The Swastika in Buddhism Represents Universal Harmony
Today I found out that the Swastika in Buddhism represents universal harmony, dharma, the balance of opposites, and, originally, eternity and good luck or “all is well”.
Now of course in the western world the Swastika has a pretty bad reputation thanks to a certain German tree hugging vegetarian and his political party. However, Hitler and his crazy gang weren’t the first to use this ubiquitous symbol prominently. In fact, the first known record of this symbol popping up was over 5000 years ago.
Interestingly, this symbol doesn’t seem to originate in any one place in the world, though the earliest known artifacts containing this symbol were Hindu. But independent of Hinduism and apparently independent of the usage in Hinduism, this symbol popped up pretty much all over the world in just about every culture. From the Navajo Indians, to the Celts, the Jews, the Christians, the ancient Greek and Romans, etc; almost every major society through history has used this symbol prominently for one reason or another.
How is this possible? Some of it can be explained by cultural diffusion, however that doesn’t explain how it might have happened in every case. Some theorize that the swastika shape would necessarily be something any society that weaves baskets would be familiar with as, when weaving baskets, this basic shape is readily apparent. This seems plausible, but would not explain how the symbol always seemed to rise to a symbol of great importance and meaning in most historic cultures.
An alternative possible origin towards this end was put forth by Carl Sagan. He noted that, when studying an ancient Chinese text with drawn comet tails, some of the depictions showed comets with a tail that has four bent arms. He theorizes that in antiquity a comet could have approached so close to the Earth that the jets of gas streaming from it, bent by the comet’s rotation, became visible, making the swastika shape and thus leading to the adoption of the swastika as a symbol of importance across the world.
So why did the Nazi’s use the swastika on their flag? Well Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the symbol in the site of ancient Troy, theorized that it was a symbol of great ancient religious importance to his Germanic ancestors. Basing it on the fact that this symbol was found often on ancient Germanic pottery and thus must have somehow migrated down to his present archeological site. Obviously, given we know now that this symbol was prominent in most cultures throughout history, the part of this theory thinking the symbol originated in Germany was dead wrong. The work of Schliemann eventually intertwined with the völkisch movements; with the swastika being a symbol of the “Aryan race”, a concept that came to be equated with a Nordic master race originating in northern Europe.
Hitler thus was familiar with the symbol from thinking it was an ancient symbol of an ancient Germanic master race. He was also familiar with it as a boy at the Benedictine choir school at Lambach Abbey, Upper Austria, which Hitler attended when a child. The school had a swastika chiseled into the monastery portal and also the wall above the spring grotto in the courtyard.
When Hitler created a flag for the Nazi Party, he sought to incorporate both the swastika and “those revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which once brought so much honor to the German nation.”; red, white, and black being the colors of the flag of the old German Empire. He also stated: “As National Socialists, we see our program in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of the movement; in white, the nationalistic idea; in the swastika, the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work.”
Way to ruin an ubiquitous 5000 year old symbol cherished by practically every culture through history Hitler.
Hitler TO-DO:
- ☑ Crap on practically everybody through histories favorite symbol
- ☑ Try to take over the world in most brutal way possible
- ☑ Become history’s biggest deuce-bag
- ☑ Become a Vegetarian
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The swastika is still widely used in India today. In Hinduism the symbol is extremely holy and auspicious. You can see it almost everywhere on temples, at religious festivals and ceremonies and Hindus even paint it on the doorways to their homes. For 3,000 years the swastika meant life (as it represents the Hindu creator God Brahma) and good luck, till Hitler went and ruined it! Considering how Buddhism originated in India in the 5th century BC, I can see how they adopted the sign too. Great post!
Good points, I think I will definitely subscribe! I’ll go and read some more! What do you see the future of this being?
i remembered Dr Langdon teaching symbolism in his class in the Da Vincci Code. but of course he never got into the details. thumbs up to you!
[…] archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann]. The player uses it to complete one of the puzzles. JC: …The Swastika in Buddhism Represents Universal HarmonyToday I found out that the_ Swastika in Buddhism represents universal harmony, dharma, the balance […]
[…] archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann]. The player uses it to complete one of the puzzles. JC: …The Swastika in Buddhism Represents Universal HarmonyToday I found out that the_ Swastika in Buddhism represents universal harmony, dharma, the balance […]
[…] archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann]. The player uses it to complete one of the puzzles. JC: …The Swastika in Buddhism Represents Universal HarmonyToday I found out that the_ Swastika in Buddhism represents universal harmony, dharma, the balance […]
[…] Heute habe ich herausgefunden, dass das Hakenkreuz im Buddhismus, stellt universellen Harmonie, Dharma, das Gleichgewicht der Gegensätze, und ursprünglich, Ewigkeit und Glück oder “alles ist gut”. Natürlich in der westlichen Welt das Hakenkreuz hat eine ziemlich schlechten Ruf dank bis zu einem gewissen deutschen Baum umarmen, vegetarische und seiner Partei. Doch Hitler und [. . . ] URL des Original-Artikel http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/04/the-swastika-in-buddhism-represents-universal-harmon… […]
[…] Heute habe ich herausgefunden, dass das Hakenkreuz im Buddhismus, stellt universellen Harmonie, Dharma, das Gleichgewicht der Gegensätze, und ursprünglich, Ewigkeit und Glück oder “alles ist gut”. Natürlich in der westlichen Welt das Hakenkreuz hat eine ziemlich schlechten Ruf dank bis zu einem gewissen deutschen Baum umarmen, vegetarische und seiner Partei. Doch Hitler und [. . . ] URL des Original-Artikel http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/04/the-swastika-in-buddhism-represents-universal-harmon… […]
[…] Heute habe ich herausgefunden, dass das Hakenkreuz im Buddhismus, stellt universellen Harmonie, Dharma, das Gleichgewicht der Gegensätze, und ursprünglich, Ewigkeit und Glück oder “alles ist gut”. Natürlich in der westlichen Welt das Hakenkreuz hat eine ziemlich schlechten Ruf dank bis zu einem gewissen deutschen Baum umarmen, vegetarische und seiner Partei. Doch Hitler und [. . . ] URL des Original-Artikel http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/04/the-swastika-in-buddhism-represents-universal-harmon… […]
[…] Heute habe ich herausgefunden, dass das Hakenkreuz im Buddhismus, stellt universellen Harmonie, Dharma, das Gleichgewicht der Gegensätze, und ursprünglich, Ewigkeit und Glück oder “alles ist gut”. Natürlich in der westlichen Welt das Hakenkreuz hat eine ziemlich schlechten Ruf dank bis zu einem gewissen deutschen Baum umarmen, vegetarische und seiner Partei. Doch Hitler und [. . . ] URL des Original-Artikel http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/04/the-swastika-in-buddhism-represents-universal-harmon… […]
[…] Heute habe ich herausgefunden, dass das Hakenkreuz im Buddhismus, stellt universellen Harmonie, Dharma, das Gleichgewicht der Gegensätze, und ursprünglich, Ewigkeit und Glück oder “alles ist gut”. Natürlich in der westlichen Welt das Hakenkreuz hat eine ziemlich schlechten Ruf dank bis zu einem gewissen deutschen Baum umarmen, vegetarische und seiner Partei. Doch Hitler und [. . . ] URL des Original-Artikel http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/04/the-swastika-in-buddhism-represents-universal-harmon… […]
[…] archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann]. The player uses it to complete one of the puzzles. JC: …The Swastika in Buddhism Represents Universal HarmonyToday I found out that the_ Swastika in Buddhism represents universal harmony, dharma, the balance […]
A very important distinction: the Nazi swastika’s ‘arms’ point counter-clockwise, whereas the Hindu swastika’s arms always point clockwise.
Good point. How did they miss that?
From what little I know of swastikas the symbol, for centuries, turned in a right hand (clockwise) direction. Hitler changed it to a left handed (counter-clockwise) direction for his own purposes.
It does make a difference which direction the swastika turns to people who respect the symbol for what it has stood for for many centuries.
“☑ Become history’s biggest deuce-bag”
Unless you are calling him a colostomy bag (which is well within the realm of possibility), the word you’re looking for is douchebag.
Slang usage doesn’t really require a space between douche and bag, and it certainly doesn’t need to be hyphenated.
Great article!
If the symbol was ‘independently’ discovered all over the world, how come Schliemann didn’t give it it’s ancient German name “Hakenkreuz” (http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=hakenkreuz), but instead chose to call it the ‘swastika’?
The word ‘swastika’ is Sanskrit and means ‘well being’. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
And Sanskrit is a classical Indian language, now dead akin to Latin but used liturgically in Hindu incantations, rituals, hymns and worship.
And why did Hitler and the NaZi’s have to hijack the other Sanskrit word, ‘Aryan’? ‘Aryan’ means ‘civilised’ in Sanskrit!
Hitler did sh*t greatly on Vedic Hinduism by his above acts that today we have feel apologetic about using these terms and symbols outside of our homeland.
Since we don’t believe that bad deeds are punished by “damnation” in ‘eternal hell-fire’, according to Arya belief, Hitler will suffer many births in the mortal plane, until each and every sin of his has been washed – probably eternal in human terms. And please do not presume, that he will be re-birthing (not ‘re-incarnating’ that only God does) as a human being – he will probably birth through the entire Linnaean classification starting from virii before he even begins reaching primates. A lot of suffering, yes!
But in support of the position of the author of this article, here is another interesting article http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/symbol-swastika-and-its-12000-year-old-history-001312
Apparent someone is very concerned with the Hitler/vegetarian relationship; the links to such articles have been killed.
Why do some people fear knowledge and honesty?
Did you know that prior to the Second World War, the US 45th Infantry Division (who are somewhat famous for their thunderbird insignia) used a swastika as their insignia! Yup, before the 45th were the thunderbirds, they wore swastikas. Both the thunderbird and the swastika were native American symbols, and while I can’t remember why they were so into using native American stuff, they did actually wear swastikas on their sleeves.