introductory comments on tibetan astrology

8/8/2019 Introductory Comments on Tibetan Astrology

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Introductory Comments on Tibetan AstrologyIntroductory Comments on TibetanAstrology

By Michael Erlewine

Tibet, often called the spiritual and

physical "roof of the world," has beenthe source of great inspiration toWesterners for over two centuries. Partof this attraction may be due to the factthat Tibetan astrology is inextricablybound to Tibetan Buddhism. With fewexceptions, the primary practicingastrologers in Tibet have for centuriesalways been and are today Buddhistmonks. The word for astrology inTibetan is Tsi, and astrologers are

called Tsi-Pa, those who practice Tsi.In Tibet to learn something aboutastrology is to learn something aboutthe dharma and Buddhism, and usuallyvice versa. Tibetan Buddhist monks alluse astrology.

I found out early on that I could not justskim the astrology off the top of theTibetan Buddhism. In order tounderstand Tibetan astrology, I had to

learn something about the Buddhistpsychology in which it is embedded. Idoubt that I am alone in this.

In other words, it is impossible toseparate Tibetan astrology from TibetanBuddhism, so it is important for readersto understand at least something aboutthe Dharma and how it relates to theastrology of Tibet.

To best prepare for what follows, hereare several concepts that you may needto better understand this material, soplease bear with me.

The Swans and the Lake

In the 1970s the head of the TibetanKarma Kagyu lineage, His Holines the16th Gyalwa Karmapa, was asked whyhe had come to visit America. His

answer was: If there were a lake, theswans would go there. And so it hasbeen, for the last 35 years or so. Manyof the great Tibetan teachers have cometo America to visit and to teach thedharma.

My interest in all of this stretches backto the 1950s and the beat movement --Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, etc.These writers helped to introduceBuddhism to many of us at that time.Writers like Allan Watts and D.T. Suzuki(who wrote and spoke on Buddhism)educated a whole generation on thesubject, but back then it was mostly

theoretical. In the late 50s and veryearly 60s, Buddhism appeared to me asone interesting philosophical viewamong many others such asExistentialism and the Beat movementitself.

Buddhism at that time (of the AllanWatts variety) was necessarily veryintellectual and philosophical --something to think about and havewords over. After all, we were just

hearing about it. We would sit up untillate at night, smoke cigarettes (I amsorry to say), drink lots of coffee, andtalk about such things until the suncame up. It was all very heady.

Few of us made the connection thatBuddhist thought was not just somethingelse to think or philosophize about, butrather a path or dharma, a method,something to do a way of action. We

knew little of methods. This came muchlater.

It is important to make clear that (as Iunderstand it) Buddhism is not a religionin the ordinary sense of that word.Although I have worked with it for manyyears, I have never considered myselfas particularly religious. Going to church
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Introductory Comments on Tibetan Astrologyonce a week, as most Americans do, isnot going to solve many of my problems.I need something I can do all week long.

What I was interested in back then was

psychology -- the human psyche andthe mind itself. In fact, my interest inastrology itself can be traced to aninterest in the psyche -- how the mindand all of its experiences work. Howdoes the mind work?

In the early 70s, Buddhism took the nextstep to being understood as a practicalpath when the work of a young Tibetanlama Chogyam Trungpa Rinpochebecame available. His book "Cutting

through Spiritual Materialism" is perhapsthe best example of what I am pointingtoward, a practical Buddhism mindpractice.

With Trungpa came the end of TibetanBuddhism of the through-a-glass-darklyand sit-and-talk-about-it variety.Previous to Trungpas appearance,most insight into the inner or astrologicalside of the Buddhism of Tibet came

through writers like Alexandra David-Neal, T. Lobsang Rampa, T. Evans-Wentz, and other early writers on whathas been called esoteric Buddhism,people like H.P. Blavatsky and C.W.Leadbeater. Even then, there was littleor no mention of Tibetan astrology perse. These writers were Westerners whocould not help but put their own spin onthe subject of Buddhism. Trungpaended that.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche made itvery clear to us that Buddhism was notonly a philosophy to think about, butabove all a life path to walk, somethingvery practical to put into practice in day-to-day life. He pointed out thatBuddhism was primarily a way ofhandling our experience in this world we

live in -- a dharma path. I can rememberthat this came as almost total news tothose of us brought up on theintellectual Buddhism of the late 50s and60s.

I met Chogyam Trungpa early in 1974when I helped to bring him to Ann Arbor,Michigan to speak. I designed theposters for his event and ended up ashis chauffer for the weekend. From themoment I picked him up at the airport,suffice it to say that I quickly got a verydifferent take on Buddhism, which leadsme to the other main point that I mustpresent before we can discuss Tibetan

astrology, and that is meditation.Prior to meeting Trungpa, I had the(quite common) idea that meditationwas a method to relax around, a way toget away from the chaos of day-to-daylife -- a form of stress management. Ihad never found the time nor interest forit. The whole idea was boring to me. Iwas way too active to sit still.

No sooner had I brought Trungpa

Rinpoche back from the airport than hetook me into a room with him, closed thedoor behind us, and proceeded tointroduce me to my own mind. Lookingback, I realize he was showing me howto meditate, although he didn't call itthat. In fact, he never named it. Andthere was no prologue. He did notannounce what he was about to do. He

just jumped in.

At the time I don't believe I was able to

grasp all of what was going on. It wasonly years later that I realized whatreally happened on that day. What Iexperienced through his instruction (andin his presence) were some realanswers to questions that had alwaystortured me big questions, questionsabout death, about letting go, about


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Introductory Comments on Tibetan Astrologyactually living life - things like that. Mostof all, Trungpa pointed out anddemonstrated what real awarenesslooked and acted like. My response wasa simple: Oh, now I get it.

I watched him enjoying and using hismind in a multitude of ways that I hadnever considered as possibilities. It wasa pure case of monkey see, monkey do,and I wanted to be like he was being.Where I was used to sitting around,twiddling my thumbs, and waiting for thenext thing to happen, Trungpa Rinpochewas all over the place, peering, pokingat, questioning, and mostly enjoying and

investigating every moment and everything. I wanted to kick myself that I hadnever thought to make use of my owntime like this.

Trungpa demonstrated before my eyesthat the mind and our awareness couldbe worked with - practiced. Intuition ortrue insight could be developed. All youhad to do was to try and do it. The mindcould be trained. What a thought!

My original idea of meditation as at besta way to relax, and at worst a big borewas giving way to something muchmore active. I began to see thatmeditation had to do with my developinginsight and intuition, learning to use myown mind to connect within myself andthe taking possession or advantage ofour current situation -- whatever ithappens to be.

From that day in February 1974, I began

to connect more with myself and toexplore the so-called outer world in asomewhat different way. Once you seesomeone do something for real, youknow that you can probably do that too.I had seen something done and Iwanted to do that too.

What I am getting at here is that theprimary tool for learning astrology in theTibetan system is not a set ofephemerides, a series of calculations,and lots of research in books. Instead, itinvolves establishing this innerconnectivity -- call it insight, intuition,meditation, mind practice, mind training,whatever you want to call it. When I firstsaw it, I had no words at the time, but Igot the idea. It leapt inside me.

I had grown up here in the West wherelearning astrology is often centered onmemorizing the variouscorrespondences between terms, like:

Aries relates to Mars, relates to theAscendant, relates to the First House,and so on. If you can't get into learningabout astrological correspondences,then you are going to have real difficultygrasping classic western astrology as itwas taught in the 19th and 20thcenturies.

In Tibetan astrology, the primaryeducational tool is your own mind andlearning to use it and your intuition in a

direct and practical way. Tibetans callthis "mind practice" or most often justmeditation. Of course they have adozen or so words for meditation. Mypoint here is that if you approach theTibetan lamas, you may not find easyaccess to their astrological teachingswithout some very basic mind training,not because they wont share it withyou, but because your mind (andprobably your life) is a little too chaotic

and rushed to get a handle on it. Youdont have time for insight. You have tomake time. Time is also something wemake.

And this lack of access to the teachingsis not because these matters are in anyway secret, but rather because we may


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Introductory Comments on Tibetan Astrologylack the one essential tool for graspingthem mental awareness and an activeintuition. In this sense, many of theseastrological concepts are what havebeen termed self-secret. The sheersimplicity, openness, and directness ofthe subject are closed to us because ofour own inherent confusion andcomplexity our internal white noise.What to do?

Here in the West we have so muchgoing for us technically andeducationally, with so many tools at ourfingertips, but there is one topic that forthe most part is not taught here and

about which we know little to nothing,and that is about the nature of the minditself. And I am not talking aboutphilosophy or psychology. I am talkingabout our personal skill at looking at themind itself. For example, look now atwho is reading this page. Who is that?Where does that who reside? Is he orshe in there somewhere? If so, justwhere? You get the idea. We seldom (ifever) inquire, much less set out to learn

about the mind.That is what mind training is all aboutand most of us in this culture have yet tobegin that training.

My point here is that until such time aswe can develop full awareness,astrology can be useful to us on arelative basis in guiding us through lifesobstacles. In other words, in theconfused world we often find ourselvesin, bewildered by our own ignorance ofwhat is real, and stumbling around,astrology and the other divinatorypractices can help to point the waythrough the confusion to greater clarity.Beyond that, as I understand it,astrology has no particular merit.

Where I Came In

My own background in learning aboutTibetan astrology started around 1974when I met the Ven. Chogyam TrungpaRinpoche and the 16th Gyalwa Karma,Rigpe Dorje, and with my asking justabout every rinpoche I encounteredabout astrology. Surprisingly, most ofthem knew (or claimed they knew) verylittle, and often their only interestseemed to be reading the small Tibetanpractice-calendar books, looking fordates for this or that kind of practice.

As a student who was trying to studyingBuddhist psychology and also learningabout mind training, I continued to be

fascinated by Tibetan astrology. Myreasoning went something along thelines of: if their psychology is sopowerful (which it indeed is), theirastrology must also reflect this as well. Iread through the various Buddhistscholarly works in which astrology waseven mentioned, finding only anoccasional few words and the odddiagram here or there. There was nosense of any comprehensive

understanding.I then met John Reynolds, an Americanwho was studying Tibetan Buddhismand who also had an interest in TibetanAstrology. He spoke and read Tibetan,fluently. I set up a workshop here in BigRapids, Michigan and John came andgave a seminar on Tibetan astrology.This was in the early 1980s. I learned alot from meeting Reynolds, but most ofall I remember these words of Johns to

me. He said that in order to learnTibetan astrology, you have to learn theBuddhist psychology around which itwas based. He confided to me that theBuddhist psychology was much moreinteresting to him than the astrology,and that he had become fascinated with


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Introductory Comments on Tibetan Astrologythat, leaving the astrology somewhatunfinished. Interesting, said I.

Sange Wangchuk

My next step was to invite Nepalese

Sange Wangchuk and his wife Tseten tocome and reside at our center here inMichigan in 1985. Wangchuk, a formermonk, skilled calligrapher, and artist wasfluent in seven languages, includingTibetan, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Hindi,Pali, and Sanskrit. Today Wangchuk isMinister of Culture for Bhutan. SangeWangchuk spent 2 1/2 years with usand, during that time, we translated a lotof Tibetan astrology from the original

manuscripts, mostly the works of the 3rdGyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje. Thisreally helped me fill in many of theblanks. I was finally learning. By now Iwas also working on learning whatmeditation practice was all about.

But like John Reynolds, I was becomingincreasingly seduced by the Buddhistpsychology at the expense of theastrology. There is no doubt about the

fact that if it is personal results you areinterested in, the Tibetan Buddhistpsychological teachings are the veryessence of that of which astrologersdream. Or, as mentioned earlier:astrology is one of the limbs of the yoga,but not the root or trunk itself. Sooner orlater you want to learn about the root.

The Buddhist psychological or dharmateachings themselves are the root, andthese profound teachings are deserving

of the respect they inspire. They havevalue because they help an individualorient him or herself within their currentsituation and provide a method for themto take action of a clarifying and creativenature.

By this time, our center here in BigRapids had become one of the primary

centers in North America for thetranslation, transcription, and publicationof Buddhist texts of the Karma Kagyutradition. We had become the HeartCenter KTC (Karma Thegsum Choling),and affiliate of KTD (Karma TriyanaDharmachakra) Monastery inWoodstock, New York. For many years,we maintained a full-time publicationstaff, starting in 1986.

During our time together, I worked withSange Wangchuk translating from anumber of astrology texts (he did thetranslating), and we put together anoutline for Tibetan astrology, some of

which was published by Wieser in abook on Eastern astrology some yearsago. Among other things as mentioned,Wangchuk translated some of theastrology teachings of the 3rd GyalwaKarmapa, Rangjung Dorje. I alsoprogrammed most of the Tibetanastrological techniques,and released aprogram in May of 1998. A new andexpanded version of that program hasbeen released in 2007 and is available

at StarTypes.com.In the summer of 1997 our centerbrought Dr. Drubgyud Tendar to ourcomplex, the Heart Center KTC here inBig Rapids. Dr. Tendar was anaccomplished Tibetan astrologer andTibetan doctor, who had been trained atRumtek Monastery in Sikkim in theTsurphu tradition (the astrologicalmethods used by the Karma KagyuLineage), originating from His Holiness,

the 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje.Together we worked to reconstruct thecalculations for the traditional Tsurphucalendar and thus try to preserve itsintegrity.

In the late summer of 1997 my familyand I traveled to Tibet and we were able


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Introductory Comments on Tibetan Astrologyto present our preliminary results to thehead of the Karma Kagyu Lineage, HisHoliness Urgyen Trinley Dorje, the 17thKarmapa. The Karmapa is the actualGolden Child after which the EddieMurphy movie was based.

I also traveled to Rumtek Monastery inSikkim, the seat of His Holiness, RigpeDorje, the 16th Karmapa, where I metwith one of the main astrologers at thatmonastery. While traveling in the East, Iwas also able to present our work to theVenerable Bokar Rinpoche and HisEminence, Gyaltsap Rinpoche. Icontinued to work with Dr. Drubjud

Tendar through the fall of 1997 tocomplete the calculations we had beenworking on.

In the spring of 2006, I met KhenpoUgyen Tenzin, who was Senior Abbot atNalanda Institute of Rumtek, Sikkim.Lama Ugyen had been thoroughlytrained in the Tsurphu method ofastrology and he was able to clear upsome questions that had been troublingme. And lately I have been getting some

help from Edward Henning, a translatorof Tibetan and a scholar of Tibetanastrology. Henning, who in my opinion isdoing the most important work in thisfield helped to translate much of thematerial about the Tibetan Earth Lords,the Sa-Dak.

I should also mention my main dharmateacher, the Ven. Khenpo KartharRinpoche, who has worked with mesince 1983. Khenpo Rinpoche has beenof invaluable help, far beyond any wordsI could possible write. In addition, Ven.Bardor Tulku Rinpoche has also beenvery helpful in many ways, includingproviding the verbal reading orinstructions (Tibetan: Lung) for theTibetan Mo form of divination.

Lamas and rinpoches that have beenhelpful in my journey to learn somethingabout Tibetan astrology are many, andthey include Lama Karma Duldul, LamaYeshe Gyamtso, Ven. ThranguRinpoche, Ven. Bokar Rinpoche, HisEminence Gyaltsap Rinpoche, HisEminence Jamgon Rinpoche, HisEminence Shamar Rinpoche, HisEminence Tai Situ Rinpoche, and ofcourse His Holiness the 16th Karmapa,Rigpe Dorje, and His Holiness the 17thGyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.

You would think that with all this help Iwould know a lot by now, but I am still

just learning the essentials. Much of thisis due to the fact that to learn theTibetan astrology system, you have tofirst learn and practice the dharma, andthat has been much more difficult tolearn and do than the astrology part of it.I am still working on that.

For those interest in greater detail, mybook "Tibetan Astrology" is available inpaperback on Amazon.com

[email protected]

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