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Astrology and Tibetan Culture (Part One)
(Interview with Dr. Pema Dorjee,
personal physician to the Dalai Lama)
by Shelley Jordan


The 2nd International Congress on Tibetan Medicine

In the first week of November 2003, during the so-called and much-publicized planetary Harmonic Convergence  [1] , I had the opportunity to attend the 2nd International Congress on Tibetan Medicine, held in Washington DC. [2]  Since Tibetan medicine is closely interconnected with astrology, I was eager to travel to Washington in search of information on this enduring wisdom. Gathered together with spiritual leaders from the Tibetan community, among the conference's speakers and attendees were to be found educators, physicians and scholars from some of the world's leading hospitals, and educational and research institutions.
 

Chart for Sat. 8 Nov. 2003

Currently, in the West there is a growing interest in Tibetan medicine, which employs an integration of herbal remedies and therapies with Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine and indigenous Tibetan medical practices. Tibetan medical methods are a unique confluence of science, spirituality and astrology, the latter of which is used not only diagnostically and prescriptively, but also for timing the harvesting of the precious plants employed in the therapies. In fact, Men Tsee Khang , the official medical school sanctioned by the Dalai Lama, is called The Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute.

I was fortunate in obtaining interviews on the subject of Tibetan astrology for this series of articles with a number of world-famous figures. Dr. Pema Dorjee, whose interview is the subject of this first article, is the personal physician to the Dalai Lama; Professor Thubten Phuntsog of the Beijing Central University of Nationalities, is one of China's leading experts on Tibetan medicine and astrology; Professor Robert Thurman of Columbia University, is considered by many to be one of the world's foremost authorities on Buddhism; and interestingly and spontaneously, I was able to interview Bishop Ignatius Wang of San Francisco, born in Beijing, China, the Catholic Church's first Bishop of Chinese ancestry and of Asian background. The interviews with Phuntsog, Thurman and Bishop Wang will appear in "Astrology and Tibetan Culture: Part Two".

A conference of American Catholic Bishops was occurring simultaneously at the same hotel. The lobby of the Capital Hill Hyatt Regency was teeming that weekend with lamas and bishops generating a kind of inadvertent harmonic convergence all their own. During the concluding hours of the conference on the evening of November 8, this entire international phenomenon was dramatically punctuated by the most total lunar eclipse I have ever witnessed. The rapidly disappearing moon rose spectacularly over this assembly of spiritual leaders who had come together in the ominous shadow of the Capitol of the United States, which was situated directly across the street from the Hyatt Regency.
 

Commentary on the Harmonic Convergence

The crescendo of the Harmonic Convergence culminated in a magnificent, total lunar eclipse. On the day of the eclipse, I had unexpectedly been asked by the Tibetan spiritual master Gehlek Rimpoche to comment on the astrological events of the moment, a hot topic which had been buzzing among members of the conference's 600 attendees. Conspicuously projected at the very front of the auditorium in which Rimpoche would give the sacred Medicine Buddha teaching, at his own request, appeared a large, colorful computer-generated image of the chart of the eclipse event, with the title "Harmonic Convergence" blazoned in the center of the wheel.

Uncertain as to what this erudite gathering might want to hear about astrology, and with little or no time to prepare, I delivered a brief, extemporaneous description which I hoped would be relevant to the Buddhist-oriented proceedings. This excerpt is taken from that impromptu address:

"Gehlek Rimpoche has asked me to explain the significance of the special astrological event that is occurring today, of which many of you may be aware. One might wonder why a celestial event like this is significant, and in fact, what kind of information astrology can provide us with.

"The universe surrounds us with vast, fluctuating concentric and intersecting fields of consciousness -- an enormous and potent one of which is generated by the environment of our solar system. And we ourselves are each microcosmic fields of consciousness which respond in a variety of ways to those fields with which we come into contact."

"Astrology describes these shifting psychic states."

"The greater psychic field of the solar system affects us rather like a giant, nourishing psychic placenta feeding consciousness at both the collective and individual levels. Today, a highly unusual configuration is forming, which includes a rare total eclipse of the Moon in the fertile and feminine sign of Taurus. Eclipses, both solar and lunar, are extremely important in the Tibetan spiritual tradition, as Gehlek Rimpoche can tell us. This particular full Moon is occurring close to Rahu, the lunar North Node, which symbolizes future spiritual evolutionary directions and impulses."

"Today the planets, including Brhaspati (Jupiter) and Šani (Saturn), the spiritual teachers of the solar system, are forming a beautiful geometric configuration consisting of two double intersecting triangles (a Star of David). These intersecting triangles are a well-known symbol of the Vajrayogini, a feminine spiritual yantra of great implication in the Buddhist Tantric tradition."

"The symbolism of this richly impregnated full Moon at her own node suggests that the human psychic collective here is being saturated by a luxuriant cosmic vitality of a feminine nature, represented by these intersecting grand trines in the feminine earth and water signs and by the evocative geometry of the very heavens themselves which are arranged in this sacred yantric pattern. The feminine impulse of these images and symbols indicates the fecund and empowering potential of this disseminating full Moon, this lunar eclipse Vajrayogini which is defining this sacred space."
 

Interview with Dr. Pema Dorjee, personal physician to the Dalai Lama

Dr. Pema Dorjee was born in Ladakh, Tibet in 1950. His family fled to India as a consequence of the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959. Dr. Dorjee is the medical director of Men Tsee Khang and is the personal physician to the Dalai Lama. A kind and graciously intelligent gentleman, Dr. Dorjee agreed to this interview on the subject of astrology's role in Tibetan medicine and culture, which he delivered in his fluidly expressive and soft-spoken English.
 

SJ: Thank you for meeting with me this afternoon, Dr. Dorjee. Tibet is perhaps the only culture today in which astrology has not been marginalized. It is an active part of Tibetan culture both socially and medically. Can you please tell us how that operates - how does Tibetan medicine and culture employ astrology?

PD: Tibetan astrology is very important in our community, and it plays a big role in our society. Of first importance is the almanac, the calendar prepared by the Tibetan astrologer. It is very significant for individual Tibetans as well as for the Tibetan community in general. It is also very important for Tibetan medical practices. The Tibetan astrologers provide additional information about the flow of energies within one's body, and they are able to locate the exact seat of the energies, and this is how Tibetan medical practices are conducted. One should understand this when you perform any external therapy on a patient.

Also Tibetan astrology informs the individual about good days or bad days, or in other words, favorable and unfavorable days, and by knowing these, the practitioner will then choose the right or favorable days, or the favorable stars under which he prefers to do the therapies. Otherwise there is the belief that if you do a particular surgery on the wrong or unfavorable day and under an unfavorable star, you may get unwanted results. So this is very important for our medical practitioners to understand.

Also for prediction of the weather and for predictions of the right seasons, the Tibetan astrologer guides the Tibetan physician to the right time for the collection of the herbs. This is very important. Without knowing the exact time period there are difficulties... you know, if you go on a mountain at some time for the collection of the herb and it is too early or you reach there too late, there can be problems. So this is very important information for Tibetan physicians to have.

And as I mentioned, Tibetan astrology is very important for an individual Tibetan's life. When a child is born, the parents go to an astrologer to do the horoscope. This horoscope will forecast or show the complete picture of the child's life. If in case there are unwanted statements indicated in the horoscope, the astrologer can also show the remedies for that too.

SJ: How is that done?

PD: Say in the case of a person or child, if the prediction is that the child will experience an obstacle in his life when he is 13 or 14 years old, maybe an accident or any unwanted incident which comes in the horoscope, well then, you are given a remedy for that. The astrologer will tell you if you to perform this or that ritual so that you can prevent experiencing that obstacle.

SJ: So it's through the performance of rituals that you prevent the karmic event from occurring?

PD: Yes.

SJ: I had a professor in South Asian Studies who had gone to India to do research on the temples of Šani, of Saturn, and found that when people who were experiencing difficulties in their lives and families went to these temples and performed certain rituals, the problematic situations in their lives would, in fact, go away. [3] 

PD: Exactly.

SJ: I don't know of many documented cases of this kind of astrological phenomenon.

PD: In Tibetan culture, the rituals are normally related with Buddhist teachings. For instance, they may say that you should perform charitable acts, or you may please the child or a group of children. For small kids you distribute sweets to them, and when the children become happy it means that the happiness takes away the obstacles. So here, it is in some cases you have performed purifications according to religious instructions. Or in some cases they instruct you to hoist religious prayer flags at a higher altitude, which elevates your fortune.

So here are the special occurrences in your life that I know that the Tibetan astrologer can clearly tell you about, whether they are good or bad. And in the same way, if a negative thing comes into your life, it will not remain as negative, but the astrologer will give you a solution to prevent it.

SJ: Excuse me, may I please ask you a question?

PD: Yes.

SJ: So you are saying that you can actually see that in people's horoscopes there can be indications of negative pending disaster and that the astrologer helps intervene - that there is an intervention?

PD: Yes, yes, yes.

SJ: Therefore, most Tibetan families would be consulting astrologers and would thereby be avoiding misfortune.

PD: Yes, yes, because when you go to an astrologer and have a horoscope made, they will give you comments or commentaries on the calculations, and they will say, for instance, oh, you should be very careful when you are 12 or 13 years old... according to the calculations this is not a very good time for you. So to clear this up, to clear these obstacles, it is stated in the commentaries that you must free a caged bird or you may save the life of an animal who is about to be killed. In most cases, what they do is buy a live fish from the market, take it away and set it in the river.

SJ: Set it free.

PD: Yes, so as the happy fish flows independently into the water, it means that there will be no more obstacles in your life.

SJ: Are these obstacles considered to be karmic in nature from past lives?

PD: Well, normally, yes, yes, everything is karma. There is nothing that is not karmic in nature. But if you look at karma in this way, then there is a solution for all karma to be cleared. Through ritual and prayer karma can be eliminated. Having done bad things in a past life will result in an obstacle existing in the present. But now, if against that obstacle you are performing a good kind of action , as a result of that action it develops into good karma and it clears away the obstacle. Karma doesn't mean that once you have karma you have to unavoidably face that resulting obstacle. Acts of purification demolish karma within you --- your body-mind based motivation clears away that. With good motivation you can clear away the karmic obstacles and that is what is meant by purification.

SJ: So if I were to consult a Tibetan astrologer - and I don't know if there is anyone here at the conference who practices Tibetan astrology - I don't think so...

PD: No, I don't think so...

SJ: I don't think so either. But if I were to consult an astrologer ... are they always men? Mostly men?

PD: No, no, no, there are women astrologers.

SJ: ...then this astrologer would be able to identify for me certain times in my life when I had experienced illnesses or injuries?

PD: Only according to the calculations. He's not telling you. It is not like shamanism. No. He is not telling you, but his calculations are.

SJ: I see.

PD: The information derives from his calculations. It is all in the calculations.

SJ: Ah, so it is pure science.

PD: Yes, it is all in the calculation.

SJ: Pure technology; the information is not based on a subjective interpretation.

PD: No, no, no...

SJ: You see, in the West, most astrological information is based on interpretation given by the individual astrologer.

PD: No, not for the Tibetan astrologer. If one says as an astrologer "I have this mysterious kind of power", then we don't believe that. What is done is to take the date of birth or whatever the event is, and one does the calculations and finally the calculations will have a result, and that result is looked up in a commentary book, and the book will tell you. The old book will tell you what has happened.

For instance, if you are 40 years old the book will tell you what is happening when you are 40 yrs old, or the book will tell you about what happened 29 years past, and what will be happening for the rest of your life. If according to the calculations, there will be obstacles at certain points in your life, oh yes, there will be obstacles, but you can clear up those obstacles. This then the books will tell you, but still it is not the astrologer who is making the decisions.

SJ: In that sense the Tibetan system is completely different from Western astrology, which is more an expression of the individual astrologer's perspective, although there are some Western astrologers who practice more in that sort of orthodox way. But the movement in Western astrology has been much more in the direction of cultivating the art of interpretation.

PD: Because you as an astrologer have no right to say anything beyond the calculations and the specific information stated in the books.

SJ: Nothing is said beyond what is written, which has a very strict interpretive method.

PD: Yes, yes. The books rarely give you wrong information.

SJ: So, for instance, a Tibetan astrologer would not necessarily be psychic or intuitive...

PD: Oh, but it is connected with that. There is a connection, definitely.

SJ. Some excellent Western astrologers might have those kinds of intuitive capacities and perceptions.

PD: Yes, yes. Normally, the astrologer , especially the horoscope is based on the psychic. Definitely. For example, if someone says "I don't believe in astrology" it means you don't need a calculation done.

SJ (laughter) Yes, don't bother....

PD: If there is no calculation you don't need to hear about all those obstacles and all those good things and bad things, because you don't have faith, and you aren't receptive to that kind of psychological impact or influence. Bt if you do believe, it means there is faith, and in that way the calculations and the result of the calculations about the approaching time really gives you the picture of what's happening.

SJ: So it is important for the recipient to be responsive to the information.....

PD: Yes, yes.

SJ: ... and to participate in the process of the session.

PD: Yes. In communist countries the officials say "Oh, astrology is nonsense. You know, you can't really believe in it. It is superstition. And so for them it is superstition.

SJ: So in Tibet today astrology is not practiced?

PD: Yes! But practiced in the Tibetan community. In the Chinese community they once had excellent astrologers, but in the new Chinese world, no longer. This is, I feel, a great loss of the old Chinese traditional wisdom.

SJ: For that reason it is very important to keep the Tibetan astrological tradition alive.... to educate non-Tibetan people about it, which is why I am writing this article.

PD: In our community, astrology is not lost. No, it is still alive and is doing very well.

SJ: Would you be able to direct us to a Tibetan astrologer?

PD: You can write to our institute, but if you want to have a horoscope calculated, it will take two years because so many people are requesting them. But if you come to India you can meet astrologers, and they will give you more information about the calculations.

Now, the horoscope is one thing, other matters are medical calculations... and marriage... when they check for matching....

SJ: ...for harmonious horoscopes...

PD: ...yes, harmonious horoscopes. And in case there is any kind of disagreeable result that comes in the calculation still they have a solution.

SJ: So there is always a solution?

PD: Definitely.

SJ: Therefore you are never a victim of impending karmic disaster?

PD: Yes, otherwise, if there is no solution, the predictions of astrology itself are of no use.

And then you have the death calculations, when a person dies. So during that period the astrologer plays a great role. They do the calculation and they tell everything - about the funeral and the rituals related to the funerals, and in many cases they also tell you about the next life. And then the obstacle calculation, if you are interested in what will be happening in this next year, the new year, 2004. Tibetan astrology can tell you that and give you predictions.

SJ: So what I hear is that in Tibetan astrology there is emphasized the idea of being able to transform the situation, of working with karmic energies. While there may be problems in a given instance, there is always a solution based on religiously motivated acts. One can always create a positive environment through religious remedies.

PD: This is what I personally appreciate in Tibetan astrology - the remedies.

SJ: Thank you very much, Dr. Dorjee.
 

Bibliography

Notes

[1]  The Harmonic Convergence received much publicity over the Internet in the weeks preceding November 8, 2003. It admittedly was a rather elegant configuration composed of two intersecting grand trines of planets (one of these being the controversial Chiron, which symbolizes the healer and the healing process itself) in the earth and water elements. The central event forming the configuration consisted of a total lunar eclipse which rose with astonishing theatricality immediately over our hotel and the U.S. Capitol, which was directly across the street. The lobby was filled with amazed and breathless viewers, among them, Buddhist and Bon Tibetan spiritual masters, American Catholic bishops, and an awe-struck assortment of visitors from all over the world.

The configuration was composed of the following:

The Ascendant - 8 Cancer 28
Saturn - 13 Cancer 03 retrograde
Jupiter - 14 Virgo 21
Sun - 16 Scorpio 13
Chiron - 14 Capricorn 06
Mars - 10 Pisces 35
Moon - 16 Taurus 13
North Node - 20 Taurus 27 « Text

[2]  The Congress was organized by the unique and groundbreaking Pro-Cultura, "a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness and facilitating understanding of traditional health systems, resources and knowledge among the medical and scientific communities." Anna Souza - director of Pro-Cultura (www.procultura.org). « Text

[3]  see David Knipe, University of Wisconsin; "Softening The Cruelty of God: Folklore, and the Planet Šani (Saturn) in Southeast India" ; Syllables of Sky: Studies in South Indian Civilization, pp. 206-248; ed. David Shulman, Oxford University Press; Delhi, New York, 1995. « Text


 
Reference of the page:
Shelley Jordan: Astrology and Tibetan Culture (Part One)
http://cura.free.fr/xxx/28tibast.html
-----------------------
All rights reserved © 2003 Shelley Jordan

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