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Heruka
:''Heruka is also a name for the deity of the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra.'' ''Heruka'' (; ) is the name of a category of wrathful deities, enlightened beings in Vajrayana Buddhism that adopt a fierce countenance to benefit sentient beings. In East Asia, these are called Wisdom Kings. ''Herukas'' represent the embodiment of indivisible bliss and emptiness. They appear as '' Iṣṭha-devatā'' (Tibetan: ཡི་དམ་ ) or meditational deities for tantric sādhanā, usually placed in a ''mandala'' and often appearing in '' Yab-Yum''. Derivation and meaning of the term Heruka represents wrathful imagery with indivisible emptiness (śūnyatā), bliss, peace, wisdom, compassion (bodhicitta), and love. Herukas represent unified consciousness, with emptiness being a reflection of "non-phenomena" or emptiness which is "all love," or removal of imagery to reach universal love, mercy, and compassion-mind. :Heruka means hetu-rūpa-kâya, krodha-form vajradhara's:: Interpretation of Heru ...
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Cakrasaṃvara Tantra
The ''Cakrasaṃvara Tantra'' (, ''khorlo demchok,'' The "Binding of the Wheels" Tantra, ) is an influential Buddhist Tantra. It is roughly dated to the late 8th or early 9th century by David B. Gray (with a '' terminus ante quem'' in the late tenth century). The full title in the Sanskrit manuscript used by Gray's translation is: ''Great King of Yoginī Tantras called the Śrī Cakrasaṃvara'' (''Śrīcakrasaṃvara-nāma-mahayoginī-tantra-rāja''). The text is also called the ''Discourse of Śrī Heruka'' (''Śrīherukābhidhāna'') and the ''Samvara Light'' (''Laghusaṃvara''). "Cakrasaṃvara" may also refer to the main deity in this tantra as well as to a collection of texts or "cycle" associated with the root Cakrasaṃvara tantra. Tsunehiko Sugiki writes that this "Cakrasaṃvara cycle", "is one of the largest collections of Buddhist Yoginītantra literature from the early medieval South Asian world."Sugiki, Tsunehiko. Review of ''David B. Gray, The Cakrasamvara Tantra ...
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Charnel Ground
A charnel ground (Sanskrit: श्मशान; IAST: śmaśāna; Tibetan pronunciation: durtrö; ) is an above-ground site for the putrefaction of bodies, generally human, where formerly living tissue is left to decompose uncovered. Although it may have demarcated locations within it functionally identified as burial grounds, cemeteries and crematoria, it is distinct from these as well as from crypts or burial vaults. In a religious sense, it is also a very important location for sadhana and ritual activity for Indo-Tibetan traditions of Dharma, particularly those traditions iterated by the Tantric view such as Kashmiri Shaivism, Kaula tradition, Esoteric Buddhism, Vajrayana, Mantrayana, Dzogchen, and the sadhana of Chöd, Phowa and Zhitro, etc. The charnel ground is also an archetypal liminality that figures prominently in the literature and liturgy and as an artistic motif in Dharmic Traditions and cultures iterated by the more antinomian and esoteric aspects of tradi ...
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Vajrakilaya
In Tibetan Buddhism, Vajrakilaya (, also ; or Vajrakumara (; ) is a wrathful heruka yidam deity who embodies the enlightened activity of all the Buddhas. His practice is known for being the most powerful for removing obstacles and destroying the forces hostile to compassion. Vajrakilaya is one of the eight deities of Kagyé. Vajrakilaya is a wrathful form of the Buddha Vajrasattva. His distinctive iconographic trait is that he holds the dagger called ''phurba'' or '' kīla''. Vajrakilaya is commonly represented with three faces of different colors in a crown of skulls. The central face is blue, the left is red and the right is white. He also has six arms: two hold the ''phurba'', two hold one ''vajra'' each, one holds a flaming snare, and one a trident. He crushes under his feet demons representing the obstacles to spiritual realization. As deity Vajrakilaya is a significant Vajrayana deity who transmutes and transcends obstacles and obscurations. Padmasambhava achieved realis ...
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Wrathful Deities
In Buddhism, wrathful deities or fierce deities are the fierce, wrathful or forceful (Tibetan: ''trowo'', Sanskrit: ''krodha'') forms (or "aspects", "manifestations") of enlightened Buddhas, Bodhisattvas or Devas (divine beings); normally the same figure has other, peaceful, aspects as well. Because of their power to destroy the obstacles to enlightenment, they are also termed ''krodha-vighnantaka'', "Wrathful onlookers on destroying obstacles". Wrathful deities are a notable feature of the iconography of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, especially in Tibetan art. These types of deities first appeared in India during the late 6th century, with its main source being the Yaksha imagery, and became a central feature of Indian Tantric Buddhism by the late 10th or early 11th century. Overview In non-Tantric traditions of Mahayana Buddhism, these beings are protector deities who destroy obstacles to the Buddhas and the Dharma, act as guardians against demons and gather together ...
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Mahayoga
Mahāyoga (Sanskrit for "great yoga") is the designation of the first of the three Inner Tantras according to the ninefold division of practice used by the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Mahāyoga is held to emphasise the generation stage (or "development stage") of Tantra, where the succeeding two yana, anuyoga and atiyoga, emphasise the completion stage and the synthesis or transcendence of the two, respectively. Practice Reginald Ray (2002: p. 124) associates the Mahāyoga with removing aggression, or anger. An embedded quotation by Tulku Thondup identifies the focus of Mahayoga as viewing the universe as a manifestation of the Buddhist deities, a practice associated with the two truths doctrine that recognises both a conventional and an ultimate truth: Mahāyoga-yana is associated with the masculine principle and is for those whose primary defilement is aggression. In Mahāyoga, one visualizes oneself as the divinity with consort. "All manifestation, thoughts ...
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Padmakara
Padmasambhava ('Born from a Lotus'), also known as Guru Rinpoche ('Precious Guru'), was a legendary tantric Buddhist Vajra master from Oddiyana. who fully revealed the Vajrayana in Tibet, circa 8th – 9th centuries... He is considered an emanation or Nirmāṇakāya of Shakyamuni Buddha as foretold by the Buddha himself. According to early Tibetan sources including the '' Testament of Ba'', he came to Tibet in the 8th century and designed Samye Monastery, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet during the reign of King Trisong Detsen. He, the king, and Khenpo Shantarakshita are also responsible for creating the Tibetan Canon through translating all of the Buddha's teachings and their commentaries into the Tibetan language. According to Lewis Doney, while his historical authenticity was questioned by earlier Tibetologists, it is now "cautiously accepted.” Padmasambhava himself was recorded as saying he was an historical person, and his footprints left in rocks are evidence. ...
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Hayagriva (Buddhism)
Hayagriva ("having the neck of a horse", ) is an important deity in Chinese Buddhism, Chinese, Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan and Buddhism in Japan, Japanese Buddhism. He originated as a yaksha attendant of Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin) in India, and was assimilated into the ritual practices of Pre-sectarian Buddhism, early Buddhism. In Tibetan Buddhism, Hayagriva is the manifestation of wrathful Avalokiteshvara, and is considered an extremely wrathful male deity in the pantheon of Herukas in Vajrayana, Vajrayana Buddhism. Hayagriva together with his female consort Vajravarahi (Dorje Pakmo) remove hindrances and are renowned for their epic conquering of the demon Rudra. Hayagriva's iconography encapsulates his embodiment of a wrathful deity, wrathful manifestation of compassion, symbolizing an unwavering determination to surmount internal obstacles and external challenges. Displaying attributes such as a scowling countenance with Third eye, three penetrating eyes, green horse heads, a rais ...
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Vajrayogini
Vajrayoginī (; , Dorjé Naljorma) is an important figure in Buddhism, especially revered in Tibetan Buddhism. In Vajrayana she is considered a female Buddhahood, Buddha and a . Vajrayoginī is often described with the epithet ''sarvabuddhaḍākiṇī'', meaning "the [who is the Essence] of all Buddhas". She is an Anuttarayoga Tantra meditational deity (Iṣṭadevatā (Buddhism), iṣṭadevatā) and her practice includes methods for preventing ordinary death, intermediate state (bardo) and rebirth (Saṃsāra, samsara) by transforming them into paths to enlightenment, and for transforming all mundane daily experiences into higher spiritual paths. The origins of Vajrayoginī teachings date from between the 10th and 12th centuries, and draw inspiration from Hindu Tantra#Śaiva and Śākta tantra, Shaiva tantras. She appears as the consort of Padma Thotreng Tsal, and of Cakrasaṃvara, while in Vajrayoginī standalone practice, her inseparable consorts are represented by the kh ...
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Sādhanā
''Sādhanā'' (; ; ) is an ego-transcending spiritual practice in Indian religions. It includes a variety of disciplines in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives. Sadhana is done for attaining detachment from worldly things, which can be a goal of a sadhu. Karma yoga, bhakti yoga and jnana yoga can also be described as sadhana; constant efforts to achieve maximum level of perfection in all streams of day-to-day life can be described as Sadhana. ''Sādhanā'' can also refer to a tantric liturgy or liturgical manual, that is, the instructions to carry out a certain practice. Definitions The historian N. Bhattacharyya provides a working definition of the benefits of sādhanā as follows: B. K. S. Iyengar (1993: p. 22), in his English translation of and commentary to the ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali'', defines sādhanā in relation to abhyāsa and kriyā: Paths The term sādhanā means "m ...
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Samantabhadra (Bodhisattva)
Samantabhadra () is a great bodhisattva in Buddhism associated with practice and meditation. Together with Shakyamuni Buddha and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, he forms the Shakyamuni Triad in Mahayana Buddhism. He is the patron of the '' Lotus Sutra'' and, according to the '' Avatamsaka Sutra'', made the ten great vows which are the basis of a bodhisattva. In Chinese Buddhism, Samantabhadra is known as Puxian and is associated with action, whereas Mañjuśrī is associated with '' prajñā'' (transcendent wisdom). In Japan, this bodhisattva is known as Fugen, and is often venerated in Tendai and Shingon Buddhism. In the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, Samantabhadra is also the name of the Adi-Buddha, often portrayed in indivisible union ('' yab-yum'') with his consort, Samantabhadrī. In wrathful form he is one of the Eight Herukas of the Nyingma Mahayoga and he is known as Vajramrtra, But this Samantabhadra buddha and Samantabhadra bodhisattva are not the same. In M ...
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Yamantaka Vajrabhairav
Yamāntaka () or Vajrabhairava (; ; ''Daewideok-myeongwang''; ''Daiitoku-myōō''; ''Erlig-jin Jargagchi'') is the "destroyer of death" deity of Vajrayana Buddhism. Sometimes he is conceptualized as "conqueror of the lord of death". Of the several deities in the Buddhist pantheon named Yamāntaka, the most well known belongs to the Anuttarayoga class of tantra of deities popular within the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Etymology ''Yamāntaka'' is a Sanskrit name that can be broken down into two primary elements: ''Yama (यम)'', –the god of death; and ''antaka'' (अन्तक) –destroyer. Thus, Yamāntaka means “Destroyer of Death” or "Conqueror of Death". While Yamāntaka is therefore Yama's nemesis, his representation mirrors Yama in many ways: he too often rides a buffalo and is often depicted with a buffalo's head. Because of this mirroring of appearance and similarity in name, it is not hard to find texts and books (which would appear to be reliable sour ...
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