Christopher Hansard
Date: May 24, 2007 06:14PM
Kurukalla, I note you choose to avoid addressing the points raised in my previous posting, presumably to prevent torpedoing your own specious claims? May I suggest you read Professor David Snellgrove’s definitive study on Bon, it may dispossess you of some rather curious misconceptions you seem to hold.
As to your recent comments, regarding the claimed deities of Hansard‘s so-called ‘teaching“
[i:1338019a8f]“Actually the deities of the first nine ways are the same as those given in the teachings of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche…“[/i:1338019a8f]
What a remarkable coincidence Hansard’s Dur-Con features the same ‘deities’ which are central to the authentic YungDrung Bon tradition! But wait Christopher Hansard asserts his ‘system’ has nothing to do with genuine Tibetan Bon, claiming it pre-dates Yung Drun Bon (albeit without a shred of historical, cultural, linguistic and anthropological evidence to support that claim).
In his communication to me dated 22nd May 2006 Christopher Hansard states:
[i:1338019a8f][b:1338019a8f]“My tradition is not Yung Drung Bon[/b:1338019a8f] as pointed out on the website…My tradition is regarded as ‘Old Bon’, archaic and from possible Neolithic sources”[/i:1338019a8f]
So Kurukulla the Tibetan people have it all wrong, their native Bon religion which can be shown, through historical documentation and archaeological record, to have been practised in Tibet for at least three thousand years, is in fact a pale imitation derived from Hansard’s Dur-Con? In light of this devastating revelation maybe there is a case, for the ‘Master of Dur-Con’, becoming the spiritual head of the Tibetan Bon community?
Meanwhile, we should recall that Hansard owes his ‘knowledge’of Dur-Con to a remarkable meeting in New Zealand with a Tibetan from Amdo, who we are asked to believe tutored Hansard in the profound and complex mysteries of Dur-Con and Tibetan medicine. This raises a number of interesting questions, not least of all how did this mysterious Tibetan manage to obtain travel papers from Communist China, during a time when Tibet was sealed off from the outside world and faced the brutal horrors of cultural genocide? Hansard claims, this Urgyen Namchuk (sic) was from the Bon Community, despatched to locate the much awaited ’Thunder Being’ (which Hansard just happens to be) following some cosmic portents. Mmmmm!
Now Kurukulla are you following me here so far? Please keep up, and try to have an open and enquiring mind. [/color:1338019a8f]
This claim suggests, that there exists in Amdo, a culture and community , which not only recognizes Hansard’s system of Dur-Con, but practices it. The problem is that no such society and tradition operates, Amdo does have Bon practitioners, but of the Yungdrung Bon tradition, it’s people, who are largely nomadic are otherwise Kagyu, Sakya, or Gelug Buddhists. There is also a sizable Muslim Hui population too, mostly in the urban areas bordering China. I have approached a number of Amdo-Tibetans on this matter, including a prominent Tibetan anthropologist, whose own family come from Amdo, and none can identify, the so-called gNam tribe, which Hansard claims his ‘teacher’ came from. Now, unlike our disintegrated and alienated society of consumerist individuals, nomadic communities on the grasslands of Amdo have close connections and are very much aware of each other’s traditions, value oral histories, and pride themselves in family lineages. Is it not a matter of some interest Kurukulla that such people do not practice Hansard’s ‘tradition’, recognize his ’teacher’, or the so-called gNam tribe? Are your critical faculties so dulled, by an adoration of the Master of Dur-Con, that you are unable to accept the serious questions these facts raise?
Hansard’s 'biography' suggests that this ‘Tibetan‘, having apparently discovered him on a beach in New Zealand, as a four-year-old child, then trained Hansard in "...the pre-Buddhist and Bön spiritual teachings of Tibet". In order to lay aside a sceptical and incredulous response, we have to accept certain presumptions such as; this person must have been fluent in English, or alternatively as an infant Hansard was already speaking perfect Tibetan, or was there perhaps a more esoteric method which enabled his 'studies' ? Perhaps Kurukulla, it was all done by ectoplasmic thought transference?
So far no one has been able to provide any evidence that Hansard’s ‘teacher’ existed, while people who knew Hansard in New Zealand, have stated on this forum that they never saw any ‘teacher’ with Christopher Hansard. There is of course a simple solution, which I presented to Hansard in my written challenges to him. If Hansard’s ‘teacher‘, ‘tradition’ and ‘tribe’ exist in Amdo perhaps he would care to provide more details, in order for these claims to be verified ? Moreover one presumes the New Zealand authorities have a record of immigration, which would reveal the arrival of any Tibetan, including the mysterious Urgyen Namchuk (sic). Unless of course Kurukulla I fail to recognize that individual had the ability to render himself invisible, and was possessed of the ability to fly!