsiders. The revelers may also improvise "songs of realization" (caryagiti) to express their heightened clarity and blissful raptures in spontaneous verse.

Doha songs

Ann Waldman describes this poetry form:

the doha, a song of realization that acknowledges an encounter with a master teacher, traditionally a guru or lama, and explores a particular wisdom or teaching transmitted through a kind of call-and-response duet format.

External links

Songs of the 16th Karmapa (1940 - 1962)
Index to Songs, Poems and Prayers, by author
Review of Tibetan Songs of Realization: Echoes from a Seventeenth-Century Scholar and Siddha in Amdo
Text of 'Sixty Songs of Milarepa'
Text, The Essential Songs of Milarepa
The Iron Hook of Devotion: A Melodious Feast Song
http://www.kagyu-asia.com/l_tilo_t_song_mahamudra.htmlThe Song of Mahamudra by Tilopa
Tilopa
Tilopa was born in either Chativavo , Bengal or Jagora, Bengal in India. He was a tantric practitioner and mahasiddha. He developed the mahamudra method, a set of spiritual practices that greatly accelerates the process of attaining bodhi...

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