Covered in oil and ash with horns in San Martin Tilcajete, March 2011. The paint is used to ward off evil spirits before Lent instead of protective chants (Jorge Luis Plata/Reuters).
.
VULTURE'S PEAK, ancient India - The Four Great Space Kingshaving set a guard over the four quarters of the Earth's sky, visited the Buddha, saluted him, and sat down respectfully to one side with hosts of ogres (yakkhas).
King Vessavana told the Buddha that the ogres did not, for the most part, believe in the Buddha for the reason that they did not find it pleasant or agreeable to abstain from the things which he declared to be "evil" -- such as the taking of life, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, intoxication, and so on.
And in order that the Buddha's disciples, retreating to lonesome and remote parts of the forest where the ogres dwell, might find protection from them, King Vessavana suggested that the Buddha might learn the ātānātiya word-rune (rakkha).
The "Four Great Kings" guard the skies of Earth as Sakka's regents in the deva world.
.
The Buddha consenting by his silence, Vessavana proceeded to recite it. It opens with a salutation to the seven buddhas, beginning with Vipassī Buddha. The remainder contains a list of the devas and other superhuman beings, the Four Great Kings heading the list, who are described at length. Forty-one other devas are mentioned as a kind of appendix or afterthought, all mentioned one after another with no attempt at group division and without any details, in what are, apparently, mnemonic doggerels.
A part of the Mahāsamaya Sutra (Sections 10-20) appears to be an improved and enlarged edition of this list of bare names.
The Buddha learned the word-rune (spell, mantra) and taught it to the monastics (wandering ascetics, recluses, hermits, Buddhist monks and nuns).
The Atānātiya Sutra is now regarded as a protective chant, and its influence is said to pervade a hundred million world systems (VibhA.430). And DA.iii.969 gives a long description of the ritual followed when reciting it.
In Buddhist Sri Lanka, for instance, it is recited with great fervor at the conclusion of ceremonies, particularly in times of illness, in order to ward off evil spirits.
It is included in the list of protections found in the Questions of King Milinda (p.151). On the importance of this sutra in the history of India, see Rhys Davids, Buddhist India (pp.219-37).
A former Pennsylvania politician is set to release details of a story that is sure to stun -- and spook -- his former constituents.
Bob Cranmer, a former Allegheny County commissioner, will release a new book later this year titled The Demon of Brownsville Road. But rather than a work of fiction, Cranmer claims the text will take readers through real-life horrors his family faced at the hands of a demonic force inside their home.
Sakka, King of the Devas
Cranmer told TheBlaze that his family was terrorized over a two-year period beginning at the end of 2003 and coming to a close in early 2006.
But he said that there was evidence that something wasn’t "right" just weeks after he, his wife, and their four young children moved into the home back in 1988.
“We were in the house for a few weeks [when] my wife and I started to experience things that were paranormal,” he said. More
Do demons delight in public displays of Christian hatred or would they prefer a cover up?
A woman and three children claim to be possessed by demons. A 9-year-old boy walks backward up a wall in the presence of [two official eyewitnesses,] a family [Department of Child Services] case manager and [a registered] hospital nurse.
Gary police Capt. Charles Austin said it was the strangest story he had ever heard.
Police recorded voice of unseen being on helmetcam
(Jan. 28, '14) Child services officers in the US witnessed a 9-y.-o. boy walk
backwards upa wall...possessed by demons, according to official documents
Officer Austin, a 36-year veteran of the Gary Police Department, said he initially thought Indianapolis resident Latoya Ammons and her family concocted an elaborate tale as a way to make money. But after several visits to their home and interviews with witnesses, Austin said simply, "I am a believer."
Siddhartha faced Mara (a "devil") and "demons" (yakkhas) under the Bodhi tree.
Not everyone involved with the family was inclined to believe its incredible story. And many readers will find Ammons' supernatural claims impossible to accept.
Inside haunted house (Gary Police Dept.)
But whatever the cause of the creepy occurrences that befell the family -- whether they were seized by a systematic delusion or demonic possession -- it led to one of the most unusual cases ever handled by the Department of Child Services (DCS). Many of the events are detailed in nearly 800 pages of official records obtained by The Indianapolis Star and recounted in more than a dozen interviews with police, DCS personnel, psychologists, family members, and a Catholic priest.
Brown Lady ghost (answers.com)
Ms. Ammons, who swears by her story, has been unusually open. While she spoke on condition her children not be interviewed or named, she signed releases letting The Star review medical, psychological, and official records that are not open to the public -- and that are not always flattering.
Furthermore, the family's story is made only more bizarre because it involves a DCS intervention, a string of psychological evaluations, a police investigation and, ultimately, a series of exorcisms. It's a tale, they say, that started with flies. More
Real-life demon possession– Details almost too horrifying to believe Jason Howerton (The Blaze, Jan. 27, 2014)
"Little goblins" (Duendecitos)
The Blaze is discussing the story and all the day’s news [as Pres. Obama prepares his fifth State of the Union address] on their live "BlazeCast" with Editor-in-Chief Scott Baker beginning at 2:00 pm ET. A terrified mother claims she watched in horror as her demon-possessed 9-year-old son walked backwards up a wall and ceiling. Her claims would be easy to dismiss if a child services case worker and a nurse weren’t reportedly there to witness it all. More
Ancient Greece, and therefore what we call the "West," inherited its mythology from India
Ancient Greek "Pan"
A kumbhāṇḍa (Pāli kumbhaṇḍa) is one of a group of dwarfish, misshapen "spirits," shapeshiftinggoblins, gnomes, duendes, cretins, poltergeists, among the lesser earthbound forest entities of Buddhist cosmology and Indian mythology.
Kumbhāṇḍa was a dialectal form for "gourd," who may have gotten their name from being thought to resemble gourds in some way, for example in having big stomachs.
But kumbhāṇḍacan also be interpreted as "pot-egg" -- "pot" (kumbh ) and "egg" (aṇḍa), egg being a common euphemism for "testicle." These creatures were imagined as having testicles "as big as pots," much as salacious Pan is portrayed as constantly erect phallus.
The terms kumbhāṇḍa and yakṣa ("demon," "ogre") are sometimes used for the same creatre,yakṣa(Pali, yakkha) in these cases is the more general term, including a variety of shapeshifting entities.
Kumbhāṇḍas are classed as earthlings subordinate to one of the Four Great Sky Kings (cāturmahārājikakāyikadevas), namely the Regent Virūḷhaka, Guardian of the South. One of the chiefs of the kumbhāṇḍas is called Kumbhīra.
"Angels" (generally good light-beings), humans, and "demons" (generally harmful light beings)
A family from Nketa 7 suburb dumped its tenant's "goblin" at the Tshabalala Police Station, sending cops fleeing in different directions.
The incident occurred at about 8:00 pm on Wednesday. A family that claimed a lodger owned the goblin [kumbandha, duende] brought it to the station in a suitcase.
"We heard some screaming from the charge office and most officers who had knocked off rushed to see what was happening. At first everyone gathered around the suitcase, wanting to see what was inside," said a cop.
The officer said a traditional healer who had come with the family opened the suitcase and a weird looking creature jumped out of a bottle that was filled with blood.
"No one told anyone it was time to run. One minute, the charge office was full, the next, it was empty. I think some people went out through the windows because we could not all have fitted through the door. Fat cops and slim cops all ran for their lives screaming," said the cop.More
