The Kingdom at the End of Time
on shambhala, hidden kingdoms, and the struggle within
The Kalachakra's prophecy of Shambhala read beside Islamic, Zoroastrian, Hindu and Christian material on hidden kingdoms, awaited kings, and the struggle within.
The Tribe in the Tantra
on the banu tayy, the tazig of tibet, and an arab name in bon and the kalachakra
The Tazig of Tibetan books carry the name of one Arab tribe, the Banu Tayy. How that name reached Tibet, what Tibet's dealings with the Arabs were, down to a Tibetan king's gold sent to Mecca, and how the same word became both the Kalachakra's enemy and the holy land of Bon.
The Nine Ways of Bon
on the bonpo vehicles, their sources, and iranian central asia
The Bonpo scheme of nine vehicles, from divination and ransom rites to Dzogchen, set beside the Nyingma nine vehicles and the tradition's claim that its teachings came from Tazig in the far west.
Iranians in the Tibetan Empire
on persian exiles, sogdian envoys and khotanese monks, seventh to ninth centuries
What the evidence shows about Persians, Sogdians and Khotanese in and around the Tibetan empire after the fall of the Sasanians, from the armour of Tibetan cavalry to a Pahlavi silk at Dulan, and what it does not show.
The Last Battle
on malahim, armageddon, mappo and the kalachakra, and how old the idea is
Dabiq, Megiddo, the decline of the Dharma and the war of Shambhala set side by side, with a timeline showing that the awaited saviour and the final war were at home in Asia long before Islam.
The Jews of Balkh
on halah, the mother of cities, and a land east of eden
The traditions that put the exiles of Israel and Judah at Balkh in Bactria, what Arab geographers and a nineteenth-century missionary found there, and how a community that dated itself to Nebuchadnezzar came to an end.
On Excellence in Our Lives
on craft, obscurity, and the covenant with the self
On excellence as an inward pursuit rather than a public contest.
The Muslims of Little Tibet
on the baltis of baltistan, the kache of lhasa, and what they kept
Tibetan-speaking Muslims in Baltistan, Ladakh and Lhasa: how the old kingdom of Bolor came to Islam through Sufi preachers and a Tibetan prince of Kashmir, what it kept from Bon and Buddhism, and the Kashmiri Muslims who became part of Tibetan life.
The Unknown God of Texcoco
on nezahualcoyotl, the fasting coyote, and a god who could not be pictured
The king of Texcoco who is said to have reasoned his way to one unseen God, what the sources actually say about his laws, his sons and human sacrifice, who wrote the story down, and the argument he shares with Abraham in the Qur'an.
A Day of Reckoning
on character, intention, and why resolutions fail
Why most attempts to change a life fail at the level of acts and succeed only at the level of character, read through Aristotle, al-Ghazali, Adler, cybernetics and the psychology of flow, with a one-day reckoning that has an eleventh-century ancestor.
Heroism Across Tradition and the Axis of Perfection
on islam, esoteric myth, and the fate of empires
Reading heroism through Islamic myth and esoteric thought, against Evola's critique of modernity.
On Psychology, Tech, and AI
on privacy, agency, and the ambient machine
Notes on privacy, agency, and the self in an age of ambient technology.