Saturday, Jun 10 2023
All Cities
Choose Your City
'Larger than Belgium and a mile deep, lake Baikal holds a fifth of the earth's fresh water'
W.Bruce Lincoln

Mummified monk is ‘not dead’ and in rare meditative state, says expert

By Kate Baklitskaya
02 February 2015

As police say lama found in lotus positon was destined for sale on black market, there are claims it was one step away from becoming a Buddha.

The mummified remains, covered in cattle skin, were found on January 27 in the Songinokhairkhan province. Picture: Morning Newspaper 

A mummified monk found in the lotus position in Mongolia is 'not dead' and is instead one stage away from becoming a real-life Buddha, it has been claimed.

Forensic examinations are under way on the amazing remains, which are believed to be around 200 years old, having been preserved in animal skin. But one expert has insisted the human relic is actually in 'very deep meditation' and in a rare and very special spiritual state known as 'tukdam'.

Over the last 50 years there are said to have been 40 such cases in India involving meditating Tibetan monks.

Dr Barry Kerzin, a famous Buddhist monk and a physician to the Dalai Lama, said: 'I had the privilege to take care of some meditators who were in a tukdam state.

'If the person is able to remain in this state for more than three weeks - which rarely happens - his body gradually shrinks, and in the end all that remains from the person is his hair, nails, and clothes. Usually in this case, people who live next to the monk see a rainbow that glows in the sky for several days. This means that he has found a 'rainbow body'. This is the highest state close to the state of Buddha'.

He added: 'If the meditator can continue to stay in this meditative state, he can become a Buddha. Reaching such a high spiritual level the meditator will also help others, and all the people around will feel a deep sense of joy'.

Initial speculation is that the mummy could be a teacher of Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov.

Born in 1852, Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov was a Buryat Buddhist Lama of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, best known for the lifelike state of his body.

Mummified monk is ‘not dead’ and in rare meditative state, says expert


Mummified monk is ‘not dead’ and in rare meditative state, says expert

The 'meditating monk' and the house in Mongolia where it was hidden. Pictures: Morning Newspaper 


Ganhugiyn Purevbata, who is the founder and professor of the Mongolian Institute of Buddhist Art at Ulaanbaatar Buddhist University, said: 'Lama is sitting in the lotus position vajra, the left hand is opened, and the right hand symbolizes of the preaching Sutra.

'This is a sign that the Lama is not dead, but is in a very deep meditation according to the ancient tradition of Buddhist lamas'.

The mummified remains, which were covered in cattle skin, were found on January 27 in the Songinokhairkhan province of Mongolia.

However, there is more to the story and now police have revealed that the monk had been stolen from another part of the country and was about to be sold off.

An unnamed official said that it was taken from a cave in the Kobdsk region by a man who then hid it in his own home in Ulaanbaatar.

He had then been planning to sell it on the black market at a 'very high price', with local media claiming he wanted to take it over the Mongolian border. Police uncovered the plot and quickly arrested a 45-year-old, named only as Enhtor. 

According to Article 18 of the Criminal Code of Mongolia smuggling items of cultural heritage are punishable with either a fine of up to 3million roubles ($43,000) or between five and 12 years in prison. The monk is now being guarded at the National Centre of Forensic Expertise at Ulaanbaatar.

Comments (195)

Anyone who believes that this mummy is alive is in need of some serious mental help.The dedication it takes to meditate until you die is extraordinary. I suppose without the remains of the monks who do this to themselves I wouldn't have believed it.
I simply can't understand how anyone can think that this mummified body is alive it is so blatantly obvious that the man is dead and has been dead for hundreds of years this monk is no more alive than any of the mummies found in Egypt.
Seriously to all those who believe this fellow is alive prove it, wake him up, find a pulse, show us some brain activity of any sort. I can tell you right now that you can't simply because the man is dead. You see science works and if you can't show some actual scientific evidence proving that this dead man is alive then you must accept the truth of the situation if he's alive then we're dead.
KoolBreeze, Midland On.
11/04/2017 01:34
18
23
"How sad that people in this day and time can idolize these poor deranged souls and their pagan religions. The man is dead and has been so for a very long time. He is dead. He is not a rainbow - he is a carcass."



This seems like a great spot to insert a picture of Jesus.



Because wow irony.
Senevri, Finland
22/03/2017 19:26
13
29
If I'm asked about religion I say Buddhism. Because for me it fits my way of thinking and maybe the least violent and to say its pagan is just typical Christianity. That said all religion is just a load of BS for way back when no one had a clue why the wind blew or the ground shook. And for thousands of years the main culprit for all wars. Just my opinion
Peter H , England
26/01/2017 18:50
16
9
Peter... as well as those of you who agree with Peter,

It is the unbelievably, arrogant, self-serving, close-minded, men (and I use the term loosely) like you who give Christianity a bad name. I pray that one day you can feel the peace this man has and see the light that our loving God has for all of His children.
Susan, Texas, USA
23/01/2017 08:33
11
16
how one can believe without GURU.
naresh kumar jha, darbhanga/india
19/11/2016 19:47
2
3
Really sad how judgmental and close-minded people can be to poke fun at religion and spirituality. Yes, he's dead scientifically speaking, but spiritually, he's alive. Maybe the preservation can be scientifically AND spiritually explained. Just stop for a moment and realize how amazing this man is from a spiritual and scientific standpoint.
Why does it have to be black or white? Remember, you don't know everything and you never will. NO ONE is perfect. All you can do is live life in the moment, show tolerance and treat people as you'd like to be treated, and be open-minded to possibilities. We learn new things every day. Science is still making breakthroughs all of the time. We as a species are still evolving. So when someone makes snide comments about how their religion is superior, how they know the answer to everything, you're just making yourself and the religion you stand for as very petty and arrogant. Learn some humility.
Open-minded, USA
03/09/2016 15:15
24
15
He is being laid to rest. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/buddhist-monks-mummified-remains-be-returned-grave-mongolia-1490342
Logan, US
17/06/2016 01:31
6
2
i would let him chill, probably figure i was being watched ...as usual. he obviously doesn't sign checks let alone autographs. what did he eat? possibly an asteroid. a martian tablet. if the weather was that perfect, people should really take heed. maybe not. i've seen dustier dudes.
marzipony, horsefeathers
16/06/2016 14:13
3
7
That monkeys dead as a door nail. Even deader than all those tigers the monks kill and sell on black market in Thailand.
Joey , USA
07/06/2016 20:02
6
15
At first I'm like, Peter really knows what he's talking about. Then I'm like, nope, Peter is just as dumb as the people he's describing.
Jeff, USA
06/06/2016 01:37
15
5
How sad that people in this day and time can idolize these poor deranged souls and their pagan religions. The man is dead and has been so for a very long time. He is dead. He is not a rainbow - he is a carcass. What a shame he gave his life up in this manner. They should just have some respect and bury him quickly. To think that the same who idolize this insanity think they are too enlightened for the common sense morality of Christianity. Is there something that the public hates about bans on murder, adultery, lying, thieving, etc? Or is it just that they hate "guilt" - aka, their consciences. These westerners have willfully chosen to believe the most impossible of lies rather than truth. Woe to our planet...

How low have our societies become when those who should know better are impressed by this sort of savagery and go on and on with a bunch of meaningless philosophical psycho-babble. People need to read Robison's 1798 work as well as the works of those who have studied the foisting of these pagan religions on the west. We are in the age where everyone has been brainwashed into believing that they are enlightened scientists, hateful of the one true God, while holding up and adoring this archaic demonology. Do some real reading. Look up the 5 nectars of buddhism and the 5 meats. Consider the great efforts spent "emptying" one's soul so it can be filled with demons.

Your masters who have convinced the masses to be infatuated with these pagan religions or atheism have a religion of their own and they are just using the masses as dumb tools as they plan the total domination of humanity. I wonder if you can guess what their religion is..
Peter, Virginia, USA
19/05/2016 21:48
8
71
i will travel only foronlycloser to the truth about cristianity and news,,,
larry ambrossio, new york
26/04/2016 03:39
1
10
thank you Spring H from USA for the amazing elaboration. I felt so peaceful when I was reading it .
Gothami , Australia
05/03/2016 04:00
2
2
When you are dead you don't know that you are Dead! It's the same when you are STUPID!
Don, Australia
01/03/2016 08:55
12
13
This image of the zeal for Truth is not just a reflection of imagination, but a demonstration of living will, which is beyond image (and can yet be seen in it).

"Those with eyes..."

All beings are ordained to follow the Path. Each being, never apart from the Path, emerges from the empty-yet-full chaos of existing in unison with every way (and so, exists in no separate way at all). We come to exist by way of attachment, or persistence of consciousness. A patterning. There are endless demonstrations of manifestation, seemingly individual, but upon closer inspection- not a thing is alone or separate. Yet the elements of this concert seek to preserve themselves- and reveal their unfolding Oneness by virtue of pure existence. For the stilled mind, awareness of the many as the One becomes the Awareness of Pure Being, in the transcendence of disparity. No need for discrimination-- all manifestations are variations of this single eternal patterning. Release.

As duality is birthed, and the division of chaos and pattern takes hold, there is still recognition that there are very many other ways of Pure being, which despite appearances, are still but Pure Presence, in infinite variations of consciousness and subtle form.  All is precognitively recognized as Self by this ancient identity. We still feel of a whole, like fingers on a hand. But soon we forget that we are a part of a whole, without boundary, completion, or concept. We strive and seek ways to find Wholeness-- but from the mind, most will fail. It can only be felt as unconditional Reality, not found through conditional experience. Many spend countless selves seeking the selfless Truth... the selfless Self. Some beings flail in time, panicking quietly, from life to death, again and again... seeking sense gratification and indulging in the novelties and pains of relative consciousness. Many beings willfully suppress the light, but do so at great peril and ultimate futility. Even this particular patterning of Pure Awareness will still into itself.

As death comes near, the many disparate ways in which we seek peace come together, though rarely entirely, or in a fell swoop fashion. The merging of trust and unfolding wisdom is often stoked through devotion and sustained practice, but only for some. We cannot help but become enmeshed with living Spirit, and for some it transcends worldly action. Eventually a saint is born through Creation, and our saintliness is but Grace, informing our incarnation with Love. So we feel it, and slowly, and then quite intensely, becoming genuine devotees... of whatever Mascot we end up with. We end up practicing going no where at all, seeking nothing at all, and wanting for nothing. We arrive, at first in flashes, then in infinite space, in total Abundance. Suchness.

A dissolution of self and ego is the consequence of following Peace. A Buddha, incarnate, is consciousness stilled to Peace, which itself is a supra/meta-rational state, transcending gnostic conventions... and in fact all convention... and the concept of convention, AND concept itself. Such a meditative practice, or state of mind, which exists as the ubiquitous quality of all that could ever be, burns off attachment to the conditional realm, without rejecting its relative existence. So death of the body is inevitable, but such a recognition elicits no immediate sense of otherness or disharmony. The failing body exists in concert with, yet indiscernibly as, Peace. And so the mind. To acknowledge physical death acknowledges 'change' as the permanent quality of the impermanent world, which is still without cause, as the Lord simply Is. As reality simple Is. As Buddha mind simply is. As Christ Is. As Light is.

Light is simultaneously itself, alone, in essence, and can also be construed relatively as the opposite of darkness. Yet it is also indiscernible from and entirely enmeshed with darkness. And in the peace and stillness of nondiscrimination, the One functions beyond division-- there is no self recognition, no birthing of essential separateness to denote the existence of self in relation to something other than self. No 'other' means no attachment to individuality, because the deniability of anything births subject/object separateness. In Peace there is no Oneness, nor anyone else... because no One exists at all, unless we wish to label that which is beyond labels. One can deny a label, but not that which exists in all things, and in which all things exist. Suchness.

From Peace, the discerning mind regards every possible quality as universal stimuli, as God-Self, without apprehension, and without preference. The Way is easy, for those without preferences. Such a being exists beyond the want for fleeting bliss or conditional Peace, yet shares pure Love as a pillar of Pure Wakefulness. No circumstance can ever present itself that is not without the perfection of each preceding, proceeding, and potential permutation of Creation. God. Buddha. Krishna. Beyond the Beyond. Creator. Mother. That which cannot be named. Being from the point where all is indiscernible from Peace itself, Awareness shines through without self, or cause.

We are surrounded by Beauty; the flow of Rightness becomes us as we surrender attachments. Much of life is consciousness oscillating between Rightness (which is filled with a blissful, merging quality) and Separation (which engenders fear, aggression, and all other forms of benign confusion). Yet all Maya, all confusion, cannot dispell living Truth, which is beyond a valuing or dichotomy of life and death. Living Truth can dispell comfusion, though. Born into eterrnity, consciousness models all possibilities, and merges back into its impossible Self. One, Many, One, None, Beyond... repeat.

Thought is not necessary in a place of true Trust; sit quietly and pray best without ideation. Practice without judgment-- which is the attempted splitting of the Lord. For fun, try to actively divide space-- see the folly of attempting to separate Peace, or God, or Buddha. All are Absolute conditions, beyond condition.

Reflect with benevolent sentiment for a moment on the Rightness of a simple breath. Then experience it directly. Every possible moment possesses the wisdom teachings, imagined or real, just as the vision of this eternal monk. Darshan. Sacred image. Divine sight. No longer does a monk speak, but Peace speaks. This Peace has many names, and knows no boundaries. 'It' is beyond knowledge. And so as all paths meet at the top of the Mountain, all beings meet in the sea. With sacred trust and blessed intentions, we plunge into deeper waters, all beings, beyond causality and condition... merging more and more, yet living out the truth of a less meaningful separateness.

There is but one condition to our practice, to acknowledge that which births all realms, and all beings, and to do so until the need to know is replaced by the condition of Being. And from purity all is transcended in recognition of non-being, which is beyond cognition. One grain contains the Whole, and is contained in the Beyond. In the Whole there is suffering, and there is Grace. One must only see that all things are both perfect and forever changing.

When death comes near, we can clutch, or we can Trust. Back and forth, vacillating, beings are born again and again. Clutching- holding on as though we are individuals capable of owning the real estate of Creation-- a king, born of the flesh, dying in the flesh-- suffering. Trusting is surrender to Reality, without manipulation or condition. The already perfect mirror is cleansed of attachment and clinging, and presents itself as a spiritual tuning fork, heard by souls ready to ask for Peace. "He who has ears..." In the endless divisions of consciousness, is the Mother birthing Bodhisattvas; Suffering birthing Grace. Saints and true Gurus, birthed as living truth.

We forget our manifest realm is 'of a kind', filled with endless roles belonging entirely to itself, and so with and without singularity or identity. We are a living part of this sparkling dream. Sit, pray, be still. Let ease and timelessness course through the body, which lives in time and decay. These vessels can be imbued with Pure energies, pure demonstrations of timelessness and Awareness, beyond the confines of paranoia and confusion... but such demonstrations are rare, indeed- but such purity is the birthright and living destiny of all incarnate beings. Be still, and die into Truth.

The eternal truth of change coexists as the eternal quality of the Undeniable. Whatever relative reality we all coexist in, it must accommodate the perfection of all beings, in all permutations. Bringing heaven and earth together, in principle, means appreciating the tenderness of separations of consciousness, of the ensuing suffering, whilst remaining in communion with the perfection of that which is beyond judgment.

Sit, pray, be still. Let ease and timelessness course through the body, beyond the confines of paranoia and confusion. Be still, and die into Truth.

Namaste
Spring H., NY, NY
20/02/2016 20:45
16
5

Add your comment

We welcome a healthy debate, but do not accept offensive or abusive comments. Please also read 'Siberian Times' Privacy Policy

Name

Town/Country

Add your comments

The views expressed in the comments above are those of our readers. 'Siberian Times' reserves the right to pre-moderate some comments.

Control code*

Type the code

* obligatory


News

Business

The Bank of Russia official exchange rates of foreign currencies
EUR89.01USD82.64GBP103.59Other...