Tag: phurba

My phurbas

Last weekend, I acquired a new phurba. As I noted on my previous blog entry, it was one of the largest I’ve ever seen. While I would have liked to have gone out for another walk today, gas prices are simply too high so i decided to stay home and do a bit a Spring cleaning (that’s almost as much fun as doing taxes). As I was straightening things up, I came across my other phurbas – two that I acquired from classes I’ve taken on sacred sound healing (a very strange but wonderful set of two week-long classes I took a couple of years ago), as well as a couple of others I’ve acquired since then and was rather amazed at the tremendous sizes differences between them.

My Phurbas

The photo on the left (click on it to see a larger image) shows my current collection and are as follows (from left to right), my latest and obviously huge phurba, one I acquired elsewhere (I can remember where I bought it), a very old and beautiful wood phurba which my teacher claimed was a very “powerful” one, another one I acquired during my studies, and a very small one which I also don’t remember where it came from. I would also like to mention that the wood phurba has a coin sewn into one of the pieces of cloth that is tied to it – this considered to be very sacred and increases the phurba’s value as a powerful shamanic tool. All in all, it’s a rather interesting set. In writing this entry, I also came across a rather interesting article on phurba’s and their use; that article may be found here. While I won’t reprint that article here, a sidebar gives a very good description of what phurbas are used for; specifically as a:

  • “weapon for subduing and exorcising spirits and demons.
  • meditative tool to pin down the distractions of greed, desire, and envy.
  • means to banish, neutralize, or transform negativity.
  • ritual object to symbolically slay enemies and remove obstacles.
  • therapeutic process for healing physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual dis-ease.
  • vehicle for pinning down the ego, one of the main obstacles to enlightenment.”

Obviously, Tibetan shamans place a great deal of importance on phurbas.

I’ve just finished reading the above mentioned article and also took a look at the rest of the site where it is located: as it turns out, it’s a fascinating site with lots of other interesting articles and photographs. Perhaps I’ll comment more on it later.

My phurba is bigger than your phurba!

My new phurbaI was in the mood yesterday to go outside and walk so I thought I’d go down to Mission San Juan Capistrano. As a result, I took a stroll around the local neighborhood: the area contains several interesting shops, antique stores, and restaurants, in addition to the old “Los Rios Historic District.” As it was a beautiful day, I popped in and out of several stores and also took in some of the old adobes – something that, believe it or not, I’ve never done before. I’m glad I did. In addition to the nice ocean breeze, it was a great day to just walk around. On my way back to my car, I decided to look in one of the antique shops, located just a few stores away from the mission. For the most part, the store was filled with all of the regular wares – old dishes, costume jewelry, etc, etc. Hidden near the back of the rather large store, I found a couple of very interesting booths – one contained very large Asian items (including a beautiful set of Chinese temple bells [offered at $4,000] – which, obviously, I can’t afford) and another booth that contained a display case with some unusual items. One of those items happened to be a very large phurba (which they had marked as a “Tibetan Scepter” [actually, that’s not a bad description]). As the proud owner of a couple of other phurbas (they’re really used as a shamanistic tool of protection and to perform many other religious functions by Tibetan monks), I was very impressed by the size of the one displayed. In fact, I can’t recall if I’ve ever seen a larger one! So, I decided to purchase it.

BTW, in case you’re wondering why I’m interested in such items, it’s due to the courses I’ve taken on sacred sound healing – a topic I first became interested a few years ago when I bought my first (of many) Himalayan singing bowls. As part of those courses, we were instructed in the use of phurbas (which are considered to be very, very powerful tools in the skilled hands of master shamans). Sadly, the instructor for those classes just passed away, very prematurely, due to cancer – she was a wonderful woman and I know that she is greatly missed by those who took her courses (she once told me that I was one of her favorite students). Needless to say, seeing this monster phurba, reminded me of her and I thought I’d add it to my rather small collection of sacred Tibetan objects. Based upon my own, limited knowledge of such items, I think I got a real “steal” – the phurba weighs in at nearly two and a half pounds and is seventeen inches long. As can be seen in the attached photo, it’s a real beauty.