Bigfoots Can Be Spiritual
Dear friends,
Since young, I have always been attracted to ‘unusual’ subjects like paranormal stories and especially to Bigfoot. I don’t remember when I first heard about Bigfoot but I remember the attraction was natural. So I’m always on the lookout for news, videos and images about them, and that’s why I have a Bigfoot section here on my blog, to collate and compile all this information that I have found all over the Internet and from various books, videos and websites.
Bigfoot definitely exists and people of all races and cultures around the world have seen him. They just know him by different names depending on where in the world you are. In North America, he’s known as Bigfoot and of course Sasquatch. In Tibet and the surrounding Himalayan regions, people know them as migo or yeti and it is common knowledge that they exist. Their existence is considered a fact of life, something so normal like seeing a yak or goat, that the locals don’t understand why Westerners are so fascinated and obsessed about finding them.
So I am always investigating and reading more about Bigfoot, and recently I came across this fascinating extract from a book which describes Bigfoot not as an animal but as a human-animal hybrid. What is more interesting, however, is that Bigfoot is described as being spiritual, providing the Tibetan Buddhist Lama Sangwa Dorje with food, fuel and water. This to me is totally possible because I was told by my previous life’s student that in my previous life, Bigfoot used to carry messages between me and other lamas. He would also bring supplies to me while I was in retreat.
Anyway, at the end of this book, Bigfoot (who is described as a yeti) even became Lama Sangwa Dorje’s disciple. The book also mentions that this is not the only case of the Bigfoot being spiritual. There are many other stories of how Bigfoot will engage in some form of spiritual practice.
It’s wonderful to read this. I have been fascinated with this creature since I was young, and I hope that by reading that Bigfoot can be spiritual too, you can come to appreciate why I like them so much and at the same time, learn something new and open your mind to new possibilities – since Bigfoot exists, what else is out there that we don’t know much about. After all, scientists are always discovering new species of this and that so why can’t Bigfoot be something as yet undiscovered by them? Just because some scientists have not seen them, does not mean no one around the world has not either. Do let me know what you think about this book.
Tsem Rinpoche
Recognizing that yetis are human-animal hybrids allows us to understand the surprising ability of yetis to practice religion in the Tibetan folk tradition. As we have seen, often in spiritual traditions animals cannot practice Religion, and this is true in the Buddhism of Tibet. Also, Buddhist rules explicitly state that monks and nuns must be human beings, and the tradition generally holds that nonhumans lack the self-reflective capacity required to tread the path to enlightenment. In most Buddhist thought, only humans practice religion. But some elements of Tibetan folk religion that entertain the yeti’s partial humanity got integrated into Tibetan Buddhism and reveal that yetis may at times be pious Buddhists.
Stories from the life of the great seventeenth-century religious leader Lama Sangwa Dorje illustrate such a Buddhist yeti. In his youth Lama Sangwa Dorje left Sherpa country to study Buddhism in southern Tibet. He became skilled in both intellectual and practical aspects of Buddhism and so was recognized as the fifth incarnation of the spiritual teacher of Rongphu Monastery. Then he returned to the Sherpa Khumbu region with the desire to build monasteries. Before commencing, he sought a blessing from his tutelary deity Gombu, so he retreated alone to a cave near Pangboche to intensely meditate.
Hermit meditators like Sangwa Dorje are highly revered in the Tibetan world since it is thought that they bring good luck and do the hard spiritual work for everyone else. Typically, therefore, local lay people provision meditators with gifts of food, clothing, medicine, and the like, in support of their retreats. Such generosity to hermits is considered an important spiritual practice of devotion that creates good karma. In the case of Sangwa Dorje, his devoted patron was a yeti, who regularly brought food, water, and fuel to the monk. Over time this yeti even became Sangwa Dorje’s Buddhist disciple. When the yeti died, Lama Sangwa Dorje retained the yeti’s scalp and hand and enshrined them in Pangboche Gompa, a monastery that Sangwa Dorje founded in 1667.
On the way to Pangboche Gompa (Monastery), Nepal
Yeti relics sometimes have spiritual charisma, as is true for the relics of Sangwa Dorje’s yeti also. For centuries these yeti relics, charged with spiritual power, were paraded around the village at least once a year by Sangwa Dorje’s successors, the Drogon lamas. This parade was thought to bring auspicious energy and especially fertility for a good harvest, and the yeti relics blessed humans, animals, houses, and fields alike. Unfortunately the yeti hand was stolen from the monastery in 1999.
As for the authenticity of yeti relics, we have seen Messner encounter a yeti head which he thought was fabricated. The famous yeti scalp from Khumjung Gompa in Nepal was shown by Western scientists to be formed from serow antelope skins that had been sewn together.
Before it was stolen, the yeti hand of Pangboche Gompa was described as antelope and human bones that had been wired together. But of course, for some Himalayan people, if an article functions ritually as a yeti scalp, it is a yeti scalp, regardless of DNA constitution. An object fabricated centuries ago to encourage religious belief may have its origins forgotten and now appear to people as old, traditional, and therefore real. We see a similar situation with the myriad supposed bits of the cross of Jesus, which provide devotional support to many Christians yet, in the most charitable perspective, are far too numerous for every single one to be authentic.
Thus yeti artifacts may perform serious and profound religious work even if they perhaps are not at all authentic. Lama Sangwa Dorje’s story from Sherpa country is not the only one in which yetis practice religion. In another tale, from Bhutan, a group of yetis expressed religious devotion by serving as the attendants for a Buddhist shrine. These yetis would sneak into a temple for the deity Palden Lhamo in the dead of night lest any human could take notice. Night after night the yetis would clean and refill the bowls and plates that contained water and food offerings, replenish the butter in the temple butter lamps, dust, sweep, and then disappear into the presunrise darkness. Like Sangwa Dorje’s yeti, these creatures practiced acts of religious devotion very similar to those of Tibetan humans. Many theorists have told us that the difference between humans and animals is the practice of religion, but these yetis strain this understanding.
These stories highlight why some Tibetans told both Charles Stonor and René de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, a scholar of religion who resided in the Himalayas, that yetis are placid beings who need not be feared unless they are injured. In the stories of both Lama Sangwa Dorje and the Bhutanese temple keepers, we find yetis who are much kinder and gentler than any in Western depictions. These yetis are peaceful, devoted Buddhists who practice religion and contribute to Tibetan society. This way of thinking about yetis is brilliantly displayed at the Norbulinka Institute, the Dalai Lama’s own monastery, temple, and museum in Dharamsala, India. In one of the murals there that display the people and fauna of Tibet, one can find a yeti who has a medium build, long, brown hair, and an amiable apelike face adorned with a large smile. It is a friendly yeti.
From Learning Love from A Tiger: Religious Experiences With Nature by Daniel Capper
You can download the entire PDF by clicking here.
Disclaimer: This text is presented here for strictly educational, non-commercial purposes only and no profit is being derived from making it available here.
For more interesting information:
- Bigfoot on The Paranormal Zone
- Bigfoot, cookies and Kechara | 野人、小甜饼和克切拉
- Finding Bigfoot Festival
- Dermal Ridges
- Hunting for the Yeti!
- The Man Who Created Bigfoot
- Finding Bigfoot
- The Best Evidence of Sasquatch
- 10 Weird Facts About Bigfoot
- Bigfoot Spotted by Dept of Transport in Arizona!
- They exist!
- Something interesting from Russia
- The Cowichan People gave him the name “Thumquas”
- Bigfoot declared to exist in 1974
- I was in Willow Creek!
- Another Interesting Bigfoot Film!
- 5 Years + USD500,000 = EVIDENCE!!
- Researcher Says Bigfoot DNA Analysis Reveals Human Hybrid … Seriously?
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I love to read stories about yetis. I do believe they exist but they are probably afraid of humans and prefer to keep away from them. But if they trust you, for example, the way they trust the accomplished yogis in the Himalayas, then they will become loyal and trustworthy friends and servants.
There are many stories of Tibetan lamas living in the remote regions of the Himalayas who had faithful yeti followers. Venerable Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche’s previous incarnation, Kunzang Yeshe, had at least two teachers who could communicate with yetis. One of them, the Dzamtra Lama Kunzang Trinle Gyatso, lived in a secluded hermitage near Thangme. Once he saw a large flat stone by the river and asked his Sherpa disciples to bring it up to his cave to be used as a table. It was too heavy for the strong Sherpa disciples and they had to leave it where it was. The following morning the stone was found outside the cave. It was concluded that a yeti had carried it up for the lama.
Kunzang Yeshe’s root lama was Lama Yonten Gyatso who was known as the Precious Hermit of the Excellent Cave. He spent many years in Lapchi and Rongshar, living in remote caves without possessions or food. It is said that he survived by eating his own excrement and whatever faithful yetis brought to him. (from “The Lawudo Lama” by Jamyang Wangmo)
Bigfoot is such a mystical creature. So far, only one very clear image of bigfoot was captured in a video. The interesting thing is, a creature similar to Bigfoot is also reported in the Himalayan region and China apart from those reported in North America.
Bigfoot is also said to be a messenger of the high lamas in Tibet. They help to deliver messages from one lama to another. Bigfoots do not want to show up in front of human beings maybe it is because they know human beings always have a bad intention. If they are captured by human beings, they will most likely be kept in a laboratory for scientists to do research on them.
I believe the existence of Bigfoots because Buddhist lamas have been talking about them. Buddhist lamas don’t tell lies. Bigfoots are not afraid of the lamas perhaps it is because they know the lamas are full of compassion and will never hurt them.
Bigfoot, Yeti or sometimes known as snowman definitely exists, there is so many sighting of these hairy, upright-walking, ape-like creatures that dwell in the wilderness. Also known by different names to different race, culture and place where it is found. To the Tibetan Buddhism it is a folkloric ape-like creature taller than an average human found in the surrounding Himalayan regions. Wow…. Bigfoot is described as being spiritual. Hermit meditator Lama Sangwa Dorje ‘s story tells, how the Yeti brought foods, clothing, medicine, for the meditators supporting them in retreat which creates good karma. There are many other Yetis practicing religion and contributing to Tibetan society, other than from Sherpa country. It seem Yetis in Bhutan been kind and gentle served the meditators and they are considered peaceful, devoted Buddhists too.
Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting sharing.
It’s interesting to know Bigfoot which nature is sort of animal and human hybrid can practise dharma and became Sangwa Dorje’s follower. In fact it is rather amazing that bigfoot can even clean and refill the bowls and plates that contained water and food offerings, replenish the butter in the temple butter lamps, dust, sweep and etc. While some may not believe in the existence of bigfoot, he is already well known in country like Tibet and Nepal. And the relic in monastery proof the existence of bigfoot. It also goes to shows the compassion and kindness of lamas to train and share dharma to not only human but other living beings as well, for example bigfoot.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article.
I think this is the best article on Bigfoot i have read though so far ?? It’s really interesting to know that here are many other stories of how Bigfoot will engage in some form of spiritual practice. And how Bigfoot will engage in some form of spiritual practice. Thank you very much Rinpoche and blog team for this interesting sharing ?????