Shambhala, Kalachakra Tantra, and Avenging Gods of Tibetan Buddhism

Somewhere far in the north, goes a Tibetan legend, is the kingdom of Shambhala, shielded from the outside world by mountain peaks as high as the heavens and sharp as the teeth of a tiger. Th is land has the shape of a giant lotus with eight petals. Th ose fortunate enough to reach this wonderful place are awed by its beautiful and plentiful lakes, ponds, meadows, forests, and groves. In the middle of Shambhala stands its capital, Kalapa, whose palaces are all made of pure gold, silver, turquoise, coral, pearl, emerald, moon crystal, and other precious stones. Instead of ceilings, these palaces have special

circular magnifying crystal spheres through which people can gaze at the gods, the sun, the moon, and the stars, so close that they appear within reach. Window screens are made of sandalwood, and the thrones are all of pure gold. South of Kalapa the seeker will fi nd a special pleasure grove, and in the

west one catches a glimpse of the beautiful lake where humans and gods enjoy boat rides together. Th e kings who rule Shambhala indulge themselves in sensual pleasures and enjoy their wealth. Despite their pursuit of wealth and pleasure, they strive to be nice to other people and to help them to reach

enlightenment and liberation, so the virtues of the royalty never decrease. Th e people of Shambhala never become sick or old, and they are blessed with handsome and beautiful bodies. Th e laws of the land

are mild and gentle, and beatings along with imprisonments are totally unknown. Last but not least, Shambhala inhabitants never go hungry. All in all, residents of the kingdom are good, virtuous, and intelligent, and capable of reaching Nirvana in their lifetime. Shambhala’s priests are very faithful and

humble. Th ey reject material possessions and go barefoot and bareheaded, dressed only in white robes. And, most important, Shambhala is the place where Buddhism exists in its purest and most authentic form. Th e way to this land of spiritual bliss and plenty lies through special Kalachakra-tantra practices and virtuous behavior.1 An old Buddhist parable conveys this idea well: “Where are you going across these wastes of snow,” a lama hermit asked a youth who embarked on a long journey to fi nd the wondrous Shambhala land. “To fi nd Shambhala,” answered the boy. “Ah, well then, you need not travel far. Th e

kingdom of Shambhala is in your own heart.”2 Th e Shambhala legend is the description of the famous Buddhist paradise—the land of spiritual enlightenment and simultaneously the land of plenty that people of the Mongol-Tibetan world dreamed about since the early Middle Ages. Th e concept of this paradise was absent in early Buddhism; it was introduced later to cater to the sentiments of common folk who could not comprehend some of the abstract principles of the

Buddhist faith and needed something “real” to latch onto.3 Current practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism move back to the original roots of the faith, in some sense, by downplaying the material side of the utopia and putting more stress on its spiritual aspects. Th e fi rst to introduce this legend into Western spiritual culture was the famous Western seeker Helena Blavatsky, founding mother of Th eosophy, who most likely learned about Shambhala by reading

accounts of European travelers to Tibet and hearing about this wondrous land during her brief sojourn to the Tibetan-Indian border. Adjusting the Buddhist legend to the theory of evolution, which was becoming popular at the end of the nineteenth century, Blavatsky argued that Shambhala

was the center of evolving superior wisdom—the abode of the so-called Great White Brotherhood located somewhere in the Himalayas. Th e hidden masters (whom she also referred to as mahatmas) from this brotherhood guided humankind in its evolution away from materialism toward the highest spirituality, which

would eventually give rise to the superior sixth race that would replace contemporary imperfect human beings. Such politically incorrect generalizations, especially aft er what happened during World War II, might off end the sensibilities of current spiritual seekers, yet during Blavatsky’s lifetime and well into the 1930s, this kind of evolutionary talk was quite popular among all educated folk who considered themselves advanced and progressive, including Th eosophists.

Buddhist Holy War: Shambhala as Spiritual Resistance Spiritual bliss and plenty were not the only sides of the Shambhala legend. Th ere was another side, which is usually downplayed in current Tibetan Buddhism—spiritual resistance against people who infringed on the Buddhist faith. Th e story about this

aspect of Shambhala, which is an inseparable part of the legend, is not so benevolent and tranquil, but it is no less valid. Th e entire Shambhala legend sprang up in northern India in the early Middle Ages, between the 900s and 1200s. Along with the description of Shambhala as the land of enlightenment and plenty, it mentioned that at some point barbarian demons coming from the west would infl ict devastating damage on the Buddhist faith. In Sanskrit texts

these alien infi dels were called mlecca people. Tibetan sources referred to them as lalo. Th e invaders, the legend said, would bring misery and chaos, and the whole world would enter Kaliyuga (the Age of Disputes), when the true Buddhist faith would decline. Th e northern Shambhala kingdom would remain the only stronghold of the true faith and would eventually redeem people from this misery.

To deliver Tibetan Buddhist people from the danger, the last Shambhala king, Rudra Chakrin (the Wrathful One with the Wheel, Rigden Djapo in Tibetan), would enter a trance so that he could see the coming events. Th en he would gather a mighty army and launch a merciless attack against the barbarians. In the ensuing horrible, Armageddon-like battle, the infi dels would be totally crushed, and the Age of Disputes would be over. Aft er this successful Shambhala war, the true faith (Tibetan Buddhism) would triumph all over the earth. Lobsan Palden Yeshe, the third Panchen Lama, who was considered the spiritual leader of Tibet and who composed a 1775 guidebook to Shambhala, prophesized this fi nal battle as follows:

Th ee, great lama, who lives in this paradise land and who is constantly in prayer, shall adopt the title of Rigden Djapo and shall defeat the armies of lalo. Th y army shall include people of many nations. Th ee shall have 40,000 large wild elephants, four millions of mad elephants, many warriors, and Th ee shall pierce the heart of the king of lalo. Th y twelve powerful gods shall completely destroy all evil gods of the lalo. Th y elephants shall kill

their elephants. Th y horses shall smash lalo’s horses, and Th y golden chariots shall crash their chariots. Th y people shall tame the lalo’s protectors, and lalo’s infl uence shall be totally gone. And then the time shall come when the true faith spreads all over. Aft er many years of preaching the faith, on the 22nd of the middle spring moon in the year of the horse, Th ee shall take the seat of the great god and shall be surrounded by mighty warriors and medicine women.

The references to the Age of Disputes and to the king redeemer most likely originated from Hinduism, which had a legend that Vishnu was born in the village of Shambhala. Like Rudra Chakrin, Vishnu was destined to defeat those that stepped on the wrong spiritual path and then to reawaken the minds ofhesitant people. Scholars also believe that the apocalyptic notions of the fi nal battle and the whole talk about the forces of good and evil fighting each other might have penetrated Tibetan Buddhism from Manichaeism and especially from Islam. It is well known that in the early Middle Ages, the mlecca people, or people of Mecca, at first mingled with Buddhist communities in eastern Afghanistan and northern India and then mercilessly drove them out.5 In

eastern Afghanistan under the Abbasid dynasty in the fi rst half of the 800s, Buddhists and Hindus lived side by side with Moslems in relative peace. Th e Buddhist were even allowed to keep their faith, which opened the door to an exchange of religious ideas. In fact, during this period of peaceful coexistence, to the dismay of the Buddhist clergy, many faithful switched to Islam. Simple and straightforward, the

religion of the mlecca people was more alluring to some common folk than Buddhism with its complex and vague principles. In the 900s this multicultural paradise came to an end. Th e warlike Sunni Turks, new converts to Islam, did not tolerate anyone who did not fi t the “true” faith, so they wiped out the

Buddhist communities and monasteries in eastern Afghanistan and then advanced farther, taking over Punjab in northern India. When the Moslem hordes tried to seize Kashmir, the Buddhists were able to unite and defeat the intruders, between 1015 and 1021. A legend said that the mlecca armies were subdued by the force of mantras, so the Shambhala prophecy predicting the mlecca invasion and its subsequent defeat could be a legendary reference to the actual

events in Kashmir.6 Th e Buddhists did not enjoy their success for long. Another and more powerful tide of Allah’s warriors dislodged the followers of Buddha from northern India and forced them to escape northward to the safety of the Himalayas and farther to Tibet. From there, Buddhism was later

reintroduced into India.7 It is highly likely that these runaway Buddhist communities searching for sanctuary in the north created the legend about the mysterious oasis of the true faith, bliss, and plenty shielded from the outside world by high, snowcapped mountain peaks. Unable to stop the advancing

Moslems, these escapees might have also found spiritual consolation in the prophecy that a legendary redeemer would reappear and infl ict a horrible revenge on the enemies of Buddha’s teaching. Whatever events contributed to the rise of the Shambhala myth, it is obvious that the prophecy was directed against Islam. Th e old texts containing the Shambhala legend repeatedly mentioned “the barbarian deity Rahmana,” a reference to al-Rahman (the Merciful in

Arabic). One of the texts directly pointed out that the lord of the barbarians was “Muhamman, the incarnation of al-Rahman, the teacher of the barbarian Dharma, the guru and swami of the barbarian Tajiks.”8 Th ose who shaped the Shambhala prophecy were clearly preoccupied not only with the spiritual resistance against the “barbarian Dharma” but also with military logistics of the coming battle. Besides the millions

of wild and mad elephants and thousands of warriors and horses that Rudra Chakrin would gather for his fi nal battle, the legend mentioned the variety of weapons to be used against the “people of Mecca.” Th ere were not only chariots, spears and other conventional hardware of ancient combat, but also

sophisticated wheel-shaped machines of mass destruction. Th ere would also be a special fl ying wind machine for use against mountain forts. According to the Shambhala prophecy, this prototype of a modern-day napalm bomber would spill burning oil on the enemies. Moreover, the protectors of the faith would use a harpoon machine, an analogy of a modern-day machine gun, designed to simultaneously shoot many arrows that would easily pierce the bodies of armored

elephants. Th e defeat of the mlecca barbarians would launch the Age of Perfection (Kritayuga), when the true faith would triumph and the Shambhala kingdom would expand over the entire world. People would stop doing evil and manifest only virtuous behavior. At the same time, they would enjoy their riches, freely indulge in sensual pleasures, and live long lives, up to nine hundred years. Cereals in the fi elds and fruit trees would grow on their own,

bringing plentiful crops and fruits. At this new age, not only a selected few, but everyone would be able to reach spiritual enlightenment.9 Modern seekers, including practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, either downplay the militaristic aspects of the Shambhala myth or do not talk about them at all. Instead, they focus on the spiritual inner aspects of the prophecy. Whenever they mention the Shambhala war, current books on Tibetan Buddhism usually

alert that it is just a metaphor describing the battle against internal demons that create obstacles for spiritual seekers on their path, and that the victory of Rudra Chakrin over his enemies means spiritual enlightenment. Th e deans of modern Tibetan Buddhism remind us that elimination of the enemies of Shambhala does not mean actual annihilation of the infi dels but overcoming one’s own ignorance and sins. Even particular details of the Shambhala war have been reinterpreted according to modern religious ethics. One of Rudra Chakrin’s major generals, usually depicted riding

nearby and holding a banner, became a symbol of deep awareness. Th e four divisions of the Shambhala king’s army now stand for four major feelings: love, compassion, joy, and equality. In modern version of Shambhala, even Mohammad, the actual prophet of Islam, evolved into a metaphor of destructive

behavior.10 I do not mean to downgrade the current interpretation of the Shambhala legend as an inward path to spiritual enlightenment. Nor am I saying that this Shambhala does not fully match traditional and indigenous versions of the legend. If all versions of the Shambhala legend, past and present, were put into a time context, they would all appear as sound and valid. Aft er all, religions do not stay frozen in time and space. People constantly shape and

reshape them according to their contemporary social and spiritual needs, and Tibetan Buddhism is certainly not an exception. In fact, such modern-day revisions of aspects of this faith should be commended as an attempt to bring Tibetan Buddhism closer to modern humanistic values. Hopefully, these eff orts will set a good example for present-day mlecca people, some of whom are still frozen in the medieval time tunnel and do not want to part with aggressive notions.

Kalachakra Tantra: Shortcut to Spiritual Perfection Th e legend about the Shambhala kingdom and its subsequent war against Moslem intruders did not exist as a separate story. From the very beginning, the myth was an inseparable part of the Kalachakra teaching—a set of meditative and astrological techniques

(tantras) fi rst written down in Sanskrit in the 800s and then translated into Tibetan in the 1200s. Kalachakra (Dus’khor in Tibetan), translated from Sanskrit as “the Wheel of Time,” describes esoteric techniques (meditations, mantras, and visualization of deities) that help the faithful achieve

enlightenment in their lifetime. Th ese techniques sprang up in northern India around the 600s as a challenge to Hinduism, which expected people to undergo a chain of reincarnations before reaching enlightenment. As

always happens with alternative movements, a few centuries later this Buddhist counterculture itself evolved into canonized practices taught by lamas, “experts” in Kalachakra who knew the “correct” path. In Buddhism, there are three ways of doing tantras. In “father” tantra, by reciting appropriate

mantras, adepts think themselves intensely into merging with a particular deity and absorbing its spiritual power. In “mother” tantra, adepts seek to create a state of emptiness and bliss by controlling and transforming sexual desire—the gateway to birth and rebirth. Th is is the reason some tantras are so focused on sexuality. Finally, in “dual” tantras, an adept combines both father and mother techniques. As a result, the adept appears as a powerful

deity and simultaneously reaches eternal bliss through mastering bodily fl uids. Kalachakra belongs to this third type of tantras. Original Kalachakra texts did not survive. What is available now are their renditions called Sri Kalacakra and Vimalaprabha, translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by the famous writer Buston in the mid 1300s.11 Th ese texts reveal that the glorious Gautama Buddha introduced Kalachakra to Suchandra, the fi rst king of Shambhala, who began to teach these sacred techniques to the people of his kingdom. Th e Kalachakra teaching is divided into “outer,” “inner,” and “other” segments. Th e fi rst part deals with the outside world and describes the universe, astrology, geography, and various prophecies. For example, here astrological formulas can be found explaining how natural rhythms aff ect an individual’s existence. Th e Shambhala legend, including the description of

the glorious kingdom and its war against the mlecca, is a part of this outer section, which was open to everyone. Th e other two segments are reserved only for the initiated. Th e inner Kalachakra deals with the anatomy of the mystic body; adepts of Kalachakra and other tantras believe the body is a collection of energy centers linked through channels. Various bodily fl uids (the most important being semen and menstrual blood) fl ow through these channels. Th e task of adepts is to empower themselves by “controlling” these fl uids. Th e third, or “other,” Kalachakra details how to spread, balance, and

manipulate these energy fl ows and how to attune them to the movement of the sun, planets, and stars; Tibetan Buddhism views a human body and the outside world as intertwined projections of each other. Th e same section contains a list of hundreds of deities and mandalas and explains how to practice chanting

and how to visualize and merge with various deities.12 Like much of original Tibetan Buddhism, Kalachakra was a male-oriented teaching designated to empower male adepts through seventeen initiations. Lower level initiations, known as the “stage of production,” were available to all males. In fact, people could partake of this basic Kalachakra on a mass scale, visiting public initiations conducted by the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama, and other qualifi

ed masters. During these gatherings, adepts usually swore to follow the path of enlightenment, repent, and avoid misdeeds. Th ey were also expected to suppress their egos and off er their minds, spirits, and bodies to the Kalachakra master performing the initiation. Th e goal of this technique was to turn adepts into empty vessels that the master was to fi ll with the spiritual power of a particular deity. Incidentally, the suppression of personal ego is not

only a Kalachakra requirement, but also an essential attribute of all of Tibetan Buddhism. In other words, during these lower-level initiations, adepts ritually “destroyed” themselves as human beings and were “reborn” as deities. Initiations of the highest level, the “stage of perfection,” were accessible only to a few chosen lamas and were conducted in absolute secrecy. Th ere was surely something to hide from laymen, for many of these rituals were designated to teach an adept to control his sexual drive and channel it into spiritual bliss. Th ese types of initiations required the presence of karma mudra, young women whose ages ranged from ten to twenty years; in modern times, actual females have frequently been replaced with ritual objects symbolizing women. At the same time, old Kalachakra texts inform us that an adept could not reach enlightenment without the presence of the karma mudra. During these initiations an initiate was sexually aroused in the presence of a naked woman and was

challenged to restrain himself from ejaculation. For instance, one of the old texts prescribed that a master show an undressed girl to an adept and ask him

to stroke her breasts.13 Like other tantras, Kalachakra is focused on preservation and return of semen, which is viewed as precious energy of creation and the key to spiritual enlightenment: “Th e yogin needs to avoid with every eff ort passion for emission, by which avoiding it will attain the motionless

bliss, liberating himself from the bonds of transmigration,” and “All yogins attain Buddhahood through the interruption of the moment of ejaculation.”14 Th e man who could not hold on was called an animal, whereas the one capable of restraining himself from ejaculation was considered a hero with divine

attributes. Top initiations included even more challenges for an adept. In one of them, a master was to have intercourse with a karma mudra by allowing his semen to fl ow into her vagina in order to create “red-white fl uid.” Th en this mix of the male (white) and female (red) fl uids was collected and fed to

an initiate with the words, “Th is is your sacrament, dear one, as taught by all Buddhas.” Another high initiation required an adept to have intercourse with a female participant, but again without ejaculating. Moreover, in the seventeenth, the last initiation, a student was to copulate with several women,

dipping his vajra in their vaginas to get female fl uid without spilling his seed. Th ese ritual manipulations were directed to empowering an adept through “sucking” the female power of creation and merging it with the male one, which would turn the initiate into a superhuman transgender being—quite a

misogynistic technique from a present viewpoint. To hide these esoteric techniques from laypeople, old texts used various metaphors to made it hard to grasp the content of the rituals. For example, the vagina was routinely referred to as “lotus,” sperm was called “enlightenment consciousness,” menstrual

blood was labeled “the sun,” and breasts were the “vase that holds white.” Although until recently, Kalachakra masters did not reach an agreement about whether the presence of the second sex should be actual or symbolic, it is obvious that in the past, Kalachakra practices did involve ritual use of

sexuality. Th e best evidence for this is the images of Tibetan Buddhist gods, who were frequently portrayed brandishing various morbid objects such as skulls and weapons while simultaneously having sex with their divine female consorts. As important as it might be, channeling sexual fl uids into spiritual energy was not the only technique used at the stage of “perfection.” In the highest initiations, an adept was to ingest various substances forbidden in Tibetan Buddhism, such as menstrual blood, fl esh, urine, pieces of skin, liver, and anal excrements. It was assumed that by exposing himself without fear to these disgusting substances, an adept was capable of going beyond good and evil toward spiritual bliss. In other words, to reach enlightenment, an initiate had to bravely stare the Devil in his eye. Or, as an old tantric wisdom said, “Th ose things by which evil men conduct are bound, others turn into

means and gain thereby release from the bonds of existence.”15 Th e same logic might explain why Tibetan-Mongol culture became so fascinated with the morbid. Buddhist art widely depicts images of skulls, severed heads, corpses, and scenes of murders. Monks were encouraged to meditate upon corpses in various stages of decay. It was also recommended that the highest Kalachakra initiations be performed at crematoria, charnel fi elds, graves, and murder sites.

God Protectors and Defenders of the Buddhist Faith What immediately strikes one who looks at the images of Tibetan Buddhist deities is that many of them do not appear to be friendly beings. One defi nitely will not fi nd here any weeping Holy Marys or suff ering Christs. Instead, there are plenty of menacing and angry faces, sickles, daggers, and necklaces and cups made of human skulls, along with corpses trampled by divine feet. Th e greater part of the text of The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols, the most complete description of Tibetan Buddhist iconography, deals with weapons, weapon-related artifacts, severed limbs and heads, human skulls, and bones.17

Tibetan Buddhism has two special groups of deities that are invoked during a time of trouble to combat internal demons or enemies of the faith. Th e fi rst are god-protectors (yi-dam—Hevajara, Sang-dui, Mahamaya, Samvara, and Kalachakra)18 who shield lamas from demonic forces. Th e second are eight terrible

ones (dharmapalas), protectors of the faith (Begtse, Tsangs-pa, Kuvera, Palden Lhamo, Yama, Yamantaka, Hayagriva, and Mahakala), who wage war without mercy against all enemies of Buddhism.19 Depicted on sacred scrolls or cast in bronze, these deities have wrathful features, and their body postures manifest anger and aggression as if saying, “Beware, demons and enemies of the faith.”

Th e avenging terrible ones are usually portrayed as short, muscular beings who wave various weapons (hatchets, battle axes, and swords) and crush human

and supernatural enemies of Buddhism. Some of them wear crowns made of skulls with fl aming pearls, ornaments of human bones, and necklaces of freshly severed human heads. One of the most important attributes of both god-protectors and the terrible ones are the skull cups (kapala) fi lled with the blood

of enemies. Moreover, many of these deities are frequently depicted having intercourse with their divine female companions—a reference to tantric practices. Th e most ferocious defender of the Buddhist faith is Palden Lhamo, the personal goddess-protector of the Dalai Lama and the holy city of Lhasa.

On painted sacred scrolls, Palden Lhamo is frequently portrayed as a black, bony, four-armed lady with barred teeth, riding a horse. In her upper right hand she holds a chopper, and her second right arm holds a large red scull cup. Th e upper left hand brandishes a diamondshaped dagger. Th e body of the

goddess is covered with snakes, wreaths made of human skulls, and necklaces of severed heads. Her own head is topped with a crown of fl owers. Th e upper part of her body is covered with elephant skin and her hips with skin of an ox. Sometimes she is also pictured as standing amid a cemetery. A gory legend,

which one will never fi nd in current coff ee-table books about Tibetan Buddhism, recounts how this goddess turned into such a ferocious being. Palden Lhamo was married to the king of Ceylon, who did not care about Buddhism, and that drove her crazy. As a die-hard true believer, Palden Lhamo took a

horrible oath: if she failed to convert her husband to the true faith, she would destroy all her children in order to interrupt the royal lineage so hostile to Buddha’s creed. No matter how hard she tried, the goddess could not convert her infi del husband, and, eventually, while the king was away, she

had to fulfi ll her terrible oath by murdering their only son. Not only did the queen kill the little one, but she also skinned him, ate his fl esh, and drank his blood from a skull cup. Having completed this ferocious act, Palden Lhamo saddled her horse, using the son’s skin as a saddle, and galloped

northward. Furious, the devastated father shot at her with a poisonous arrow and hit her horse. Th e runaway queen pulled out the arrow and uttered magic

words: “May the wound of my horse become an eye large enough to overtake the twenty-four regions, and may I myself extirpate the race of these malignant kings of Ceylon!” Sadly, the legend does not have a happy ending. Unpunished, the sadistic mother continued her journey through India, Tibet, and Mongolia,

eventually settling in southern Siberia.20 One does not need to guess twice to fi gure out the brutal moral of the story: loyalty to one’s faith is supreme. Modern-day literature about Tibetan Buddhism, which has been adjusted to Western ideas of human rights and universal peace, does not mention these facts from the past lives of the terrible ones, which is

perfectly fi ne: people who do not wish to be stuck in a medieval time tunnel usually change their religion and move on. For example, Celestial Gallery, an oversized coff ee-table book composed by current adherents of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, asks us not to fear Palden Lhamo’s garlands of skulls because she is simply “the wrathful mother who tramples on the enemies of complacency and self-deception” and challenges us to step on the path of spiritual

evolution. Th e same book also reveals that her demonic forms symbolize our own dark forces we have to deal with.21 Th e worship of wrathful dharmapalas was, and still is, very popular in the Tibetan Buddhist world. Common folk believe that prayers to the terrible ones are more eff ective than those

addressed to benevolent gods, who are good anyway. In the past, to appease the ears of Palden Lhamo, Mahakala, Begtse, and other angry gods, lamas usually played thighbone trumpets made from human or tiger thighbones. Equally pleasing for these deities were sounds produced by skull drums made of human skins

stretched over two human craniums. People could solicit the help of these gods through various off erings. Th e most eff ective one, at least in the past, was blood, preferably from humans. Th e best blood was to be taken from a corpse or extracted from people suff ering from a contagious disease, for example

leprosy. Menstrual blood of widows and prostitutes was also considered very eff ective. Another type of good blood could come from the blade of a sword or from a young healthy man killed during battle.22 Th e text of a 1903 sacrifi cial prayer addressed to Genghis Khan (who had been turned into a protective deity) to ward off enemies of the faith, robbers, and lawbreakers prescribed, “Mix the following in brandy in equal parts: the blood of a man who has been killed, swarf from an iron bar by which a man has been killed, and off er this with fl our, butter, milk and black tea. When this kind of sacrifi ce is off ered, without any omission, then one will certainly be able to master anything, be it acts of war, enemies, robbers, brigands, the curses of hated opponents, or any adversity.”