A1D-AD250
Norway Runestone Svingerud
The world’s oldest runestone: translation
Norway Runestone Svingerud
The world’s oldest datable runestone was found at a grave site in Norway. Were runes used to write names of deceased people, or were the runes used as ideograms to compose complex diagrams to describe meditation techniques?
With the mystic numbers of Pythagoras as illustrated on the Phaistos Disk as source, the diagram reveals one of the most complex and most interesting runestones made when meditation was at its peak and practiced globally, from Scotland and Norway to Asia. Influenced by coins of Massalia in southern France there will be a link with Hadrian’s efforts in the 2nd century to promote the dialectics of philosophy to establish peace in the Roman Empire. Similar complex runes were engraved in the passage of Newgrange in Ireland, where the beam of light used in Maeshowe was copied to mark 1/16th of a solar year, symbol of Sixteen Vipassanā Insight Knowledges taught by the Buddha in India.
Were the Old Norse Vikings violent perpetrators, or were texts deliberately corrupted to hide the truth: that they were accomplished philosophers who searched for wisdom through practice of the unwritten doctrines described in Plato’s dialogues, illustrated with a series of coded numbers that were used for up to 1,800 years.
The dialectics of philosophy resulted in peaceful communities with sophisticated knowledge of meditation practices, illustrated in detail on the Svingerud runestone.
Designs that influenced the Svingerud runestone
Runes on the Svingerud stone follows well known examples, the “ᛖ named horse” was copied from Linear A and B clay tablets in Greece as main source. At Roquepertuse seated statues were prototypes followed later by Greek sculptors to make Buddha statues in India.
The main layout of the Svingerud runestone is a cross – as used on coins minted at the philosophers colony of Massalia from the 4th century BC during the life of Plato and Socrates.
Was the Svingerud runestone a diagram to illustrate the dialectics of philosophy, the mysterious unwritten doctrines taught by Plato in Athens? Were “unwritten doctrines” methods originally taught by the Buddha?
Cross layout like coins of philosophers colonies in Massalia: 4 Noble Truths
Norway runestone ᛖ rune named horse comparison with Linear B clay tablet
Roquepertuse statue and Massalia coin 4th century BC, layout Maeshowe
France Volcae coin, Maeshowe Tree with illustrated formulas how to cut defilements
Axe to cut the roots of defilements
The Paris Oppidum was founded in 250 BC – when Ashoka sent an envoy with 5 enlightened monks to teach Dhamma in Europe. The Parisii coins are high quality meditation diagrams using an axe to design faces. The same shape is found on the Svingerud stone.
The theme was still used in c.1050 CE to design the Langeid “sword of wisdom” with a coded spiral figure and the ‘E’ of Delphi as symbol of the 5 clinging aggregates. The broadaxe blade was too thin for war, the sword grip too small for o a hand.
Axe to cut the roots of defilements: Norway stone, Celt Parisii horse coins c. 50 BC
Norway Langeid Axe and highly detailed Sword: spiral and the ‘E’ of Delphi
The horse as an-iconic symbol for the Buddha was illustrated on the Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath where the Buddha first explained his methods to a group of followers, the Dhamma Cakka Ppavattana sutta. He sent an envoy with 5 enlightened monks to teach Dhamma in Europe, at the Parisii Oppidum, founded c. 250 BC, “serpentine horse coins” were minted as meditation diagrams for hundreds of years.
“ᛖ named horse” rune no. 19
On the Basque Hand of Irulegi (80-72 BC) the “ᛖ named horse” was also used as central focus, the object can be compared to the Svingerud runestone in complexity and level of knowledge.
Knowledge of the 6th sense was illustrated on an Athens amphora 6th century BC, the same glyphs were used to design runes to illustrate meditation on runestones, evidence that Scandinavians practiced dialectics of philosophy, the 6th sense was illustrated on the Eggja runestone in Norway with the 24th rune named “day”, also used on the Svingerud runestone.
The ᛖ named horse was positioned in the centre, used 3 times: Three Trainings
Athens amphora 6th century BC is evidence that Scandinavians practiced dialectics, the 6th sense was illustrated on the Eggja runestone in Norway
Möne Golden Collar: man morphs into a horse with added “E” at Delphi
“X” the house where the mind lives
The Buddha’s first words after his enlightenment was to identify craving as the cause for endless rebirth:
DHAMMAPADA 153-4:
“Through the round of many births I wandered in samsara, Seeking, but not finding, the builder of the house. Suffering is birth again and again.
O, house-builder! You are seen. You shall not build a house again. All your rafters are broken. Your ridge-pole is shattered. My mind has attained the unconditioned, obtaining the destruction of craving.”
House= the body Builder of the house= craving (taṇha)
“X the House where the mind lives”: triple spiral Newgrange, Phaistos Disk
Norway Runestone 3 broken fragments 6 pieces Newgrange basin
Comparable in complexity is the Manx high cross Kirk Michael AD950
The Svingerud runestone was made when meditation practices were at its peak globally. The author Jordanes, a Christian Goth, described in c. 551 in a history The Getica that the Goths from Scandinavia were philosophers whose teacher Zamolxis was the favourite student of Pythagoras, he wrote that the Goths were “enslaved by an island”, either Ireland or Maeshowe, he names the Buddha and the horse.
In the Newgrange passage a rune inscription comparable to the Svingerud stone was made by “Viking vandals”, in the Ogham Treatise of the Book of Ballymote a list of “oghams” were illustrated that can be used to translate complex Rune and Ogham inscriptions, proof of centuries of cooperation.
Scandinavian link with Ireland and Scotland
“We read that on their first migration the Goths dwelt (38) in the land of Scythia… Nor do we find anywhere in their written records legends which tell of their subjection to slavery in Britain or in some other island, or of their redemption by a certain man at the cost of a single horse.”
“… Nor did they lack teachers of wisdom. Wherefore the Goths have (40) ever been wiser than other barbarians and were nearly like the Greeks, as Dio relates, who wrote their history and annals with a Greek pen.”
– Jordanes, 551: Getica, “The Origin and Deeds of the Goths.” text of Mommsen translated CHARLES C. MIEROW, download from Project Gutenberg
Svingerud runestone translation
Definitions for rune symbols were chosen based on rune poems, information from the visual meditation diagram illustrated on the Phaistos Disk and the text of Plutarch written in c. 120 AD, “On the ‘E’ at Delphi” where each paragraph is still recognisable despite corruption.
Plato described the meditation system in his dialogues, especially in The Republic where the Cave simile was a detailed description of the 6th sense and the light of wisdom.
The meditation system as taught during the lifetime of the Buddha was described by Plato in The Philosopher – Epinomis. See illustration of meditation chart below and link to documentary where a master meditation teacher of Myanmar explains the system, still taught unchanged after 2,500 years,
Svingerud runestone Side Panel overview translation available PDF
Svingerud runestone Front face overview translation available in PDF
Svingerud runestone Middle Line overview translation available PDF
Modern meditation chart: techniques still practiced after 2,500 years
The meditation system recorded in Pali texts is still taught at Buddhist universities as theory and methods are practiced successfully at monasteries, also by westerners. The meditation system was described by Plato in his dialogues.
For explanation see documentary” Sketch of an Excellent Man
SKETCH OF AN EXCELLENT MAN
Documentary 1 hour 43 minutes
In the Pa Auk Forest Monastery in Myanmar over a thousand people from all over the world are first taught 40 concentration techniques to be able to analyse the ultimate realities of Mind and Matter (Nāma and Rūpa) at subatomic particle level by “their own direct experience”.
They then proceed to practise Dependent Origination and Insight Meditation (Vipassanā) as described in the “Path of Purification” (Visuddhi Magga), a 1,500 year old summary of
the Pāli texts: the legacy of the profound practical knowledge as originally taught by Gotama the Buddha.
For people in search of the truth it can be a life changing experience to learn about “the wisdom light” produced by a concentrated mind found in the heart base – the sixth sense – described in detail.
Rare footage of the Most Venerable Pa Auk Tawya Sayadaw explaining Vipassanã and Dependent Origination in English, illustrated by an artist/architect (watercolour, animation) make this subtle and profound knowledge enjoyable to watch even by non practitioners.
Gundestrup Cauldron meditation diagram
Animated text video (no sound) with a detailed layout of the illustrated meditation diagram
Maeshowe and the Pantheon in Rome: eye to see the truth
Animated text video (no sound) with a detailed layout of the illustrated meditation diagram