Buddhism and Nazi Heraldry. WHAT?!?

[Awaiting_the_fifth]

In a copy of the threefold Lotus Sutra which I bought recently, there is poetic discription of the Buddha's appearance. 10'6" tall, skin of blue gold etc.

The peom states that he has a swastika on his chest.

I know that Hitler and chums stole the symbol from eastern mysticism, but can anyone tell me what the symbol in its true form actually means. Also can anyone offer any insight as to why the Nazis, SA and SS, arguably the most evil institutions ever would adopt such an apparently holy symbol?

[earl]

You're right that it long predated Hitler and certainly had other meanings:
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~sidneys/Swastika.htm

Take care, Earl

[Vajradhara]

Namaste all,


remember, the Nazi party also turned the Swastica on it's head...

originally, the symbol is meant to indicate good luck and fortune... i'm not sure what purpose the Nazis had with it... except that they tought that they were the "Arayans"... and the Arayan Invasion Theory of India was rather prominent amongst the various nations of the western hemisphere that talked about these things...

so... i think it was a natural sort of thing for them to take ancient cultural symbols, which they thought applied to them, and turn them into something which they are not.

[I, Brian]

Indeed, remember, the Nazi's reveresed the Swastika.

You may find the following thread on the history of the Swastika to be of interest:
History of the Swastika

[Gwynplaine]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

Indeed, remember, the Nazi's reveresed the Swastika.

You may find the following thread on the history of the Swastika to be of interest:
History of the Swastika

If I recall correctrly, the swa-swastika (the anti clock wise swastika) was used pretty freely in hindu decorative and ceremonial art as well as the swastika, but the Bonpo of Tibet ONLY use the swa-swastika, where as the Buddhist swastika is always clock-wise (as the name implies, it not having the 'swa' or 'sva' sanskrit prefix) The source of the swastika/swaswastika in Nazi imagery is based on the erroneous idea that the symbol linked the northern races to the Indians via the Thor glyph, which is also a swa-swastika. Its most likely a Theosophical trend of thought that links the two rather than invade Aryans or emigrating Indians. Blavatsky and Bulwer-Lytton both had an influence on Nazi 'folk lore'

[Chela]

You will want to read the following links:

http://www.berzinarchives.com/kalach...ala_tibet.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika



http://www.gnosis-usa.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=185&Item id=43

The swastika is a trandscendental, terribly divine symbol!

[I, Brian]

Thanks for the information, Gwynplaine - and indeed, the Theosophy movement was apparently sourced in the development of occult idealism within the Nazi party.

[bananabrain]

indeed, the thing that interests me most about this subject is that the hindu swastika is so closely related to the first letter of the hebrew alphabet, "alef", which is open in all four directions. interestingly, the first letter of the Torah is not alef, but bet, which is open in only one direction (the same one as the hindu direction and the opposite of the nazi direction) alluding to the unidirectional nature of time from a human perspective. indeed, one might also note that a swastika is the same as four bets. this has immense mystical significance - as indeed does the fact that the nazis happened to choose the inverse swastika - the very refutation of life, the perfect choice for the sitra ahra. this was, i dare say, not unknown to some of them. but that's all i really want to say about it - except that there's a further connection between the alef and the taoist yin-yang symbol.

b'shalom

bananabrain

[Vajradhara]

stupid nazis..

[Gwynplaine]

Originally Posted by Vajradhara

stupid nazis..

Erm, I beg to differ. In terms of engineering Zeitgeist, the Nazis were very, very clever. They used commonly recognised sybols and idea and wrapped a lie in the thruth to make a new folklore, that would have become a pretty upleasant, albeit successful, religion. As much as one abhors their politics and aims, one has to admire the elegance of the synthesis of Eastern and Western mystery schools, with a Nordic gloss. Having studied a lot of the occult ideas, I can see why it was seductive. And it almost did usher in an end time (Gottendamerung, if you will)

[Vajradhara]

oh.. i'm not saying they weren't clever..


i'm saying that they were stupid for taking other cultures holy symbols and perverting them.

eh.. maybe they wanted to do that... however, from my side the coin, that seems a fairly stupid move.

it's not as if they didn't have plenty of their own esoteric traditions to take stuff from...

[Gwynplaine]

Within limits, the symbol was within their 'culture' or rather what they chose to see as their culture. The sign of thor was a widdershins hooked cross (swa-swastika) In many respects it was other cultures that imposed the idendity swastika on the symbol used, especially the British with their uniquely hindu links. As I pointed out, there was a cross pollination with Theosophy,the golden Dawn and the basic prejudice that one of the wealthiest cultures on the planet (until the 18th century) HAD to have been infulenced by outsiders, rather than it perhaps being a civilisation amongst wode wearing barbarians who couldn't find their a** without an Arab map. Its an odd reflection of 18th and 19th Century mores, overlaid with late 19th and early 20th century mysticism.

Additionally, as has been pointed out, the hook cross has been part of many culture's zeitgeist for a long time. If you're going for branding, go for the bigest meme. Brilliant in its simplicity.

[Chela]

Originally Posted by Vajradhara

oh.. i'm not saying they weren't clever..


i'm saying that they were stupid for taking other cultures holy symbols and perverting them.

eh.. maybe they wanted to do that... however, from my side the coin, that seems a fairly stupid move.

it's not as if they didn't have plenty of their own esoteric traditions to take stuff from...

He who holds the swastika has power over the universe. He who is held by the swastika is governed by it.

Hitler used the power of the swastika. But he was tricked by the Green Dragon society, who he thought was the Ubermensch; they tricked him and Hitler became paranoid, a victim of his own mind...

'The new man is living among us now! He is here!... I will tell you a secret. I have seen the new man. He is intrepid and cruel. I was afraid of him.' - Hitler

"Both Gurdjeiff and Haushofer maintained that they had contacts with secret Tibetan Lodges that possessed the secret of the "Superman". The lodge included Hitler, Alfred Rosenberg, Himmler, Goring, and Hitler's subsequent personal physician Dr. Morell. It is also known that Aleister Crowley and Gurdjieff sought contact with Hitler. Hitler's unusual powers of suggestion become more understandable if one keeps in mind that he had access to the "secret" psychological techniques of the esoteric lodges. Haushofer taught him the techniques of Gurdjieff which, in turn, were based on the teachings of the Sufis and the Tibetan Lamas- and familiarized him with the Zen teaching of the Japanese Society of the Green Dragon." -- http://www.crystalinks.com/thule.html

Every symbol is a duality that can be good and evil. There is good in evil and evil in good.

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Thread: History of the Swastika
View Single Post #18
05-29-2004, 06:40 AM
Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine vbmenu_register("postmenu_10584", true);
Junior Moderator, Intro
Join Date: Sep 2003
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Quote:
From Louis...
It's a common practise with Satan worshipers to reverse
positive mystical symbols. If you ever see anyone wearing
a crucifix UPSIDE DOWN, now you know why. Same goes
for a five-point star with two points up, one point down.
Actually, Louis, the inverted penticle also symbolizes (in some Wiccan traditions) a second-degree practitioner (please correct me if I'm wrong any of the Wiccan practitioners on this board.)

Anyhow, the swastika is actually one of the sun symbols in Eastern (and I believe some of the Western) religions (other than the Abrahamic triad.) Some of the other symbols were used by the SS and other groups in the Nazi government.

I believe that Hitler used quite a few of the symbols that were legitimately carried by the German and Austro-Hungarian soldiers of WWI as "protection" against injury and death. I don't have the notes I took in my Wicca & Neopaganism or my Ethnicity & the Occult classes, but I could ask the instructor about this if anybody's interested.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

************************************************** *********
I hope you guys don't mind my copying my post from the other thread onto this one. I feel it explains better what I have to say than if I tried to go through everything I've learned from Murph (my instructor from the two classes I mentioned) and other people I've studied with in a general comparative religious way.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[Padipa]

I believe that in Jainism they currently use a swastika in their symbol of Jain Dharma which was adopted in 1975.

This is what it says about it:

The four arms of the swastika remind us that during the cycles of birth and death we may be born into any one of the four destinies: heavenly beings, human beings, animal beings, (including birds, bugs, and plants) and hellish beings. Our aim should be the liberation and not the rebirth. To show how we can do this, the swastika reminds us that we should become the pillars of the four fold Jain Sangh, then only can we achieve liberation. The four pillars of the Jain Sangh are sädhus, sädhvis, shrävaks, and shrävikäs. This means that first, we should strive to be a true shrävaks or shrävikäs, and when we can overcome our social attachments, we should renounce the worldly life and follow the path of a sädhu or sädhvi to be liberated.

http://www.jainworld.com/education/jainsymbol.htm