Buddhist Yogi Jahar-pīr/Jahar-peer/Jābir
I have plans to publish (on my Substack page) translations of some of the Buddhist yogic texts attributed to a mysterious Nātha jogi (ཛོ་ཀི་) called Jahar-pīr (ཛ་ཧར་པཱིར་) or Jaha-vīra (ཛ་ཧ་བཱི་ར) or Jabhira ཛ་བྷི་ར. This Jogi's influence was quite strong in Tibet (especially in Sakya, Nyingma and Kagyu tradition). Jamyang Khyentse Wangchuk (16th century) was the first lineage holder of this Jogi’s teachings. At one point in his biography there is mention of his loss of faith in the Nyingma teachings. He died at the age of forty-four. Drikung Namcak Mebar (16th century) had also received all the teachings of Jahar-pir from Pandita Vajra-natha when he and his eleven students arrived in Tibet. Here are some of the lineages of the transmission of this Jogi’s teachings.
I.
Jamgon Ame’s (27th Sakya Trizin) lineage masters:
Goraksha, jaha-bira, Manika natha, Jamyang Khyentse Wangchuk, Woeser Tsencan, Drupchok Wangchuk Rabten, Kunga Dhondup, and then to the Sakya Trizin.
ཛམ་བྷི་རིའི་རླུང་ཁྲིད་ཟབ་མོ་ཐོབ་པའི་བརྒྱུད་པ་ནི༑ གྷོ་རཀ་པ། ཛཾ་བྷི་ར། མ་ཎི་ཀ་ཎ་ཐ་པ། རྗེ་བཙུན་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ། འོད་ཟེར་མཚན་ཅན། གྲུབ་མཆོག་དབང་ཕྱུག་རབ་བརྟན། སྤྱན་སྔ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྤྱན་ལྡན་ཀུན་དགའ་དོན་གྲུབ། དེས་བདག་ས་སྐྱ་པ་ངག་དབང་ཀུན་དགའ་བསོད་ནམས་
II.
Terdak Lingpa’s (First min ling Khri-chen) lineage masters:
Jaha Bir, Brahma natha, Manika natha, Khyentse wangchuk, Zhonu Tobden, Wangrab, Sonam Chokdrup, Kunkhyen Lama, and then to him.
དྷཱ་རླུང་གི་གདམས་པའི་ལུང་ཕྱག་ཁྲིད་ཞལ་ཤེས་དང་བཅས་པའི་བརྒྱུད་པ་ནི། ཛ་ཧ་ཧཱི་ར། བྷ་མ་ནཱ་ཐ། མ་ཎི་ཀ་ནཱ་ཐ། མཁྱེན་རྩེ། གཞོན་ནུ་སྟོབས་ལྡན། དབང་རབ། བསོད་ནམས་མཆོག་གྲུབ། ཀུན་མཁྱེན་བླ་མ། དེས་བདག་ལའོ
III.
Jamgon Kongtrul’s lineage masters:
Padmasambhava, Jaha-Veera, Brahma natha, Manika natha, Khyentse Wangchuk, Jampa Kelsang, Wangchuk Rabten, Zhalupa Sonam Chogdrup, Fifth Dalai Lama, Pema Trinley, Morchen Jungney, Chogley Namgyal, Jamapa Ngawang Tenzin, Jamyang Khyentse wangpo, and then to him.
བརྒྱུད་པ་ནི། འཆི་མེད་པདྨ་སཾ་བྷ་བ། གྲུབ་ཆེན་ཛ་ཧ་བཱི་ར། བྷ་མ་ནཱ་ཐ། མ་ཎི་ཀ་ནཱ་ཐ། འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་ཕྱུག །འཕགས་མཆོག་བྱམས་པ་སྐལ་བཟང་། དབང་ཕྱུག་རབ་བརྟན། ཞ་ལུ་པ་བསོད་ནམས་མཆོག་གྲུབ། ལྔ་པ་ཆེན་པོ། པདྨ་ཕྲིན་ལས། རྨོར་ཆེན་ལེགས་པའི་འབྱུང་གནས། ས་ཆེན་ཀུན་བློ་ཕྱོགས་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ། བྱམས་པ་ངག་དབང་བསྟན་འཛིན། འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ། དེས་བདག་ལའོ།
Buddhist yogi Jahapir’s eight chief disciples (བུ་ཆེན་བརྒྱད་):
1 Vajra Natha, 2. Bhrama natha. 3. Deva natha. 4. Shri natha. 5. Jinabhira. 6. Manika natha. 7. Pandita Sokhya. 8. Amara Sukha.
Michael Walter has suggested that this yogi could be the Islamic alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (8th-9th century). However, there was another Indian saint with a similar name Jaharpīr (Jahar-peer/Poison-saint) in north-west India (11th or 13-14th) famously known as Gogga pir or Gugga pir (who was a prince and has some connection with Gorakhnatha). He is revered by both Hindu and Muslim communities and is well known in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Jahar-peer is also mentioned in the Sikh Gurbani: Jahar peer Jagat Guru Baba (Translation: Jahar Peer, Guru of the entire world). However, according to the Sikh, Jahar peer is an attribute of Guru Nanak in the Sikh Gurbani.). He is worshipped for ailments like snake bites in India. There is a secret instruction attributed to the Buddhist yogi on how to neutralise the potency of poison. If you would like to read more about Indian account of Jahar-pir or Goga pir, here is the link Pilgrimage to the Abode of a Folk Deity.
Excerpt from one of the Tibetan text
Guru Yoga
Recite Oṃ namo namo namo/ Jaharpīr Jaharpīr Jaharpīr/ (ཨོཾ་ནམོ་ནམོ་ནམོ། ཛ་ཧར་པཱིར་ཛ་ཧར་པཱིར་ཛ་ཧར་པཱིར།). Wet your right ring finger with saliva and apply to the spot between your eyebrows (ūrṇā). (In another text, it says bring your right hand to the forehead thrice and say namo Jaharpīr)
Visualise Jaharpīr at the spot between your eyebrows, dressed in a monk's robe. He is sitting in a posture with his palms together above his head and the soles of his feet touching each other. Then have a clear vision of the yellow air of earth, the white air of water, the red air of fire, the green air of air, and the blue air of sky, which are the true nature of the entire appearance of external things. During the inhalation, practise as if you were inhaling and filling (your body) with air of the five colours.
Figures: Unidentified yogis in Dungkar cave, Guge, Tibet (12th century mural), Pitzker collection.
Some of Jaharpīr yogic practice:
1 Through Jha Pir's yoga practice, Yogi attains Buddhahood in one life and body.
2 Teaches the secret instruction of life sustenance on water.
3 Teaches the secret instruction of how to neutralize the potency of poison.
4 Cutting ties with food (feeding on vital air) and attaining rainbow body.
5 Correct way of breathing in, so that the central channel becomes visible.
6. Purifying the Nadis, Breathing technique of turning the central channel.
7 Controlling the Nadis and Vayus.
8 How to draw the Bindu upward and to the head.
9 Breathing technique to spreads the Bindu all over the body.
My next post is a translation of one of his teachings, a short text called 'Cutting ties with food and the attainment of the rainbow body'.
If you enjoy my posts and translations and want to fuel more posts, click the button below