Because we do not have a picture of the Sadhanamala Mahasri, or know the other formulae on which she is based, we find it may be hard to distinguish her from Prajnaparamita. Both may be two or four armed, and may be shown with two lotuses and influence of five dhyanis.
According to Harvard, this is Bodhisattva Mahasri:
With two companions:
Stele version:
This, however, is a simple Indian Prajnaparamita:
Although the dhyanis are not shown, we know in this particular case, the two lotuses represent all of them.
So both Prajnaparamita and Mahasri make the Dharmachakra teaching gesture, the infinite flow of energy shown in this book of magic:
I do not believe Prajnaparamita comes any other way than we have already seen her, there is no wrathful or other types of forms, only yellow or white. On the other hand, Mahasri is 90% concealed by Palden and Remati.
Although she is famous otherwise, if we look at her White form, it will reinforce the idea of Peaceful Protector. Not all Protectors are Wrathful, and not all Wrathfuls are Protectors. We really haven't made a point of multiple moods, degrees of slight wrath, but Usnisa for example is semi-wrathful. So we'll keep her Yellow slightly more hidden because that is purely tantric, whereas White has Long Life Trinity, Tseringma, and so forth, which could use smoke and beverage offerings and other outer practices. White Mahasri:
Her potential vehicle is Sarasvati in a stupa.
So from Sadhanamala, when she takes Maha form, which is Sambhogakaya, "Mahasn Tara sits on the seat of the moon, and is green in colour ; she is endowed with two hands which exhibits the Vyakhyana mudra. She is one-faced and is adorned with ornaments. Two lotuses beautify her sides. She sits on a golden throne furnished with beautiful cushions. She is decked in a variety of flowers like the Asoka, Campaka, Nagesvara and Parijataka. She bears on her crown a small figure of Amogha- siddhi."
It does use the flower of an obscure Mahattari deity.
This Green that grows over her sounds like an inversion to the normal burning hellfire, inversion of Green--White. Otherwise it is dark and dense and she is not there. Roughly, Six Arm Cemetary Sita painted Green as Mahasri, which would be the Green Tara of the Reverse Image.
Six Arms, Six Armor Deities, sixth principle, etc., come out of the woodwork. It is the beginning of Vajradhatu, the inner Vajra Tara. From the All Planets to Ten Directions. I tend to think of the Ten as a Toroid. A would-be straight ray going in circles through a circle. Or perhaps breath rather than ray. The Rays are the Armor. But something like a toroidal plasma field is what comes to mind, the Axis and its circulating arc at right angles to each other.
In Skanda Purana which in this case Skanda, meaning Mars, the features of Sarasvati are being explained by Sanat Kumara, Mars, and they include the individual titles for Kumaris aged one to sixteen. Kubjika is used there. Arundhati is also characterized in that article which goes on to 1,008 names of Vishnu. So we'll use mostly the top half.
This stele was called "probably" Vajra Tara:
But we don't know of a four armed version of her--so it is probably Kurukulla. Four armed Kurukulla is about the only one ever seen; Hindus say she is part of Sri Yantra, does this mean anything similar to Buddhists, apparently:
This has been called Yellow Tara, which isn't anything specific:
Due to a boar's face, it must be Marici. In fact it is her proper Ten Arm form that has Four Legs, so it is not even Yellow, it is, or was, White.
We will fleece this post and begin replacing it with Mahattari.
With her, we have no mandala, picture, practice, or anything, and so the information is rather indirectly about her and more significantly the lineage ties or greater family.
We can't see inside, but for example one Indian study of Tara's development uses eight forms, Astamabhaya, Mahattari, Simhanada, Durgottarini, Mahasri, Kadhira, Vajra. Mahattari has maybe two relics at Ratnagiri. At Acutrajpur, she has vajra feet, flaming halo, varada mudra, holds one lotus. Flowing clothing, richly adorned. She changes but not much, for example, sattvaparanyaka or crossed legs and which may imply Varada and Abhaya mudras. So this definitely is an individual name that was prominent in her Sanskrit system and now is pretty well submerged.
Her major broken image is hard to distinguish from Varada Tara or Mahasri because of the companions. It is an Amoghasiddhi All Buddhas Tara with Janguli, Marici, Ekajata, Mayuri. Also with Avalokiteshvara and Manjugosha. It is still a vajra feet, varada mudra, one lotus, and with lavish clothing. There are lion supports (Simhanada) and people reading a book, The halo is plain. The writing of her depict either no or two companions. She is not Black but Syama on a moon and lotus cushion. Sanalendivara seems to be the name of her flower from the 1908 Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Her name almost substitutes for Green Arya Tara in terms of the form.
Here is an old Archeological Survey assessment of a Mahattari statue from stupa 189 at Ratnagiri: "Dressed in a sati and chest-cloth, Mahattari Tara (pi. XCVI A) is seated in the vajra-paryahkasana attitude on a visva-padma with her right palm, in the vara-mudra, resting against the knee and raised left hand holding the stalk of an utpala. She is adorned with valayas, beaded armlets with a triangular piece, a beaded necklace of the chhannavira type, ear-rings and a mukuta with three ornate triangular pieces. Tied by a string, the major part of the hair is arranged on the crown in the form of a bun, while a few coiled locks fall on the shoulders. Behind the head is the elongated halo, pointed at the crown, on either side of which is a garland-bearing vidyadhari flying through clouds towards the goddess." Mahasri and Amoghasiddhi are codes about multiple colors uniting the Pentagram, and this Mahattari is preliminarily supposed to stand at the sixth or Vajradhatu degree. Perhaps to her we should attach the vacancies, such as the missing Dharani goddesses and so forth. A dragnet for inconsistencies. Something represented only by a few abandoned relics left after, it would probably have to be said, cultural genocide, which could happen to anybody.
The full Sadhanamala contains the proper "wheel" Mrtyuvacana and White Vajra Tara, on these she has vajra feet, so does Mahattari, so these are close except for the color. She is only given one time in this basic Green way, however, the name was premier all over Orissa and Bengal in the medieval era. And then we found she is chief of the Kubjika line. She's a stealthy container of many things we will grab from other posts.
It is unlikely we can see a Green Tara done this way. Here is an ancient sculpture from Pakistan:
It looks like the proper shape, but is hard to tell if this is actually Green. However it does have viswa padma or double lotus base.
Almost every Green Tara is required to stick out her foot, unlike this mode, which gets closer to Prajna or Amoghasiddhi consort, or transcendental level.
In Sat Sahasra Samhita is where we find Mahattari as the superior of a Pancha Jina--i. e., not the center of it, but beyond it. In this text,the first component of the Astavimsatikrama (a process or initiation) is the series of Four. It consists of the four Mahapithas Odiyana, Jalandhara, Purnagiri, and Kamarupa--this is non-Buddhist, but same components there. Next, Astavimsatikrama has a set of Five Syllables and Five Goddesses (Pancha Jina) including Matangi and Sabari, who collectively make the continuous stream of Kulakula, which is Kula and Akula, or Shakti and Bhairava, unidentified place of Mahattari. Next, the Six of Kriya are in the "Place of the Jar" or Throat, including Sundari, who have an opposite Wrathful Six. Next, the Four of the Heart, Mitranatha, Oddanatha (or Jyotisa), Sasthanatha, and Caryanatha. So this includes the Natha or Lords Uddiyana Natha and Sastha Natha, Sastha again being Root Guru of Ayyapa. It goes on with further classifications of chakras and deities, less strongly related to our theme, but this 4-5-6 is certainly an esoteric progression that starts in Uddiyana, and goes through Matangi to Mahattari and Sundari. What they call Nathas of the Heart are not very different from Bodhisattvas.
The Mahattari is in the transcendent position above the Five Goddesses, and is the place or residence of the stream. This suggested addition to the standard group of five is barely hinted at, not mentioned until halfway through, so it is still semi-esoteric where it is mentioned at all.
Kubjika in this entourage is child (Nine, Sabari or Kumari), young (Sixteen, Bala Sundari) and old (Bhairavi), and another Newari secret. Pulindi is an obscure bandevi forest goddess. Campaka, related to flowers, was a mahasiddha or a vidyadhara. Once he visited the banks of river Yamuna with his wife Madalasa when they got from the forest nearby a child. The child in later years became famous as Ekavira, founder of the Hehaya dynasty, which was slaughtered by Parasu.
Here are nuts and bolts of Kubjika Tantra which equates Matangi to Candali. Kubjika's technical relation to Seven Shaktis is given by Sri Kamakoti who also found that Tara is Arundhati.
Mahattari is significant for being in the Sixth slot like Vajrasattva, tied to the oldest earthly lineage, and of Amoghasiddhi.
The oldest Orissan temple is Parasurameswar, i. e. Parasu or Axe Rama, who is behind all this. It is a Shiva temple, but one of the first to show the Sapta Matrika with him and Ganesh.
Vishnu's sixth incarnation Parasu got the mysteries of Divine Mother from Dattatreya, whose fierce form is Chamunda. Datta Pitha is at the feet of the Chamunda mountains, and he is seen as a fusion of Chamunda and Narasimha. Datta also produces the Om sound like Ganesh. Parasu placed the deity Ayyappa at Sabarimala. He also gave the earth to Kasyapa. This very ancient system is that of Matangi (Parvati--Sarasvati), who is Ganesha's consort, and prime minister of Sundari--meaning the latter is completely un-worldly, using Matangi and others as go-betweens. With Agasthya, Parasu started the kalari payattu or martial arts system, and, with Dattatreya, the guru system or parampara. So Parasu starts this, eventually Rama chandra picks it up via Sabari and Sastha Ayyappa (Makara Vilakku), and later the Mohini Ayyappa uses a non-Hindu mudra, and there is chanting of Saranam Ayyappa, basically the same as Refuge Vow. so the current Sabari milieu has those Buddhist leanings. So that is something like 8,000 (Parasu) then 6,000 years ago (Rama) and ca. 1100.
Eventually Parasu will assist the Kalki avatar, so this is indeed rather tied. We maintain the view that this is welded to esoteric Agni and that Dattatreya is "giver of Atreya" or a certain Rishi, and that this level becomes wrapped in the stars and why there is a certain web that crawls across the Rishi gotras or lineages revealing itself in particular areas, including Gautama, Kasyapa, Vasistha, and so forth. Mirrored by the female Pleiades--Arundhati--Maya, and, in mystic experience, the sons Mars and Ganesh.
It would be off track to suggest that Kubjika is of that antiquity. Her origin is believed to be Himalayan, and she appears purely tantrically. So it is more accurate to see this as being accepted into the Matangi--Sabari line which, in the view of Indian historians, can have an age of 8-9,000 years. She is not our focus as this is a jack-in-the-box surprise, so we will store this with the ephemeral Mahattari as the reference is plain. This is Kubjika's yantra:
And this is her:
She should be wearing the naga kings. Now that she is known, she has been taken extremely seriously by someone who pursued her involvement with the Malla Kings. Most commonly she is named the Royal One Sri of the Srimata, her amnaya, i. e. stream or lineage. To some, at least, it also means kundalini. That is its own name for itself, as well as Mahamata, Mahottara, Mahottama. With that spelling, Mahottara, you will sometimes see it for Chemchog Heruka, interpreted as Great Bliss, Maha Uttara.
She is growing out of Shiva, who also has a White Multi Arm Svacchanda Bhairava form supported by another deity like a similar one we found. Sri Kamakoti lets us know this kind of Bhairava is Kubjika's consort. Kubjika also gets supported this way. There are different forms of her; mainly Kubjika has six goddess faces: parA, mAlinI, mAtRikA, kAlikA, tripurA and khecharI. This symbolism leads to Durga Armor and so we certainly have Vajra Armor, and the close Buddhist equivalencies in these names are Para Shakti, Malini--Matangi, Grahamatrika, Kalika, Tripura Sundari, Khechari. This Khechari is usually considered Sukhasiddhi who would be in verse seventeen anyway. The Drops, Varahi and Kurukulla, may be ingrained to Sundari here. More of a direct comparison to Armor Goddesses. So Mahattari is affixed to Completion Stage or the cusp of it.
Then according to Sri Kamakoti, there are Seven Amnaya (lineage) Goddesses who end just as we did in Namasangiti, with Patala Varahi at the end, and their variation is tripura-bhairavI (UrdhvAmnAya), bhuvaneshvarI (pUrvAmnAya), dakShiNA kAlikA (dakShiNAmnAya), mUla-kubjikA (pashchimAmnAya), pUrNa-chaNDI or aniruddha-sarasvatI (uttarAmnAya), tripura-bhairavI (UrdhvAmnAya) and vajrayoginI (pAtAlAmnAya). These come with the White Bhairava consort. That is something like Ganesh gathering all the Shaktis, who then assemble as one goddess with Six Faces.
He goes to her invoked form, wherein she is known with the same title as Siddhi Lakshmi, i. e. Devi or Shakti esoterically.
Shiva Bhairava is worshipped with her Vakra form, BhagavatI, who represents agni-kuNDalinI in mUlAdhAra and the yoni of mUla-kubjikA. The specifically clearly detailed version according to this research has Nine sets of arms. Kamakoti's pictures will not post for some reason, this one is here on Vakra Kubjika. I believe if you get a cookie on their site, then it can be seen here if you refresh the page.
In the male version, Shiva is supported by a frequently red Brahma. This commentary on the form is brief and has a very good explanation related to their union and what comes up is Abhaya mudra or Amoghasiddhi.
So you Offer to her Mula Vigraha form, which has Six Faces, but that one is the sum of the Nine Jewels or Nava Ratna. Then this Bhairavi is next.
When we think of her initiatory form that produces such a Bhairavi, this is how she goes to meet once endowed with all gifts, Kubjika Navatman.
It is supposed to represent the right hand Kashmiri style. And she is not far from the missing cemetery Sita. This Offering rising as that Bhairavi is more or less equivalent to what we have in mind here. My guess is that Nine (sets of) Arms are nine planets which means if this guy's mind slips out any one of those exits, then the nice White Sita is going to backfire as Kali's nightmare. A slightly more subtle level than the cemetery of the senses. Again, the pattern is Seven Mothers, with a sort of synthetic Eighth, then Nine Planets full Durga. The mind has to balance winds across all that in order to do Ten Directions. This final planet is a non-entity or only the Ascendant or entire Horizon, Day and Night. In the portrait he is doing well with Nandi Bull and she has Simha or White Lion, the aspect of Peaceful Durga, and, when we use Simha at this level, it is not a face or head but only a mount, companion, or throne support for Tara or Buddha.
From here metaphysically you get one vein like Matangi--Candali, the Ucchusma deities, lower class and dirty ones, whereas Mahasri is said to want to be clean. I don't know quite how clean Sabari is supposed to be, but she is right in the middle and the primary shield against disease. Figuratively at least, if any real ritual includes Vajrasattva, then if it was any big public one, Sabari would sweep it first. If nothing else, nasty Elephant Goddess is the truth that she contains all filth, while at the same time, Mayuri and Janguli can transmute mentally toxic contents and Sabari cleanse the outer environment. Vasudhara, Kamala, etc., get the clean elephants. Nasty elephant is the inner heat and so this goddess interplay represents its healthy progress.
So it's not exactly Hindu or Buddhist but really just tantrism in Nepal. Most likely the complex language of tantrism came from Buddhism into the Mahavidyas, Shaktis, etc. of the Shiva and Shakti cults.
Wearing multiple Naga kings is a trait shared with few others such as Kurukulla I believe. She is firmly stitched in to the fabric, and if we look at her basic White form, this one sweats nectar, so it really is only applicable to the stage where a disciple has unquestioningly established this in their body. Likewise, Matangi is a really suped-up Sarasvati. This Mahattari form is charmingly simple, because what is it, actually quite close to a Dhyani image. But we either have to paint a statue or adjust a Green Tara to see it.
From the description of her she is like Vairocana or the central nexus of the fivefold Rupa Skandha or Form, but in her own unidentified sixth place, over a full Pancha Jina, of whom we know three, Matangi, Sabari, Kubjika. Campaka and Pulindi will have to wait. This meets an Amoghasiddhi-centered male Pancha Jina. The main other thing they can offer us is all the mantric details and their own system of yoginis, but, metaphysically, Mahattari and then the Seventh Face are the summit. So really her role is completely shaped and defined even if her practice is not. Amoghasiddhi takes the pentagram, Six rayed White Vajrasattva undergoes a Wrathful Rite with Six Rayed Green Mahasri, or, perhaps, she alternately flashes Six Arm Sita and Twelve Arm Kubjika. The motion is in that area somewhere.
Tantrically or in Nepal, Sri is Sri Yantra or goddess thereof, so neither the Red or White Drop but the goddess of their indestructible unity. From here we have more differences as Hindus use the Tripura Sundari name and method and Buddhism does Vajrayana. As Vakra Kubjika she can give us her Indian--Newari details. We find Nepali kings still have special temple rights in Orissa. She is most likely the origin of Nava Ratna or the unique ninefold family system that Brian Hodgson found.
Very specifically, the old Hindu amnayas were institutionalized as the elite Tantric traditions of Nepal: the Sri Vidya, Kali, Kubjika, Guhyesvari, Siddhi Lakshmi, and Taleju schools. King Hari Simha Deva introduced Taleju to the Kathmandu Valley in 1324 after he fled to the Valley from Simrongarh in India. We are also told that he belonged to the Karnataka Dynasty, and that is how the goddess Taleju made an entry to the Kathmandu Valley. There is no record of Taleju being a tutelary deity of Nepali kings prior to the 14th century. So this is the goddess of Sri Yantra, and whatever was there previously, became this Malla dynasty virgin tulku. If correct, she is a mirror of the one at the southern tip of India. This also suggests she is a Yidam or Sherab lha, and not a local protector. It is probably more accurate to say the tulku herself has a local Wrathful Protector as part of her Nirmanakaya.
At the time, Karnataka was really the largest city and capital of South Indian resistance against the Mughals until the 1500s. Harihara is credited as a co-founder of the strong 14th century empire that lasted two hundred years. Vijayanagara, the Rome of its time.
But this one was merely related, as Day in the Life of Hari means he was king of Nepal's border province. Two kings later, his granddaughter founds Malla of Kathmandu, Thakur dynasty or Jaya Bhadra Malla. This integrated with the Newar community. Hari Simha and other Simha kings, then Mallas.
This is not south Indian, but the Maithili Aryan culture indigenous to the border since ancient times. Their personal claim is in being the birthplace of Sita. In the 11th century, Parmar Rajput dynasties ruled with a caste called Maithili Brahmins, this being the Karnata link. So this is heavily of the Rajput resistance and its fates in various areas. Taleju herself comes out native or otherwise unknown. So this is really a deitiy's personal name towards a human community, Bhaktapur, similarly to how Kubjika = Sri is shown Wrathfully in Tibet and as Tseringma is a bound spirit. Away from those environments, Mahasri is more of the universal name, not necessarily bound to anything, a Yidam herself.
The tulku appearance is somewhat later due to Trailokya Malla. Durga--Taleju becomes Buddhist in this incident. In other versions it's because a girl saw the Yantra. Overall the goddess orientation in Nepal has always fundamentally been there, if not quite as visibly developed as in multiple institutions with state support. The special Malla one is accepted among a standing choir. Kumari per se if not a tulku has been established late 5th century A.D. by Manadeva I, the Licchavi ruler was worshipping Manesvari a form of Durga as his tutelary goddess.
The social--political role of Talehu in Bhaktapur is described there. Browsing through it, then it becomes apparent that her Kumari is a local or specific manifestation of universal Kumari, and that Taleju's ritually-charged form is Bhagavati or Siddhi Lakshmi, Devi, Shakti, Prakriti. It would be inappropriate to scarf her name for our own use, but she does show the same method of hypostasis or connection that explains various goddess forms which are universal and that we should mostly use the generalized names for. I guess that's also the issue I personally had with Padmasambhava when he gets mixed in to Guru Yoga or Vajra Muttering; there just isn't really a connection to this individual person. If you do have the right initiation, it probably works, but what is more true is the universal Root Guru power itself we call Vajradhara. It is entirely possible for him to work through Guru Rinpoche, just like Kubjika could work through Taleju, but we are outsiders just learning in a way that we find as mostly through Nagarjuna and Abhayakaragupta, Tilo, Naro, in a way drawing from the inner Sangha or Nirmanakaya. Again, it's not Tibetan, Bhutanese, or Nepali localizations, but the inner meaning we want to employ.
Prajnaparamita is this inner meaning and so we want to depict the magnification of her, internally, to the disciple. The social, historical, or academic view of her is incidental towards building this.
At that, Bhaktapur town is built according to Devi Mahatmya and is supposed to be the hexagram mandala. Here, Maha Lakshmi is not in the Seven Mothers but is an eighth additiional or synthetic, who is offered red oleander or Sipha. Tripura Sundari is all Eight Mothers, and then Maha Lakshmi is again all Nine Durgas. Of Durgas, Mahakali, Kumari, and Varahi, could be called active, and five are sort of just there or are just the bundle of senses. Durgas include Simha and Durga. These interface with male Ganesh, Bhairava, and Seto Bhairava. So Sipha Mahalakshmi is superior or all Nine Durgas. The fullest charged version is Bhagavati, the lion is used by Tripura Sundari, Mahalakshmi, and Bhagavati. The also full form Chandika--Mahakali has no lion but a male humanoid mount; she is immediately under Mahalakshmi. The Bhairavi and then the Kamadevi.
Taleju who secretly rides a horse has for attendants Dui Maju and Manesvari, or, she has taken an older king's deity. She's the mayor.
So in the Tara system, Mahattari takes the place of some of that.
Verse seventeen says padaghate or Tara's feet are a slaughterhouse, and then she is Hum Kara Akara. Not the first arisen from Hum, but one to whom the Humkara goddess is her Akara or form and bijite or seed. She then makes a vibration in mountains representing the Avadhut or central channel. This appears to mean a post-Humkara uncoiling of Kubjika (Sri) is where the place of Mahattari may be found. Something like after Amoghasiddhi in the cemetery, Sri arises as Kubjika and Mahattari is perceived; opening of Kamala.
1/8 of the Sun's Rays have been shorn and thrown in a place (downward face) where there is no light. Ultra dense and dark as explained by Viswa Vajra. Embodied radiance of Ananta at the bottom of the Talas or hell as Varahi. In the auric vision, physical is a dark negative hole. Very much a mystery initiation before Marici is truly appropriated.
In broad terms the Crossed Vajra is "that little spinning thing" where a given form of seeds or mental ideas has made a filmy astral blueprint and it blasts into the physical plane: Dodeca to Icosa. This continues until the matter returns to its Zero state when it dies, or, that is, stops moving. It is "the grasped". Oneself is the upward triangle as shown by Nagaraja or the seed which flows through these billowing veils, the "grasper" in minds such as ours.
As to how this Method is working, we could, for example, find one Italian pickup of Alex Wayman's riddle that gave seven mandalas for Namasangiti. The article is straightforward and not too bad, however, it lacks the ability to invert these as stages of the Path. So that has progressed less in fifteen years than this has in one. Similarly, the Himalayan Art Resources that has a great deal of the posted examples, is a giant pile of information without the framework and flow of a teaching. The future will be a combination of the right visuals with the full explanation to the extent possible. When we find major, missing pieces, we are going to dwell on them, such as Kubjika, Mahattari, Vajra Tara's retinue, Mahamaya Vijayavahini. More or less, we are aiming at Mantra as originated really in South India that peaked in Bengal, which pertains to the Prajnaparamita and Vajravali deities. The original Avalokiteshvara was southern, and due to circumstances, he moved to Tibet. From there, you could actually say that while America was being colonized by the Europeans, Mongolia and Siberia were colonized by Tara and Avalokiteshvara. In this sense we mean it as the direct emplacement of tulku lines.
So there is a certain category, I suppose, where we want to show a deity in a basic way, before perhaps adding more advanced forms, or to take our deity and show their relationship to other.
Prajnaparamita does not have that many forms, and we have depicted her as arising from the Nagas and making her way to a pretty senior position within the Refuge Field that I at least hold. So as she is holding a snake or wearing or being around more of them, means that she has or is perfecting the Paramitas.
She took this trip that went from nowhere before Nagarjuna to everywhere for centuries, and on the way, rubbed up against Mantra or Vajra, which is not part of her, explicitly, but could be described as the inner driver that really reads between her lines.
From having examined her Indian version, we would tend to guess this is her under Bodhisattva Vajrapani:
If we go a little further into the 1500s in Nepal, they will confirm it for us and give us some pure occult juice:
This is a stupa, which represents the Dharmakaya of a deity, which is why theirs looks like this and, esoterically, as a human, ours are inverted. At any rate, here, you have Prajnaparamita in the dome over Akshobya, over Vajrapani on the bottom. At the top are the Pancha Buddha, who, in the only words available to the evaluator, are "flanked by two Bodhisattvas". But you can take a close look to see if they are really any different and if it could perhaps be considered to show Seven Dhyanis. They happen to have the ingredients of Green on the left side, and on the right, Green and its opposite. This same perspective would also show the use of Vajra methods of Akshobya to realize the highest degree or Vairocana Atman, by the vertical ascent. Physiologically it is Vajra Danda held firmly in Higher Yoni Triangle.
We haven't talked about him much, however, Vajrapani is the main deity to do Bhutadamaru or demon subduing gesture, which we found on a unique Kurukulla. Make a good mental impression of the stupa--compare to Prajnaparamita and Vajradhara in Refuge Field--and watch what happens later. And so Vajrapani's phase comes in after Wrathful Vajrasattva. Vajravali shows a scheme of Vajradhatu mandala, then Sakya Simha, Bhutadamaru Vajrapani, and Marici in a stupa:
He's not doing the mudra there. He basically has four rings of Eight Direction deities in alternating male and female sets. The second ring includes Sri, Tilottama, and Surasundari. NSP is terrible for making new deity sets on almost everything. Together, the four mandalas above are showing something about the becoming of Vajradhatvishvari by appropriating Marici and radiating light. Causing Vajrapani to function in the Vajradhatu. He is a specific use or common ground of Prajnaparamita and Marici in their stupas. Vairocana's only male emanation is Manjushri, the rest of them are females and they are the main stupa goddesses, although there are a few other kinds. If she cannot be held by stable meditation, she might fly out at light speed. So Dharmachakra is a cue to this kind of goddess and it is a "teaching moment" where new deity relationships or colors or forms are studied.
If we take this as following from the preceeding post, then. What we can say about Sri Svacchandra Bhairavi is that a lot of her text is just a cavity, she is not even translated.
The Shiva male equivalent is represented by Newaris and at first glance, he is with someone not too far changed from Buddhadakini:
And, they only give the partial explanations but we can see the concept pushed to the next degree in whom they call Kamakhya Kali Kamadevi from a Tale of Varaha.
She has Simhanada and is growing out of Shiva and is one of the rare examples where a face is shown looking upwards. Moon is mixed with Sun like an eclipse or eye, or red inner heat restrained by white bodhicitta. It is such a close parallel, it may help compensate for the lack of special Sitas and/or flavors of Marici. When finding a considerable lack of Amoghasiddhi practice and we look at the root text for this weird Bhairava and find Abhaya mudra then we are able to make a really direct association.
Two of her faces are the green ingredients, and the opposing two are Pandara-eqsue. One of her attendants has a Chakra and the other appears to be Prajnaparamita. She herself also has a Conch, probably Vishnu, and among other meanings the Vase. Her Green has been replaced by Violet in the upwards or Vyomaka or Sky direction.
Kamakoti is its own system with countless sadhanas, and, I believe, we owe them a debt of gratitude for surviving with what appears to be Mahattari. We want to keep her in terms of inner meaning and work out a fairly consistent deity set, etc., that seems like it should integrate with the overall Tara system. It would be more difficult to find reasons why the left column is not similar to the Drikung flag and Prajnaparamita.
There is an almost hair raising climb through Charchika or Chandika who is Wrathful Dattatreya, Wrathful Green Tara, and Wrathful Chandi. When pacified it should result in Chandi's "twin" nature:
Devi Chandi will never change, being transcendent or formless, whereas the Chandika can make all forms and go Wrathful. Neither one depends on a male god, although Chandika depends on Devi Chandi. The underlying idea could not be much simpler, but in practice or experience, it is every possible state of mind and condition of the winds. It takes a lot to stabilize this, and so we reach Yellow Vajra and a Red which is to be cooled by Horse head and Cool Forest, a restraining of the red warmth by white bodhicitta. So this is why there is a type of goddess crossover to the normally male drop and vice versa.
The twins are sort of "Solar which is really sub-Lunar" and, ideally, Full Moon reflected in Calm Lake.
If we gain the Red Taras, Vajradhara will turn Yellow about it:
His Bodhisattvas are Red.
A nice basic Sita relationship:
There Green Tara has one foot out and two lotuses. Sita has vajra feet, a third eye, and one lotus. I believe they are still under Prajnaparamita.
Parnasabari is not White but has any other colors and very tantric and Wrathful Blue and Red. However, she also has a Three Families view, which is Yellow Body, Red Speech, and Black Mind:
A Panchen-styled person is at the top, and then Mahakala is squashing Ganesh. Anyway this Parnasabari is designed to show herself as Three Jewels, or Families, Kayas. That is the straight Kriya version instead of Chinnamasta and her exotic performances. So she can be Om Ah Hum, Tathagata--Lotus--Vajra, Triple Gem, all these symbols are intended here.
However another way to see it is that when she is under Five Buddhas, she wears Three Leaves:
And that's it. No flying or sex. She has a wide arsenal that builds some power and then must transfer it some how. That one is from Vikrampur and Bhattacarya subtitles it "Vajrayogini". He published most of these same stele images many years ago.
However her Yellow form also surmounts what's called by the website, Wrathful Chandika. A lot of these identifications are made simply by a deity list, instead of an actual mandala or thangka chart. Doing the same thing I would firsthandedly be inclined towards calling her little goddess Janguli:
Taranatha gives Yellow Akshobya Parnasabari first, and the rest of her forms are just different colors of the different families. Above, the smaller one's faces are not right for Janguli but her poison flower and items are. I don't think he even has Janguli; she never really entered Tibet. In Sadhanamala she is almost the same as Parnasabari but a serpent hood is included. In both texts, both goddesses are Akshobya Yellow emanations with Three Faces and Six Arms. One has a flower and the other a whisk. There is no question of their proximity. I would tend to look at this piece as them together. The Chandika they have in mind is Chamunda whose small Four Arm form is an attendant to Four Arm Mahakala. Nothing seems to suggest this would be her. Instead, Janguli has shown what she means by being tantric Sita.
Parnasabari--Gandhari may be most closely related to Jagganatha. The earliest text of Buddha's use of mantra is Matangi sutra from Sardulakarnavadana and begins the use of low or outcaste names for generation and kundalini goddesses. A Chandika image was held by Sabaris in Mizrapur, but this was probably a later addition. The earliest stories of Matangi (Raja Syamala, Jnana Shakti) are not Hindu, but from the Buddhist Divyavadana.
Parnasabari is a Pacifying Activity, the foremost healing practice especially for disease, and comes in Red, Black, Blue, Green, Yellow, just about everything except White. Pabonkha says she is Chakrawarmini of Chakrasamvara. Tsonkhapa says VAJRA WARN ANIYE is the vajra-praise goddess; Jampa Cholek says VAJRA WARNANIYE is the vajra-lineage or color. VAJRA WARNANIYE means that she is either the vajra-praise goddess or the proclaiming goddess as the speech of all the buddhas. It refers to her good qualities of speech and the proclaiming of the subject matter of the wheel of mantra-dharma of inseparable bliss and emptiness. The three-OM mantra functions as the root, essence, and close-essence mantra of the Goddess of Dakini Land. So it includes or incorporates the individual calls to Parnasabari and the rest. This is from his Naro Dakini explanation. I am not completely sure that Chakrawarmini = Vajravarnaniya, it is hard to tell what he means by this name that equates to Parnasabari. It does place her as one of Eight Yoginis of the Body and this is all going right into Chinnamasta.
The set that Taranatha gives is more complete. It is basically a Parnasabari per family, but the only color-matching one is Amitabha's Red. This and the Green have two arms, the others four or six. All arise from Pam. It is intended literally as a set--most use the same mantras, but a couple have variations. The instructions are to do the variations in addition to the standards. Most of the colors are backwards: white is black, green is sky-blue, blue is yellow, and yellow is green. She has no white because her Vairocana emanation is black, or, what is more likely, krsna or dark blue.
If called Gandhari, this is the mother of Kuru clan in Mahabarata.; Sadhanamala 201 gives Vajragandhari as a form of Pratisara though. If confused with Vajrayogini--e. g., Parnasabari of Vajrayogini--there was a town of this name.
Vasudhara
Om, Shri Vasudhara ratna nidhana kashetri, swaha.
Nidhana is Kubera's secret treasure, and kashetri is probably a bad spelling of kshetri which calls her a farmer. Something that cannot or is not simply being given, Dhana, but must be mined. In Pali, she is known as Nidhi in Nidhi Kandha Sutta, which plainly translates her from outer wealth to inner.
Vasudhara's role is Holder of the Vase or Flask, sometimes in Orange, Reddish-Brown, or Black. There is, so to speak, a Vase sub-initiation to any initiation. Or, after you have an initial or first Vase initiation, it is repeated in each new rite. The basic Empowerment cycle has the Tri-kaya and esoteric fourth kaya.
Her name refers to the Vasus or all elements, which are one thing on the earth plane, and in the Kama loka are the Six Agni seeds and Ganges River, process of Varuni (Maya).
Vasudhara herself from the older traditions places her in the stripe of Prithvi, Earth, Vishnu's second wife besides Lakshmi, most generally referred to as Bhu, Bhudevi, etc. At least in terms of Prithvi Tattva, Ksham is its seed syllable.
Prithvi's basic form is cow:
She had three children with the god Dyaus. Her daughter Ushas is the goddess of the dawn. Her two sons were Agni, the god of fire, and Indra, the god of thunder. So this is about ancient Rig Veda use. A broad-based survey of Prithvi seems to accidentally land her in Ratna Family and as Vasudhara. The survey catches the snag where the lower or daughter Prithvi is no longer the second side of the primal androgynous unit, but more like a locked down half of a giant shell. This helps because the Buddhist Ratna Family has low staff; here, it quickly becomes related to Kamadhenu or magic wealth cows, and, in the Agni concept, we make luminous curds therefrom, and we see something about luminous cows for the future of the chariot of dawn.
Mother Bhumi is also understood to be the consort of Lord Varaha. She is also the mother of Sita, so it is not surprising that baby Sita was found in a ploughed field. According to the Uttara-kanda, when Sita finally leaves her husband Rama, she returns to Bhumi.
The Atharva Veda style is usually Green Four Armed. Vasudhara is plainly equal to Bhumi and Prithvi. She does things like "give me back my bhagavan bhakti, which I threw on the ground in anger". She holds Vaisvanara or the sacred fire worshipped in Agni Homa. This is pre-Buddhist, and so again, we are not changing the definitions much, but insuring our practice is non-materialistic, and oriented towards esoteric or inner wealth and abundance.
Otherwise, Mother Bhumi is often depicted in votive statuary, seated on a square platform which rests on the back of four elephants, who represent the four corners of the world. When depicted with four arms, the paraphernalia she holds are a pomegranate, a water vessel, a bowl containing healing herbs, and another containing vegetables. When shown with two arms, she holds a blue lotus known as Komud or Uttpal, the night lotus, in the right hand. The left hand may be in the Abhaya Mudra (fearlessness), or the Lolahasta Mudra, which is an aesthetic pose meant to mimic the tail of a cow. She is mentioned in the Buddhist Pali Canon, dispelling the temptation figure Mara by attesting to Gautama Buddha's worthiness to attain enlightenment.
Sri and Bhu are usually shown as separate individuals with Vishnu. It is intriguing that "Green Mother Earth" is hard to find in Hindu or Buddhist images.
Here is a tidy write-up of the Kamadhenu who perhaps are a form of Kinnara. Prithvi is the only available source of sustenance, and so the Gopala or cowherd mentality is of treating the environment respectfully and protectively.
We dropped the normal or exoteric occult correspondences which would tell us something like Earth is the lowest element and yellow is sunlight or something like that. We raised the earth element or tattva, not really literally but mentally, and placed it under the feet of Mercury or One Initiator. This follows smoothly into most of the goddess forms, there isn't really a yellow until the whole ignorant or avidya view of the physical plane is thoroughly reversed and being offered back in a manner supportive of the White life force type of Tara. Vasudhara, or, perhaps, affectionately, the Queen of Cups, handles most of this up to Vajra Tara and Vajradhatvishvari.
So that is one hand, and for the other, back up to what is likely one of the best occult stupas to be had, at the top of the previous post, and we find Akshobya is the Dhyani who touches Bhumi. In Namasangiti, this also results in a dozen Bhumi goddesses, all carrying a staff. The Bhumis are the Grounds for seeking Paramitas, so ten should be equivalent to any Mahayana system.
Sadhanamala has Aparajita solo, giving a slap, with a parasol supported by other deities, but I cannot find it in the full sadhanas. At Ellora, earth-touching Buddha during enlightenment (Maravijaya) is accompanied by a bowl-offering Bhumi and this slapping Aparajita. At Ratnagiri, 13/16 Buddha images are the Bhumisparsha moment with Avalokiteshvara, Vajrapani, and Bhumi. One of these adds slapping Aparajita, and here, Bhumi arises from the earth with anjali mudra. These are not Akshobya versions, violent and sexual imagery not used. It does however differentiate Bhumi--Vasudhara from Aparajita.
Yellow Aparajita, a destroyer Durga, also arises from the womb of earth, like Sita, assisted by Vajrayogini. She destroys rajas-tamas, sweeps dirt, alakshmi, and is the tenth day after Nava Durga (Vijaya Dasami). This is the Tenth Durga, Jaya, Vijaya, Aparajita. She rides a lion. See Devi purana and Chandi Path. This male-female same name are intended as aspects of Vishnu--Lakshmi. Her Sanskrit Stotram has the same flavor as most of the Buddhist dharanis.
Male Jaya Vijaya are immediately recognizable being cursed to become the enemies of Vishnu. Lakshmi explains the same thing more esoterically. Keep her in mind she will be right back.
Aparajita is one of the stickiest names, because it could be male and confused with all the Yellow gods, or it could be more of a title given to Parasol. Aparajita is usually given Tara's verse eight, and/or it is for Vasittotama da Tara, which is giver of finest vasi. The full name is Mārasūdanāvaiśitottamadatārā (dbang mchog ster ba'i sgrol ma), where mara sudana means crushes all Maras. Others give Aparajita verse seven, and eight is for Red-Black Shen.le.nam.par.gyal.ma "Conqueror of Others", i. e. outer obstacles, followed by the previous definition of Mara crusher. These fuller names and mantras are given here. Again, even with the complex Suryagupta version, these just seem to be collections of various forms and practices. No one can really say "Tara Eight is"; what we can do is interpret a verse and find the best match. We cannot really find a match to an obscure Tibetan name with no Indian equivalent. Our verse source calls eight Zhen Megyalvai Palmo "Invincible Fearless Lady".
So far, verse seven seems to be final samadhi, Pramardani, crushing the last vajra ignorance, Transference, which is slightly higher than eight, Invincible, slays foes, Completion, this one described as terrible and frowning in the verse. "Ghore" is perhaps awe-inspiring (Bhaya, causes fear, such as Mahakala), rather than Raudra (such as Aparajita), the true wrathful who makes others weep. The verse translates it as "terrifying", and calls seven "furious", although no word for anger is in that verse.
Taranatha catalogs the aptly-titled Aparajita-meruvarabhadrankara-ratnasadhana. Parasol blends the Seven-Eyed Sita, turns Yellow, and gains Aparajita title, so the various earth-born secrets are her building blocks. Even worse, Aparajita is Aparajita's consort. In the text, Taranatha has the wrathful Vairocana couple in 164 as Aparajita + Aparajita (threatening mudra); 124 is Sitatapatra Aparajita (Thousand Armed). Parasol is Dukkhar, but this Tibetan Aparajita is Yellow Zhan gyi mi t'ub ma.
There are two Aparajita goddesses in one of Kurukulla's retinues. Aparajita is also a term for Raudra or Wrathful mood. Himalayan Art is currently using the female text description and showing the unrelated male image. Her name is also for a flower which is the same as Shankhpushp or Gokarna.
Here is a thesis on Buddhist Earth Deity, which shows her commonly in East Asia wringing water out of her hair. Vasudhara is called "relatively minor", so the author probably has not studied Nepal. In any case, she more commonly has an offering bowl, so, if that's what she was doing at Buddha's enlightenment, it is an important way to know her. As an aside, when we speak of the "Heaven of thirty-three" (from Brhd. Up.), it is just thirty-three, not ten millions of thirty-three. Koti most commonly has a meaning of ten million, but also means a class, category, kind. Cundi Dharani could therefor be understood as meaning seven kinds of Buddhas. "Saptanam" is sometimes mistaken for seventy-seven. This is from Gandavyuha or the end of Avatamsaka Sutra. No word "mother" is found in most of the older versions. One thing that is true about "Buddhist Sanskrit" is that it has a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes, and that when "Hindu-ized", they try to fix it. As a suffix, -nam frequently indicates a process; so Dhruva, "pole star" becomes Dhruvanam, "polarization". That mantra is under debate, but it says saptanam and kotinam rather than sapta and koti.
We found a stray remark indicating that one of the simple Yellow Vasudhara forms is called Ila, and that Red or Pink Cup Vasudhara becomes Jambhala's consort Sukha Bharati. The explanation for this is Vedic:
"Bharati is also called Mahi, the Large, Great or Vast. The three, Ila, Mahi or Bharati and Saraswati are associated together in a constant formula in those hymns of invocation in which the gods are called by Agni to the Sacrifice.
“May Ila, Saraswati and Mahi, three goddesses who give birth to the bliss, take their place on the sacrificial seat, they who stumble not...”
...The formula is expanded in Hymn 110 of the tenth Mandala:
ā no yajńaṁ bhāratī tῡyam etu, iḷā manuṣvad iha cet ayantī; tisro devīr barhir edaṁ syonaṁ, sarasvatī svapasaḥ sadantu.
“May Bharati come speeding to our sacrifice and Ila hither awakening our consciousness ... in human wise, and Saraswati, — three goddesses sit on this blissful seat, doing well the Work.” "
The article proceeds in the direction of Agni and the Sun. So if we do Red and Yellow Vasudhara, we are still working with Agni. Red Hook goes to Takki and Cup to Jambhala. Bharati is the name of both Red consorts; Takki's has the hook and cup; Jambhala's has jewel and cup. And if you look at White Jambhala, you can find Ila with a Hook and Bharati with Corn, so there is some kind of flux in progress.
What that leads to is a class of hymn called an Apri Sukta. Ultimately the hymn addresses the Lord of the Forest, Majestic Tree, or Lord of Trees, Vanaspati, and here we would take the same meaning as Dragon Tree for Nagarjuna, i. e. One Initiator. They end with Svaha. Agni is at the beginning, then a few others, the Doors Dvarah and Durah (increasers of Rta), Night and Dawn (naktosasa, usasanakta, usasa; Mothers of Rta), two Divine Hotras--daivya hotara--who remain unknown, then Ila--Sarasvati--Bharati, then Tvastir (Architect) and Vanaspati and Indra.
Hymn X.110 would generally be understood as Parasu's lineage. Barhish is usually Kusha grass as Buddha also used for a mat during enlightenment. Tanunapat "Son of thyself" is a title of Agni referring to different methods of fire manifestation. In one version, "Ida instructs us (causes us to perceive) as she did Manu", and the goddesses rest on same Kusha grass. So if we did this in a Buddhist way, it's not an animal sacrifice unless of our own animal nature, and we take it for inner meaning. We could make some other kind of offering. One could compare all ten hymns for one the most Astrologically sympathetic. It is all the same framework of the ancient Fire Philosophy invocation of White Sarasvati with Red and Yellow Vasudhara.
Ila is food, a milch cow, mother of a herd, dripping with clarified butter. The devas made her the teacher of man. Agni is at her feet or is her son. His third birth place is in the waters apsu, he dwells in secret, gives three times seven secret names, reveals treasures to those who serve Rta. Ila shows the way.
The goddess iḍā- or iḷā- is daughter of manu- or of man thinking on and worshipping the gods; she is the wife of budha- and mother of purū-ravas-;in another aspect she is called maitrāvaruṇi- as daughter of mitra-- varuṇa-, two gods who were objects of the highest and most spiritual devotion. According to Aurobindo, "She also is connected with Surya, the Sun, as when Agni, the Will, is invoked to labour by the rays of the Sun, Lord of the true Light, being of one mind with Ila, iḷayā sajoṣā yatamāno raśmibhiḥ sūryasya. She is the mother of the Rays, the herds of the Sun. Her name means she who seeks and attains and it contains the same association of ideas as the words ŗtam and Rishi. Ila is the vision of the seer which attains the truth."
"manuṣvad iha cetayantī" is one of her most common phrases, the last term referring to sentience and animation. "May Ila, Saraswati and Mahi, three goddesses who give birth to the bliss, take their place on the sacrificial seat, they who stumble not", in whom there is no false movement with its evil consequences, duritam, no stumbling into pitfalls of sin and error. Saraswati is the Word, the inspiration that comes from the ŗtam, the Truth-Consciousness. Bharati and Ila are different forms of the same Word or knowledge, in Aurobindo's understanding. He gets it as Bliss, by which we would mean Sambhogakaya.
Bharati is drink, sometimes called Hotra Bharati. She is the vastness of luminosity. According to Aurobindo, this relates to Brihad and Brihaspati--Jupiter., and she is "for the sacrificer, a branch covered with ripe fruit". She is also described as varūtrī dhiṣaṇā, a widely covering or embracing Thought-power. So, he has just vividly described Cintamani, even to the seed syllable. She indicates the universal well, and so we can see the purpose of the meditation if starting with that basic Yellow form and then separating her into Ila and Bharati, and so on from there. Her name is an early term for the whole Jewel Family.
Sarasvati can even be mimicking and buffoonery. All three are understood as communitaction between mortal and divine according to Yajur Veda:
adityair no bharati vastu yajnam
sarasvati saha rudrair na avit
idopahuta vasubhih sajosa
yajnam no devir amrtesu dhatta
May Bharati with the Adityas love our sacrifice
Sarasvati with the Rudras [Maruts] (helps us?)
Ida invoked with vasus in union
Our sacrifice, oh goddesses, place with the immortals.
Sarasvati is strongly associated with dhi, which has everything to do with her becoming Voice or Vach Devi in a role no other deity approaches. These three goddesses are consistently found in the eighth verse of all ten gotra lineages of Apri Hymns.
Those all start with a particular sage's perception of pure consciousness of Agni and all are similar. Arrangement of the Rig Veda shows organization where the Bhrigu-Angiras lines are separated. The hymns vary by whether they invoke Tanunapat or Narasamsa or both. It is the very last section around the last Apri which refers heavily to such things as Pitris, Mrtyu, seven ancient Rishis, Angiras, and others, giving it a distinct atmosphere, referring to X.85 and forward. The first main group centers on Atreya, referring to the Moon as the parent of Budha-Mercury, Atri is the source of Soma-Moon. The candelabra style balance of gotras:
That leaves out the mythological rishis of IX and X. Regardless of what changes around, all rely on the same trinity of Sarasvati with Ila and Bharati.
She also has a blackened form from once stopping Shiva's Badavagni, fire from his third eye unleashed at a wicked world. She used her watery or river power to hold the fire to the ocean and make the "Mare's Mouth". In another version, the fire was from Aurva, Parasu's great grandfather.
In any case, Sarasvati with two colorful attendants is extremely consistent with one of the most ancient and widespread sacrificial rites. Blue is separate and probably not Vedic. So we start Blue Sarasvati with Vadiraj Manjushri, who, in at least the Bari Gyatsa description, also faces off with Krodha Yama, i. e. Wrathful Death.
Yama himself is a Preta who hangs out in one of the middle heavens and sends the deceased to hell. This can also mean a class of pretas, and also appears with worldly directional guardians at the Eight Cemeteries. These are not meditation deities. The Protector of similar name is Yama Dharmaraja. Manjushri confronts death and takes on two colored Wrathful Yamari forms and Black Vajrabhairava. His success is Yamantaka, who joins the Ten Wrathful Ones, protectors of the inner chakra, Hayagriva, Takki, and others. It is the male aspect of Vajra Tara's retinue. So Manjusri Vadiraj is intended to meet Blue Sarasvati and Blue Death in their basic forms. I would guess this also emanates Blue Vasudhara as in Kalachakra and a few late sources. Shamballah is the importance of Kalachakra, and its basic mandala is an eight-spoked white wheel centered on an emanation of Manjusri. This king is associated with the Panchen tulku. This perhaps is why such a wheel is useful on basic White Tara.
Before her multi-armed versions, Vasudhara definitely has simple ones. And we find that the Path does indeed fuse Sarasvati--Janguli with the ancient Agni trinity through Parnasabari and Vasudhara and Amoghasiddhi and this phase culminates in her Green Atharva Veda version. This is also the correct outer path towards initiation as it is really the pre-requisite for Varahi.
At a Kriya level, Parnasabari grounds us in Three Families, sometimes called Three Vajras. At more of a Yoga level, she has got Five Families, but, although the new ones pertain to obvious senses and skandhas, I would almost say their practice itself is of vajra nature. They don't really work or do anything without the basic Three Jewels. They are unfolded and increased in number and eventually we reduce back to Three Vajras to perform Abhisambodhi.
Here is normal Vasudhara over her Yellow Gopala form and Manohara:
Red would be the final color for Five Buddhas. Green split Blue into the Wrathful rite, Yellow and White in Prajnaparamita, now here is Red. Conceivably, this gets to the first All Buddhas Sita (because she has the same mantra) and so on into the cemetery. It must be a bond of the initiatory Vase and the Voice.
Some Japanese fieldwork in Kathmandu starts with the Vase and informs us that in Saptavara or Seven Daily Dharanis, Vasudhara's comes first on Sunday.
This is not called Vasudhara; Taranatha calls her Cintamani, arisen from Brim, the syllable for Brihaspati Jupiter:
She uses only the basic Tara mantra. Only difference is he suggests dancing on a moon and lotus, and here she stands on them. It is one of the most basic Yellow forms, probably the only minor solo one in his book. It also is an older name for the whole Jewel Family.
She may be the most minor form of anything. There are no disks or anything else, just Cintamani from Brim out of void. And we have found the planetary priests, so to speak, are Jupiter and Venus. Tara's history is leaving Jupiter for the Moon to produce Mercury as Ila. This rejects orthodoxy somewhat, and now we are trying to maintain Rta, or inner Jupiterian order for purposes of atma vidya. So if I want something from Jewel Family--Cintamani will give it. She can be used and then purified and then a lotus, disk, and new syllable can obtain a more specific form. Same kind of process as Prajnaparamita does. So for instance this would give you Ratna deities, which would be done a different way for their Akshobya versions.
If it looks weird in correspondences, we are not trying to say Cintamani "is" Jupiter, but are describing a mostly mental means of obtaining this shakti or mind power over a type of matter. Sarasvati rules form, Brim will mostly apply to Bharati or sixth element. The other syllable will be Vam for Vasudhara, Vajra, and others, and we must also use Venus, or upper key of earth.
Vasudhara's Gopala form may herd colorful cows:
The Seventh Panchen's dharani for Cowherd Gopali Vasudhara:
This distinctly does not say Hara twice. Jamdhi is a mountain at the base of Mt. Meru, and the next term can mean a border, encircling rim, speech or dramatic lesson and minute examination.
It introduces Jrum which has little other use other than Vajrabhairava's heart mantra with Ganesh. Lakshmi tantra definitely uses it with her Jaya form. Jaya's anga mantras are jram, jrim, jrum, jrlm, jrem, and jrom with tam. Her heart bija mantras for her dark blue companions Jayanti and Vijaya, Aparajita, Siddhi, are jim, vim, am, sim, with tam, their name, and svaha. For example:
Om Jim Tam Jayantiyai Svaha
By anga mantra, it means something like building blocks, so this appears to be a special J for Jaya. Brim--Jupiter mostly goes towards the Bowl--Bharati, Jaya more with Gopala--Ila. Whereas Hook seems to be more like Hayagriva with "Hrih". And from the dharani one might suggest that hook is a partial aspect Ila also holds.
The syllable seems to hold a parallel in that Jaya--Aparajita is the experience of conquering death, and that Vajrabhairava is the meditator themself doing it.
Lakshmi calls Hrim the Tarika bija mantra, the heart of Tarika or Tara. I am not sure why she puts Tam with all of her forms, but that's what happens.
Seventh Panchen's "Dharani of Vasudhara, Goddess arisen from Dharani":
Om Vasudharini Svaha
From the tradition of Jamari, “This deity topic is applied to empowerments and rituals focusing upon the golden Vasundhārā [another name for Vasudhārā], whose color is like refined gold; she is adorned with silks and jewel ornaments and is in the full bloom of youth; her right hand holds a reddish blue picula fruit, her left an ear of rice; she stands with feet together on two jewel vases with their bases meeting and streams of jewels pouring forth from their mouths.” (TBRC)
NAMO RATNA TRAYĀYA/ OṂ GHATAṂ JHIBHASAṂ RAKṢANI/ PHALA HASHTI/ VĀSUDHĀRITE/ ŚIVAṂ KARI ŚĀNTIṂ KURU PUṢTIṂ KURU/ BHAYANĀSI/ SARVA DUṢTAṂ/ BHAŃCA BHAŃCA/ JAMBHA JAMBHA/ STAMBHA STAMBHA/ AMṚTE/
UTBHAVE/ KURU KURU/ MAMAKA JYAIṂ SVĀHĀ
Sadhanamala's similar forms arise from Yellow Vam, doing varada, carrying corn on a gem dish.
Minor Vasudhara's first mantra is:
oṃ śrīvasunidhāna-kṣetre svāha
Her next form mentions sva-bija-hrdayam and appears to have the seal of Ratnasambhava. Her mantra is:
oṃ vasudhārā ratnanidhānakṣetre svāha
Her increased form there is an Akshobya version with a minor retinue, and this makes her one of his peaceful emanations along with Janguli and Parnasabari. This change to the dharani seems to be the one giving the syllable Srim.
Hindu Ila is the consort of Mercury-Budha and she is the true "Jupiter" or guru of men.
Om Illayah Namah
Gavesanam, On the Track of the Cow, explains Ida. Physically it is a food offering with milk, curds, etc. offered to the priest with:
surupavarsavarna ehi
you of fair rain color, come here (every shade of krsna)
ida ehy adita ehi sarasvaty ehi rantir asi ramatir asi sunary asi
Come Ila, Aditi, Sarasvati, you are delight, delighting, and fair
Saptadevagavi, or Seven Names of the Cow. This is part of idopahvana or invocation of Ila, starting low and building up:
Come greater one, better one, richer one, desired one, thoughtful one, Ila, truthful one (or Ida with Six Cows)
Saptamanusagavi is spoken by attendants when the voice is raised:
cid asi mana'si dhir asi ranti ramatih sunuh sunari'ti
Citta, manas, and dhih are involved with Ranti, Ramatih, Sunuh, Sunari (daughter of Manu)
devir devair abhi ma nivartadhvam / syonah syonena ghrtena ma sumaksata / na ma idam upa / dambhisak rsir brahma yad dade / samudrad udacann iva sruca / vag agre viprasya tisthati srngebhir dasabhir disan
Return to me with the gods, o goddesses / sprinkle me thoroughly with the lovely sweet ghee, o lovely sweet ones / this shall not harm me, what the rsi, the Brahman, has given / scooping as though with a ladle out of the ocean / Speech stands before the ecstatic poet, pointing with ten horns.
While this is going on, one meditates that Vayu is the calf of Ila.
vayava ida te mata
Holding the idapatra or offering to the mouth:
ido'pahuta / upahute'da / upo asmam ida hvayatam (repeatedly)
The ida is called, called is the ida, and may the ida call us
another says:
matre' vatsam upavasrjati
He lets the calf go to the mother
Ila is the rain and the milk above Bharati and Sarasvati, who flow on her stream, the last being visible and five-fold, or completing seven rays; when the milk becomes luminous and multicolored, that cow is Prsni. Ida and the solar/lunar races remain the principal branch nerves and their activity.
Vasudhara's significance especially in Sakya is that she turns Red, and is used in a cycle with Tarodbhava Kurukulla and Tinuma Vajrayogini, the second cycle.
In the Sakya cycle, there are Three Reds or the Vajrayoginis that have had a lot of attention. Then the next set of Three Reds are Tarodbhava Kurukulla, Red Vasudhara, and Tinuma. Then finally Kurukulla, Ganapati, and Takkiraja. Although this is not directly our focus, it is showing that Red Vasudhara is significant to the unfolding of Red. Obviously this involves Ganesh, who came to collect all the shaktis. We will get to Takki after Vajrapani, so, we are using mostly the same thing, but I have no idea who Tinuma is.
Part of her Red at least in Sakya, is Bowl Bharati:
There is the whole special Varuni concept carried all the way through to Completion Stage. Taranatha's version of Red (Cup) Vasudhara is red wealth, i. e. red increase, has yellow hair flowing upwards, two arms, with corn (a jewel) and skullcup (of blood) and the following mantra:
Ahya bhi bhi, bhuti bhutta, kama rakkima, samapani, sarva visiti, kuru nire, karu.
The Cup is mainly mental, although it continues to sound good to use a milk and honey concoction, especially once we have a luminous cowherd deity. There we see Jrim is for Amitabha or Vajrapani. Those nectars represent delight as expressed through the flow of downward wind, and the "doubling" comes from binding and reversing these. So there are slightly different ways of doing it, but generally there is a moonstone cup or skull filled with blood.
Vasudhara can become semi-wrathful in Red Manohara form:
Union with her gains Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara, and Five Jambhalas. You may have been using Avalokiteshvara in Guru Yoga for years, in which case she would be said to enrich the bond. But you probably have no connection to for instance a Green Jambhala in which case she is making an introduction. Then, comparatively, if we say, Mahasri "attends" a thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, this means she helps you obtain a more complex level of him. That is sort of the alchemy of it.
The way Manohara is greeted is right there in Parnasabari's verse twenty:
namaś candrârka-saṃpūrṇa-nayana-dyuti-bhāsure |
hara-dvirukta-tuttāre-viṣama-jvara-nāśini ||
Hara dvirukta means hara is spoken twice.
"Homage to you, whose two eyes, the sun and the moon
Radiate sublime luminous light.
Uttering HARA twice and TUTTĀRE
You dispel all horrifying epidemics."
Om Tare Tuttare Ture Nama Tare Manohara Hum Hara Svaha
in Tibet is for a Yellow-Red Saffron Tara called Ritod Loma Jonma. Therefor, an esoteric Vasudhara is normally found with Parnasabari in this verse. Four Arm Sita's mantra is:
oṃ namas tāre manohare huṃ hare svāhā
In one interpretation, "Hara (to snatch) twice" means peaceful and wrathful mantras; first being the standard Tara mantra, second is:
Om Nama Tare Namo Hare Hum Hare Svaha
This idea of the two mantras is used exactly in the Peaceful-Wrathful Day-Night Tara Sadhana, wherein both Green and White are emanations of Amitabha. Practice comes from Tilo. And so Nagarjuna's method tells us to cast these minor Vasudharas, this mantra comes up, and it gets attached to Manohara..
Taranatha's basic Sakya Tam arising Red Tara also has a Hook and utpala. She does sattvasana or relaxed Tara pose with a moon disc having Hrih in her heart. Her mantra is:
Om tare tuttare ture satarani hrih svaha
Another mantra comes from H. H. 7th Panchen, belonging to Enchanting Vasudhara (yid ‘phrog nor rgyun ma’i gzungs bzhugs so):
GANG NGÖN JIN-PA GYAM-TS’O’I GÉ SAK-PAY
To the one who previously accumulated the virtue of an ocean of generosity,
TS’É DANG NOR DANG T’U YI PEL NYEY SHING
Thereby found the glory of longevity, wealth and power,
DRUP-PA-PO LA YIK GI CH’AR BEP-PA’Y
And brings down a rain of treasure upon practitioners:
PEL-MO NOR-GYÜN-MA LA CH’AK-TS’EL LO
To the Glorious Lady Vasudhārā, I deeply bow.
Om Manohara Hara, Om adkusa adkusa, Hrih Hrih Hrih, Hum Hum Hum, Phat Svaha. (auspicious number of times)
KHYEY LA TÖ CHING SÖL-WA TAP-PA’Y T’Ü
By the power of praising and supplicating you,
DAK SOK GANG-DU NAY-PA’Y SA-CH’OK DÉR
In whatever places I and others may dwell,
CH’Ö DANG TRA-SHIY P’EL-WAR DZAY DU SÖL
And ensure the flourishing of Dharma and good fortune.
On this, credit to Erick Tsiknopoulos for having translated very recently a large list of things.
The Action we require Hook to commit is to draw in new deities. We can get her to do so by reciting:
Om tare tuttare sam tare ni (name) randha siddhi vasham kuru hrih svaha (although intended to subjugate a person)
And so the mood of this, is too beautiful to resist, spellbinding. Take your breath away, Manohara. So this deity comes as kind of the culmination from a Dhanada themed lesson in casting the circle. The Dhrum syllable from Usnisa will attempt to operate what Hook brings in, taking place in the Celestial Palace.
Manohara means something like captivating beauty that takes the mind away. Appears in the Puranas as wife of Dhara (Matsya P.), or wife of Dharma, the Vasu (Vishnu P.). Also the city of Ishana or northeastern direction (Varahi P.).
Red is always Vam syllable and Chain (Vajrashrinkala), but Red Manohara is Hook:
Om vajrankusi akarsayah Jah
or first line in activities mantra, about invitation and attraction, akarsayah, in the Eastern direction or Dawn or starting point. The full activities mantra will not work right unless built up from primordial Om by degrees. If the Preliminaries could be named Ratnaparamita, then the next phase of gaining influence by Five Dhyanis and the furtherings of mantra is Vasudhara.
Vajrankusa is itself a Wrathful deity name, ancus is the hook. The hook also has a sneaky form where it is on a rope, and could be mistaken for noose/lasso, or thread. Jah stands for Janguli.
Vajrankusa has an unusual usage with the Vaisnavas, who translated it as two words, although it appears singly in the original, and they lose track of the fact the verse is calling for Kamala instead of Lakshmi:
1 and 2. I offer my repsectful obeisances to Lord Giridhari’s lotus feet, feet marked with the signs of the flag, thunderbolt, elephant-goad, and lotus, feet gracefully anointed with the kunkuma of the vraja-gopis’ breasts, splendid feet worshiped by Goddess Lakshmi’s lotus hands, . . .
3. . . . graceful feet decorated with jewel anklets, feet the saintly, determined, beautiful gopis yearn to attain, . . .
4. . . . reddish feet praised by glorious prayers, feet like lotus flower, lotus flowers that have tranformed Govinda dasa into a bumblebee eager to taste their nectar.
Song 151 (Dhanasi-raga)
Even curiouser, in Buddhism it strangely is a mountain name in a brief sutra on Om Manipadme Hum. But in the first song, it more or less says, when his feet are marked with victory banner (i. e., accomplishment) related to Vajra Hook and Lotus, then the Hand of Kamala or tantric Lakshmi becomes Shakti or Power. It comes from a whole bunch of Acaryas’ Songs Glorifying Lord Gauranga. Vajragradhara or a fairly close name to that in the song comes up in Garbhadhatu mandala. Vajrankusi is also amongst the Jain Devis. Gold Elephant goddess with them. She is here again in Amoghavajra's Mayuri Mandala Ritual.
Here is a Sri Lankan hand collected Vasudhara Praise with Sanskrit and English versions, chased down on manuscripts in St. Petersburg and Berlin.
Amitabha emanates her sometimes like he does Ucchusma Jambhala at Sarnath. He borrows some of these deities since he has not many of his own, and this is in line with having Yellow generate special Red Throat Energy. The syllable is the same one for Amitabha and Kurukulla (Hrih). Taranatha's version is spontaneously arising, on sun disc, with flameswept yellow hair. She shows up right between Kuru and Tinu in the text. So that is the second degree, not the preliminary.
Sadhanamala only has a few tiny pieces about Vasudhara, and only Yellow or Gold, arising from Vam. The first is an Akshobya emanation, who carries corn and has a retinue of four identical goddesses who arise form the first syllable of their names: oṃ vasudhāriṇi svahā, oṃ vasu svāhā, oṃ vasuśriye svahā, oṃ vasumukhi svāhā, oṃ vasu-matiśriye svāhā. Or, Purato (front) Bhagavatim Srivasundharam, daksinato (right) Vasusriyam, pascimatah (west, i. e. behind) Srivasumukhim, vamato (left) Vasumati-sriyam. This is her only retinue and Akshobya version, and proceeds after Akshobya's Yellow Janguli and Parnasabari. It appears the correct way to cause or force the appearance of Varahi. Follow the sequence keeping in mind that Vasudhara (Bhumi) is Varaha's consort, which, on a planetary scale, indicates the formation of dry land above water.
The rest of the Yellow Vasudharas are simple Jewel Family versions, with one using the "kshetri" mantra. Certainly there is a lot more to her than four little paragraphs. Perhaps this book just skimps on ones brought out more in Vajravali. Of course, it really provides nothing, it just records what was collected from prior authors. Once compared to her Vedic lore, there is little need to add or change much--other than she approved Buddha's enlightenment.
Six Arm Vasudhara is an Anuttara deity with her own Vasudharoddhesha text. From Pam comes a lotus from whence Bhrum, a moon disc with Vasudhara. Here she is Samhbogakaya and her crown emblem is Viswa Vajra (Amoghasiddhi). This kind holds a rosary. In Nepal, she is the link or public face of the secret temples of Varahi, her exoteric double. Her left face should be orange-red of the morning sun, which is Vajrakumari or hypostasis of Varahi as generatrix. Middle face is the yellow of noon, herself. The right face is vermillion of sunset, Varahi in her matured forms.
With the Sakyas, she seems to re-appear on a higher stage, but in Nepal to non-initiates, you would primarily reckon with Vajrasattva, Manjushri, and Vasudhara to get started towards the mystery system.
She is mandatory in tri-samadhi puja of Varahi and represented by a pot of yogurt beside Varahi as skullcup of red powder. So this would be the special Cup Varuni version.
So yes, Nepali Vasudhara is the junction that belongs where it landed already.
Vasudhara continues her Red and Yellow colors in another post. Green will go to Dhanada.
Taranatha's big Vasudhara is Green and has a vajra retinue. Then he dodges her name as "Yellow Tara of Sakya Shri" who is over Jambhala and Vaisravana. She would do one Dharmachakra and have a Yellow Utpala in her left hand. Actually he wings it under the name Cintamani, the fruit picker; her syllable is Brim and she just uses the plain Tara mantra, very simple Yellow form. Different from Cintamani Chakra and from Cittamani.
According to the Yogini's Eye, several deities do not really originate from the original pile of basic Kriya deities. The following are Generation/Completion Stage deities, which were tapered down to also be available in Kriya: Tri-samaya vyuha, Vasudhara, Marici, Bhutadamaru, and Zungdranga whatever that is. So, the rituals are not the same, they have a Kriya version and the Anuttara version. This is according to Abhayakaragupta. However, the deities are the same. So in setting up basic Vasudhara and Marici, this is doing exactly as he advises in order to learn outer practices that directly continue in tantra.
From Taranatha, Four Arm Green Vasudhara is the Kashmir style arising from Tam and having Ten syllables at crown, forehead, eyes, throat, shoulders, heart, navel, secret place. It is an Amoghasiddhi Tara whose key is danam meda da. She has a complete coven, a dozen attendants which are Four Buddha Taras (just using Family names Vajra, Ratna, etc.), Four Offering Goddesses (Peaceful on moon disks), and the Four Wrathful Activity Goddesses on sun disks or i. e., the Four of the Weapons Activities mantra that Manohara is the first line of. The Vasudhara key goes into the normal mantra, Om Tare Tuttare Ture Danam Meda Da Svaha. She does Dharmachakra, has rosary, utpala, and text. Very appropriate. This is Amoghasiddhi quintessence on outer (Wrathful), inner (Offering) and secret (Prajna) circles.
This is Dhanada's mantra, and her same retinue, therefor she is the same as Green Vasudhara. So after all these centuries, Sadhanamala #107 is the same as Taranatha's #64 from Kashmiri Pandit. Four Arm Harita colored, Tam arising Green Tara is the same in both; Sadhanamala is a little more explicative. So for Vasudhara, we will concentrate on her minor Red and Yellow forms, and then have Green under her unique name Dhanada.
At Sarnath, Vasudhara is with the unique Ucchusma Jambhala, being under Amitabha. They trample Dhanada meaning Kubera or Hindu god of wealth. Jambhala's form is "terrible". He may also be in Vajra or Jewel Family. In Shurungama Sutra, Ucchusma is Dimbha or Mahabala who makes a crystal clear declaration about the cooling of heat as the foremost method of enlightenment, and he vows to serve as a knight. That is Shingon which considers him close to the Vidyarajas or Wisdom Kings being the Wrathful aspect of the Dhyanis.
Here is a brief study of a well-preserved Ratnagiri stone goddess with the suggestion it is Vasudhara.
Taranatha sneaks in Cunda as a Vajra feet Red Tara arising from Tam and she also has the ten syllable wheel like Prajnaparamita. She holds a pichura fruit which is yellow inside and blue outside. Holding also a red lotus with text. No sire is given for her. This is unusual; she is almost always white, and as a Dharini, also white. Sadhanamala places her in Kurukulla's retinue as pretty much another Red Four Arm Archer. This deity has one of the larger collections of forms and sadhanas. So basic White is expected, Taranatha's Red is surprising, but, perhaps complimentary to White Kurukulla.
Visarga is Half-moon in the flaming mark where the flame is silent nada, and the bindu or dot is m. In script, visarga looks like a colon. It is aspirate or h. This becomes a hard breath that echoes the preceding vowel. Hoh is closer to hoho. Only one Kalachakra syllable uses it, Ksah.
So based on Four Syllables particularly, we are building something which in the outer sense is a set of weapons and Four Activities. This, so to speak, begins to guard the solar plexus in its work of ingathering prana, and from there you are going to Hook other things specifically.
This is brief but does give Nagarjuna's Cheating Death White Tara. So we find that the name Sita only really goes to one form, we will compare several, and get to Nagarjuna's Mrtyuvacana exercise as the main basic White Tara, instead of the well-known one.
And again those are adjustable. If you look at the examples they almost always re-iterate Bodhicitta and Seven Limb and so forth. You can also put deities on your head, which is quite powerful. They're actually on their lotus or moon base or whatever they have, and so it's like putting one of the foot-tall statues on your head. And what you can do is put your hand on top of your head thirty seconds or so. Move it away, and you still have a warmth of something there. That is what you want to try to get, it is called Pride of the Deity. So you can work on your deity's pride or they can be in front of you like a conversation. It starts with Vajrasattva and Pledge Tara and eventually others. Here we will look mostly at Nagarjuna's method more than the standard Usnisa.
It seems acceptable that White color may pick up a sky blue tinge. Although basic Sita is often called Cintachakra, there is no "big" wheel as there is supposed to be with the missing Mrtyuvacana or Nagarjuna Vajra Tara form. Sometimes Sita's name is Cintamani Chakra. With either a gem or wheel the focus is "cinta" or wish-fulfilling. But the practices soon open the notion of deathlessness or immortality.
The format provides a basic White Tara who is going to grow, much like the rising of mercury.
Two armed Sita equals Mrtyuvacana equals White Vajra Tara who is alone. The only other Two armed is Visvamata, who had no sire and rides a white serpent.
Four armed (Sukla) Sita may be with Marici and Mayuri. This kind is emanated by Pancha Jina. Her Mayuri is Green "like priyangu fruit."
There is a Six armed Sukla Sita who is emanated by Amoghasiddhi who sits within the cremation grounds and is alone. She is sixteen years old and "embellished by the five heads and the crescent."
Eight armed Sita should be with the ten syllable goddesses (copies). This one is also called Astamabhaya or Eight Fears. But also there is Usnisa Vijaya (Amitabha) and Parasol (Vairocana).
A Ten-armed White goddess would be Marici, Vajravidarani, or Pramardani. Amaravajra has Sixteen and Cundi has Eighteen.
As a White Two armed form, Sita is identical to Mrtyuvacana, and only very little different from Mahasri, Vishvamata, Sarasvati, White Vajrayogini, White Janguli, and Kurukulla. Going from the concept "Janguli is tantric Sita", then White Janguli is after White Vajra Tara and Mrtyuvacana. As a Dharani, she even carries Poison Flowers. Janguli is an Akshobya emanation who comes in three colors not blue. Mahasri, emanated by Amoghasiddhi, also comes in many colors, however her White form is noteworthy for being the Peaceful Protector. This form is usually semi-Wrathful due to a third eye and sometimes a grimace or snarl.
It may help to look at White as starting from basic Peaceful, becoming semi-Wrathful, becoming Vajra or fiery, and eventually Wrathful Vajra.
Because Mahasri is Sita Lakshmi starting in the Ramayana, this must be the basic or non-tantric Sita. She has the Wisdom-Giving or Sherab Lha White Deities, and tantric forms in the Janguli line as well as changing to Yellow, i. e. Kamala, and also the hard-to-find White Vajra Tara has only one other form as Yellow Vajra Tara. These are the two colors of Prajnaparamita, or really she has three including Gold or Karnaka. Mahasri's underlying thread is Peaceful Protector, Prajnaparamita, Vajra.
It makes sense if Mahasri and Khadira need to share Pure Land with Avalokiteshvara, as White and Green were how he produced Tara to begin with.
It looks like Syama Green comes first and increases to Harita Green until you replace it with Red. Once you get the thing going, you kind of run out of Green Taras and there is a vast Red world to deal with. This seems fairly close to Green helps establish Sambhogakaya and Red goes from there. And this is close to how the Saktas implement the same Red goddesses in their system.
White on the other hand seems to invite Yellow, becoming Gold. From Green, you separate Yellow out from the Blue. Once you put Vajra Tara together, then it is no longer conventional, it is only about Ultimate Meaning.
This is a rare Four armed All Buddhas Sadhanamala Sukla Tara from the Sakya Ngor lineage:
That one is exactly the basic version, just with extra hands that are doing Utpala mudra. She is the Two armed who has acquired the influence of Five Dhyanis. She should be with Yellow Marici and Green Mayuri.
That form is rare and confusing for Cundi who is almost the same but holds a Bowl.
Kagyu Two armed Sita descended from Vajradhara, Vajrasattva, Amitabha, and she is purely Celestial:
Surrounded by Six Yoginis or Virgo with Six Shaktis:
It appears to show her uniting her Dharmodaya or Hexagram of Shaktis in the middle band and attempting to balance in the central or get to an Eight Arm stage of Vajra Tara above her. The upper left is a completely contradictory Six Arm Sita with Parasol and an Axe. It is hard to see but the next one has Ten Arms so probably Marici. On the right side is an Eight Arm Red who appears to be holding a Banner because the Eight Arm Green Tara under her has gained it. So successful centering in Vajra Tara is engaging Parasol and Banner. The bottom row seems a bit tantric Parnasabari with Vase and Conch goddesses. If not in our books, then from somewhere in Nyingma they do use Six Arm Green Flameswept hair version of Parnasabari who tramples people. Even her milder Four Arm Blue Wrathful is shown holding a Banner. We would have to admit that, aside from having no White, she covers almost every aspect from almost beginner level to a pretty firm Vajra handshake. Stick in Janguli for the White and you pretty much have all colors for everything that goes hurling through this Grahamatrika gate to possibly make any kind of useful Vajra Tara. So this particular thangka seems to be a pretty good look at the after-cemetery party. Found the umbrella blowing around out there somewhere.
Over the Three Reds Gana, Kuru, and Takki:
She has claimed the highest Yidams of Sakya there and nothing is left but Completion Stage. Although we are not Sakyas, what they are doing is remarkably close to the presentation we are trying to make. Or it really is identical, adjusted for us making "alternative" selections in some ways, since we lack the karma of dominating the Tibet-Nepal border area for basically ever. Again, we are simply going towards the older pan-Indian heritage, which, I would argue, Sakya kept a pretty major chunk of this. Especially here, if we want to look at Amitayus and a White Usnisa holding Amitabha and then Sita emanating some of the strongest Red Yidams, they certainly are showing something very technical about White and/or how Red is said to suffuse it. Maybe some of the difference is with White, the color, as with the Moon, versus White as Sky Blue symbolizing the non-color of Space. Which that really is just Clear, but that is hard to draw; nevertheless, when White Prajnaparamita is doing her thing in Vairocana's niche, nothing is there. So you probably could have an "opening and closing " White, for the phases of the Moon, and an un-manifest or semi-manifest clearish one made only of mental matter.
Upon gaining White Tara then one of the most basic exoteric practices is long life. This uses a trinity of Amitabha, Sita, and Usnisa--who again holds an Amitabha effigy. Amitabha is repeated with his Bodhisattva called Amitayus. More commonly we use the name Padmapani. So there are wrathful rites to avert obstacles, and these, sku rim or curing rites. White Umbrella, Lion Face Dakini, and Twenty-one Taras are such healing or kurim.
Lotus-holding is quite close to the Hindu Sri Padmavati Srinavasa Kalyanam, the Divine Marriage. Krishna has asked the sages who they were going to offer the fruits of the previous age to. Vishnu was decided upon, and this leads to him getting stuck in debt to Kubera over the dowry to this Padmavati he found. Goddess Padmavathi was the foster daughter of Akasa Raja and Dharani Devi. The Royal Couple had no children and Padmavathi Devi was found on a Lotus flower while ploughing the (Yajna) sacrificial ground. There you have a similar origin to Sita (ploughing) and Padmasambhava (Lotus-born). She is the Maya Sita who went to captivity in Sita's place to Ravana. Rama had a wife and could not marry her in that life, and came back to do it as Krishna. He was broke at the wedding symbolizing detachment from Lakshmi. The debt is due at the end of Kali Yug. That is the Ever Green Lord Venkateswara who is stuck at Tirumala. We have to allow Vishnu to keep reincarnating, while being immortal as Parasu, in debtor's prison, as well as whatever is going on with Jagganath, and maybe a few other things at once.
The suffix "vati" could indicate "with" or "upon", but can also mean "holding", which would give it the same meaning as Padmapani. But in this situation we find the relationship between an entrapped white female to an entrapped yellow male, and holding of the Lotus mixed with the holding of various vows.
If we think of Protector Sitavati for a moment, there's nothing White about her, she is a completely Red Amitabha figure. It probably means white = purity. Spelled Sitabani which is Cool Forest Charnel Ground, White-Red, I am not sure this is the same.
In the search for Sita, Hanuman and Tara found a Maya cave made by Vishwakarman, inhabited by a black-clad yogini named Sayamprabha. Sayam seems to be evening, plus prabha, light, so apparently similar to twilight. However her more common spelling is Swayamprabha, which would be self-existent light. She fed them, asked nothing in return, and teleported them out of the cave.
So back in Vishnu Purana, here is one of the most esoteric passages which indicates that after this cycle or Manvantara, Amitabha becomes an entire class of gods in the next:
"Sanjana, the daughter of Vishwakarman was the wife of the sun, and bore him three children, the Manu (Vaivaswata), Yama and the goddess Yami (or the Yamuna river). Unable to endure the fervours of her lord, Sanjana gave him Chhaya as his handmaid, and repaired to the forests to practise devout exercises. The sun, supposing Chhaya to be his wife Sanjana, begot by her three other children, Sanaischara (Saturn), another Manu (Savarni), and a daughter Tapati (the Tapti river). Chhaya upon one occasion, being offended with Yama, the son of Sanjana, denounced an imprecation upon him, and thereby revealed to Yama and to the sun that she was not in truth Sanjana, the mother of the former. Being further informed by Chhaya that his wife had gone to the wilderness, the sun beheld her by the eye of meditation engaged in austerities, in the figure of a mare (in the region of Uttara Kuru). Metamorphosing himself into a horse, he rejoined his wife, and begot three other children, the two Aswins, and Revanta, and then brought Sanjana back to his own dwelling. To diminish his intensity, Vishwakaraman placed the luminary on his lathe to grind off some of his effulgence; and in this manner reduced it an eighth: for more than that was inseparable. The parts of the divine Vaishnava splendour, residing in the sun, that were filed off by Viswakaraman fell blazing down upon the earth, and the artist constructed of them the discus of Vishnu, the trident of Shiva, the weapon of the god of wealth, the lance of Kartikeya, and the weapons of the other gods: all these Viswakarman fabricated from the superflous rays of the sun."
"The son of Chhaya, who was called also a Manu was denominated Savarni, from being of the same caste (Savarni) as his elder brother, the Manu Vaivaswata. He presides over the ensuing or eighth Manvantara; the particulars of which and the following, I will now relate. In the period in which Savarni shall be the Manu, the classes of the gods will be Sutapas, Ambitabhas and Mukhyas: twenty-one of each. The seven Rishis will be Diptimat, Galava, Rama, Kripa, Drauni; my son Vyasa will be the sixth and the seventh will be Rishyasringa. The Indra will be Bali, the sinless son of Virochana who through the favour of Vishnu is actually sovereign of part of Patala. The royal progeny of Savarni will be Virajas , Arvarivas, Nirmoha, and others."
White Forms also grow to Nava Durga or all Nine Planets, which becomes rather more scintillating than only the Moon.
We can go through it and find basic Two Arm Sita frequently in a Long Life Trinity and other relationships that appear to involve Vairocana or Ratnasambhava. None of these are Vajra Tara. But they are very close to White Mahasri. Above the Moon and across all the Planets, then, she cannot avoid becoming full Vajra or Ten Directions. The House has to be built around all these middle levels before that full version might work. We see that Yellow as a whole walks right in as Buddha Mother and evidently increases as Parnasabari, Janguli, Vasudhara. During this, it is arguable whether Sita "is" yellow as Parasol becoming Aparajita, but that is woven into the tapestry somehow. Concurrently, Vasudhara somehow provides Red and particularly as the Cup if we look at Varuni, so, this needs to be fastened. In most studies, the "cult" of Red or Vajrayogini, etc., is secretive and so forth, practically forbidden. This is however encircled by explaining the much older Varahi and Chamunda are the main things being harnessed here. A fairly significant expansion of Tara sticks Red Varahi into her retinue.
Amitabha is Infinite Light, his Wisdom has a crisp appearance but it is actually subtle and behind the handshake is nothing other than the Vidyadhara path. That is all any of the other stuff means. But in reality this is gated by White Kurukulla or in other words lacks potency until the body achieves that nectar which descends from the head to Khecara or the inner throat center, place of Rupa Skandha. If this series really starts on a big Parnasabari Body, that body is a transition from an ordinary one into this suitable condition. Meanwhile we are just going to attach a basic Red color and work her into Manohara or Hook. It brings Avalokiteshvara and Amitabha, which is what the system of Tara is for.
Sarasvati has no sire, neither does the slapping Aparajita. Grahamatrika has no sire, she has vajra feet and does Dharmachakra. But no color given for her. She sits on a thousand-petaled lotus. Her faces are White, Yellow, Red. Ganapatihridaya has no sire, she is given a two armed dancer form, but a sixteen armed miniature also has this name. No color for her either. These both are very powerful and very understated here. As a tangent for the relevancy of the last two, this Nepalese manuscript at Cambridge contains Namasangiti with Saptavara and Dasabalastavastrota. The first is a concept using Seven Dharanis, one for each day of the week, and this set is Vasudhara, Vajravidarana, Ganapatihridaya, Usnisa Vijaya, Parnasabari--Prajnaparamita, Marici, and Grahamtrika. The second is about ten powers which are probably the Mahayana paramitas. Anyway that is a weekly cycle from ca. 1600s.
Here is a Cintamani White Tara sadhana that does not require initiation and presents her in a basic way only slightly modified from the initial White Prajnaparamita exercise. It uses her Seven Eyes form, which I don't believe is Indian, but I think you could say made in Tibet and sent to Mongolia. These versions always refer to a Wheel, and there is not a single one involved. This is the version specifically for increasing someone else's life.
Taranatha has a Kamshiri basic White Tam arising Tara with eight copies. This is an Amitabha Sita and her mantra is Om amarani jivanti ye svaha, which is that of Amitayus. So she is just a small change from Prajnaparamita: one hand does Dharmachakra, she has a third eye, Amitabha on her crown. She arises from White Tam on a lotus and moon disc, and her heart has a moon disc with White Tam. The eight copies are on the petals of her lotus base and face inwards. Nothing is mentioned about what she does. And here in Tibetan she is Gokarmo which means Pandaravasini. Even though she arises as pure Sita with no Red whatsoever. This may be best since it is obvious that's "not really her". It resembles "folding rose" Vajra Tara, or Eight Fears, or Long Life. In the mantra, amarani pertains to immortality and jivanti to live or be alive.
So I am not sure there is an available basic Sita practice that is not Pandara-related. And because her mantra is hidden with another deity, it is Om padme Pandaravasini kunda kunda svaha. Dukkar or Two Arm Parasol can be a Vairocana goddess. This would be the same as Atisha's Tara nineteen, who, according to Taranatha, is holding a stove (burns suffering).
Quickly noting from the Seven-eyed sadhana: One's own (or pledge being's) three syllables at the Three Places (or one in particular) invoke wisdom beings with lights, and the phrase Vajra Samaja invites them. Jah Hum Vam Hoh tells them to merge into you, whereas Padma Kamalaya Stvam asks them to abide for offerings. Vajra muh can tell them goodbye, or Om Supratishta Varaye Svaha invites them into an image.
Even with basics we move close to an All Buddhas Sita, we get Sarasvati--Vairocana, Janguli--Akshobya, Usnisa--Amitabha, Pratisara--Ratna, Mahasri or Mahattari of Amoghasiddhi and eventually Hydra we seem to be trying to outfit her with. The latter two Families are fluidic. So her Four Arm form is mostly packing all that or at least shoulder to shoulder.
We would like to have Sita's Six arm Amoghasiddhi form at the smasana or charnel ground. This sounds close to a key missing ingredient in the actual White-Green relationship that does not appear in published materials, but once you see who he is and plug that in to the Tsonkhapa idea, Wrathful Vajrasattva, and, somehow, White Tara, there's something to it. When these meditations ask you to stir in your wisdom beings, you only have Vajrasattva, plus maybe the Green Tara or Prajnaparamita, until the crew grows in force.
The following is from Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsan, who is explaining the Nagarjuna--Tilo lineage that employs Mrtyuvacana. It is based from a retreat and self-generation, so we will see if we can tone it down for household use. It simultaneously gives Red and Yellow forms. I will try to keep some of what he says, and un-quote parts to change it to front-generation.
Firstly, he explains the background of Amitabha's Tara:
"The Tathagata Amitabha, the truly perfect Buddha for the world of Sukhavati, has inconceivable projects going on in the fields of dominion of other Buddhas, the endless domains of the world. Among them, he works to help sentient beings here in our own intolerable world.
He manifested here as a man, Avalokiteśvara, to educate us and as a woman, the Worshipful Lady Tara, to tame educate us. Ārya Lokeśvara taught the Dharma to an entourage of most refined deities on top of a mountain called Potala in the southern part of Jambu Island. Down below, the Worshipful Lady Tara taught the Dharma to a most refined entourage of nagas and asuras. These two manifest beings lived there as the leaders. There were also a number of Bodhisattvas manifesting as Buddhas that lived on that mountain.
This is what happened: The Buddha proclaimed the Tantra for Tara on that mountain. It was called The Tantra of Tara’s Ocean, and it was just the thing to help sentient beings. But so that sentient beings of the future would not pine for it, it sunk into the sea. Afterwards, he proclaimed a smaller Ocean Tantra, and it likewise sunk into the sea. Then, for the sake of the future, he proclaimed the Tantra called The True Arrival of Tara and the text called Avalokita Kurukulle. It was based on the True Arrival Tantra that the noble Nagarjuna wrote his Sadhana for Tara. It was distributed to sentient beings in great quantities."
"Now the Sadhana for Tara composed by Nagarjuna is based, overall, on the four Glorious Vajra Throne Tantras, the Vajradakini, The Drop of Perfect Unity, and other Tantras that contain abundant rituals."
(it begins in retreat, and adds Blue-Green Tara to Guru Yoga)
After preparations and torma, there is a moon on a lotus in our heart. "On top of it there is a Taṃ. Light of many colors pours forth from it. They summon our guru and Tara into the sky space before us, where they are surrounded by a host of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
Light radiating from our hearts multiplies out into multitudinous offerings. We use the words that begin Oṃ Vajra Puṣpe Huṃ to present these offerings [common Offerings mantra]. Then we confess our evils, rejoice, make a dedication that cannot be improved upon, go for refuge, develop Bodhicitta, and receive what is given for our poor bodies.
We do these things one by one, performing the appropriate recitations as they are found in the hymnal, which include: “I come to the Three Jewels for shelter. . .”
We meditate on the four immeasurables.
Once we have gathered a store of merit, we gather a store of wisdom. We begin with Śunyatā. We meditate emptiness.
We are inspired by our recollection of Bodhicitta to rise up out of this emptiness as an embodied being, a Rupakāya. We think: “We must help sentient beings!”
[he has summarized the Preliminaries and now goes to Deity Yoga]
A Paṃ turns into a lotus. An Ā turns into a moon mandala. There is a green Taṃ on top of them. It turns into an utpala marked with a Taṃ. Light rays poor out from it as offerings to the Noble Ones. They help sentient beings, then converge and melt back into us."
Blue-Green Tara arises. Her right hand grants protection, the gift of fearlessness [Abhaya mudra]. The left holds an utpala. Its petals touch her ear. Her hair is a little straight, but wild on the right side. She wears silken clothes, and adorns herself with jewelry of many precious gems. She glows with youth, wearing a brilliant smile.
We bless her features:
Her eyes with a white Oṃ Tāre Svāhā.
Her ears with a blue Oṃ Tuttāre Svāhā.
Her nose with a yellow Oṃ Ture Svāhā.
Her tongue with a red Oṃ Tu Svāhā.
Her heart with a blue Oṃ Re Svāhā.
The crown of her head with a green Oṃ Tāreni Svāhā.
"Everyone is sitting on a moon throne. Light radiates from the Taṃ in our hearts. It summons wisdom beings from the Potala. They melt into it. Then it summons deities of empowerment. We present them with our wishes and are empowered. We imagine that our wishes have come true. She crowns our heads [Pride of Deity].
We visualize the ten syllables spinning around the Taṃ on the lotus and moon in our hearts. Then we recite the ten syllables. The number of recitations and the length of the session are done as fits the occasion. We must maintain a divine pride on every road we practice."
(end of retreat part, giving a million or more mantras)
[he has described the spinning disk mantra and the next kind uses the Spoked Wheel that Mrtyuvacana holds]
[Nagarjuna's basic White Tara called Mrtyuvacana--which I think means more like "explaining death"--did not carry forward into Tibet. This is a "heart wheel" form, which is not the disk of syllables, but a physical wheel. There is no image for her, but this one is very close, it is a form of Pratisara:
Most Taras have a foot hanging out, meaning she is ready to get up and go to work. One could only guess that this one means she's ready to jump across the universe if needed. The correct Mrtyuvacana would be holding the wheel that way, but with Vajra Feet or meditation pose.]
"When we want protection before we move into the practice and in what we want to achieve, we perform the deity yoga as above, but in our hearts we generate a wheel with eight spokes that has both a center and a periphery. We imagine it to be green. At the center there is an Oṃ and a Hā. Between them we imagine an abundance of Chegemo Rakṣa Rakṣa. Upon these eight spokes we imagine Tāre Tuttāre Chegemo Rakṣa Rakṣa Svāhā.Through this we will deceive death."
[Chegemo is Tibetan for so-and-so, meaning someone's name. We use ourselves because what we are really doing is awakening to and cleaning the death bardo.]
"The Tara that deceives death, however, is white. The Tara for release from prison or the curing of diseases and other such problems is also white. We imagine that the wheel and the letters are white. We augment them with words of abundance, which may be any mantras we choose. Light rays emerge, and the rest of the ritual is just the same as before, so we will succeed in these things.
For empowerment, we meditate [on] the Worshipful Lady in red [Varuni or Manohara]. We also do the cakras, colors of the letters, and light rays in red, and add to the mantra Chegemo Śaṃ Kuru Ho as words of augmentation. The rest of the ritual is just as in the above. This brings us success in empowerment and investiture.
[nectar and Sambhogakaya nature and to magnetize deities]
The Worshipful Lady is yellow [Cintamani or Gopala] for the rituals involving the augmentation of assets. The wheel, colors of the letters, and light rays also manifest as yellow. The recitation is done with a closing of Puṣṭiṃ Kuru Oṃ. The rest of the ritual is the same as before. This brings success to our efforts to augment our assets and other such things.
[fire of Great Indra with armor, weapons, etc.]
For those of us with weak intellects, the lazy, and those of little faith, the Worshipful Lady is white. We imagine that in the space between the Oṃ and the Hā at the center of a white wheel it says: “Make so and so’s intellect grow!” Now the rest of the ritual is just as above, with the exception that the letters on the above mentioned wheels spin to the right. There are some where the Āli spin to the left and the Kāli spin to the right. But here, all the letters are placed on the wheel spinning to the left. The light rays that pour out are white. We chant the mantra with the appropriate words of augmentation for what we are doing. We will succeed in the development of our intellects and what comes from them. These are rituals in which we meditate on a wheel in our hearts.
[Sherab and the Two Drops]
Now the above mentioned ritual efforts will also be successfully accomplished if we draw what is appropriate on birch bark or other media, using substances like saffron.
We must understand that there are six things that differ: Tara, the wheel and the colors of the letters change in each case. The arrangement of the letters and the difference in whether they are spinning to the right or spinning to the left, as well as what we are to accomplish, are different. The visualizations, and the particular colors of the light rays are different. The closings in the words we chant, words of augmentation for the mantras, such as Rakṣa, also change. The words of augmentation for the middle of the wheel also change.
In summary, the different colors of the deity and the accompanying visualizations relate to our success in our different efforts. That’s all it is.
This is to remove forgetfulness concerning the generalities in the Sadhanas."
More significantly, he has explained Nagarjuna's Green Tara evoking White, who then takes on specific roles for Red, Yellow, and more White--these being colors of Vasudhara and a string of Sherabs. This next one will establish Manohara mantra for subsequent use.
The author is unknown but this is correctly a Praise to White Wheel Tara. However its original Sanskrit name is Arya Tara, and "wheel" has been extrapolated by description of her having it. P’hag-ma Droel-ma la Toe’-pa is the Tibetan name.
Incorrectly the name Citamani has gone to this one probably for Cittamani which shows her in true nested wisdom being form with the disk. So the Spoked Wheel and Disk are different.
His version for Day/Night Tara:
"Yogins who want to meditate on the Worshipful Lady Tara, both peaceful and wrathful, get up at dawn and do ritual cleansing. We start out by washing out our mouths. Then we meditate on going for refuge in the three jewels and on the Bodhicitta. Then we contemplate that right before us, on top of a lotus trunk, there is a magnificent lotus, and on it there is a moon mandala. On top of it there is a white HRI. This transforms. There is Avalokiteśvara, his body of white hue, with two hands. His right gestures varada. His left holds a lotus to his heart, a blooming lotus. On top of it there is the Worshipful Lady Tara. Her form is a peaceful green. She is looking at us in the face. We offer her flowers and the rest of the five offerings."
[Refuge, Bodhicitta, Seven Limb, and Twenty-one Praises follow]
[Twenty-one Praises a second time so only Tara remains]
[She has the] peaceful green form of the Worshipful Lady Tara with one face and two hands. The right one gestures varada. The left holds an utpala by the root, between the thumb and forefinger. The petals of its bloom blossom beside our ear. She sits on a throne of the moon, her legs half crossed. Her right leg is extended. Her back rest is the moon. She wears jewelry of precious gems. She wears a silk skirt. Her hair hangs down, the left part tight; the right part a little wild. We contemplate that on the crown of her head there is a glistening moon, and Amitabha adorns her head upon it.
"On the third recitation of the praise we are stricken by own clarity. This is what we mean when we say: “Second to Third.” After that, we might want to recite her praises. When we say: “The true recitation is seven-fold,” it means we must recite them seven or more times, as is appropriate, while visualizing our deity’s form.
When we chant the secret mantra there is a lotus with eight petals in our hearts. In the space between the Oṃ and the Hā at its center words of abundance, such as “Rakṣa” proliferate by themselves, which multiplies our wishes accordingly. The rest of the syllables of the mantra are set out on the petals. We must visualize this, and recite:
Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā.
At twilight time, the remaining ritual is the same as earlier on, this is true, but there are some specific differences.
We meditate that the Worshipful Lady sits on top of Avalokiteśvara’s lotus in a wrathful form."
[Tara arises] with one face and two hands. Her body is of white hue. In her right hand she holds a five pointed vajra, as if lifting it up. Her left hand pounds on the earth. It causes the three worlds to quake. Then she forms it into the scorpion mudra and holds it at her heart. Her orange hair stands straight upward. Her eyes are extremely angry: red and round. Her canine teeth clamp down. She wears a tiger skin for an amgarang skirt. A leopard skin shawl covers her on top, draping down to her ankles. She wears jewelry of precious gems. She hoists a green snake for her shoulder strap. She climbs onto a lotus throne and sits down there. Her right leg is drawn in. Her left is extended. Then she is sitting in the middle of a burning volcano. There is a moon on the crown of her head, where Amitabha adorns her. We contemplate this while we recite her praises once.
"Then we recite her praises just as before. While we chant the secret mantra there is a lotus with twelve petals in our heart. At its center we visualize that the space between the Oṃ and the Hā is not spread open, while the remaining syllables are set out on the petals.
Oṃ Namastāre Tuttāre Namo Hara Huṃ Hara Svāhā.
We must chant this.
Now the retreat is enumerated. After we chant the mantra a million times we will succeed at any project that has temporary results. Ultimately, we will succeed at Buddhahood. Our path of practice must be to abide in the pride of the peaceful by day and the pride of the wrathful by night.
The two mantras are here. The praise, however, is drawn forth from down inside us. This is what it means when we say: “This praise is from the mantra’s source.” It is proclaimed that our praise of two deities’ bodily hues and manual insignia also come from down inside us.
If we want to present tormas, we set whatever tormas we possess out in front of us. We bless the ambrosia with Oṃ Ā Huṃ. We generate the Worshipful Lady in the sky before us. We summon the wisdom beings into her. She consumes the torma with light rays from her tongue, which she shapes into a vajra straw. While we are contemplating this we recite our own mantra three, seven, or twenty one times in offering. After that we offer the five pujas. We worship her with the twenty one praises. We present her with requests for the things we want. We bid leave of the ones we summoned. The one we generated merges into us. We put the tormas out onto clean earth.
Namostārāyai!
Those who wish for a child will get a child.
Those who wish for wealth will get real wealth.
Using this statement as a basis, those who wish for a child or for wealth get a vase that has quality attributes. Put the five medicines, the five grains, and the five precious substances inside it. Wrap it in a bandana and a sash. Tie it with five colored thread. Put it on top of a white piece of cotton. Meditate, as is appropriate, that there is a cakra at the neck of the vase. Meditate that a river of ambrosia flows from it, filling the vase. Chant the mantras of peace or wrath, whichever is appropriate. Pour the vase’s water into a washing bowl. Let the man or woman drink from it. Draw out a cakra [on a cloth] with saffron or yellow ink and perform a consecration. Tie it to a man’s right shoulder, a woman’s left, or anywhere on a child that it will fit. You can also tie it around the neck. Encourage them to recite the twenty one praises. Then they present the Worshipful Lady with requests for whatever siddhi they desire. This is how to use a cakra or a bathing ritual so that those who wish for children or who wish for wealth will get them. It has also been proclaimed that this ritual will help in case of any obstructions brought by fierce contagions, disease, wounds, or elemental forces.
This completes the details on the magnificent blessings of the ritual for the Worshipful Lady.
When we wish to present our request to the Worshipful Lady, we start out making offerings before her image. A group of four fully ordained monks starts out with a bow to the image, a merging of all the Buddhas. They cast flowers and present offerings at the same time. They do a summarized version of the seven branches. Then they do the seven homages that begin: “Gods and Asuras.” Then they do a summery version of the remaining seven branches, casting flowers and presenting offerings, and the rest.
After we do the above, we must recite her praises a second time for the generation of the samaya beings and at the summoning of the wisdom beings. Then we present our requests for the things we want. Then we do the bows and what follows, just as before.
We must recite the praises a third time. On the third time, we must recite the praises seven times over. When the time comes to say: “Homage!” we must make a bow with our minds. If we do this during times when our dreams or signs are bad, or when our hearts are not happy, this will turn things around.
If we have no community, we can also do this by ourselves, alone."
So if we were doing Vajravali then the stages would be:
Kriya is Usnisa Vijaya, Mahavidya, Pancha Raksa, and Marici.
Chara is Guhyapati Bhutadamara.
Yoga is Sakya Simha, Vajradhatu, Dharmadhatu Vagisvara.
Father is Guhyasamaja Manjuvara and Akshobyavajra, Vairocana Mayajala Manjuvajra, Krishnayamari.
Mother includes multiple Varahis, Amritas, Humkara, Jnana Dakini and Mahamaya.
Non-dual includes Vajrasattva, Kurukulla, and Vajra Tara.
Usnisa Sitatapatra (Parasol) must be distinguished from Usnisa Vijaya, who appears to be the Bodhisattva of Pandara, although when in her stupa, Usnisa Vijaya is of Vairocana, and she can be emanated by Amoghasiddhi as a Dharani. The best I can do for Usnisa Vijaya right now is a pair of posts that will start with some Lakshmi Tantra which will proceed to Phurba--Kilaya and then Wind Horse, then proceed on that Wind Horse link and it combines with information about Usnisa mantra and Prayer Flags. Then we get into more Lakshmi Tantra. So the Wind Horse is rather nested with those subjects as well as with the expansion of Usnisa dharani or mantra.
We have found Parasol fits at the top end of Dharmadhatu or Vajradhatu components along with Banner or Ornament on Banner, which only advanced Taras have such as Taranatha's Eight Arm Green Tara. The two Usnisas seem to be related in terms of expansion of the Usnisa mantra. Six armed Sitatapatra Aparajita is emanated by Vairocana, she is a Vajra goddess and effective against Graha, i. e. malignant planets. In most translations, that's "evil spirits". We already looked at Parasol's expansion to Thousand arm form, and ultimately linked this with Mahamaya Vijayavahini. This is something like Usnisa Vijaya bringing you to the Vajra gate and then she goes off to interact with Red, whereas Parasol keeps going universally. Assuming you make it through the cremation ground of Six arm Sita. Putting it together, she blooms from something like White Mahasri-->Usnisa-->Vajra-->Cemetery-->Parasol. Our Vajra will have to be the simple Indian one and can only note about Cheating Death and Nagarjuna's sadhana in case they ever show up, and, I don't think there is a legitimate stand-in picture for Six arm Sita yet.
Taranatha's Tarayogini is an Eight arm Wrathful Syama Tara who has a twenty-five deity mandala that includes herself. This lineage was very secretive, i. e. Atisha did not transmit it and so forth. His Dream Tara is the basic Sita but with her left leg extended. Here is the most complete Taranatha Rinjung Gyatsa. His very first is Sapta Lochani Sita Tara radiating Five Colors. He has a Blue Shramana extension of Dream Tara. He has a Sixteen arm Immortal White Vajra Tara. He says Vishwamata is crowned by Vajrasattva. There is a Six Arm White Vairocana goddess, Mother of the Planets, Queen of Knowledge, who arises from Hum. Even though there is not a single image or readily available explanation of Six arm Sita or Sitatapatra Aparajita anywhere, we can provide her information directly from sources, Sadhanamala and Taranatha. That is how our web is woven.
Sadhanamala: "Sitatara, who is three- faced, and six-armed. Her right face is yellow and the left blue in colour, and the faces are endowed with three eyes each. Her three right hands show the Varada mudra, the rosary and the arrow, and the three left carry the Utpala, the lotus (Padma) and the bow. She sits in the Ardhaparyanka attitude, sits on and shines like the moon (Candra prabham), and bears the effigy of Amoghasiddhi on her crown of matted hair. Her head is embellished by five severed heads and the crescent moon. She is decked in many ornaments, is twice eight years old, and resides in the midst of the eight cremation grounds. Thus meditating..."
Sadhanamala Six arm Parasol: "Sitatapatra Aparajita, who is three faced, six armed, and has three eyes in each of her faces. She is of white (Sukla) colour. Her faces to the right and left are respectively of blue and red colour. She carries in her three right hands the Cakra, the goad and the bow, and in the three left the white Vajra, the arrow and the noose with the Tarjam. She has angry looks, destroys all sorts of evil spirits (Grahas lit. Planets), wears celestial ornaments and garments, and is led by Vairocana. Thus meditating... "
Grahamatrika in Taranatha's version has faces that agree with Parasol's, and as Mother of Planets works against paralysis, unconsciousness, and harm caused by these bhutas. Her hand pairs are doing Dharmachakra mudra, Vajra and Lotus, Bow and Arrow. Vajra feet, divine robes, Om Ah Hum in her Three Places. Vairocana goddess arisen from Hum, lotus and moon disk.
Om sarva vidya hum hum phat svaha
Om namo Bhagavati svaha
Are her Essence and Near-essence mantras. She is za yum rig pai in Tibetan.
Grahamatrika is Peaceful and Aparajita is Wrathful.
Six arm Sitas are arguably different, or perhaps you could say an Amoghasiddhi cemetery emanation plus a Vairocana Parasol emanation, who does not, in this case, carry her Parasol. I think this is saying something like if she does not need to overwhelm malignant planetary influences, then she can go meditate in the cemetery, i. e. Generation Stage.
This seems to work with the unusual Wrathful White deities, and Vajrasattva--Amoghasiddhi that is somehow maneuvering behind the curtains. Cemetery Sita could perhaps be described as "Moonshine" which sounds a bit brighter than the more typical "Sukla" which sounds more like glowing. Unless mistaken, Sitatapatra Aparajita equates to Grahamatrika...her name is still White Parasol, Sitatapatra, but because she is not holding the symbol, she may be called Planet Mother or Graha Matrika.
It sounds like if she has time to teach, she does teaching gesture, if not she stashes the Lotus and grabs a chakra, ancus, and noose, becoming Wrathful. If we are able to follow her successfully in meditation, she gains both kinds of Lotuses. So from a basic Two Arm White Vajra Tara, then Four Arms shows influence of All Buddhas, and, this balance of Six Arm forms seems to make sense for a moderately advanced level approaching Generation Stage. Maybe it is using some Red Power to generate a tantric Yellow face.
Kurukulla has in one of her retinues a Five Buddhas Red Aparajita at the same time as a Yellow Aparajita of Ratnasambhava with a staff, the goad, the bell and the noose. The Yellow Aparajita given separately...is Parasol. This is the slapping one carrying a noose and the parasol should be supported by Brahma or various wicked deities. She tramples Ganesh and destroys wicked beings. So Aparajita is a title for a Yellow Two Arm and the White Six Arm Parasol.
According to the Advayavajrasamgraha, the unpartnered Vajradhatvishvari is the deity of the centre surrounded by the four Buddhasaktis, Locana, Tara, Pandara, and Mamaki. She is said to be the embodiment of the highest truth in Mahayana Buddhism which is named differently as Tathata, Sunyata, Prajnaparamita and so forth. This uses Akshobya's Mamaki. As if they start out undifferentiated and then when you ask, who is Vajradhatvishvari, the real Prajna hides behind a Vajra process and all you can have is a Ratna-based Yidam of her.
Sixteen arm White Immortality Tara is much more unique and intricate, however she turns out to spawn around the short Usnisa mantra. Taranatha's description has this one basically the same as Amaravajra, I think they are the same. She is a Completion Stage in Sakya. She is Maha Pratyangira, perhaps the Sambhogakaya of the more widely-known Pratyangira. She makes a pretty direct line of Sita-->Usnisa-->Long Life Trinity-->Parasol-->Deathless in a primarily White way. The Sixteen and Eighteen armed forms are about as intricate as they get, aside from the Thousand armed or Million eyed that we have placed closer to the Abhisambodhis than to the Path stages.
The short White Tara text that followers of the Kagyü Lineage practice was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by the Eighth Tai Situ Rinpoche after he visited Kathmandu a third time and received the transmission and text there. Actually most of them are probably using Jamgon Kongtrul's shorter White Tara sadhana, which is using her basic Cintamani form and appears to make Vajra Samaja or a bond to her Vajra state. Here is a White Tara text by a different Tai Situ that has translations neatly printed on manuscript pages. The first version requires emptiness mantra and uses Hum, and the second, starts from Pam to get a Moonstone Tara. So almost all of these are really using Pandara.
Here is Eighth Tai Situ biography which depicts him as a vessel of Shentong. We may not be able to locate his original practice. This was about Tarayogini which was more restricted than other ways of doing it.
Mahasri lacks a basic Yellow, that would be Vasudhara or someone else, such as Taranatha's Yellow Cintamani, who dances while plucking fruit and handing it to the audience. As if then to say with Yellow Mahasri, we only mean the Kamala "Lotus" or tantric Lakshmi, which is perhaps ignited by a simple White Vajra Tara mixed with a non-tantric Yellow. Her Green is actually stated to be dark like Pledge Tara. Her White is negligibly different from basic Sita Tara, and in this way she is well known as Peaceful Protector. I am not familiar with Tseringma but if we look into her I believe she will meld perfectly onto the framework of the Lha Sku, etc., fully expanded Pancha Jina symbolism. Tseringma herself is the Lady of Mount Everest. So she's worth a listen. I believe if we understand her this way it is correct. It is like saying Green and White Tara Samaya until you reach that moment of the "final Mahavidya" where Kamala is said to open and flip you into reverse on a new path.
So we found Parasol's basic form, and then, once you throw her into the action, she has Six Arms but loses her special ability or Parasol.
Her Peaceful basic version:
Ganda Vyuha or the end of Avatamsaka Sutra was only artistically depicted at Borodpur, Java, and Tabo in the trans-Himalaya. This is their Sitatapatra Aparajita:
There could be said to be an umbrella attached to the throne, but she is not holding one.
So we found her basic form, and then, once you throw her into the action, she has Six Arms but loses her special ability or Parasol.
Additional arms are a growth in powers and attributes. It seems likely correct that Aparajita is a title given to Parasol. Yellow Aparajita, a destroyer Durga, also arises from the womb of earth (like Sita) assisted by Vajrayogini. Kurukulla has in one of her retinues a Five Buddhas Red Aparajita at the same time as a Yellow Aparajita of Ratnasambhava with a staff, the goad, the bell and the noose. The Yellow Aparajita given separately in Sadhanamala...is Parasol. This is the slapping one carrying a noose and the parasol should be supported by Brahma or various wicked deities. She tramples Ganesh and destroys wicked beings. So Aparajita is a title for a Yellow Two Arm and the White Six Arm Parasol, aside from any other meanings.
It is not well-known, but at Six Arms, she takes a sort of secret agent mode and disposes of the Parasol itself. And there is an extremely close coordination between Six Arm Parasol, and Knowledge Queen, Mother of Planets Grahamatrika Mahavidya. Their forms are only slightly different, but more importantly, their meaning is the same.
Grahamatrika is peaceful in appearance, white in colour, with three faces, white, blue and red. Having six hands, the first pair perform dharmachakra at the heart. The two right hands holds an arrow and a vajra sceptre. The two left hands hold a bow and flower blossom:
Om sarva vidya hum hum phat svaha
Om namo Bhagavati svaha
Are her Essence and Near-essence mantras. She is za yum rig pai in Tibetan.
The title Bhagavati appears, which on Taleju for instance, seems to indicate a promotion. She is a Hum-arisen goddess, or in other words she will not work unless one practices the prior basics that give this any meaning.
That one is exactly the Sadhanamala version, doing Dharmachakra and holding a lotus called kamala in the text, although should be on a thousand-petaled lotus. You can find Seven Taras along the bottom with Peaceful separated from Wrathful. The next level has a Yellow imitating the White. So we are saying this Grahamatrika is nearly identical to Parasol, and their job seems to be to squeak out the Cemetery Sita.
Having Kamala in her hand is a pretty good fit with Mahasri not really being known in Yellow until it arises as her tantric form, Kamala. So it is not well displayed in the art, but when viewed as the correct name, then she is holding Lakshmi Kamala like more commonly known deities hold Chakra Vairocana and so on. So Parasol arguably is a Vairocana and Grahamatrika is a non- or sounds a bit like his empty niche when Prajnaparamita occupies it. That legitimizes her teaching gesture. I think if you listen then you wind up with the sneaky form in the charnel ground. Mentioning her rendez-vous takes a description of Amoghasiddhi who generally goes by without much acclaim.
Sitatapatra Aparajita (Parasol) is a change of hand items from Grahamatrika, swapping the lotus for a chakra and grabbing a goad but otherwise given the same role or Mahavidya Planet Mother.
Having a Chakra, this next one is Sitatapatra in the role of Planet Mother. A typical retinue for Grahamatrika has the Hindu planets, such as Varuna holding a snake. Six-arm Parnasabari is there, and Bhu Devi towards the lower right, just over Dhritarashtra, who plays Om like Sarasvati but wears a helmet so as not to hear you:
Higher around the teacher is something more like Tri-kaya Parnasabari. The dark dharmakaya aspect apparently becomes the night sky.
Tathagata Mothers may be Marici (who does have a Mayamarichijata Tantra), also, Pratisara, especially a big Four Face Eight Hands one, and, Mahavidya, or Grahamatrika, the Dharmachakra one. Parnasabari is their Messenger.
It is a fine point of difference between the names because Sita is White Tara that can only mean white colored, but Parasol can become Yellow, and as far as I can tell, Grahamatrika is also Parasol lacking her symbol, and she has no sire indicated in Sadhanamala. Sita as herself or really Sukla with Six Arms goes to the cemetery with Amoghasiddhi. These forms seem like a cusp between regular Mahayana and Vajrayana. Missing Amoghasiddhi Sita ranks with bizarre Tsonkhapa manuscript.
This Vajravali relationship is upper left, Usnisa Vijaya, then Pratisara and Pancha Raksa, then lower left is Mahavidya Grahamatrika, and then Vasudhara:
Quite possibly the lower left is holding a Chakra and is really Parasol, in the role of Mahavidya. The actual Grahamatrika is like an etherealization of this holding Kamala. But you see lower Six Armed forms, the upper are Eight.
From the text we see that Vajra Tara should also go with the Eight Mothers, which is an awful lot like what Grahamatrika is trying to establish. Transcending the Sister level and going to the Maha bhutas or Root Elements or Mothers. There certainly appears to be a progression from Planets to Ten Directions at this point. Then Ten Arm White Marici is her All Planets form. It seems pretty well staged in White, Prajnaparamita, All Buddhas Four Arm Sita, Janguli, Grahamatrika, Usnisa, Marici, Amaravajra, each of these seem to be a cloesely-related next step.
In a similar manner, the Throat energy or special means of crossing, Arya Rakta or Red Tara is not strictly identical to Kurukulla. With her the growth is rather well shaped: When two-armed, she is called Sukla (White) Kurukulla, and when she is four-armed she is called by the names of Tarodbhava Kurukulla, Uddiyana Kurukulla, Hevajrakrama Kurukulla and Kalpokta Kurukulla. When she is six-armed, she bears the effigies of the five Dhyani Buddhas on her crown, Mayajalakrama (one claim even states there to be six buddhas) who rides Taksasa. That one is said to be a part of the lost Mayajala Tantra revived by Krishnacarya. Eight Arm is Bhutadamara, or a slightly better known of the previous who is also doing this mudra and wearing the Naga Kings as clothes and ornaments. So she becomes Red as Tarodbhava, arising from Tara, which suggests that Arya Red Tara is someone else like Arrow Dakini.
But there is much more to Parasol ahead of her fireworks.
We have already been watching a standard Eight Arm White Usnisa, who is pretty well set in place and is consistently unique for holding Amitabha.
This Usnisa Sitatapatra Parasol is totally different, because, when she gains Eight Arms, then she gets back her Parasol. Also, instead of Amitabha, she is holding a Chakra or Wheel for Vairocana. The Parasol element then laterally becomes available to for example Taranatha's Eight Arm Green Tara. We can check, but probably nothing less than this can even hold it.
As such she is plainly within the established Two Taras:
She is under Amitabha, but more closely related to Vairocana, apparently the inverse way of Usnisa Vijaya. Her mandala has a lighter appearance, using the Eight Arm form with parasol shifted to the other side:
If that is charging her up before her mega form, then she also is going to gain Ten Arms and turn Yellow, which appears to be an Amoghasiddhi emanation, with Vishwavajra in her primary hand:
To continue a counter-clockwise estimate of the "powers she holds", you could try Poison Flower Janguli, Mayuri, Akshobya, Vairocana, Arrow Dakini, Kurukulla, Manjushri, Amoghapasha Avalokiteshvara, Parasu Rama. The noose is the only standard Activity item. Otherwise they are mostly deity items in a set probably close to the suggestion.
We can see how she might casually be mistaken for, but is distinguished from, the very similar Usnisa of Amitabha Family. This one juggles White and Green Vairocana and Amoghasiddhi in some mute way that seems to be going on. That is why the Mega form is nearly inert on a popular basis, because if you haven't really gone through this intricate process, etc., then it's not what it could be. Her title seems to be changed from Arya (Six arms) to Bhagavati. This represents a duration in tapas or meditation when the disciple naturally and rapidly acquires a Sambhogakaya state and is attuned to seeking and perfecting the powerful Parasol element with the Dharmadhatu.
I believe this is as mysterious as she gets and that to really trigger the myriad form requires Marici. Her verse is mysterious though:
namaḥ sura-gaṇâdhyakṣa-sura-kinara-sevite |
ābaddha-muditâbhoga-kali-duḥsvapna-nāśini ||
Namah is just such a proper thing I would leave it. However "gods" that we're getting here is not the same translation as "devas = gods" because these are sura or breath. Nextly Ganadhyaksa is the tenth form of Ganesh. Sevite is service or related to Seva which is a well-known concept.
In some renderings, mudita bhoga is split; mudita is vicarious joy or happiness in seeing others' happiness. Abandha is still like bandha, a tie, also a frame, affection, or ornament. The removal action however is against Kali and duhsvapna or duhkka svapna, nightmare.
Namah (you are) served by the breaths Ganesh and Kinnara
(You) ornamentally frame joy in the joy of others and dissolve Kali's nightmare.
Then one could for instance use Astamabhaya Sita as a Yidam, and still have a Twenty-one Tara chant where in this verse it would go "Namah Astamabhaya Sita, served by..." It adapts and accomodates that which fits the framework. This verse is almost always associated to Parasol who really isn't even implied in a particular way. Sita does include a Svapna (Dream) Sita, so she can be categorically attached because of that. The passage does state that she is served by Ganesh which has been omitted. If Kinnaras suggest Amoghasiddhi, it is also possible for Sita to go to him. So the verse is a total clue to his involvement, those creatures don't really mean much of anything else.
Parasol's ersatz counterpart is maybe not as metamorphic but is not mentioned much. We already have installed her obscure teaching which Buddha gave to Indra. And this Dhvajagrakeyura mantra or Dharani is intended to work with flags just like the ones for Usnisa and Wind Horse, but they are unique. One can easily see the Banner which if anything is under Kalachakra symbol:
We keep calling her Banner, which is short for Ornament on Victory Banner at Dharma's Summit, meaning Mt. Meru. If it could be said that Parasol is widely known with an esoteric meaning, Dhvaja is obscure with the same. Mantrically they are the final elements to complete Dhanada's circle.
She is purely tantric. In one version, there is a garland of four colored heads. That same theme is less twilighted where she could be seen as having a four-colored Wheel and Lotus base:
She is a fat Akshobya Hum arising goddess. In Sadhanamala, she is limited to Four arms, and is on a Solar base, but also comes in Yellow:
It should have an upwards smoky face. The rest are flaming. It seems less Dhumavati at the end of the world, and more survivor of the worst aberrations of hellfire that Akshobya has been forced to witness; it didn't matter to him. Seems like a smoldering survivor of the fires in her main Blue form. With a drop of White added by the user. Or, Yellow Fire Face between the Two Drops. Hum as arising in the Sun. Getting a basic Yellow Vajradhatvishvari from Ratnasambhava to process through here into Marici.
Taranatha's version is from Shakya Raksita as are a number of other deities, the speech of Pandita Purna Vajra. This one has Eight arms and arises from Dhvam. This same speech invokes a whole slew of relevant deities. The mantra is not translated but includes parama sainyam which sounds familiar as Buddha's samadhi.
So by adding her you are around the end of Generation Stage and finalizing Vajradhatu components.
One is much more widely celebrated than the other, but Parasol and Banner represent the end of the various assembling. Currently it seems to wind up as an Amoghasiddhi Yellow Parasol and an Akshobya Yellow Banner comprise Indra's total panacea or immunity or invulnerability; Aparajita and Bhumi perhaps. At least that seems to be the name of one goddess, and gesture of the following Dhyani.
Dhvaja never had a place in any Twenty-one Taras. We got her because she has a specific place in the Dharmadhatu mantra. Her meaning closely accords to that given for the half of Hero Nature in verse eight, or undefeatable, which in most of the systems equates to Aparajita, and you have to inspect that again because even that name appends to multiple goddesses. She is crucial, but no kind of preliminary, so instead of her own verse, she might work really well as above as a sort of secret sidekick to Parasol. Not like vow of silence secret, but, she doesn't really come up until you would be looking at Dharmadhatu.
If we do it that way, Sitatapatra and other Sitas are somewhere around nineteen and so for example that verse would link to two or three posts out here. I never paid that much attention to her, but she has a "special relationship with Agni" becoming a sort of sacred Earth Fire. At the most mundane, one could say the old Aryans honored a male based Agni pantheon, and the only goddess that was barely mentioned was Ushas or Dawn, and yet, as Marici, has gone around and apparently established, for example, the Rising Sun flag and maybe even the Chrysanthemum Throne. On a popular basis she may be somewhat obfuscated by the spread of Vajrayogini, because, here again, the theme is that these are her acolytes, and she herself is the higher Path or Tara Bodhisattva.
Therefor we are not quite making a Shakti or Vajrayogini goddess only cult, but adding her in as the missing ingredient, which then through Marici is working towards the complete Thousand arm Avalokiteshvara and Parasol, the fully illuminated Saha Loka Dhatu or Mega Chiliocosm, or Peaceful and Wrathful Deities, Illusion's Indra Net.
There is a bold issue made about Red and you can see it on special editions of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities where the Vidyadharas are included. Once we see how the Sakya system works, it's quite plain. This largely emphasizes Mantra which, for example with Marici, can be done constantly on a public basis with the Savitri Gayatri which does not make it necessarily tantric or representative of the higher stages of the Path. It seems we are doing that with Yellow Lakshmi, who isn't really "on" until opening the electrified lotus Kamala. Originally, Vajradhatvishvari is Yellow Shakti of Ratnasambhava. By the process of Amrita, this flows and is offered to deities and forms the subtle body. So I don't think we're talking about the real or main Marici of practice until Yellow Dhvaja. That form isn't explained anywhere, but if you just look at it and put it together with Buddha's teaching to Indra, it makes complete sense.
To have any hope with esoteric Marici, the recently quoted passage from Vishnu Purana is necessary. Not in terms of the future cycle, but the nature of Vishwakarman, Sanjna daughter of Sanjna and Chayya, etc., and recall that this is a further process from Ganga and the Six Agni Seeds, and so forth back to the First War in Heaven and Tara going to the Moon. Maya on all planes. This subtle Yellow Path is of Maha Maya which stands beside Yoga Maya which is Deva Maya or "maya of the gods", in which sense they are said to see at the highest, Mulaprakriti, or the Veil of Parabrahm. From what I can tell, this is coupled with the fact that the sphere of the Sun itself is uninhabitable by us and "only the highest adepts can scan it". We found that Yajnawalkya did so, and witnessed Jivas being removed from the sphere of reincarnation. We are more or less choosing to remain in incarnation while holding the Shaktis of Maha Maya, i. e. removing those veils and becoming the divine mind's power over the corresponding states of matter.
So in this arrangement there is no need to give the plebian assessment of Yellow as Wealth and relate it to material abundance. I suppose it has to have a quick, temporary intro somewhere along those lines, but I think we are aiming at a small activation of Vasudhara or maybe Taranatha's Cintamani Yellow Tara before soon being harnessed for specifically Vajra purposes.
There are several versions of what came out from the Churning of the Ocean, but the three maidens are almost always Varuni, Rumbha, and Lakshmi. Those are all fairly specifically used in the esoteric explanation, and to some extent we avoid the name Lakshmi, because we are not going to appeal to her popular use but almost solely as Kamala. Quickly note that in a neighboring culture, Yellow Emperor is a very important Manu.
By hook or by crook, Dhvaja has emerged as a Yellow Vajra Tara. This form is highly appropriate to proceed into anything like Yellow Chinnamasta or Marici.
Marici really has an extensive way of showing herself. We may take into consideration a view selected for the personal collection of the people who back the Himalayan Art site:
So this is Marici over the Sun over Marici. It is a Chinese version, and the upper figure is holding a Sun which is inscribed with the glyph for Three-legged Crow. This is repeated in the main Sun as a Golden Rooster. In this way, we see her as her own daughter, or a seven rayed manifested version under a transcendental form, via that great luminous laboratory of life. In this case, the manifestation is "obstacle removing form". The vehicle of her root nature appears to be that of Mahasri.
In both cases she emphasizes a two finger mudra I call the Goat and I have absolutely no clue what it is in Buddhism. The more well known European Hand of Glory or sign of the horns is a Bull.
Her personal removal method is needle and thread, which may sew shut the faces of evil doers, or bind your impurities in a bag and dispose of it.
Jetari and Vajrasana's Arya Marici, under Tsonkhapa, attended by Parasol and Banner goddesses:
In that specific practice, the Six Dharmas or Deities of Vajrasana are Marichi (outer obstacles), Achala (inner obstacles, strongly resembles Dhvajagrakeyura), Buddha Lochana (health), Lokeshvara (avert untimely death & bad dreams), Meru Shekhara (Shakyamuni) Buddha (life extension), Trisamayavyuha Buddha (purging sins).
Here is Yellow Marici from the same set as Dhvaja:
So her contemporaneous or sequential emergence with the elaborate Dhvaja is relatively minor or tame and shows mostly outer activities. Highly involved with her vehicle, which, I am not sure if anyone else rides in such an extreme Amazon fashion. We probably can't find all her nuances such as in the chariot which may use Rahu, or no one, as charioteer. But as portraying her early or outer activity, the hands overhead with her personal items are unmistakable as well as the skilled riding. I am not in the least familiar with Vajrasana's basket, but it goes to a Three Samaya situation which is the Vyuha and this term we have studied as the "deviations" of Lakshmi rousing from Deep Sleep. Taranatha has more.
Her outer obstacle version is Two armed Yellow in a Four Pig Chariot. They eat some evil doers and pave others into golden ground. Orange Six-armed needle and thread with Seven Pigs is from the aforementioned Pandita Purna Vajra series.
In the preceding posts we find her plugged into a Vajradhatu formula. That version is really incredibly powerful. It's been cloudy so far because Vajradhatu seems to mean one version in Shingon and generally it means a mandala activated by sub-mandalas, and so it can be hard to tell what "Vajradhatu" we're talking about. But if we see that one is activated by stupa Marici and Vajrapani, and consider this as a significant core of the Vajravali method, this sounds accurate. Into her stupa:
Her stupa mandala from Vajravali:
I am not familiar with Lama Dampa who is in the top center of most of this series, but beside him is Vajradhara, and on the other side, Vajrayogini and Abhayakaragupta. The bottom right beside Mahakala in the center is Wrathful Mahasri, Secret Accomplishment Vaisravana, Black Jambhala, and Vasudhara.
These next Maricis were invisible because it is not centered on Marici but twenty-four arm Ekajata. Without getting into her, we have a squad of Maricis including Arya and stupa ones making half the display:
At the top center is Marichi with three faces and fourteen hands. Descending at the viewers left is Dharmadhatu Ishvari Marichi with six faces and twelve hands, yellow Pichu Marichi with three faces and eight hands, white Chunda with one face and four hands, Ekajati with one face and two hands, and green Janguli with one face and four hands. Descending at the right side are red Odiyana Krama Marichi with six faces and twelve hands, Marichi with six faces and twelve hands, yellow wrathful Marichi with one face and two hands, yellow peaceful Marichi with one face and two hands, and Ekajati with one face and four hands. At the bottom center is black Ekajati with one face and six hands. That is the description whether textually correct or not. The Ekajata at least is from Thartse Panchen Namka Chime, 1756-1820, Ocean of Methods of Accomplishment or, parallel 11th century 142 deities similar to Sadhanamala. It has no new strange names and, for example, only has two Twelve arm Red Maricis. It has Two Sow Face and it has Dharmadhatu Ishvari, it does not appear to have the three kinds of Six Face, so it cannot contain Uddiyana individually. This is the advantage that the English Sadhanamala has in being what I call sifted, he highlighted most of the important parts, although a lot of that is done backwards.
Those four big Red Maricis are not precise, but will be shown as fluently nearish enough that it errs more towards what we have in mind than it does the alternative. One can see that the only Green is due to tantric Sita turning Green for the performance where she is shrouded by Wrathful Akshobya types. The main one is the one we pinned to our Ekajata for reference. It means she was born from Buddha's sweat.
The main one is being admired by Indra and others. Fourteen armed from Bhutan:
In the main thangka around her, first in upper left has for her secondary item a skullcup, her personal attendant is fat with needle and thread that appears to run down and skewer someone as black flames on the next level. The upper right one's item is a pestle and her thin attendant has thread and a lotus. The lower one has a trident, no attendant, and her faces are in a single plane.
It is very close, Sadhanamala does not grant Two Sow Face the extra arms. The way I transcribed it makes it sound like only one has Brahma's head, but, all "Three Reds" of the Six Face are almost identical as above, and the distinguishing traits would be, in their right hand, a Chakra on Uddiyana and a Crossed Vajra on Vajravetali. Goad instead of Chakra for Vajradhatvishvari. To a ninety per cent approximation this is the correct or same upper hypostasis of Marici. The rest of it is a bit different, nevertheless, in this relatively recent Tibetan version, Janguli is still involved.
The identification of that Uddiyana Marici was taken from an older version, Konchog Lhundrub, 1497-1557, who ironically says this one has Crossed Vajra; the figure actually has two single vajras.
We have given Marici the last verse, which in most traditions is All Accomplishing Tara sometimes given as an elaborate Twelve arm Yellow Form, or a White semi-wrathful in Jewel Family. Sometimes Sixteen arm like Prasanna. Marici would be somewhat customary as well here. Mostly Vajravali can only provide a few images out of several.
Sadhanamala describes six forms of Marici, none of which have Four or Six arms, and the most is Twelve. Akosakanta is her Two armed Yellow, or molten gold in white garments, I call Fig Twig, and her Arya is this but with needle and thread.
The Six armed forms must be quietly guarded somewhere else, like we found with Sita. In the text, she really springs to life in Eight arm forms:
First, Picuva Marici displays the sentiments of Sritgara, Vira and Harsa in one of her faces which is of the colour of Jambunada (gold, or sama prabham, luminous); in the middle face which is of the colour of Indranila gem, the sentiments of Bhaya, Bhibhatsa, and Raudra are displayed; and in the third face of crystal colour, the sentiments of Karuna, Adbhuta and Santa appear. She has three eyes in all the three faces, which give freedom from the three great evils. Her essence is made up of the Dharmakaya and Sambhogakaya. She is clad in garments of yellow colour and resides happily in the mass of rays. She sews up the eyes and the mouths of the wicked by the needle and secures them with a string. She strikes their heart
with the Ankusa, draws them by the neck with the noose, pierces them by
the bow and the arrow, and by rending their heart to pieces with the
Vajra, sprinkles water with the leaves of Asoka....she tramples under
her feet Prajna and Upaya.”
She have given us all Nine Rasas or moods here. The phrase about the kayas is "dharmasambhoganirmitam" so it seems to be meaning all three.
Changing clothes, Samksipta Marici is yellow in colour and wears red garments, is decked in various ornaments, bears the image of Vairocana on the crown and resides within the cavity of a Caitya. Her three faces display three different sentiments. The floret or the principal face displays amour and has the colour of gold. The second or the left face is distorted sow-like, has the colour of the Indranlla gem, displays wrath and looks terrible with bare fangs and protruding lips. The third or the face to the right is of deep red colour, glows in heavenly splendour and displays the sentiment of Santa. She rides the chariot drawn by seven pigs, stands in the Ilidha attitude and appears as a virgin in the fullness of youth. Below the seven sows is the fierce Rahu who devours the sun and the moon. She is surrounded by the four attendant goddesses, Varttali, Vadali, Varali and Varahamukhi. So actually here is Three Moods form, and the one above is more complex or 3x3.
Most images are that kind of Marici. In actual images instead of Rahu, sometimes a lady charioteer without legs may he seen. Some images, again, retain the charioteer as well as the Rahu. I thought this was an unusual name, but there is also a Vidyadhara Pitaka Samskipta or Samkshepta Manjushri, which is a White Arapacana form.
She has a White (Vidhini) Ten armed form with Four Legs. This has three unnamed (possibly Varttali group) companions including a Blue Vajra Tara riding a Makara. This whole set is over the Nine Planets with diseases and disasters. It is another Ten arm Red form that is supposed to be her most hideous, warlike, very fat, consort to Hayagriva, has an extra horse head instead of pig, according to Alice Getty. His consort is widely accepted as a Two armed Varahi, Marici, Lakshmi, but this big ten-armed one is unknown. She may be mistaken for some other Heruka or Samvara with someone else, or maybe this will show up somewhere. Just as the Four Leg form has been found near the top of the page after someone filed it under "Yellow Tara". The nicer one in the main post just has Ten Arms.
Her Twelve armed form has Two Sow Faces to the immediate left and right of her main face. The main face is Peaceful and this is a Red form in a Caitya. Indra and others are paying homage to her. Or, what is more likely, just as Vajrasattva does, after her 8/9 Planets version, this would be the Ten Directions way. This kind only has Three Faces, all Red. It may be the first instance of her taking Brahma's head, but she has her needle and no obvious manner of taking it but only a fairly small Kartri.
Her Twelve armed series is named Vajravetali (alone), Uddiyana, and Vajradhatvishvari (who have charioteers). These are all Wrathful and carry slightly different items. They all have Six Faces: one for each of the Five Colors, and an upwards pig face. All go in a Caitya. Vajravetali has a double vajra, Uddiyana has a Chakra, and the last has Parasu's Axe and Brahma's Head, or really an Ancus instead of Chakra.
She's going into a stupa multiple times, this seems to far exceed anyone else doing it. There are probably a million general purpose images of her, but if we are able to find the variously matching details, it may take some time.
Vajravetali is sort of a role of Wrathful Sarasvatii who consorts with Vajrabhairava and Raktayamari, or Wrathful Manjushri. Vajradhatvishvari is similar or a form who has no independent role but is used only for consorting, this one, however, eventually becomes peaceful.
With this name, Vajradhatvishvari is originally with Ratnasambhava. Then when Prajnaparamita goes to consort with Vairocana, she becomes Vajradhatvishvari of the empty or body-less kind, then appropriates Marici and radiates light. This Marici apparently goes to Vajrasattva (Kalachakra), to Hayagriva, who is like the sun at dawn and the influence of cooling rays, similar to Sita, and then eventually to Vajradhara. With Sarvavid Vairocana, she has a small form. She also goes to Sahaja Guhyasamaja Akshobyavajra and becomes identical to him, in the top row of Blue Sahaja Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi. She also goes to Manjuvara in Thirty-two Deity Guhyasamaja.
According to a Vietnamese basket of the same Sanskrit system, Marici is the target of the Hrdaya or Heart Mantra of Heart Sutra: Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha. And there again the medium Usnisa Vijaya mantra uses Sarvavarana and Durga.
Marici has a dharani and a paramita. The Kalachakra paramitas use different deities, but we could probably extract them, but their paramitas are Dana--Dhuma, Sila--Marici, Ksanti--Khagamana, Virya--Pradipa, Dhyana--Krsnadipta, Prajna--Visvamata, Upaya--Raktadipta, Pranidhana--Svetadipta, and there should be more that can't be viewed. Marici has a brief Sutrawhich in this version at least is unusual for inserting one's own name. And she is unusual being gifted the power of invisibility. So this is who Ninja revere and Shingon and even the Samurai. This version uses her Tibetan name Ozer Chanma but has Sanskrit mantras. Marici never dances and has never been called a Dakini but only Bodhisattva.
Dipakchandra Bhattacharyya found "An Interesting Image of the Goddess Marici" . This is in an unknown (to me) text called Dharani Samgraha which is unpublished. His version is Nepali in origin and resides in the Asiatic Society of West Bengal. Can't remember if this is related to B. P. Wadia, but it sounds close. This is from around the year 700 and is the primary means to disseminate Hayagriva with Bhrkuti and Avalokiteshvara to China. It survived and has been translated from Chinese in "Hayagrīva: The Mantrayānic Aspect of Horse-cult in China and Japan". Its Hayagriva operation is specifically a series of Mudra and Mantra. It states he is born of nectar. This seems accurate with how we have him so far. And this is correct the addition of Mudra is another layer of practice and standard in Japan.
Vajravarahi is the main, big consort to Chakrasamvara in the middle. Akshobyavajra is top center, Vajradhatvishvari is with him, "identical" in accoutrements but not color. So she comes from a process and is applied to Marici:
Rasas or moods are from dance and drama, associated with deities:
Rasa is an essence, but particularly taste, and emotion. There are sometimes longer lists with mercy, fraternity, etc., but Marici has nine, Navarasa. So although these are purely Hindu, we don't quite mean it the same way. On stage, for instance, Bhaya could just be fear itself, but our deities are not afraid, it means they appear in a way that causes fear to adversaries. So these moods are what the deity does omnipotently, instead of what happens to it helplessly.
Jains carry this to Rasa-ṛddhi (occult power to change food), of six types namely:
change food in the palm (payastravā-riddhi),
change dry to buttered food (ghrastravā-riddhi),
creating sweets (miṣṭāstravā-riddhi),
creating food with nectar (amṛtastravā-riddhi),
removing poison from a poisonous bite (āsyaviṣa-riddhi),
poisonous (dṛṣṭiviṣa-riddhi).
So Rasa is still a dhatu, ayatana, karmendriya, jnanendriya, and attachment or desire to taste, or actually eat things since you can't eat the smell. Inevitably that produces desires and emotions in a person, but a deity is not subject to this, and its moods are of a different order.
It may refer to bodily fluid and blood, and also mercury. Shiva was interrupted during sex and ejaculated into the mouth of Agni in the form of a pigeon. Agni flew over the world and the drops fell into nine hundred mile holes, making the substance mercury.
Sometimes only eight rasas are listed, that is what I was expecting, but there are generally nine given by Mahayana Nagarjuna of the second century, and it is likely this is what persists in Dharma Sangraha that gives Nine Families like there are Nine Durgas and so forth. When purified, it would be Nine Moods Marici. Much like Yellow, it's something we don't need to use its ordinary, exoteric meaning, but just have it like feet to stand on.
The next post will simmer the ingredients of Marici and Vajradhatvishvari. The rest of this is a puzzle of one word.
Although "kalpoktam" is appended to some goddess forms (Marici, Kurukulla), this is unclear unless it pertained to Durga. The existence of these sadhanas is attested to in a 1965 Tokyo Sanskrit Catalogue which doesn't seem to do much besides list them. The word also comes up in Tantrasadbhavatantra 4.13-14, where chapter sixteen is on Yoginis. This relates to "early Saiva cult of yoginis". This book is not exactly published, but here are a few fragments:
16.47-48:
tattvarupas tu yoginyo jnatavyas ca varanane ||47 |
sivecchanuvidhayinyo manovega mahabalah |
vicaranti samastas ca brahmavisnindrabhumisu ||48 |
"The Yoginis should be known in the form of the reality levels (tattva), O fair woman. Carrying out the volition of Siva, as swift as thought and mighty, they all traverse the worlds of Brahma, Visnu, and Indra." Portrayal of yoginis as Iccha Shakti.
6.173-178:
"And the [mantra-teachings] which have come down through the lineage of transmission are not written in a book. But the clan ( kula ) and clan-based (kaulika) [mantra-teachings] have come to this [world] through the Clan Lineage; and the kula and kaulika, which have secret meanings, are not obtained [in books?]. But that arising from the kula, and the kaulika, are obtained by the heroes of their [yoginis'] clans (arnsa). And that is threefold, divided by the ways it is obtained. The first is upadesa ("instruction"); the second is sampradaya ("the tradition"); and the third would be kaulika ("based in the clans"). Listen to
what comes from whom: Those obtained in the home of a yogini [living among mortals] are ‘upadesa', O fair woman. Those obtained from deity yoginis are 'sampradaya' , spoken by Siva. Those given by Sky-traveller yoginis are 'kaulika', no doubt..."
15.12:
"The goddesses existing inside the body are [also present] in the external world. The pithas have been taught as external [merely] for the sake of worldy appearances ( lokapravrtti ). When one who is pure sees [them] internally (y) ...(?), my dear, he then sees the rays [that are yoginis] externally with subtle forms. They bestow melaka, (y) or they feed [him] the gruel (caru) (?); they bestow the [teachings of] the lineage ( sampradaya ), or they indicate a place
[for melaka?]. If one should wander the [entire] earth with an impure inner state, they will not in any case grant him darsana, even mentally."
We can find an exact use of "kaploktam" in a related text, Brahma Yamala tantra:
"In a cremation ground, a solitary place (?), the bank of a river, particularly, the top of a mountain, the ocean, a solitary lihga, a crossroads, a town or village, a road or a town gate, or a solitary tree, in particular, one should practice what is stated in the kalpa-text [for propitiation of the mantra]."
‘The Kalpa is a book whose subject is [the procedure for propitiating] the Mantra he is to propitiate’; Svayambhuvasutrasamgraha , Mysore ed., 19.33cd: kalpoktam tu japam krtva devaya vinivedayet ‘When he has completed the Mantra-recitation laid down in the Kalpa he should offer it to the deity’. The term is transferred to the book from its subject; see Svacchanda 9.11a ...12a: asya mantrah purakhyato ...tasya kalpam pravaksyami ‘I have taught the Mantra of this [deity Niskalasvacchanda] already ... I shall now teach its Kalpa. Ksemaraja comments ad loc.: kalpyata aradhyate ’neneti kalpo vidhanam ‘Kalpa means the ritual procedure, [literally,] the means of propitiating [the Mantra], from the verb y/klp in that sense.'
That previous has a quite good Arya Marici with Tsonkhapa. However, we saw a Bhutanese series that is giving something not found in the books. Like Parasol, Marici is widely celebrated in glorious forms, but we are uncoiling her. So she undergoes Vajra and Mantra. They do have Fig Twig Marici in Varada Mudra:
This one pretty quickly goes to an unknown fat Vajra form with a serpent:
Her bindu has become an eye.
And then when this Prajnaparamita gets going, she enters Vairocana's niche, yields her form, getting replaced by Vajradhatvishvari. This lady mates with the composite or activated Bodhisattva forms of Manjuvajra and Akshobyavajra, and this seems to fill in the empty niche for Vairocana. This becomes enchanted to tantric Marici. Here Vairocana is hanging upside down and his consort is Pink Vajradhatvishvari:
That is centered on Akshobya Hevajra with Nairatmya and the cemetery goddesses around them. The "ring" is the charnel grounds themselves. Vajradhara is in the upper left, Sri lower right, Humkara fourth in. It is the Vajrapanjara Pancha Daka or Five Lords and Forty-nine deities. Hevajra is a slightly different naming convention from what we are mostly working with, so to swap Nairatmya for Pratisara leaves it with basically the same meaning and function. Again, to the extent names or sets are equivalent, we want to develop a main set and just be able to tell its format in multiple lineages. Hevajra or Samvara, etc., are variations of Generation Stage.
Her name is Vajradhatvishvari, or Vajradhatu Ishvari, the Yidam or Meditational Deity of Vajradhatu. Marici herself doesn't talk much about consorts, and what you will see is a whole lot of this apparently big mouthed Varahi with Samvara, but they are kind of talking over the fact that we are just making an offering or vestment which causes Vajradhatvishvari and Marici to fuse. If Varahi is an acolyte, then, figuratively, Samvara is an acolyte. It's not so much them but the fruit of their efforts we're after.
This is a Suryagupta Seventeen Deity Tara. What you are seeing here is your Samaya Tara looking forward and a slightly smaller Amoghasiddhi in her lap. So this is kind of drastic and this one is a relevant key to the strange Green and White thing. Around them are Buddhas and Prajnas, Vairocana is again going South and White Vajradhatvishvari is beside him.
There you can also detect the presence of the lately quiet Pandara. Green and White are over Akshobya. I think it is the Fixed Cross. In the outer world or Mutable Cross, when you follow the temple instructions, you face East, and your right side is a shield, hence Right Hand Path. In this position, in terms of the Fixed Cross or my personal directions, West is my left, which faces North, just as West has been rotated North in the mandala. This is the influence we want to be open to. That would be an Agni explanation, I don't know why they actually drew it this way. Amoghasiddhi has done something to get reversed. This is inside out space. That White Vajradhatvishvari is the Akash of the head.
Varahi sneaks off and consorts as Vajravilasini. The peaceful side of her is Asta Mahabaya "Eight Armed Sahaja Reversed" Green Tara, who may be called Vajra Pitha Tara. So Green Tara is intended to be peaceful Vajravarahi. That is part of the above. This Wrathful nature unrolls across Chamunda, Chinnamasta, to Varahi.
In Armor (Rays, or a special emanation of Vajradhara), Sanchalini (who arises from Hrim) is the Wrathful aspect of that Yellow Vajradhatvishvari who is Vajradhara's consort. In Kalachakra, Visvamata fuses Vajradhatvishvari and Prajnaparamita. This is--I'm not sure what it is--Dance of Wisdom that Hevajra is doing which goes into the inversion of Green and White and several things like this which, if a bit incomprehensible, does at least convey a sense of the alternation of colors and forms that we are contemplating.
We haven't piped up and said, Vairocana's White consort was called Akashadhatvishvari and what happened to her. Ultimately or in the end, this will still be the case. At this point, we can only mean the real, living Pledge Tara or Akash in the Head, this is the real "Pledge White Tara" Akasha Dhatu Ishvari that goes into this process that we can only attempt to describe. There is also the Yellow Prajna Mamaki, who bounces between Ratnasambhava and Akshobya. Taranatha only has her in Blue, however, Buddha has said that Pratisara is Mamaki, so this is a Vajra method applied on someone who "is" Jewel.
The Jewel or Ratna Family as a whole has no pre- on non-tantric appearance. Ratnasambhava does Varada mudra like a large group of Taras. The whole pantheon has really minimized Yellow in its exoteric association, and then once you add it in, it's sort of like throwing grease on a fire and goes everywhere. This is still in tandem with associating it to the Earth element and Mercury planet or One Initiator and even alchemical mercury.
It is probably more correct to say that Pratisara remains in the family. Perhaps she can be emanated in White by Vairocana as a way of moving Prajnaparamita into his consort niche, as we should look at Vairocana Mayajala. Pratisara then seems to remain in Jewel as Mamaki Bodhisattva or Jnanavati or Garden of Wisdom. Mamaki is a name only applied to a Prajna, which means she will always be very simple. We kind of release this energy and make it into a Yidam Vajradhatvishvari, which then moves around and changes colors until arriving at her new home. The name can almost only mean a process which moves from Ratnasambhava through Prajnaparamita to Guru.
There are hardly any people in this Family, and yet they have already cycled and are closer to Adi Buddha. So we could look at one of the very earliest versions from Tskali cards intended to make a Samantabhadra--Vajrasattva based mandala:
Their hands are not really doing anything like Varada or Gem that would normally identify if it was them (maybe a treasure vase). Unlike many others, which have so many versions of lineages and Refuge Trees you can hardly count them all, Jewel Family is almost entirely absent. This is one version:
It is a Guhyagarbha version and we are not told much besides Ratnasambhava and consort (rin chen jung den, sang gye) over Heruka and consort. The lower part is hell scenes; there is an unusual middle goddess with a pearl garland, and the topmost one, I am not even sure what she's got. Actually if you add the ones to her sides, then it is a Pancha Jina centered on Mamaki, or should be her plus four personal attendants.
The Hindu Hayagriva is said to consort with Lakshmi, which he is doing here, while sitting like Tara:
I don't know how exactly its owners knew that statue, but, initially we might see her as common Vasudhara. With the right preparations, we could get to Horse head Rite and Yellow Vajra Tara. From this Family with almost no one and nothing we are going to give everything. Akash in the head or the Pledge Tara starts responding to the flow of Nectar. Prajnaparamita empties out whatever was there and replaces it while she is with Vairocana. Increasing this by the Vajradhatu begins attaching her to Vajradhara. It is nearly impossible to make a static picture of Jewel Family because it is a continuous stream from Churning the Ocean, particularly the Gem, itself, Kaustabha, as well as Kamala, herself, opening, we are putting these back together: the Jewel Family and the mystery or plausible Seventh Family. So this Yellow Prajna is basically an unknown or hidden by Yaksha kingdom to sentient beings, and when we open it, we are more or less sending it via Shamballah towards the secret or inner, personal Atma Vidya or perception of Brahman, in this case Shad Guna Brahman which is Root Guru given life and power by his Shakti, or i. e. this esoteric goddess generated within Bodhi and accumulated prana. This seems to be played out rather well by Mahasri, if we think in the sense of well-known White Peaceful Protector, and, post-Vasudhara and more secretively, Kamala. There is some purpose to basic Sita and her variations prior to this fiery electric Yellow, maybe it should be called contact or the real Sparshavajra. I sense that Red and Vajrayogini are perhaps hyped or overdone due to this.
If Ratnaparamita is also a secret but real thing that actually belongs as the preliminaries, then what we get is a current of Yellow from the start which, when steered properly, makes Amoghasiddhi do his "thing". All Paramitas are Ratna Family. If these are perfections, then it is perfect for Ratna to commandeer the Janguli and whoever else was needed from whatever Families they come from. As perfection increases you are dipping a lot of goddesses in gold, from Ratna to Vajrakarma. Comparatively, the Disciplines, Grounds (Bhumis), and Dharanis are more like definitions and means, and the paramita is the desired outcome or it is the Prajna itself.
Prajnaparamita herself is Sita, not Sukla, with Red Lotus and Book, and beautiful unlike Akshobya's other offspring, from the letter Am. He produces her also in Yellow who does Vyakhyana. This one is famous in Java. Sadhanamala then includes a Two Armed Yellow (Pita) Dharmachakra one emanated by Five Buddhas. In only one version of the text can we tell the color is really Pita. Ratnaparamita herself is Red, and in this group, Prajnaparamita is Four armed Gold (Kanaka). Vajrakarma is visvavarnam, multi-colored, and carries a visvavajra. So in this dozen she must be Ratna Family.
It then suggests she has many more emanations by other Families but does not give them.
Taranatha calls Atisha's Four armed Yellow Prajnaparamita the Buddha Mother and gives her the main Heart Sutra mantra. She has a wheel in her chest, syllable A. His Two armed White form is called Prajnaparamita Mother. This one comes from Amitabha and is more detailed. She is the White Om goddess. In her heart is a lotus with a duplicate wisdom being in whom is a lotus with a concentration being, the om. She has Om Ah Hum in her Three Places. She does Dharmachakra and has Red and White Lotuses each with Books.
We will employ Taranatha as the main Prajnaparamita stamp. Neither one of those is necessarily tantric, and in this case the Four arm one is entry level. There is only one Vajra Sarasvati which has Six arms, and there are Six arm Sitas that have also been lacking which are a total bottleneck. And so really this Four arm Yellow Buddha Mother correspondingly (in Sadhanamala) is the hostess of eleven Two arm deities. Secretly I think those are Vajra Tara and Ten Syllables. Then you go into a flux.
That comes from White Om Wisdom Mother. It's the root of Wisdom-giving Yidams normal Sarasvati, etc. She has her own personal mantra. So, Samaya Sita Tara on her.
This seems to pretty strongly fit with an intense Six Arm intersection where the one Vajra form of Sarasvati exists. Indicating the next level of Eight Arm Yellow Three Mood Marici who becomes 3x3 or Nine Mood Picuva Marici. Then she has some importantly reticent Ten Arm forms. These are her White All Planets form and her fat Red consort to Hayagriva. So we see from the Six Arm mire there is the initial All Planets Tara, Parasol as Grahamatrika, rising to a Vajra process which grafts it to Marici.
We have to fill in the blanks, since often we are just told "consort", or in the following case, "the Mother". This is Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra, and since we have studied him, then here he should be with Vajradhatvishvari:
They look to have a few Six arm Sitas and since the bottom center is Yellow Eight arm it is probably Vajra Tara.
It was stated previously that Vajradhatvishvari also goes to Akshobyavajra and then looks like him. Under an unexplained Nagarjuna or someone like that:
Vajravali Akshobyavajra and Vajradhatvishvari:
And with that, we get to the Three Lords or, in practice at this point, the gnostic pledge beings blending with knowledge beings. So here they are Lokeshvara, Manjuvajra, and Akshobyavajra, I suppose all with Vajradhatvishvari at once. The lower right is the overall Heruka or Samvara who should be remembered as the Wrathful aspect of Guru:
Any entire set may be colored gold as a special offering, so you could for instance see Akshobyavajra done this way, but they have not explained this old 1400s Akshobyavajra with a Yellow Vajradhatvishvari:
It may have two Marici forms or chariot goddesses lower right. We have not examined these Guhyasamaja deities closely because it is pre-Namasangiti and so far we are still kind of at the beginning of rolling out the Bodhisattvas. You see the increasing use of Humkara on these forms, and so we are trying to get that down first. Fortunately we have a Tara to go in a verse for that.
This would be the maximum Taleju--Bhagavati, I believe--you would see on the town arch if you lived in Bhaktapur:
Jonang Taranatha is a good advisor. Jonang is named after a location, and the main attribute being referred to is Shentong philosophy, which is Tara Natha, her lord or husband. One step shy of saying the Ganesh of Buddhist Taras. He only has less than fifty and if you keep going there are only a hundredish major ones.
In their color scheme we understand that Green is given first as a composite color, which is broken down to Blue in the Wrathful Rite, leaving Yellow and White, which is Prajnapramita.
We spent some time looking into what should be the initial or Samaya beings in these colors, and that vined onto the answer, her. This is the goddess form of what was hidden and retrieved from the Naga Kingdom; as with all iterations of Buddhism, it was considered "incomprehensible for the time". Nevertheless, the teaching, is her name, exactly. And if one was to pick it up, she would probably literally start on the cover, between two Pledge Taras, one of whom has an opened lotus, and the other is closed. The main way of seeing her should be Dharmachakra with both hands at her heart, and the usual variations are putting one or both hands in her lap. She has four. They show Four Arm Buddha Mother on the cover, and she is again on page one with Gautama Buddha:
To practice with her you could do Pride of the Deity as Vajradhara does:
They have opposite color schemes there. This is rare, but, she is portrayed as if Guru were meditating on her in a non-initiated manner (like us).
And here, Guru is doing a very similar thing to what she does in the occult practice; and again she is his personal deity:
That one is Drikung Kagyu Refuge Field with Rechung and Milarepa near the top. Central is Samantabhadra, Amitayus, and Vajrasattva, as "nested dolls". In Mahayana Sutras, Samantabhadra is a Bodhisattva; it is only within Nyingma he is called Buddha. Vajradhara is the general equivalent for Adi Buddha.
These forms have been preserved in the Tibetan canon, but what we mostly find presented are open and closed lotuses instead of the Red and White ones mentioned by Taranatha. These were with her Two armed White form. It is true that her Yellow Buddha Mother continues as a living practice. The other is more obscure. When I read about this pair, something clicked and I remember it from ages ago but I do not recall the source.
Herself is the lady of hosts of paramitas. These are well known, but what is not, is either the original Vajra Tara retinue, or the set that goes in Dharmadhatu Vagisvara mandala. These sets will have different forms but the same meaning. It may not be possible to complete in an authoritative manner, but I would like to make a table attempting to class these with each other and to the paramitas.
So her White form is pretty close to basic Sita Tara. Nothing says she has a third eye, but she should have a pair of lotuses, Sita only has one. So you can tell them apart, like if you look at White Mahasri, she has no lotuses, until her special form, which should be verdant. This White form appears to start the stream of White Wisdom-giving Sherab deities, and it turns out to be almost unused and impossible to find. So in fact this is what we will pinpoint on, and start the majority of our progressions from her.
The white form used in the main post is about the only correct one available.
With consistent cues such as lotuses, then you can tell who it is. Here is a long talk about transmission of Buddha Mother sadhanas. Currently we are not seeking the Yellow Buddha Mother practices but should learn her as retinue chief of (all) the Paramitas. We will mention those, and then have a White Prajnaparamita meditation.
So the schools are almost solely using the Buddha Mother and have hardly mentioned Prajnaparamita Mother. None of those is the one that really makes this baby tick, which is the White with her nested dolls, which is shown from the male perspective on the Refuge Tree where Vajradhara is doing it. We don't find either this, or Yellow with her Wheel, which I know what this kind is, a rotating wheel with syllables like a record player. It's not a chakra or wheel of life just sitting there. And so the White really is more personal, you would gain x y z deities by proceeding from her, whereas the Yellow is basically set equivalent to the paramitas.
Prajnaparamita has a rare manuscript retinue consisting of Paramitas manifested as Eight Arm Marici, Durgottarini, Kadhira, Sita, and Vajra Tara (but has Janguli and Mayuri at an early stage). The basic Paramitas are Six.
Vajra Tara's retinue is known in terms of standard Direction and Offering goddesses, but not by the Tara forms used around Ratnagiri. As a retinue changes from six to ten, what is happening is giving all Ten Mahayana Paramitas which are the same as the Six plus four which appear to be a pair of Dual Divine Gunas.
The special Namasangiti Twelve Paramitas have their own personal names and the forms are very basic. The unique goddess sets in Dharmadhatu Vagisvara are like different groups of simple Atisha Taras. At the same time, its function appears to be gated by some complex Vajra processes done with Green and White Tara. This whole thing physically exists in a Chinese statuette set in the Forbidden City Peiping with no connection to the original Sanskrit meaning.
All of the Paramitas in their right hand carry a Cintamanidhvajam or flag with gem. All we can glean is their color and personal emblem:
Red Ratna, Moon on Lotus
Whitish Red Dana, various ears of corn
White (Sveta) Sila, chakra of white flowers and leaves
Yellow Ksanti, White Lotus
Emerald (Marakavata) Virya, Blue Lotus
Sky (gaganasyama sitabjahasta) Dhyana, White Lotus
Gold Prajnaparamita, Four armed, Dharmachakra
Floral Green (priyahgusyama) Upaya, Yellow Lotus
Blue Lotus (nilotpala) Pranidhana, Sword on Blue Lotus
Red Bala, Prajnaparamita Book
White (subhra) Jnana, Bodhi Tree with Jewels and Fruits
Variegated (visvavarna) Vajrakarma, Crossed Vajra on Blue Lotus
These are emanated by Ratnasambhava, and are not Janguli, Cunda, Usnisa, Marici, Parnasabari, Prajnavardhani, or any others that entered the Dharani goddesses. Aside from Paramitas, the mandala is already set to house these other Taras. The last one is a concatenation of Takkiraja, etc., we have barely mentioned yet. This set clearly uses specific color tones. It is considered to be "in order". In this case their names simply are the Paramitas. So if Sila is Marici in the first go round, then that's her name, Sila. But for the most part there isn't much connection between the goddesses and mantra syllables.
The main Taras where we want to show the gain of Five Buddha influence are (rare Four armed) Sita, Kurukulla, Prajnaparamita, and then Vajra. After looking the wrong way, it seems obvious Four Arm Buddha Mother gives us an exoteric stamp of Yellow Tara. It is a little more esoteric about her White form and this seems to be what prepares for Vajra. If we refer back to Lakshmi, I'm pretty sure she'll say Bala-Jnana and Pranidhana-Upaya are two of her gunas. So these Paramitas "are" her, whereas the multiple paramita forms revolving around Vajra Tara are Yidams or Meditational Deities perceived as perfect enlightenment. Several minor White forms or Sherab can improve the faculties of the meditator. Eventually, White Kurukulla marks the flow of nectar and Varahi the clarity of mind without skandhas.
We must consider the minor ruse that Yellow Four Arm Buddha Mother is exoteric which should be evident from her plastered all across the ancient book, the Refuge Trees that I know of, and probably a large amount of ones that I don't. The smaller White one is esoteric. You see relatively nothing about her except some confusing fragments. One has to really start looking at how she emits personal deities and what is going on between this thing that's happening with Six Arms and the big Thousand Arm Parasol you can find anywhere. We are not discarding the Yellow Buddha Mother, she most likely will be needed for Manjushri through the mantra Om ah dhih hum svaha.
Taranatha calls Atisha's Four armed Yellow form, Prajnaparamita, the Buddha Mother, and gives her the main Heart Sutra mantra. She has a wheel in her chest, syllable A (Prajnaparamita in One Letter). The Two armed White form is called Prajnaparamita Mother. This one comes from Amitabha and is more detailed. She is the White Om goddess or Wisdom Mother. In her heart is a lotus with a duplicate wisdom being in whom is a lotus with a concentration being (Concentration Hero), the om. She has Om Ah Hum in her Three Places. She does Dharmachakra and has Red and White Lotuses each with Books.
This is the simple form in the main post and she is esoteric so here goes.
White Om Wisdom Mother is the root of Wisdom-giving Yidams normal Sarasvati, etc. She has her own personal mantra. So, Samaya Sita Tara on her. If we maintain samaya and receive initiation, she would be used in Vajra Panjara and Chaturpitha Completion Stages. Buddha gave her mantra:
Taranatha has that and it is not translated. "Vardhani" appears to be the vase for holy water. If made into a verb it would mean increase, strengthen, to make prosperous and happy. Medha is a form of Sarasvati, or Dakshayani in Kashmir, and also refers to marrow, pith, sap, essence. It symbolizes the letter "dh". Picu can be Bhairava or an Asura, and there is a Picuvaktra yogini. This sounds like Picuva Marici and also seems to imply a goddess who arises from the syllable "dhih". And so Arapacana Manjushri and Prajnaparamita are returned. Their complex combination makes dhimmma which is associated with Heart Sutra.
Picu, "cotton", Picuvaktra "cotton mouth" in Satsahasra Samhita is the Seventh or downwards mouth of Shiva. Here Devi resides as Guhyashakti, here the worlds originate from Jagadyoni. They took the normal five mouths representing five pranas and nadis, added a sixth avyakta unmanifest (Vyomaka, "sky"), and the last, Patala, "serves the purpose of emanation". Picuyoni, Muladhara chakra. They sneak it in and not until chapter 47 is this made clear. So Kubjika or Malini tries to esoterically give seven principles to Shiva, in a way maintaining the first five are the primordial bundle of almost any organism, and the sixth and seventh are subtle additions. Because this source is all about mantra, here we see pretty much the same sevenfold idea related to mantra born yoginis.
The Seventh Mouth is Nadir because it cannot be reached by light.
Pasupatas and Tantras gives it as anandacakra or circle of bliss from which flows visarga sakti, energy of emission, kundalini, as Kubjika. Two chapters on their basic Five Chakra System.
On the Hindu side, Nepal used seven Brahma Yamala texts for Durvasas, Picu, Sarasvati, Jayadratha, Phetkara, Rakta and Lampata.
The strange seeming connection of Mahattari to Kubjika can be found in Prajnaparamita's basic mantra as well, since Picu comes from Sat Sahasra Samhita. Broadly speaking, Adi Shakti is in the highest, Guhyashakti in the lowest, of these mouths, and their union is the goal.
Maha Lakshmi's eight forms include Sri Vidya (Tripura Sundari), Raj Lakshmi (Kubjika), and Dhyana Lakshmi (Annapurna). Kubjika describes the center of Orissa, the Sri Mandira in Puri, the abode of Mahalakshmi: mahalakshmimaya pitha uddiyanamtah param. As a name of Mahalakshmi, Kubjika means "she who sleeps curled up".
Volume II of Sadhanamala calls the Picu verse a mantra of Vajravina Sarasvati. They say it was delivered by Buddha.
They render it: "In the beginning there is Cakradhara, who is followed by
two Picus and Vardhani joined with Prajna; after that are two Jvalas which are followed by Vardhani after Medha; even at the end there are two dhiris, Buddhi and Vardhani ending in Svetka." Their version says Jvala twice. It brings the cleverness of a Kavya or poet. Unfortunately most of the rest of the scan of the book is garbage. Prajnavardhani is Growth of Wisdom, Deification of literature, White (Sita), sword on blue lotus. She is Ninth in the Dharinis. Chakradhara is a special Vairocana emanation which they associated to a symbol or perhaps Om at the start. Same mantra is in the un-translated Sadhanamala twice for Sukla Prajnaparamita, which says "jvala" twice, so we'll use that way. "Dhih" is with her Pita and Kanaka forms.
(Tara-posed Hindu) Mahasarasvati's retinue includes Medha and Prajna, who may also go with her Vina form. Arya Sarasvati is almost like basic Sita with no third eye, and with it she is called Vajrasarada. Vina is just her familiar way with the lute. Despite the name, none sound particularly tantric until the Red Six armed. So this is a focus on Om and then how other syllables proceed. Basically, Lute Sarasvati + Four Arm All Buddhas Sita = Janguli.
Here is a Buddhist Sarasvati Praise which includes the mantra. This is appropriate and copied for her meditation below.
It gets complex quickly, but we can't go anywhere without the basics. The basics are the three syllables on her body. We have given Om by itself in a four phase manner, and it should be understood that the breath is the same: inhale, retention, exhale, rest. And so as we had A U M + silence, it is now Om Ah Hum + silence. So the syllables can be recited mentally with the four phases of a slow breath. Inhale Om, hold Ah, exhale Hum.
We call it Three Places and it means a White Om at the head, Red Ah at the throat, and Blue Hum at the heart. This is one of those things you can only get in Tibetan. They use Sanskrit characters, but they write with an accent. Normal Sanskrit has the really round Om like in this hand painted version:
Then to get a little closer to the syllables, we want to do a basic as Lama Yeshe describes. This will ground you really well before applying it in any way. So this is posted as a preliminary to the Sarasvati--Prajnaparamita practice. To do these meditations is to make regular use of these syllables on multiple deities, so we need a clear knowledge of basic Om worked up into this triple design.
When we have the syllables for ourselves, we want to duplicate it with the Yidam Prajnaparamita. That would be stage Four in this visualization if we remark Om goes there. We don't have Medicine Buddha so we can't set it up the way they did. You would have to generate her from Vajrasattva--Vajradhara or whatever guru or ishvar you have a connection to. So this is worked in to the meditation.
So the focus was on Om as the beginning and the spine of everything. We will add syllables, and, generally, the vowels are goddesses and the consonants are male or wrathful.
According to House of the Sun, "Ah is the symbol of the primal state of the spirit. It is the female aspect, the mother fully expressed in divine wisdom. It is also the unborn, a state of being that is without thought. It is the essential state of Emptiness. Hum is the root vibration, the smallest, undividable unity of sound as reflection of the essential nature of Kundalini-Shakti. Hum is the descent from universality (Om) into the human heart.
Macrocosm is reflected in microcosm, and the rather esoteric explanation of Om a Hum is reflected in the chakras. Om is related to the Crown chakra (Sahasrara), and is of the color white (purity). Ah is related to the Throat chakra (Visshudha), and is of the color red (Divine Love).Hum is related to the heart chakra (Anahata), and is of the color blue (stability and eternity).
When pronouncing or chanting Om ah Hum one visualizes a flow between the words and what the words stand for. When pronouncing Om one imagines that it stands for the universal sound, the symbolic word for the infinite, the perfect, the eternal. It fills the mind with the idea of eternal perfection. Om is like the opening of our arms to embrace all that lives and exists. It brings peace, bliss, clarity, firmness, courage, stability and strength. Om descends from the Crown chakra to the heart chakra in order to be transformed into vibrant life. Ah is the expression of wonder and direct awareness. It is a point of stillness, of emptiness. Ah brings energy, openness, expansion and empowerment. Hum is the universality (Om) brought into the heart, it is the infinite in the finite, the eternal in the temporal. The long 'u' sound in Hum expresses a downward movement to accentuate this descent. The 'h' in Hum is the sound of the breath (prana) and 'm' hints at a state beyond duality. Hum is brings expansiveness, infinity, essence and oneness into the human being."
Because it is so fundamental, it would probably be best to draw one's own with pens or something. I cannot find a Sanskrit colored version. This is Siddham style calligraphy where the half-open bindus or points indicate that the syllables have what Tibetans call a "long, drawn-out" sound:
In one sense, they may be called Three Vajras. Bring attention to the location of each syllable in your body. Hold the intention of the syllable in your mind as you inhale a full breath. Chant the syllable in a long slow tone on the outbreath. As you chant, visualize yourself radiating light from each location with the syllable at its center. OM – Body (Kaya Vajra): Located at the center of the forehead, representing embodied awareness, wholesome response and skillful action. White light radiates with the syllable “OM” at the center. AH – Speech (Vach Vajra): Located at the base of the throat, representing wisdom, expressing truth, wholesome “self-talk,” thinking and communication, as well as cultivating silence. Red light radiates with the syllable “AH” at the center. HUM – Mind (Citta Vajra): Located at the heart center, representing compassion, unity, lving intention, and the aspiration to alleviate one’s own and others’ suffering. Blue light radiates with the syllable “HUM” at the center. All mantras are contained in these syllables, as all Buddhas are in the Three Vajras.
Lama Yeshe basic syllables exercise--probably about two weeks of this would be enough:
"Visualize a white OM in the center of your brain. Recognize that the OM is the pure energy of the divine body of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, or whoever you think is pure. Recite “OM” slowly for several minutes. While reciting it, visualize that white light radiates from the OM in your head and
fills your body. All your conceptions and the impure energy of your body are cl
eansed and purified. (You can think of specific negative actions you have done
— such as killing or harming another being, stealing, or unwise sexual behaviour—and feel that the imprints of these actions are completely purified.) Your entire body, from your feet up to the top of your head, is completely
filled with radiant, blissful white energy. Really feel this...
When you stop chanting “OM,” stay for a while in silence, and just be aware--
not thinking anything is good or bad, not reacting, not making mental conversation. Just place all your attention on the light consciousness at the center of your brain.
Be there. Be intensely aware and let go—without sluggishness, without distraction.
Now visualize a red AH at your throat chakra. It looks similar to the sun when it
is setting. Recognize that the AH is the pure speech energy of the buddhas and
bodhisattvas. As you recite “AH” slowly for several minutes, visualize that red light radiates from the AH at your throat, and your entire body is embraced by this blissful radiating light energy. It purifies your speech. Purification means that the
uncontrolled mind and speech work interdependently with each other. Negativities of speech mean harming and giving pain to others through lying, slander, harsh speech and gossip. You can imagine that the imprints of your negative actions of speech are completely purified by the blissful red light. Having a clean-clear mind and controlled speech is the way to purify impure and uncontrolled speech.
After reciting AH for several minutes, let your mind just be in the state of intense
awareness on your own consciousness. Stay there without any expectation or
interpretation.... Comprehend your experience of the non-dual, non-self-existent
I, nothingness, zero, empty space as truth, reality. This experience is much more
real than your waking fantasy sensory world....
If an uncontrolled, distracted thought comes, remember that not only you, but
all other sentient beings are in this situation, so cultivate much loving-kindness
for others. Then, when loving-kindness arises, direct intense awareness of
loving-kindness towards your own consciousness. So there are two things: place intense awareness on your own consciousness, and when distractions arise, generate loving-kindness for all beings and then direct intense awareness of loving-kindness to your consciousness. Alternate these two.
Next, visualize your loving-kindness energy manifesting at your heart chakra in
the aspect of a full moon. Visualize at your heart, on a moon disc, a blue radiating
HUM. Recognize that this is the non-duality wisdom of the buddhas and bodhisattvas’ energy. Your heart is pure, cool, and calm, opened by the radiating light of the moon and HUM. Infinite blue light radiates from the HUM, and fills your entire body. Your entire body feels blissful. All narrow thoughts disappear. All indecisive minds disappear. All obsessed minds disappear. Being embraced by the infinite blue light leaves no room for fanatical, dualistic concepts. Visualize this while reciting “HUM” slowly for a few minutes. After this, feel infinite blue light, like
your consciousness, embracing the entire universal reality. Your intense awareness is embracing the entire universal reality. Feel and be, without any expectation or superstition. ... "
Within Guru Yoga, the syllables will be applied to Prajnaparamita. They remain as a set, and she is going to show us a new one.
In some versions of twenty-one Taras, the second or Sarasvati is simply already given as Vajra Sarasvati, doing varada and holding a lotus upon which is a mirror with a radiant Hrim syllable. Her personal mantra becomes Om Tare Tuttare Ture Prajna Hrim Hrim Svaha. The basic term hri, "to blush", is of Vedic origin and connotes feminine modesty, and may be applied to any female deity. Secondarily to a male god if he is with a Shakti, Prajna, or other female attendant. In Vairocana Tantra, H is hetu or cause, original cause, R is Raja or defilement; dharmas lack either. Hrih means Amitabha and to avoid that which is objectionable. The "Picu" mantra may be said to be for Arya Vajra Sarasvati. Such a one is needed for Yamari. There is also a Red Sarasvati with a similar mirror.
According to East Wind Holistic Healing, "HRIH is the heart's seed syllable; it encapsulates the compassionate activity of the bodhisattva. In the HRIH we dedicate the totality of our transformed personality (which has become the Vajrakaya) to the service of Amitabha. This is the realization of the Bodhisattva ideal, symbolized in the figure of Avalokiteshvara. The seed-syllable HRIH is not only the seal of Amitabha, just as HUNG is the seal of Vajrasattva, Aksobhya,
and the Medicine Buddha—it also has a special meaning for the realization of the Bodhisattva way. HRIH is the inner voice, the moral law within us, the voice of the conscience, of inner knowledge—not the intellectual, but the intuitive, spontaneous knowledge—due to which we do the right thing for the sake of the good and not for the sake of any advantage.
As a sound-symbol, HRIH means far more than hinted at by its philological associations. Not only does it possess the warmth of the sun, as well as the em
otional principle of goodness, compassion, and sympathy, but it also holds the power of illumination, the quality of making things visible, the faculty of perception, of direct vision. HRIH is a mantric solar symbol, a luminous, elevating, upwards moving sound composed of the pranic aspirate (H), the fiery R (RAM is the seed-syllable of the element "fire") and the high "i" sound, which expresses upward movement and intensity, and the final sigh-like “h,” with which we release all tension and obstacles."
In Lakshmi Tantra, she explains that she (herself as Tara) has Five Forms, and so it is acceptable to spell and pronounce the syllable as Hrih, Hrim, and other variations. Four of the ways will fulfill individual desires; emancipation is of the fifth mode, Hrimmm, or Hri ending with pradhana, bindu, and nada, which gives it the prolonged sound of pranava or Om. In sadhanas it looks like Hrih is frequently male, and Hrim female.
According to Pithambara, "Pranvam, Maya, Vadhu, Koorch and Astra (Aum, Hreem, Streem, Hoom, Phat) constitutes Shri Tara Bhagawati five lettered Maha Vidya. Out of this when 3 combines i.e Hreem, Streem, Hoom, Three letter mantra constitutes "Neela Saraswati ". It is also known as Tara Kulluka. Neela devi or neela sarawati is a part of Tara Mahvavidya only. Aum proves its Brahmic nature. H in Hreem denotes effulgence and R denotes the emancipation from ignorance. H and R unites with "EEM " gives the word HREEM. Takara is the destroyer of all the sins, Repha denotes Tattva and Treem or Streem is the great seed which represent the Brahama Tattva. Hoom represents Knowledge and Phat is the destroyer of Ignorance. Any body who knows meanings of Mantras like this becomes Maheswara." So the visual forms are tied to the production and use of syllables.
Smile of Sun and Moon is a nicely-made Atisha system commentary, similar to what we have linked on each Tara's number. Firstly this is interesting for being dedicated to the supreme deity Vajra Tikshna, who, yesterday, only showed up as a form of Wu Tai Shan with no practice, and now he turns out to be important here. They do things strangely, like give Tara three the "Three Jewels" mudra which is in another verse, and here, for two, the brilliant light of Sarasvati becomes four correct analytical knowledges, We have these as Pratisamvit gatekeepers, but here they are called meaning, phenomena, definitive words, and courageous eloquence. Then, the realization of white bodhicitta expressed by her is called the face of White Varahi. It should be flowing from the head to the jewel and back. That would be Completion Stage, so right now we just make a note that's where she leads.
There is no source to attribute, but from stage Four, this is what we need. These are adjustments within Guru Yoga, as done with Pratisara; in other words, instead of proceeding into samadhi, remove Guru with emptiness mantra and conjure her before finishing as usual. The Sarasvati Praise will call her. First line gives her as a Manasaputri and the Tibetan has rythym. What happens is a sort of rapid transition. Anyone can start from any Sarasvati of literature, arts, sciences, etc.; we then make this specifically Mahayana by starting her in Mirror Hrim form; and then she is further focused into the deity of a specific book, Prajnaparamita. Her Om picu picu mantra states the equivalencies and relationships, and so, this transforms her into Wisdom Mother form, and adds the Three Syllables. This makes her do Dharmchakra, her teaching moment. Both forms have no third eye, and are crowned by Amitabha.
So the first part is a song, and then her mantra has a different rhythm. It says jvala twice here. Repeat the Sanskrit mantra an "auspicious number" of times and then try to visualize her as the main basic White Prajnaparamita before merging her lights. In most verses like this, the first syllable or Hrim here, is not part of the rhythm.
White Prajnaparamita--Vajra Sarasvati meditation:
Her syllable Hrim may be seen in numerous ways such as Rishi mandala. On my own I would just do this open-eye at first and use the picture. Thinking and feeling the meaning is important first. Sarasvati can directly arise from the syllable, and at her heart is a red utpala with a white Om. Hrim is the syllable of Maya on her mirror, and here we see it in Bhuvaneshvari Yantra:
Om Tare Tuttare Ture Prajna Hrim Hrim Svaha
The Sweet Sound of Perfect Joy: In Praise of the Goddess Sarasvatī
by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö
ཧྲཱིཾཿ ཚངས་པའི་ཡིད་ཀྱི་སྲས་མོ་ནི། །
hring tsangpé yi kyi semo ni
Hrīṃ! Daughter of the mind of Brahmā
རོལ་པའི་མཚོ་ཆེན་ལས་བྱུང་བ། །
rolpé tso chen lé jungwa
Arisen from the great lake of enjoyment,
ཟླ་ལྟར་དཀར་བའི་ཞལ་མངའ་མ། །
da tar karwé shyal nga ma
With your face as pure and white as the moon—
དབྱངས་ཅན་ལྷ་མོར་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། །
yangchen lhamor chaktsal tö
Goddess Sarasvatī, to you I pay homage!
རིག་བྱེད་གསང་ཚིག་འཛད་མེད་གཏེར། །
rikjé sang tsik dzemé ter
Unending treasury of the secret words of the Vedas,
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་གསུང་ཆོས་ཕུང་ཆེ། །
deshyin shek sung chö pung ché
And the vast collection of the buddhas’ Dharma,
འཆི་མེད་ལམ་ཡང་མཐར་ཁྱབ་བྱེད། །
chimé lam yang tar khyabjé
Reaching to the end of the path of deathlessness—
དབྱངས་ཀྱི་དཔལ་མོར་གུས་པས་བསྟོད། །
yang kyi palmor güpé tö
Glorious Lady of Melodies, to you I bow in devotion!
ཏམྦུ་ར་ལ་འཁྱུད་བྱས་ཏེ། །
tambura la khyü jé té
Clasping a ‘tambura’ lute in your hands,
སོར་རྩེས་དལ་གྱིས་བསྒྲེངས་པ་ཡིས། །
sor tsé dal gyi drengpa yi
And gently playing it with the tips of your fingers.
འཇིག་རྟེན་འདས་དང་མ་འདས་ཀུན། །
jikten dé dang ma dé kün
To you who captivate the minds of all, both beyond
ཡིད་ཀྱི་བརྟན་པ་འཕྲོག་ལ་འདུད། །
yi kyi tenpa trok la dü
And still within this worldly realm, I bow!
ངེས་དོན་ཤེས་རབ་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན། །
ngedön sherab parol chin
In reality you are the Perfection of Wisdom herself,
རྣམ་པ་ལྷ་མོའི་གཟུགས་སུ་སྒྱུར། །
nampa lhamö zuk su gyur
Yet you appear in the form of a goddess,
ངོ་མཚར་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ། །
ngotsar gyutrul sam mikhyab
A wondrous and inconceivable manifestation,
ས་བཅུའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་མོར་འདུད། །
sa chü wangchuk chenmor dü
Great Lady who has mastered the ten bhūmis, to you I bow!
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་ཀུན་རྗེས་ཆགས་ཀྱིས། །
deshyin shek kün jé chak kyi
To all the buddhas who regard you with their love,
ཡེ་ཤེས་སྤྱན་གྱི་ཟུར་མདའ་གཡོ། །
yeshe chen gyi zur da yo
And glance at you with their eyes of wisdom,
སྙོམས་འཇུག་བདེ་ཆེན་མཆོད་སྤྲིན་བསྟོབས། །
nyom juk dechen chötrin tob
You offer great cloud-like gifts of blissful union,
དགྱེས་ཡུམ་ཆེན་མོར་གུས་པས་འདུད། །
gyé yum chenmor güpé dü
To you, the great mother of joy, respectfully I bow!
བློ་ལྡན་གང་གི་མགྲིན་སྙིང་ལ། །
loden gang gi drin nying la
As you enter the throats and hearts of the intelligent,
ཞུགས་པ་དེ་ཡི་མོད་ཉིད་དུ། །
shyukpa dé yi mö nyi du
In that very instant, they become transformed,
སྨྲ་བའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོར་བསྒྱུར། །
mawé wangchuk chenpor gyur
And are made powerful masters of speech—
བློ་གྲོས་མཆོག་སྩོལ་མ་ལ་བསྟོད། །
lodrö chok tsol ma la tö
To you, bestower of supreme intelligence, I offer praise!
དེ་ལྟར་བསྟོད་པའི་བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱིས། །
detar töpé jinlab kyi
Through the blessings of praising you in this way,
(then purify with Om svabhavah shuddoh sarva dharma svabhavah shuddoh, 'ham. Sarasvati disappears into the Om at her heart, from which grows a lotus, which opens holding a moon disk supporting White Prajnaparamita with Om, Ah, Hum in her Three Places, while invoking her)
Om namo Bhagavatyai Arya Prajnaparamitayai
Oṃ āḥ dhīḥ hūṃ svāhā
(auspicious number of times)
At this point visualize white light emanating from an Om syllable on the forehead of the Great Mother and striking your forehead (third eye chakra). This purifies all physical and karmic obstructions that you have created and Prajnaparamita empowers the body.
Repeat her mantra:
OM GATE GATE PARA GATE PARASAM GATE BODHI SVAHA
Now visualize a red syllable AH at the throat chakra of the Great Mother. It emits red light that strikes your throat chakra and purifies all negative obstructions created with your speech. Imagine that you have received the speech empowerment of Prajnaparamita.
Repeat her mantra:
OM GATE GATE PARA GATE PARASAM GATE BODHI SVAHA
From the blue seed syllable HUM at the heart chakra of the Great Mother there ensues blue light that strikes your own heart chakra and purifies all obstructive forces created by your mind. Think that you have received the mind empowerment of Prajnaparamita.
Repeat her mantra:
OM GATE GATE PARA GATE PARASAM GATE BODHI SVAHA
Prajnaparamita as Wisdom Heart Flame
Finally, visualize the Great Mother descending into your heart chakra and residing there in wisdom flame. Now your body, speech, and mind as inseparable from the body, speech and mind of Prajnaparamita.
Repeat her full mantra:
OM AH PRAJNAPARAMITA HUM HUM PHAT
TAYATHA OM GATE GATE PARA GATE PARASAM GATE BODHI SVAHA
You then need to banish her by blissfully melting her throughout your entire body, or send her in to Guru. This is not a stand-alone sample, it only works within a legitimate Mahayana practice. It's not specifically much other than Kriya. Sarasvati is making you a Kavya, or i. e. is helping you to the next branch of Agni Yoga. So far it does not seem we have moved an inch or contradicted Agni. We are simply greeting his daughter or Daiviprakriti.
In the exercise, she has started from a twelve year old kumari with crest of Amitabha, carrying her syllable in the magic mirror, a Pandara who is the Prajna for the Age or Eon we are in. Pandara is along with Amitabha Buddha And Avalokiteshvara--Tara Bodhisattva. The deity next becomes a figure influenced by all Five Dhyanis, as shown by two lotuses, doing a Method of Vairocana, and using teaching gesture. In this example, the teaching is Three Syllables, to which her personal mantra is stating this is a dhyanic meditation upon it. Her first syllable, Hrih, is itself also triple and the main deviation here is that if you follow the symbolism, it has taken White Bodhicitta and Akash normally associated with the head, and placed them into the throat, Ha. Equivalently when nectar is produced, it starts to move in that manner, raining from head to throat--Mahasukha.
We have some other Taras that we can do something with on a somewhat preliminary basis, but really, if one was to move to the next thing past Guru Yoga, I would suggest it to be this Prajnaparamita Om Mother form and method. Something very close to along these lines.
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So far, this seems to pretty strongly fit later with an intense Six Arm intersection where the one Red Vajra form of Sarasvati exists. Indicating the next level of Eight Arm Yellow Three Mood Marici who becomes 3x3 or Nine Mood Picuva Marici. Then she has some importantly reticent Ten Arm forms. These are her White All Planets form and her fat Red consort to Hayagriva. So we see from the Six Arm mire there is the initial All Planets Tara, Parasol as Grahamatrika, rising to a Vajra process which grafts it to Marici. Meanwhile it appears that Prajnavardhani in this mantra winds up as a Dharini goddess of Amoghasiddhi.
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This teaches how to use it to generate a "Hum" deity. These begin with Arrow Dakini also called Pitheshvari Tara; Ekajata also from Hum before using other versions.
The Three Syllable Dharani of Vajrayana is ''om-ah-hum.'' One first visualizes an ''om'' syllable, which symbolizes the entire universe, appearing in the void. The ''om'' syllable is inhaled through the nostrils into the central channel, then descends to one's heart chakra. At this moment one's heart chakra transforms into an eight-petalled lotus. One visualizes an eight-petalled lotus with a sun disc in the center of one's heart. The ''om'' syllable is on the center of the sun disc within the lotus in one's heart. Push the ''om'' syllable down with the breath, contract the anus while lifting upwards, and then exhale the ''om'' syllable.
Next, visualize an ''ah'' syllable appearing in the void. Inhale the ''ah'' syllable the same way as the ''om'' syllable. Push the ''ah'' syllable down with the breath, contract the anus while lifting upwards, and exhale the ''ah'' syllable.
The third visualization is a Sanskrit ''hum'' syllable appearing in the void. As for visualizing colors, the ''om'' syllable is white, ''ah,'' red, and ''hum,'' blue. One then inhales the blue ''hum'' syllable while visualizing the ''hum'' descending onto a sun disc in the center of the lotus within one's heart chakra.
Following visualization of the blue ''hum'' syllable inhaled into the body, one contracts the anus, lifts upwards, and holds the breath. Then visualize the blue ''hum'' syllable change color to yellow. The yellow ''hum'' syllable transforms into Humsvaranadinitara who resides atop an eight-petalled lotus within one's heart. Humsvaranadinitara gradually enlarges to exactly the same size as practitioner.
''om, ah, hum'' are all inhaled. One holds the inhaling breath, then exhales the ''om'' and ''ah'' syllables. One does not, however, exhale the ''hum'' syllable. The ''hum'' syllable remains and transforms in color from blue to yellow... As for the ''om'' of ''om-ah-hum,'' it is inhaled. The inhaling breath is held tightly then exhaled. The second syllable is inhaled and the breath held tightly, then exhaled. The third syllable is inhaled but not exhaled.
Two main things happened with Tara that were invisible.
In this line of questioning, many of the verses started giving esoteric Mudras that match unused or obscure forms of Tara. These are starting to fit together. Except verse nine which is Varada in most lineages although now it too is found to use another special mudra. So now we may immediately start to see, not a basic set or general list of mudras, but what Tara seems to be talking about in her original praise, very powerful. I was forced to include a technique I wouldn't have mentioned.
In conjunction with this is the emergence of the Vajrasattva-alike method of her. At this point you can quickly scroll over her images and you get the Green Taras, then Prajnaparamita who is the true and correct source of the rest, and a close picture of the flow of the rest based on the evolution of a mostly peaceful White goddess. It's not in linear order but it shows. So much of the available material is suffused with wrathful forms, and so what we are showing is this is a necessary part but it does not dominate. Just as we would heavily refer to the Indian Vajrasattva Tantra based on a mainly White male deity, here if we draw based from White Sita Tara, she arranges herself into a remarkably similar operation.
Our Namasangiti starts with basic Om, and if one was to do additional mantra, it would originate from White Prajnaparamita Tara. That's it. These are merged. Two of our Families are now together, Namasangiti and Tara. The simple White Prajnaparamita has no third eye or flames or any of that, just vajra feet and teaching gesture. She is the Om Mother and she is also very hard to find the proper basics for. But she is the necessary step in adding syllables, or she is the beginning of adding Mantra to Paramita. Samaya Sita Tara. So we have about the only classical picture of her. Very plain. That's the first change and very poignant. Further along, she's pursued by Ganesh. That should be screaming obvious. It's never translated.
The verses are not in order by this vision of an arising White goddess, but if you take them in loops and lobes, it's pretty easy to track her evolution. It leads us to Sita's Five Buddha form that is wanting to pick up her Hydra, and this image or practice has practically vanished. This can easily be seen started on Janguli and then evaporates. The lore around this level of goddesses is quite peculiarly akin to the secret Tsonkhapa method at Death Mountain in Sichuan as well as Maitreya temple in the Hidden City in Mustang. And as they accrue this similarity they eventually go to the same Dhyani who also has a unique goddess set found nowhere else than our mandala.
Janguli also belongs in this unique class of deities called Dharinis. This knowledge and practice is evident nowhere. However, this goddess set has its own room at Ellora, and is made in a "chess set" fashion in the Forbidden City of China. Nothing else in the cosmos can make that claim. The Dharinis themselves are nursery rhyme nonsense like "ittle bitty snakey wakey" that have no literal meaning, but can only be an attempt to set vibrations conducive to a samadhi or form of enlightened consciousness. So a good chunk of the mandala with special goddesses is after the Taras. We're trying to have a snake bites its tail kind of reunion. Some of the parts will never have pictures or information. We can say the basic White Prajnaparamita goes in the Dharanis under her special name.
It is hard to add anything more to the post but it combines the huge Tara exhibition with Dharmadhatu Vagisvara mandala which has never been done in one place that I know of. They are supposed to integrate. This particular way of arranging Taras differently works quite well with what we can see of her development in Vajravali, which is untranslated. You can feel the flow and the cycles more easily, it's almost animated. She's untying knots.
Dancer version of Nine Rasas:
Greece had four Dramatis Personae, Tragedy, Comedy, Satyr, and Mystery. It's a little bigger from India:
Color associations:
Shringar or Rati, pale green, Vishnu; Hasya, white, Harata or Ganesh; Bhaya, black, Kala; Bibhasta, blue, Shiva; Santa, white, Vishnu; Adbhuta or Vismaya, yellow, Brahma; Karuna (tragedy), grey or dove, Yama; Raudra or Krodha, red, Rudra; Vira, pale orange, Indra.
Originally there were eight, and the ninth, Santa, was added by Abhinavagupta after considerable struggle for three hundred years. This and later additions do not have a concrete color and deity scheme. Soka or sorrow became equivalent to something, probably karuna, tragedy and compassion.
Probably not identical, but related to the mudras and colors standardized on deity firgures. Of course, White Peace was always standard on these, even if not recognized by playwrights until 1600 or so.
The answer was quickly given about verse nine. Yes, it is easily found there is a Varada Tara who lacks much substance and is hard to distinguish from a couple other kinds we can work on. She maybe has one other color than them.
In following the thought of Mudras, the answer turns out to be Vasudhara.
In Nepal, Vasudhara is the Tara that guides one from early meditation to the door of initiation. This is in conjunction with Vajrasattva and Manjushri. From studying her, this really proceeds straight from Agni yoga. She has continuity from Prajnaparamita through basic colored forms providing essential functions, and fairly directly instructs one to Generation stage and keeps going as a consort.
Her realm is what we need to work in to solidify familiarity with colors, names, families, syllables, forms, and so on. She gives the syllable Srim and has a rosary well worth attention. Vadiraj Manjushri is probably equally important--he draws out the Blue deities for the Wrathful rite. But Vasudhara will mostly do everything else from initial Solar Plexus to Celestial Palace. She doesn't really stop, but this is the main area to learn as personal practice without initiation, which employs most of the Indian Taras we expected the system used.
So the rosary style for Sunday comes below, and we will try to extract her larger dharanis from other languages.
We found the huge gaping hole about the special Amoghasiddhi White Taras has such an extremely close resemblance to what happens in Right Hand Kashmir Shaivism that this will have to stand in place when it comes up.
We are doing something similar to Kalachakra, which is an Akshobya tantra that incorporates Prajnaparamita as Vishwamata and fuses her with Vajradhatvishvari. In a similar manner, we have taken Prajnaparamita as the main root, or occult practice after a basic Green Tara. Because Sadhanamala is not fully translated, we cannot see the actual set of meditations that would like to be placed here. The logic is Prajnaparamita driven through ascending exercises to grander states. This exists, but, the writing is really in knots, so it could really use a post about which number of Tara and then which supporting post like a table of contents. We may respectfully decline to use Vishwamata since we are not Kalachakra initiates, and instead for these purposes we will eventually fuse Prajnaparamita with Marici.
Post 326 picked up Voice of the Silence and starts a lot of information about Reds and so forth until we get enough about the certain Taras to make their own posts. This is her somewhat "in order":
3. Prajnaparamita developed in post 350.
19. Sita is in 345 and Parasol is in 346. They are almost the same, but Parasol's practical development is a bit later around Usnisa. She seems to be based from Seven-Eyed Sita.
15. Mahasri post 340.
13. Janguli is hidden in Vajra Tara's post 339.
20. Parnasabari because she is a Kriya representation of Three Colors, Families, Tri-kaya. Mentioned in 344.
9. Vasudhara because Pratisara is her Outer Activity; moved her into 344 with Sabari so that Yellow basics make themselves known.
4. Usnisa Vijaya. She was covered earlier with Wind Horse and the mantra. This is now linked to where she was mentioned. That stream is different from Usnisa Long Life Trinity which is a little different from this study.
17. Mahattari post 342. Here we are in the area of the erased material and are comparing the Buddhist skeleton to the Shakta/Shaivist map.
21. Marici post 347.
5. Amaravajra post 333.
About the only next bigger one might be Cundi. We might put her in normal Sarasvati. We don't talk about that one much (2), she is the same as you might know anywhere, instead, we recruit her for Prajnaparamita's business. The links in the main post are working but this will help finish the support. There is so much branching stuff, it almost doesn't work like this. But we want to fashion something very close to a step by step development of Prajnaparamita with the corresponding art, texts, and meditations that are available.
By now most of the Taras we want are in the roster, although we haven't changed them all and more might have to come in. But we have to have this main middle trend. This way it correctly starts the science of mantras and also picks up those deities which are allowed as outer practices and still focusing towards a kriya style meditation which catches a rocket of beneficial dharma. That remains somewhat orthodox although some things we are saying are esoteric or inclined towards a fairly specific in-house philosophy. The way it comes full circle to the final Namasangiti mandala is immaculate. This simply must be in good working order before the final part can be considered. Right now we have Tara explained with the last mandala of the Namasangiti series that comes before the post, and after it comes the rest of her, and when done that is 2/3 of the folks. Or, she will introduce us all, but her conversation balloon has to be fully inflated before the quiet ones speak.
Vairocana Abhisambodhi Tantra showed up and, this is more or less the root tantra of Three Families as Guhyasamaja becomes for Five. Also it is hugely emphatic towards what would have been called Nirakara or imageless state of mind.
I do not speak much Vietnamese but can tell when they study the same Sanskrit system. What got my attention is that it invokes Kamala Mukhe, Kamala Locana, Kamalasana, Kamala Hasta, Kamala Bhamuni, Kamala Kamalasambhava, Kamala Ksara, then Namostute. She evolves from minor forms to Six Arm. She then is with Red Jambhala (another Sakya Completion Stage deity). These accompany the mantras Om Jambhala Jalendraya Dhanam Medhi Hrih and then Om Dakini-Jambhala Sambhara Svaha. Among her other basic mantras, we see Om Laksma (Lakshmi?) Bhuta-Mani Vasiniye Svaha. There are then large amounts of mantras culminating in Hrdayam Lakshmyai. Her Dharani comes next. It's over forty pages of something we might like in English, but we can see the same kind of thing coming together.
We are unlikely to find her Green form with coven, but aside from her Stupa style where she is between Lokeshvara and Vajrapani with other male deities (who also accompany Buddha's enlightenment), here is an unidentified style which is a lot of goddesses. There are eight on the petals, then four corners, and four gatekeepers, so this is possibly the coven mixed with Pancha Raksa:
Her outer expression is just people at an altar, and then there are those who have successfully invoked her. The ring of petal goddesses all have four arms, I think the Green one's are folded, if so due to the white shirt it would be Durgottarini, there is no book. Towards the upper right is a Ten Arm Red who perhaps is Bhutadamaru Kurukulla.
Vasudhara has an uncommon Six armed form, depicted here from her personal text Vasudharoddhesa (according to the Met):
With her extra hands, she holds a Prajnaparamita book. She is conceived as simultaneously Prajnaparamita and the center of Pancha Raksha (in the corners). I am not sure why they consider Prajnaparamita as the center of Pancha Raksha. Red Avalokiteshvara and Green Vajrapani are in the center. Vajrapani is the prerequisite for her chance at Takki. In terms of goddesses, she is over her own Ila Devi or Two Arm from. The red gate ring has Yakshis in the corners Gupta Devi, Sagupta Devi, Sarasvati Devi and Chandrakanta Devi, and in the gates, Manibhadra, Purnabhadra, Dhana and Veshavarna. This way she may also be shown in a stupa or in a general box format. We will not find the special Green Vasudhara mandala, so this is one kind of approximation. Again--and this seems to be frequent--the top appears to house seven dhyanis, which no one has a guess about.
So she has 108 names and it is suggested to do this morning, noon, and evening. It is difficult to determine which exactly the names are, but they're all in the strotam. Twenty verses for recitation:
Arya Sri Vasudharaya Namastottarasata
Nama Srivasudharayai
(homage to the glorious vasudhara)
divyarupi surupi ca saumyarupi varaprada
vasudhari vasudhara vasusri srikari vara
divine in form, exceedingly beautiful, gentle in manner, giver of boons, possessor of wealth, bearer of treasures, resplendent with riches, radiating lustre, noble,
bearer, supporter, creator, yielder of refuge, devotedly pious, goddess of the perfection of wisdom, one who increases wisdom, prosperity, and intellect,
vidyadhari siva suksma santa sarvatra matrka
taruni taruni devi vidyadanesvaresvari
blessed with learning, benign, subtle, calm, a mother at all places, young and youthful, a goddess presiding over knowledge, liberality, and lordship,
bhusita bhutamata ca sarva bharanabhusita
durdantatrasani bhima ugra ugraparakrama
adorned, the mother of beings, embellished with all ornaments, frightening the ill-tamed, formidable, fearful, ferociously powerful,
the goddess of the perfection of generosity, raining (riches), bearing a divine form, possessing treasures and all blessings, endowed with renown, wealth, fame, and splendor,
scorching, slaying, violent, savage, the mother of all (beings), terrifying the god of death, fierce, youthful, bearing all forms,
viryaparamita devi jagadananda locani
tapasi ugrarupi ca rddhisiddhivaraprada
the goddess of the perfection of effort, bearing eyes that bring happiness to the world, an ascetic fierce in form, granting power, success, and boons,
pure in form, great in majesty, emanating a radiance of the color of gold, the goddess bearing the gem that gratifies all desires, carrying the book of wisdom,
she who has ascended the peak of a treasure, attached to the riches in a treasury of wealth, powerful in the three worlds, affluent, adorned with divine ornaments,
the mother of all Buddhas, a mistress presiding over the sphere of wealth, the goddess meditating on emptiness avoiding the states of existence and non-existence,
vainayaki vineta ca sada klesavicchedani
bhindani sarvamaranam saptapatalaksobhani
a leader, a guide, always destroying defilements, shattering all obstacles, causing agitation in the seven nether regions,
brahmani vedamata ca guhyarat guhyavasini
sarasvati visalaksi caturbrahmaviharini
belonging to the Brahman caste, the mother of the Veda scriptures, the goddess of speech, large-eyed, practicing the four sublime states,
a female Buddha, most pleasing, bearing the vajra thunderbolt, practising the Law, goddess of the sphere of desire, (goddess of) learning, possessing an excellent circle of all-pervading light,
enlightening all beings, bearing the seven factors of enlightenment as a diadem, endowed with contemplation and zealous application, conscious of the non-duality of what is non-dual,
promoting the welfare of all, good, bearing the form of a female, walking with measured steps, showing the path of the Awakened, pointing out the way to those who have lost track,
goddess of speech, most tranquil, protector, creator, giver of wealth, bearer of a female form, possessing super-natural power, a contemplative saint, a queen among ascetics,
om śrīṃ vasumukhīṃ svāhā | om śrīṃ vasuśrī svāhā | om śrīṃ vasuśriye svāhā | om vasumati svāhā | om vasumatiśriye svāhā | om vasve svāhā | om vasude svāhā | om vasuṃdhari svāhā | om dhariṇi dhāriṇi svāhā | om samayasaumye samayaṃkari mahāsamaye svāhā | om śriye svāhā | om śrīkari svāhā | om dhanakari svāhā | om dhānyakari svāhā |
mūlamantra |
om śriye śrīkari svāhā | om dhanakari dhānyakari ratnavarṣaṇi svāhā | sādhyamantra | om vasudhāre svāhā | hṛdayam | lakṣmyai svāhā | om upahṛdayam | om lakṣmī bhūtalanivāsine svāhā | saṃyathā daṃ om yānapātrāvahe svāhā |
This does not mention the source or explain the elisions. There is another dharani on the page which says it comes from Inquiry of the Layman Sucanda. Much larger and more of a sutra presentation. The first resembles more of a true dharani, which is similar to mantra, except instead of reading literally like a sentence, it uses a bunch of cute word twists, and thereby it somewhat sacrifices the form to get at the thoughts and feelings.
Sri fairly closely becomes seed syllable Srim, Lunar one. In Ayurveda, It is much like milk in nature, and in qualities very sedating and sleep-promoting. It is nurturing and is also the mantra of the Cosmic Cow in Hinduism as Go-Mata, the Mother-Cow, of which the earth itself as seen as an energy.
The mantra “Śrīṃ” is said to have a feminine and cooling energy that helps calm and cool the mind and is good for anger and rage and other fiery emotions. It relates to shriya (prosperity). It relates to the Hundu Goddess Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and prosperity and also aggravates the Ayurvedic dosha or biological humor of Kapha (phlegm). Śrīṃ as the sound “Sha” relates to the Soma-shakti and Apas or Waters, making the sound of a stream (sha).
So V or Vam for Vasudhara is shared, but Sri(m) is also for Vasudhara (and also starts Cinnamata's mantra). According to the shaivists' rule 23 on mantras, without Maya--Hrim, Trittava--Hum, Lakshmibija--Srim, or Rava--Phrem, a mantra is powerless. In fact, they call broken mantras "cchinna". More of their rules are given by Sanatkumara in Chapter 64.
Her Dharanis equate Vasudhara to Sri and refer specifically to several Paramitas, excepting Sila--Marici. She specifically starts by grabbing the special Prajnaparamita as Sarasvati--Vardhani in 108 Names.
Another way to see Vasudhara is that the consort of Jambhala is not understood to be anyone else. He comes on a Green Dragon in a White Vajra form with four Dakinis who should be basic representations of the families. So Red often has a lotus, but on this old version, she appears rather more like Niguma:
In Atisha's tradition, White Jambhala is considered an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, with other colors being his own entities.
Jnanadakini--Virupa lineage of Samvara tantra places Jambhala's Red form with Red Bharati or Bowl Vasudhara:
The main difference between her and Vetali is that instead of a knife, she holds a jewel. She takes care of Jambhala as Varahi does Hayagriva and Vetali does Yamari. Red Jambhala is most often considered Vajrasattva.
We just kind of jumped passed Takki, but he is similar--has a hook, and is with hook and nectar vase goddess Sukha Bharati. What has happened is the same Vasudhara who was hanging out with a guy who sort of borrowed the Red Color, here, her title Sukha indicates her Sambhogakaya and she has found the high lord of Red:
Both Vajrapani (Jrim) and Kurukulla (Hrim) are involved with raising him, and both those are noted for Bhutadamara or Demon Subduing. This couple are Semi-peaceful: he is a Krodha or Wrathful Deity, but this is not a Wrathful moment. Her skirt is silk and her crown is like a tiara instead of skulls, which are peaceful signs. The nectar vase would be a nice area of his head. So sly Vasudhara is rather intimately dancing with Takki here under a sort of assumed name, Bharati, which can pertain to the Earth, Prithvi, or the world, Mahar Loka, in the influence of Jupiter, Brim. We have already given Manohara the power to put any of those Jambhalas in place. I'd put it this way, if she's there, he'll show up. Likely, as this Bowl gets passed around in different colors, you are empowering the colored Armor and Completion goddesses.
Yellow is just a minor accent figure in Jambhala's practices, which is odd for the Jewel family if this is their color. Tsonkhapa describes him, "Yaksha Jambhala, having the colour of gold, Vajradhara Father and Mother as a crown, three faces, yellow, black and white. With six arms the three right [hands] hold a bijapuraka [fruit], hook and arrow. The three left [hold] a consort similar in appearance, a good lasso together with a mongoose, and a bow. With a large belly and dwarfish in form, the hair is bound in tufts, adorned with jewels and wearing garments of various silks."
So there is such a thing as Yellow Vasudhara as an emanation of Vajradhara. Yellow has an obvious Jewel emanation, a more obscure Akshobya one, and this; outer, inner, and secret it sounds like.
She is often a dwarf to him. So they mingle in Yellow, also in Blue, and here he is Blue and she is a Yellow dwarf:
He is doing his dance called Urdhalinga, while his Mongoose abundantly spews three gems at a time, or, his batteries are infinite for our purposes. Apparently this places the goddess in Peaceful mode. She has Sukha Bharati's items, hook and nectar vase.
And then his Green with her Blue, which is a Kalachakra style:
Next in that series shows them all in Yellow. Eventually he is shown in a Six Arm Yellow form in union with Six Arm Yellow Vasudhara.
So these "Jambhala consorts" are drawing from two card sets, one we have seen before, and the second, Rinchen Terdzo, would be approximately perfect if we could arrange it on a page. It is not explained, but takes eighteen pages and is demonstrably Prajnaparamita as developed in this manner, with Parnasabari, etc., and having as male Yidams some Ganesh and then Jambhala, heavily. Even Mahasri's Spear is in it.
If Yellow Jambhala is pretty vividly Yellow in this set, it may not be out of the question that he is one who can finally turn Vasudhara White:
In Durga terms, White Lion is pacified, or cemetery transcended. If so, according to the series, this entitles them to a heaping platter of good things:
We can meditate upon them this way, they cannot be in union. I suppose they can be visualized in close embrace without the complete union. We are mostly sticking within the first three tantras, Kriya, Chara, and Yoga, but more specifically looking at the esoteric meaning of Gaze, Smile, and Embrace, which are prior steps to Anuttara or Enter Union, which itself subtly builds to Enter, Remain, and Emerge in Reverse Order (Abhisambodhi). However we describe what this means.
After the colored cows, Vasudhara experiences multi colors of Jambhala. Via her Red form she is also Hook and can take Takki.
In practice terms, most likely a nasty Matangi prowls up to the cemetery. You have to have the low class heat yoginis firing up the subtle body and stabilize and shut those doors to the outer world. In the end, Jambhala needs to be Peaceful Yellow, but both his natures have to be saturated with various Taras. Thus the role of Ganesh as their gatherer, although he sort of just gets sacrificed to the Sun or Marici or Agni and I suppose Mars is the ultimate benefactor. Ganesh + Elephant Matangi or a high degree of Mahattari is what brews and exudes the White Kurukulla.
In some accounts, Red Jambhala has an elephant head and/or a mouse (a "treasury mouse" that may look like a mongoose) and has thereby osmosed Ganesh. White is considered a form of Avalokiteshvara. Yellow is sometimes holding a lemon or citron, origin of his name perhaps (jambhara), meaning filled with seed (bijapuraka) which is full of semen. White, Red, Yellow, and Green all get Vasudhara. She brings treasure vases and the one who has the most is Mahalakshmi (nine). Yellow, Black, and Green Jambhala have the same mantra. They are not very complicated, and what Vasudhara and Jambhala do is preside at Blessing Ganapati's Wheel, where Ganapati is understood as a disguise of Avalokiteshvara. This torma ritual has already used the vase, with a sprinkler bound to kusha grass and peacock plume, one mentally uses a moonstone vase, within which is a moon disk covered with dharanis radiating golden light. The rays draw in the deities and the mental vase enters the physical one. Then five colored thread is used to contact a vajra to these three deities represented by wheels. Finally is Blessing the Treasury's Riches.
His scale is that Red is almost always shown in union, and Blue is not, and it tramples Ganesh.
They also have continuity wherein both deities have Ucchusma or Scraps form. Neither one is too common, but, from a Bengali catalog of a ca. 1118 Palm leaf of 8,000 verse Prajnaparamita, it uses the same three-panel system we still see, and their identifications are:
1/A17
IS 41958 1/A2
Folio from an Asthasahasrika Prajnaparamita ms: left Samantabhadra, centre Amitabha, right Manjusri Vadirat
IS 51958 1/A3
left Maitreya, centre Sri Potalake Lokanatha, right Lokanatha
IS 61958 1/A4
left Vajrapani, centre Vajrasattva, right Ksitagarbha (?)
IS 71958 1/A5
left Bodhisattva Sarvanivaranaviskambhin, centre Vajradhatvisvari, right Akasagarbha (?)
IS 81958 1/A6
left Mahasri Tara, centre Lokanatha, right Ucchusma Jambhala
IS 91958 1/A7
left Marici, centre Vasudhara, right Parnasabari
Ucchusma is also mentioned in Satsahasra Samhita with respect to Bhairava. Here is a very exacting look at part of Alchi which places it as close to the same age as, and heavily related to, Vajradhara and Tilo and so on. And one of the most unique features found inside is a trio of Ucchusma, Acala, and Jambhala.
Ucchusma is all we can get of Matangi & Ganesh and then somehow absorbed with his other aspects into Jambhala. And the only thing that vaguely resembles a couple in those listed scenes is him with Mahasri. She is a clean freak so, this is a bit unconventional, but he has picked up a sort of elephant power she likes.
Jambhala would be in the second half of Sadhanamala or Taranatha, so we are relegated to what Bhattacarya had to say, which is Ucchusma usually being a Ratnasambhava or Akshobya emanation, but has been found at Sarnath with Vasudhara under Amitabha. Jambhala also has a Six Arm White form that is in union with Vasudhara, but she is not described in this context. Commonly their Yellow would be together in the midst of Eight Yellow couples. The Sadhanamala male deities currently end at Acala.
There is some suggestion the sex-changing Bhurkumkuta is Ucchusma, and, this seems similar to the concept that Wrathful Acala is Mamo Botong.
In any case, there appears to be a melding of Vasudhara to Sri, which persists in being related to Jambhala.
Yamari is invoked in our second mandala, then we want to nail down Vasudhara to get the Activities mantra going in the third while Wrathful Sarasvati comes in. Bhairavi is the fourth mandala. So far the Manjushris only make sense if using Wu Tai Shan; White Jnanasattva in first mandala, then Simhanada, then Tiksna. Blue and Yellow Vimala forms remain. This means Stainless and is also an epithet for Katyayani. In Lotus Sutra, it is Manjushri's Pure Land in the East. So Vimala Manjushri is like Acacia Grove Khadira in meaning Sambhogakaya. Vimalasri also means Niguma and Jnanadakini.
In the literal academic sense, only three Namasangiti mandalas are used, the last ones. The first one happens to be in common with Guhyasamaja, so it has a nudge in the right direction. Of the whole book, two and three are basically vacancies. So we can't quite say "this is the mandala", but from reading the meaning, we are able to restore some proper forms. These bring in Sarasvati and the Wrathful rite. We are seeking to grow this to the point of influence from Five Dhyani Buddhas, which is also to say, learn Five Colors of Tara. This bridges right into the lore given in mandala three, and so we need Tara done specifically this way to bridge smoothly to the major change.
Namasangiti is set up so Manjushri interacts with Sarasvati in a certain way. After the basic pledge or Green Tara, she goes with Prajnaparamita, the underlying goddess of Mahayana Buddhism. Correspondingly, Prajnaparamita's stages are those of Sarasvati. So we take two different systems, Namasangiti Manjushri and Prajnaparamita Tara, and these unite almost immediately, Tathagata and Lotus Family.
In both cases, we are looking at serious gouges in source materials, largely due to the destructive Mughuls, but also other reasons like complexity, popularity, etc.
In all cases, we can arrive at the meaning. And so we have to replace the formal procedures of mandalas two and three with something as close as possible to the intent, and so here, especially, Tara takes over.
We can't use the Dharmadhatu Vagisvara Dharanis: Sumati, Ratnolka, Usnisavijaya, Mari, Parnasabari, Janguli, Ananta-mukhi, Cunda, Prajnavardhani, Sarvakarmavaranavisodhani, Aksayajnanakaranda, and Sarvabuddhadharmakosavati, due to loss. It has Forest Maiden and three serpent deities, as well as Sarasvati--Prajnaparamita we have used. Nepal's version, which is intended to work with Namasangiti and the Paramitas, is Vasudhara, Vajravidarana, Ganapatihridaya, Usnisa Vijaya, Parnasabari--Prajnaparamita, Marici, and Grahamatrika, one per day of the week.
Parnasabari is possibly Mayuri at Ellora due to holding a peacock feather. Her dharani goes in Varahi's chest in Medicine Buddha.
Parnasabari and Janguli both are in chapter 15 of the Krsnayamari-tantra, invoked in the same ritual. "So now, I will pronounce the ritual meditation on the Noble Janguli. By merely visualizing her, one could cross over water. (1) Visualize her with three faces, and six arms. She is yellow, and forms from the seed mantra Phuh. She holds a snake in her hands and is of enormous form. She loves to ride on her peacock vehicle. (2) To the east, paint Mayuri, with Bhrkuti to the south. To her west is Parnasabari, and Vajrasrinkhala to the north. (3) Peacock feathers, a gourd, a branch and a chain—visualize these (for the other goddesses) and their colors: yellow, red, dark, and blue. (4) The intelligent one will visualize them thus, and recite the mantra: Om Phuh Jah (5) Place (visualize) Mudgara, etc., at the doors (in the cardinal directions) and Puspa, etc., in the intermediate directions. Then, by the Noble Janguli yoga, you can always cross over water. (6) These rituals obviously invoke peacocks or peacock feathers, sometimes flowers, and other “jungle-like” ritual paraphernalia. The siddhis they convey are principally overcoming poison, either from snakes or flowers, and able magically to cross over water. Janguli’s capacity to cure poison was sufficiently important for the Tibetan translators simply to render her name as Dug-sel (ma) (the clarifier of poison).
The Sabaras apparently had no earth mother according to Davidson, source of the above. These are Akshobya's Yellows. White Janguli is more or less Sarasvati with a snake; she's not an artist or scientist. This indicates existence of the Path for those people who are not, because she means an increase in good qualities and paramitas.
Vasudhara compounds any type of Sarasvati, Janguli, Forest Maiden, Earth Mother, with Red powers and Green circle and makes a lot of sense as an over-arching practice.
Cintamani starts this followed by Ila. Sadhanamala itself lists Vasudhara's Akshobya version with minor retinue first, and only says a couple things about her solo. She does not change, all are Yellow, arise from Yellow Vam, doing varada, carrying corn with a gem dish.
Minor Vasudhara's first mantra is:
oṃ śrīvasunidhāna-kṣetre svāha
Her next form mentions sva-bija-hrdayam and appears to have the seal of Ratnasambhava. Her mantra is:
oṃ vasudhārā ratnanidhānakṣetre svāha
Her last version lacks any mantra and indicates her Dharani. Cintamani comes across as a way to start meditations in Jewel Family. So for instance the Akshobya version would work some other way, but Cintamani comes plainly in void with just a syllable for "expansion, enlargement", which leads to her own Hook form. Ila and Bharati are her middle parts which make an inner Apri. This comes close to making Cintamani a Samaya being of the Family. She does nothing but pick fruit (jewels) and try to get Jupiter's size and Rta. This deity source is limitless, whereas Ila is the guide to making one's own and offering back.
Forest Maiden is intercepted separately in Vajra Family.
So Ila isn't much different from Cintamani. It would work much as changing Sarasvati into Prajnaparamita. Cinta would be purified into her syllable and another double emanation would release the new form. Ila is the butter dripping Gopali to show us the way. She is the true "Jupiter" or guru of men, in the inner sense, and not automatically by ritual. She is also considered a sex changer, but as a woman is the consort of Budha--Mercury and mother of Pururavas or Lunar Dynasty. Her Puranic versions often become men except in Skanda P. Her Vedic version is female.
Sadhanamala only has Green Six Arm Mayuri, whose mantra is:
oṃ mahāmāyūrī vidyārājńī huṃ huṃ phaṭ phaṭ svāha
All Jangulis are Akshobya's except for her only Two Arm form which is the Dharani. So if Vasudhara and perhaps Mayuri are also Dharanis and seem to go missing from the mandala at least by name, they are likely there in form. Usnisa is not Reddish White. All have two arms and right hand has Crossed Vajra.
Yellow Sumati with Corn is first--Ila Vasudhara.
Red Ratnolka with Cintamani Banner.
Sita Usnisavijaya with a jar of moonstones.
Reddish White Mari is the name of a serpent goddess, but has a needle and string, so Marici.
Dark Green Parnasabari with peacock feathers, Mayuri.
Sukla Janguli with poison flowers.
Priyangu Anantamukhi with jar of treasure (nidhi) on a red lotus (kalasa)--Bharati
Sukla Cunda with rosary and kamandalu.
Sita Prajnavardhani with a sword on a blue lotus (nilotpala)
Harita Sarvakarmavaranavisodhani has a vajra with three thongs on a sita kamala.
Red Aksayaknanakaranda has a basket of gems.
Yellow Sarvabuddhadharmakosavati has a trunk full of jewels on a padma.
The significance to the last is that the trunk or chest is the same thing as used by the mostly Nyingma tertons. The "nidhi" contents are Sanskrit for the "treasure" revealed in this tradition, but here emphasizes the example of Nagarjuna.
In post357, Parnasabari and Vasudhara have a reprise.
Tara starts from the premise that Green Tara is so well-known that she is probably used by non-Buddhists. However, if someone has an affinity for Mahayana, they will soon be drawn to Prajnaparamita--and as a "text goddess" she has a well-known Yellow Buddha Mother form, as well as a more esoteric White Prajnaparamita form.
What we have done is to mainly look at this last form, who may be called Om Mother, for short. Fist off she is the main basic mantra training, and, she blazes the trail for the whole Path. The fist major cycle of her is about gaining Five Buddhas influence, and the five major colors. The mark of this is Four Arm All Buddhas Sita. The colors have to do with Janguli--Parnasabari--Vasudhara.
Green is the first basic Tara, and the lesson is that this is a compound color, which we are resolving into its constituents. Blue is simply extracted into the Wrathful rite, and then our first Peaceful Prajnaparamita comes in Yellow and White. The green itself is broken down by that, and we want to finish with Vasudhara by getting to its opposite, Red. If someone asks, why these five colors or why is five such a "unit", this is the reason, the reversal of green.
Concordantly, there are certain sounds or syllables that go along with this. So we need this set of Taras to focus on those spiritual exercises which provide these ingredients. Some of these are already started.
Takki and Manohara are a very straightforward use of Red and possibly Pink of Pandara; also the forward element here is a White Spoked Wheel:
Kurukulla is over the affair between Takki and Sukha Bharati, who is Hook and Bowl combined:
This part is prior to what happens to Ganesh. So Kurukulla is a White Sherab, who runs Red Vasudhara. Vasudhara's two main features blend as one here, meaning that very good offerings are flowing and that very good requests are being fulfilled.
This may be the first instance of where we find the same goddess consorting with different deities. There is a very one-dimensional or single shakti use of energy, and what happens is that Jambhala instead enjoys her in all colors. Same way as Ganesh does things. And this is the response of the real inner Avalokitesvara to the Lord of Hosts of the meditator, which itself becomes transcended as a key to Aswin shaktis. So it is only possible for this Jambhala to occur inside Purity of Sense Objects, and he is much like increasing the nectar itself.
Jambhala is trying to show us something by being rather strange about his colors. His White form is usually a counterpoint to Kurukulla. Here she seems more interested in Red Jambhala getting close to Yellow Vasudhara in the lower right:
This central Jambhala tramples male and female wealth deities--which would be himself, or else lower ranks of yakshas. The White form opposes Yellow Vasudhara's encounter with Red Jambhala having a Jewel and Mongoose, his Yellow opposes a strange Green Tara, and his Red Hook form is opposite not Manohara, but a strange Red Varada Tara. And so Red Hook is one of his most significant practices; as far as I understand it, Takki is a Bodhisattva of Adi Buddha, versus Red Jambhala would be the meditator or Avalokiteshvara or own perception of Atman. Om anchored in Hum, universal in individual, Vajradhara--Vajrasattva. Takki is limitless supply to all beings, Jambhala is one's personal collection, offering and treasury.
The same kind of narrative is continuing. Here, however, it is his Yellow form that catches her. And that opposes his solitary dark form:
Then his Red catches Manohara. Kurukulla has seemingly caused activity by White Mirror goddess:
He is showing something about the breakdown of normal color. Here, this is a rare Ratnasambhava emanation, who then emanates Akshobya in the stupa. A Ratna couple is in the upper right with the arrows of Pandara. The lowest Jambhala would be in Five Colors of himself, except the middle is apparently the Amoghasiddhi kind, changed from Green:
The very center appears to be his Blue with her Green, or apparently opposite how Kalachakra has it. Here are different shades of Blue Jambhala:
Again here, the central figure would be an Amoghasiddhi version, without any standard accoutrements. Blue Bharati is in the upper right; the central Blue Vasudhara only has a flower. The very dark Jambhala also has a bowl, but the central one has jewel and mongoose and is semi-peaceful. Blue is using the bowl a little differently, this Bharati is also holding something small, probably a vajra.
Ganesh isn't going away quietly; he gets absorbed into other things as the next main phase after Kurukulla. What he does in the color resolution process comes from an exceptionally weird Atisha tradition, Ragavajra Ganapati. I'm not sure we mentioned the legend, but there is such a thing as Radish Ganesh. He has it here, with a dish of sweets, and there should be a cup of booze. He is multi-colored, and related to the freakish Bhairava style, the difference is, the monkey goddess supporting him is not trampling anyone, instead, more goddesses support her:
Seemingly as a result from the color display, the greater Jambhjala and Vasudhara Yellow forms successfully unite, and here they clearly have mice:
There you could say, the elephant head is gone, Ganesh has been trampled, and all his ability is stored in his mount, the mouse. This seems a fairly close Buddhist approximation to the Hindu version where Ganesh survives to get married. So far, the large Red Jambhala does not seem to gain any consort, and the Ganesh nature of Red has been placed in the hand of Yellow. Red Jambhala does a lot of things and retires or so it looks.
Red Vajrayaksha Manjushri perhaps binds the yakshas and passes the Hook to Takki in a way corresponding to how Yellow Jambhala seems to have absorbed Ganesh and Bowl. Vasudhara is mostly relieved of Hook nature by going this way, and her Bowl becomes standard to other colors. This split seems to come after the appearance of Kurukulla. Red Jambhala is a Hrim deity so, a bit less shrill than the related Hrih of Hayagriva. Red undergoes a process which makes a very strong Yellow as a result, which can be seen in all little Vasudharas turning Yellow, or else the consort version of her Six Arm form. This Yellow Increase could be accurately described as cultivation of the nectar-exuding White Kurukulla. This is subsequent to Red and White being affected by different sexes and beings as the way to cultivate the Two Drops. The Increase eventually becomes Maha Lakshmi's or Mahasri's wealth.
Ila does something similar that goes into Yellow Jambhala. She is the esoteric earth Agni fire and a witness of Buddha's Enlightenment. In most respects it is Gold that is expected to continue as completer of wisdom. Green Tara will rise to a level of Eight Arms in companionship with many of these goddesses, and then she's done. As Green Vasudhara--Dhanada this signifies all of Generation Stage. Yellow will still proceed as Vajra Tara, Marici, Chinnamasta, and so on, or Completion Stage.
Green Vasudhara--Dhanada is the result of mantra building and circle casting which should be taking place at the same time. She seems intended as an ability which is required to see the real Mahasri. So a cusp or border into Completion.
The Bowl, however, will be shared amongst multiple female deities. Both of their items cannot always be seen, but if arranged by these, it would be:
Bowl & Hook, Vasudhara
Bowl & Knife, Vetali
Bowl & Knife, Vajra (Maitri's), or Staff (Indra's), Varahi
Bowl & Drum, Niguma, Siddharajni, Vira Vajradharma (Red Lokeshvara, summoner of Vajrayogini; he is called Takkiraja whose female equivalent is Red Guhyajnana Dakini, Guhyeshvari Varuni, Guhya Kali)
Chamunda (Charchika, Cinnamasta) is the outer consort of Yama Dharmaraja.
Red Jinasagara Lokeshvara works the same way as White Achi Chokyi, or placing one deity in all roles of Yidam, protector, etc. The female Red equivalent is Sarva Buddhadakini.
Kurukulla somehow osmoses Ganapati and passes him to Takki in the third cycle. So Vajrayogini is summoned first, and Kurukulla manages the Lord of Hosts of the meditator going into what is probably the only Activity of Root Guru.
(Wrathful Guhyeshvari) Narasimhi--Nirmanakaya, Vajravarahi (Jnanadakini + Buddhadakini)--Sambhogakaya, Vajradhatvishvari--Dharmakaya, which together are the Three Kayas Chinnamasta or Sarvabuddhadakini.
There is White Vajrayogini, White Varahi, White Kurukulla, in terms of what seem to be increasing intensity of nectar.
Eventually one builds the retinue of Vajra Tara, a female version of the Ten Wrathful Ones of Vajrakila. His retinue is made of deities we have largely shown not to exist outside of practice, such as Hayagriva, Bhutadamara, Trailokyavijaya, Yamantaka, Amritakundali, which are all fairly specific things being done. Slightly different groupings are used in Vajrabhairava and Hevajra. Because this has to do with Kila, it is a degree past initial Wrathful Deities. This stems from Wrathful White Vajrasattva, who perhaps is a corresponding deity for Day/Night Tara and White Jambhala. There you have basic wrathful white male and female on which to impose Kila and other wrathful activity.
"The origin of these ten deities of direction is described in the first chapter of the Guhyasamaja Tantra. In most of the tantric practices of Nepalese Vajrayana Buddhism, the offering and the worship are made to these deities with special rites performed mostly in night times. One such instance is the rite of Initiation of Chakrasamvara in its fourteen aspects. Here Vajracharyas perform the worship of these wrathful deities at the cemetery to clear away the obstacles for the practice of Chakrasamvara. They are invoked to support the practices of these Sadhanas and gain realization of Mahamudra." (Sakya Statues)
Forehead – Humkara (blue)
Throat – Hayagriva (red)
Right shoulder – Vijaya (white)... Left shoulder – Niladanda (blue)
Heart – Yamantaka (blue)
On Navel – Amrtakundali (yellow-green)
In Navel – Achala (dark-green)
Secret-place – Mahabala (blue)
Right thigh – Aparajita (flesh-colored)...Left thigh – Trailokyavijaya (yellow-black)
Besides the Hessian Masonic Lodge, in Hamburg, University has some twenty years' worth of Dhih Journal of Rare Buddhist texts, all in Hindi or Sanskrit. Maybe some good translations will come from there.
According to Circle of Bliss, Kurukulla is a hypostasis of Nairatma.
Next, the Vajra Tara mandala of eight deities has...eight symbols and eleven retinue deities.
The major overall "sequence" display of all Vajravali mandalas follows, being about the process of Vajra Tara, along with Thirteen Deity Jnanadakini (who comes first) and Thirty-seven deity Peaceful Vajrasattva--Vajravarahi (which is last). The middle of it is Eight Hevajra Practices, the Five Dakas, Nairatma, Kurukulla, and Vajra Tara. This is simply called Hevajra Mandala of Omniscient (Sakya) Jamyang, and summarizes his entire sequence of Vajravali. The practices do not follow the order of the text. The second practice, Sixteen Arm Heart Essence Hevajra, already has him in union with Nairatma, so, this is pretty much all Anuttara. Because it is high powered, Jnana Dakini is able to go first. As we expected, all the many vajra practices result in a peaceful white non-dual couple.
It's a little worn out, but, Heart Essence Hevajra is the middle, upper left is Thirty-seven deity Vajrasattva, upper right is Nairatma with Kurukulla beside her, lower right is Jnanadakini, and beside her is Vajra Tara:
The rest of them are mostly Hevajra, Nairatma, Samvara, and Mahakala, although just over the bottom left, he is with Vajrashrinkala.
So we went through a lot of Sita vs. Sri trying to figure them out. Neither one is ever not a name of Lakshmi. Ratnagiri Mahavira is gated by Gaja (Elephant) Lakshmi:
Even in a non-Buddhist depiction, a red and white couple shows up. Speaking of Red, Siddha Lakshmi can also use Brahma or some poor slob as a vehicle:
Around Bengal, she arises from the Sanskrit literature of the Jayadrataya Mala Tantra. In White, she is the patron of Malla kings:
That appears to use the same color shift.
Like the Three Syllables, she also appears in Blue:
Which is her Secret Dark form, Guhya Kali. And this ramped-up Lakshmi may have...she may have waited a bit long for intimacy:
The prior post which catalogues the development of Prajnaparamita, got to Mahasri, and takes many posts of her to even have a clue. It's easy to lose sight of the fact that it is one goddess within all the forms. The point is, all the forms work a little differently; I cannot just draw whatever I like and say, that's Lakshmi, and put words in her mouth and make up things that she does. All of the art is based from Sutras and tantric meditation developed pursuant to those. I'm not very good at visions, I don't think most people are, and so when we talk about highly trained Mahasiddhas that encountered Vajradhara or Guhya Dakini on their own plane, this should be understood as accurate and reliable.
So there would be some reason why here is a double Marici in the south under Mahavidya Grahamatrika:
We still do not have Trailokyavijaya Kurukulla in an image. I am still finding some rare forms that are just a number in a collection, not identified right, or not listed by their name. It's all kind of overdone; I mean, in the one particular Ocean of Sadhanas, there are forty-two kinds of Manjushri. There are too many of these, and not enough of others. Finding the relatively hidden women helps. Historically, there were a few convents, but about a third of Tibetan men were in monasteries. And in households, usually there was polyandry, a woman having multiple husbands. The conclusion is that probably eighty per cent of solitary practitioners above the snow line were women. They didn't leave writings or probably even have disciples. They are, perhaps, more esoteric than monasteries.
The "special" dakini forms are Sarvabuddha-dakini, Simhavaktra, Makaravaktra, and Vajravahari. A personal mantra of the first is:
Om Sarva Buddha Dakini Hri Mama Sakta Svaha
Wherein sakta has its usual meaning or a follower of the Shakti cult.
Vajrayogini takes the forms Kachod Karmo and Kachod Marmo to teach Transference Yoga. This is White Sukhasiddhi and Red Khecari. Here again, Sukhasiddhi is a personal name; Karmo is Tibetan for "white" and so those names just mean White and Red Dakini (-po would be a masculine ending). In Tibetan, Kachod has less of the "witch" connotation than dakini does. So these are "Red and White Celestial Women". By "Transference", it means the moment of death no longer exists, there is no collapse of consciousness when discarding a body. This, itself, is not the complete Vajrakaya, but I think most of us have a hard time making it through the bardo of sleep without lapses.
There are not many more ways to show Sita. We found she is unusually detached from Vairocana, her consort, and closer to Amitabha, considering whether it is really her, or Pandara.
Here, she is descended from herself with an Axe and Vase. The middle figure is probably male; they are not very distinct, but usually the males have a square face and hairline, females are oval:
This is almost the same, but her origin is probably from Usnisa, and there seems to be a Yellow Akshobya, by his gesture:
Here is another Peaceful assembly, where you can easily make out Pink Pandara and Emerald Khadira, but then Vairocana and Sita are Dark and Light Blue:
It seems a little sketchy to invoke human names or teachers we have little connection to. Padmasambhava--Yeshe Tsogyal are so proliferous, you'd think they started it all. Then it's a bit misleading to say someone "is" Vajrayogini, Sarasvati, etc., we certainly do not think they are avatars. They achieved a high union with such deities. So usually we won't use the individuals or their mantras in practice. However, with the Khecari, when we get to Sukhasiddhi, she is the unique form in the upper right:
The top deity has a unique expression, or something you don't see much of.
We see these deities in union all over the place, but this, too, is not something that directly connects to the human world. So here is an unusual piece of an earthly teacher, Kunpang Sherab Gyatso, who has some kind of mask. The top of the image is shaved off, but, the upper right deity would have a drum. You see she slides down the rainbow, and hops in the shack with him:
The rainbows relate to Sambhogakaya, Illusory Body, Dream Yoga, Five Colors, and so forth. Then the thing that's never really imaged is Dharmakaya. Here, with a Drukpa teacher, Padma Karpo, it connects to the head of the upper-left blue monk, itself then depicted more or less as the night sky:
Lalitavajra's Vajrabhairava tradition is protected by Yama Dharmaraja. Here is the deity in a lively scene with Chamundi:
Tibet's national hero is Gesar, and this is his biography. We recently encountered Guhyajnana Dakini, who is her own unique form and/or certain teachers, and she is the topmost figure here. She was relatively secret or unknown for centuries, but was popularized around this time two or three hundred years ago:
Because the Dakinis or Yoginis have a few different names with fairly specific roles, we will try to arrange those. So far, I think when you look at Avalokiteshvara, and then compare the goddesses, Thousand-Arm White Parasol is produced by Bodhicitta across the line of invocative white sherab deities, Sarasvati and so on. But at the same time, a Thousand-Arm Red goddess is formed, more through Varuni and Guhyajnana, and at full strength, these operate in tandem with Thousand-Arm Red and White Avalokiteshvaras. Green, yellow, and the rest, serve their purpose and are then somehow curtailed or enfolded. At least on a Yidam basis.
So the Tskali cards look like one of the best tools. Portable, you can think about one at a time, or make a whole mandala. Most have some kind of inscription explaining what it is. Practically speaking, if I study the cards, then tomorrow I'm more likely to remember who carries a staff and that sort of thing. This is more like what we're trying to do, than to visualize the entire Dharmadhatu Vagisvara mandala. It's closer to an attempt to learn what that mandala's components are, this one plus the Zhitro really. Next we will do some yoginis from cards.
The initial Vajrayoginis appear to be the next chapter after this one, which ended on a four color deity and what seems to be an appearance of Bharati:
After most of the beginning was a vast tantric workout showing completion stage, Rinjung Lhantab has the following cluster of preliminary forms. They appear to be a change in subject from the preceeding material, and continue in this way until there is another chapter or cluster of different nature.
The next part is intended to show some kind of relationship or association which has to do with the generation of most of the earlier part. These frames are in the order of the book, and it should be fairly similar to Sadhanamala in terms of meaning. In some cases it may read left to right, but sometimes the middle figure is the higher aspect.
Chel or Chal tradition of Vajravarahi has the ghona, which would be the main difference between her and Bharati. This one starts on the left followed by Red Maitri Dakini on the other side:
From context, the middle figure is Sarvabuddhadakini, which is Naro Dakini pouring blood in her mouth, considered the immediate precursor to Cinnamasta. That makes sense moving forward.
In Red, this next Varahi form is very obvious. This sow faced one is called Artasiddhi. She is after ghona Varahi and followed by the correct originally intact Yellow Cinnamasta:
There is apparently a Green Vajrayogini. Her name is Vajrapranava, and this means Om, which is called pranava, here prior to White Maitri Dakini. Perhaps because of the raised knife, and not trampling anyone, the Yellow may be called Vairocani. The website seems to be suggesting the first two are Cinnamasta's companions:
The first three Red Yoginis are pretty well-known, Naro's, Maitri's, and Indra's. We have covered these, and, for the most part, Indra's holds the staff that is common to many other kinds. Maitri's may have a dorje instead of knife, and may be white, as above.
In Brahmin Shridhara tradition, Varahi acquires attendants. Kurmapadi is the first Yellow, then Varahi with retinue:
Vajradakini is the white form at the end of this, starting with Reversed Vajrayogini and Black Krodha Kali Wrathful Varahi:
So that starts from mantra or a yogini, which is Nirmanakaya, and increases to Sambhogakaya activity, shown by dancing and so is called a dakini for this energy.
She is followed by colored copies of herself, and then multi-colored copies. The next change in form is this last simple White Vajrayogini. In Shakyasri tradition, that kind of Vajrayogini is also called Vajravarahi, without adding the Ghona, or snout. Shakyashri's Varahi is one of the few with a vajra instead of a knife. This is the last multi-colored knife-wielder, followed by two poses of Vajra holder:
That is the end of the ladies and it goes back to Avalokiteshvara. We are looking at this one since Sakyasri is an advocate of White Vajrayogini, and appears with her and White Prajnaparamita. She is a prior stage of White Samvara and Amaravajra. Correspondingly, Manjushri was rewarded by Guhyeshvari and she taught him the Samvara-Yogini method. And so Guhyeshvari is the Red counterpart of that White one.
Buddhashri (1339-1419) was the principal teacher of Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo, the founder of the Ngor sub-school of Sakya. This lineage shows Four Arm Sita and is one of the only places she can be found. On his portrait, in the middle of the bottom register are Sita Prajnaparamita and Sita Vajravarahi, both white in colour and functioning as Wisdom Deities with the purpose of increasing wisdom and knowledge in the practitioner:
Maitri Dakini seems to give the main mark of Red and White mixed with the power of flight. A Bowl is a fairly constant element, so the presence or grace of Vasudhara is implied. Same also with the staff of Indra Dakini which is Guhyeshvari. White Vajradakini and others largely work with implements of the Red goddesses.
The strength and weakness here is that there are hundreds if not thousands of these available, but the majority are not named. Which is frustrating. They could easily take a set of Prajnaparamita and Vajravali cards and set them up with the story and explanation. Instead, that is what we are trying to do manually. This, traditionally is how the system was learned. You have these to use on your own time, then when everyone gets together in a big hall with a mural or large thangka, that's basically when you would use those versions. I believe whatever could be linked by name has been posted. But this is pretty much what we're trying to achieve. Seven major Tskalis based on Namasangiti, along with Tara from Prajnaparamita, and whatever goes with these. Searchable and linkable, unlike a good amount of the information, which is from a typewriter, a poor scan, or tied in some scripted frame.
This concept is similar to Drukpa Methods. This and the relatively small Sakya system and Vajravali are certain expressions of Sadhanamala.
Vajravarahi-tara-stotra
By Candrakirti
Homage to the Venerable Tara!
1 Homage to the Body of Tara,
Great Sow (Varahi) of Emptiness and
Compassion! Homage to the Speech of Tara,
Perfection without words, thought or
speaking! Hlomage to the Mind of Tara,
the mind of immaculate Moon of Gnosis!
2 Moonlight dispelling samsara's darkness
like an o'erpowering solar disk!
To Tara, endowed with the qualities of
Method and Wisdom, I bow forever.
3 You always love migrators like Your children,
and fix the three realms in the three
Liberations. Living in the Khadira Forest,
You save us strongly from the eight fears.
4 Tara, I pay homage to You.
In the Pure Land Abhirati
You show the form of Vajra-dakini,
Tara, homage and praise to You!
5 In the Pure Land Glorious
You show the form of Ratna-dakini,
Dispeller of migrators' sickness of sorrow,
Tara, homage and praise to You!
6 In the Pure Land Sukhavati
You show the form of Padma-dakini,
Living in the state of Great Bliss,
Tara, homage and praise to You!
7 In the Pure Land of Visuddhi
You show the form of Karma-dakini,
Helping migrators with the four rites,
Tara, homage and praise to You!
8 In the Pure Land Ananta-madhya
You show the form of Paramita,
With the assembly of Buddhas of ten directions,
Tara, homage and praise to You!
9 In the Pure Land of the eight charnel grounds
You show the form of Vajra-varahi,
Amidst a blazing mass of fire,
Tara, homage and praise to You!
The praise by the pandita Candrakirti is complete.
That is how long it has been since both volumes were published in Devanagari characters, since 1968. I was able to track down Volume I which has been redone in Roman characters. There is no table of contents, and not a lick of English or even Tibetan anywhere to be found. Because of the diacritical marks, it's in some special font that can't be searched. So it's pretty clumsy to work with. Of course I can't read prose narrative or even basic sentences, but I can find all of the related terminology to what we have been studying.
Since this is a genuine article, I am pretty surprised no more translating has been done. Comparatively, Mr. Bhattacharya translated portions of the whole thing, and so Volume I does not correspond to the first half of his version, because he arranged things in categories. He dropped everything considered Green Tara into one section; however, in the real thing, she is sprinkled in between other stuff. The majority portion, from 89-228 in these sadhanas, are goddesses. Upon examination, the book definitely has its own Tara evolution, which is not at all the same as any of the existing systems. Instead, it is almost exactly the same as the guesses I took at it based from the art and fragments available elsewhere.
I was not completely correct down to the last detail. However--and I think this is noteworthy--the one I have been calling "missing Six Arm Sita" turns out to be almost exactly what was expected. This is in fact so clear and simple that disregarding her seems foolish. For a note to remember her, there is a name right in her title spot like they all have, Sukla. This does mean white and purity like Sita, but moreso it means brilliant. It might mean radiant, but the impression I get is diffuse, like moonlight. Either way, that is the name designated for her, Sukla Tara. That is not used anywhere else. It is used as a designation to certain names, such as Sukla Janguli, or just internally as the color description, but this is the only plain title of it.
The way the goddess section is set up, it starts with four simple Green Taras. Unlike in the translation, a few more are stuck in other areas, and these have more detail. This obviously makes a pattern of basic well-known pledge Tara, who, over time, leads to something more. And so the ones who are leading to more include the ones that have been surgically removed from any modern Tara lists, Dhanada and Durgottarini. The impression I had was that Dhanada was giving you entry to the Prajnaparamita stream, Durgottarini was a stage of purification in it, which would enable Vajra Tara to become known.
This is how it actually works. In all likelihood, what these Taras are teaching is very similar to the way meditation has been preserved in Tibet, but here is what I can see so far. Mr. Bhattacharya told us that Sukla entered the charnel grounds, and any disciple will understand this placement. However, what he did not mention is that she then produces Vajra Fence. I don't really know if Hindus use this, but any Buddhist student will understand. This is a definite degree or stage in meditation practice.
After her is a very brief Janguli and then who comes round--a forgotten Green Tara with more detail. In this case, it is Dhanada, and what she does is explain Ground, Fence, Canopy, and Encircling Blaze. After this is a bit of Sragdhara, and then it hits Vajra Tara, which is a major explanation. Most of these sadhanas are relatively brief, but this is several pages of explanatory material. She adds in Offering Goddesses and gives the Four Activities mantra. After her is a Dhruvam Arya Tara, pole star, or else fixed, constant, permanent, and this is Durgottarini. She is probably the apex or the final of Green Tara, at least in detail; Mahasri is later, but brief.
After her is a reset where it drops to the basic White Taras that have been forgotten. This runs briefly until you get to Mahasri, who is presented like basic Green Tara with four companions. She only appears one time in this book. The thing is, we can go back centuries before Sadhanamala, and to pretty much any other practice in Buddhism, and Mahasri is Pandara, not Green. Pandara assumes the Long Life role that was swiped from the White Taras just prior to this one. The interposed Taras were Prasanna and Bhattarika, a name I have never heard of, which means Noble Lady or Tutelary Deity. After her is a large amount of Janguli and Ekajata. Is that some kind of Janguli pattern, she came up once earlier, and now she is going mad, yes, this looks similar to the way we planned on using her. This leaves about another 100 sadhanas to go.
There comes another big batch of Vajra Tara and Kurukulla, Marici, Sarasvati, and so forth, and then it is missing some like Cunda and the lists of Paramitas and Dharanis and so forth.
I am going back through the posts and trying to mix in whatever I can get from this, and we will have to take mostly Tibetan commentaries and instructions. It would be correct to say that the major part of this whole thing is the same as Kalachakra. However, we can arrange it in such a way to work with non-initiated Kriya tantra meditation, while, at the same time, removing most of the extraneous ritualized behavior of Kriya.
I believe this is the Profound View of Manjushri and Nagarjuna, closer to the original Indian system concerned with knowing it inside for yourself, and is about the awakening mind, Mahamudra.
The original meditations like this were based on Amitabha in Sukhavati Sutra and then Manjushri mulakalpa. So Amitabha is carried forward in Tara--Avalokiteshvara as Dhyani Buddha of our current world. And we recently started looking at a few relatively simplified things about using one deity as Guru, Yidam, Wrathful, Dakini, and Protector. This may seem like it would just be obvious, but, what we don't have is Guru initiation. We can make a fairly deep public knowledge pool for training, but, ultimately, the real lineages are the empowerment chains.
In the past, people might go to twenty gurus, when the culture was favorable. So their meditation framework could constantly shift around by using different Yidams as well. So if we are just trying to get used to what the heck these things are, without an earthly guru, there are a few such unified systems.
As Kagyu I can say anyone is welcome to use Vajradhara as Root Guru, provided you make a Kagyu affiliation. I understand one may attempt Adi Shankara's system by using Sri Daksinamurti in the same way. But widely, in Buddhism, anyone may use Avalokiteshvara, and I have done this as well. I tend to view Vajradhara as the darker secrets beyond what I may be able to perceive as Avalokiteshvara.
The oldest forms of Six Syllable Avalokiteshvara work in all roles. This is Indian and accepted in all Buddhist countries, even if feminized such as Kwan Yin. We have also found that White Tara works this way, however, this is special to the Drikung, and so far it looks like they ask you not to do it without the empowerment. We have described it, and will respect the boundaries. At the same time, from looking at this old Sanskrit document, I did not find a big elaboration on Mahattari. I may be mistaken, but it looks like what she does is propose herself for guru and all those roles. Since Green Tara is such a widespread deity, which from other sources, I for one already know well, it should be no surprise to meet her here as Khadira. She looks pretty much to be the narrator of the main goddess section of Sadhanamala, almost a Green Prajnaparamita if you will. So she is speaking and changes names as she moves into new chapters and offices. If she rapidly provides herself for all roles, what are these.
Guru communicates things that are helpful towards Perfect Enlightenment, which is the Yidam, whose mental reactions to things are the Wrathful; the Dakini is a powerful energy which is destructive unless purified; and a Protector is a divine vibration effective in the outer world.
As a protector, Narasimhi is an example. Lion head. The main importance of this is her role in the solar plexus, so, protecting the mind and harmonizing with the environment happens in this chakra. She is an aspect of Sarasvati, who in turn is the Yidam of Prajnaparamita. So if it is set up in some kind of order, then it gathers any devotee of Green Tara, and makes them a disciple of Prajnaparamita, and moreover, presents her in an expanded esoteric manner, Vajra Tara. At some point, the Yidam would become an aspect of Lakshmi.
This still resembles Suryagupta's Taras, where Green is outside of the forms, if she can be seen as the narrator of a book which is an esoteric or Vajra explanation of Prajnaparamita. But it has its own system of forms. Ultimately it would also be the only record of the full explanation of Namasangiti Manjushri. It runs a similar format for him where it gives Vadisimha and Vajratikshna in line with the early practices. With a bit more patching, the Taras at least can probably be restored in a manner using meditations suitable for non-initiates that is really the source of the many other current systems. With these also established in the "Twenty-one Taras", then this common invocation will only indicate the same thing.
I would not expect the whole Sadhanamala is in linear order, but if we track the goddess progression and summarize her mantra or role:
Khadira with Marici and Ekajata
Mahattari; Varada with Ekajata, Marici, Mayuri and Janguli; then Vasyadhikara, all very minor; these are more or less different postures of Green Arya Tara
Vajra Tara, very thoroughly (including Two Arm White with Emptiness mantra)
Astamahabhaya, Mahacina
Mrtyuvacana (who begets Manohara, Cintamani)
Four Arm Sukla Sita (All Buddhas form)
Six Arm Sukla (Cemetery and Fence)
Sukla Janguli
Dhanada (Grounds, Fence, Canopy, Blaze)
Sragdhara; Vajra Tara again
Durgottarini (Celestial Palace; Dhrum or Bhrum)
Mahasri
Taking the basic order of the book, combined with the method of Nagarjuna, produces this formula. If we send the Wrathful rite on its own track and overlook Eight Fears and repetition, it comes to:
White Vajra Tara
Mrtyuvacana and colors of Vasudhara
Four Arm Sukla
Six Arm Sukla
Sukla Janguli
Dhanada
Durgottarini
Mahasri
This nests between the starting Sarasvati--Prajnaparamita, and the following Grahamatrika--Parasol and Usnisa, and also White Marici and Varahi--Kurukulla, the Drops.
So here, there is nothing that could be called basic White Tara. The name Sita hardly applies. The two armed ones are qualified as either Vajra or Mrtyuvacana or is really Pandara. It would therefor seem correct that the one commonly seen is from Atisha or other source. The cutout part did include Visvamata, who is extremely brief with no mantra, and so if the Kalachakra goddess derives from next to nothing here, then perhaps it is not unusual to suggest the other brief ones are more important than a few sentences seem to suggest.
Considering the formula that would be found with Mahasri with the four companions from Varada, it gives the central sun (Ekajata), the visible sun (Marici), tantric Sita or one who has a manner of gathering all colors as a scintillating hydra (Janguli), and then the peacock who refines all the impurities into majestic flames (Mayuri). These are pre-Buddhist deities employed in a particular way. It makes an alternating Green and White Amoghasiddhi consort. Simple White Vajra Tara has a rather clear evolution into Sukla Janguli which works with meditation stages as described by the Green forms. At that point, there would still be a Grahamatrika stage before the complex Vajra Tara, which, itself, appears to be the subject of the book.
Khadira as given first with the two suns is like an inspiration towards the achievement. Pledge Tara is dark green which starts with the lone Mahattari. Then with the name Varada, giver of boons, she gives you the protectors; Mayuri is definitely classed as such, and we found Janguli carries secret weapons. So then with Green Tara training, this part would come first. According to "Unfolding a Mandala", at Ellora, many of the Taras are somewhat indistinct, except Janguli jumps out with her snakes. She appears with other females in only two places: a Tara mandala (i. e., Varada/Mahasri), or the Dharanis. Mayuri is there, Cunda, Bhrkuti, one with a three-pointed vajra on an utpala, Sarvakarmavaranavisodhari. This type of mandala is difficult to find.
After this in Sadhanamala are the multiple Ekajatas (even Sukla ones), Jangulis, Parnasabari, etc., so the above is something like the primary meditation system which can then be run with various Yidams. Green Tara has progressed from a beginner level to the Palace by relying on some White and Vajra Tara. Most likely, "Mahacina" is Central Asia, "Cina" is China, "Bhota" is Tibet. Ekajati is separate, and probably the "Bhota" version of "Mahacina". Again, reverence of the latter goes back to Vashistha.
If having the complex Yellow Vajra Tara on page two seems out of order as well as extremely early, in the sequence of Vajravali, the upper end deity practice sequence is Jnanadakni, Hevajra, Pancha Dakas, Nairatma, Kurukulla, Vajra Tara, Peaceful Vajrasattva Samvara--the last being fifth in the text. Counting the various forms, the written order of those is 22, 33...up to 35...and then five.
Astamahabhaya, or the form associated with Eight Fears, does, however, give us the key on how to distribute the mantra:
oṃ oṃ svāhā pūrve (east), oṃ tā svāhā dakṣiṇe (south), oṃ re svāhā paścime (west), oṃ tu svāhā uttare (north), oṃ ttā svāhā vahnikoṇe (southeast), oṃ re
svāhā naiṛtyāṃ (southwest), oṃ tu svāhā vāyavye (northwest), oṃ re svāhā
aiśānyām (northeast). So that is only eight syllables, omitting the final svaha, which goes on the vertical axis; I am not sure which way. Those eight don't make a continuous circle, it wraps once in the cardinal directions, and goes around again to the intermediates.
Analyzing the beginning of Sadhanamala, we might say Khadira is not the preliminary invocative form; she was not a meditation that Nagarjuna developed; he was already trained, and she appeared to him. She is "outside" of the twenty-one Taras. Therefor it would really seem to start with Mahattari. You would then have a handful of White Taras...none of whom are exactly White Tara...mixed with a Wrathful, and then Dhanada and Durgottarini, being Four Armed Green. At the same time, it would make a lot of sense to pull Prajnaparamita into this group. That way, corresponding to history, original Nagarjuna's text goddess would come early, and Mahasiddha Nagarjuna's Sambhogakaya-level Tara would be a little higher. You probably have to be able to generate the Celestial Palace, in order for a Celestial deity to occupy it.
It remains bewildering that Vajra Tara is the obvious, primary instruction in esoteric meditation, and she is not translated. I can go and read the whole Kalachakra empowerment--which, as a solitary practitioner, I can never do--but no Vajra Tara. Some would like to give the name Vajrayogini as equivalent, however, Yogini refers to a human or to the Nirmanakaya, which is not really Vajra nature. There is Samaya Tara Yogini from Sanskrit sources like Tara Yogini Tantra Raja, and so one of these is the pledge Tara in the main post. The earliest forms of the Vajrayogini name are red, the majority of them being Varahi. In Sadhanamala, this comes way after Vajra Tara.
The original Tara was likely neither Buddhist nor Hindu, but closer to Ekajata, Blue Wrathful, shamanic or indigenous. Vajra Tara does not show this form, even though it could also be said, original Vajra Tara is Ekajata. This deity immediately follows Vajra Tara in Sadhanamala. I don't think there is such a thing as Vajrayogini in there. Her practice is supposed to be sealed in a Heruka or Samvara initiation (he is sometimes just her spear and less important), wherein she suddenly and miraculously appears as "the consort".
From the short list above and what we are able to decipher, Vajra Tara is pretty clearly a change from a basic meditation to an expanded retinue with additional meanings. Indrabhuti composed a Sukla Vajrayogini Sadhana; whether for the Six Arm kind, I am not sure. We may have already linked Jamgon Kongtrul's White Tara Sadhana and, there again, we can't self-generate like it says, but this one is about Vajra Samaya. That needs a second look because that differentiates it from general "White Tara".
Her big Yellow form is in Vajrapanjara, and a Sakya initiation, but here, at least we can see it must be basically the same as in Sadhanamala.
In some cases, the authors of the sadhanas are included, which gives Nagarjuna as the author of Vajra Tara (96). I believe this matches the simple Indian picture: Sita or White in color, right hand does Varada mudra, left holds an utpala. No companions or special mantra are given, and the Tara mantra is "manasa vacayen", which seems to be, spoken mentally. Near the beginning, it refers to Tara Bhattarika (tutelary deity, Yidam) and guru-buddha-bodhisattva, which appears to place her in all roles. Arya Tara Mahatejah is "Sarvakaryasiddhi Pradayika = One who grants Success In All Attempts". So this one is still very basic, very little different from other basic Sitas except for the invocation, Namo Vajratarayai, indicating a slightly different meaning, and she is fiery (tejah).
Bhattarika is a title, like Arya and Bhagavati, and not really its own form; for instance, Yellow chinnamasta is called Bhattarika Vajrayogini. The sadhana titled as such (116) invokes Kurukulla.
After White Vajra Tara, 94 is a misprint for 97, which is the big yellow one. So was the prior 95, so was 94 and 93 which use the Mothers' circle. Then the separate one at 109 is too. So Nagarjuna's is the only White Vajra Tara having a very brief sadhana, and the rest are probably some of the biggest in the whole book.
If we make a Mahayana commitment, we may use most deities, but we should not do Anuttara Yoga without gaining the lineage. Presuming many of us are in a situation where it is difficult to gain any empowerments, then the study and use of lost forms like Nagarjuna's Vajra Tara or Durgottarini is not much different than using any current deity we also lack an empowerment for. They are evidently producing new Sutras. Arguments could go on forever about this kind of thing. Focusing on the Indian basics is of far greater value than complicating it with innovations.
Wrathful Red Padmasambhava--Mandarava with Garuda
Wrathful Padmasambhava with Phurba
White Avalokiteshvara
Green Hayagriva
Red Yama
Vajrapani
Amoghasiddhi
Not a preliminary because it starts with an Anuttara version of Wrathful Rite. Hayagriva and Vajrapani would be considered advanced in any system. To all appearances, that's very strange to find Amoghasiddhi at the end, not being generally a Yidam or something one has much experience with, considering the others are all famous. Plus, he calls Padmasambhava, Guru. However, since "Ah" is the syllable of this dhyani, one would have experienced that.
One more thought is that a full deity form is itself, containing a simple version of itself at the heart, which contains its primary hand item, which contains its seed syllable. So to speak, the small one (Jnanasattva) comes out, gets operated on, and returned. One's Pledge Deity is the host of the Jnanasattva.
Looking through it all, we see the main Sadhanamala-based Drokpa thangka of big Ekajata with most of the Maricis and Green Janguli. And this same story is around the edges of a Bhutadamaru mandala which is much older (1300s). Something is there about Janguli which is not obvious from the manuals.
We also said you were going to send White Vajra Tara out as Janguli for various colors, and she is slithery and hard to track. Parnasabari is similar to Vasudhara in the way she builds to an uncommon Six Arm Yellow form. She is Wrathful in Red, Blue, and Black. Green is Peaceful and has a Peaceful Vajra nature. She lacks White, however, her greater form specifically calls for a White Jeweled Serpent in her hair, which we can almost say this centers on:
She is under Nagaraja and a simple white couple where Humkara is involved. Conceivably, a type of Janguli Sherab is in use. Furthermore, Parnasabari is Mistress of the Forest, and we understand from Apri rituals and the like, that the Forest Lord means Bhuta--Mercury or One Initiator, who is a mysterious yellow unknown interposed between us and a realm such as Nagaraja's. This shows, in some regards, the White that Parnasabari and Vasudhara lack. And in the forest or as Ila Devi, those both have a "show the way" effect on the Serpent towards the Tree.
Parnasabari has several Fat Wrathful forms and to an extent, we can question whether this is really her. It is still Sabari Forest Maiden, but not parna if she is not wearing leaves. That is like Sitatapatra putting away her umbrella.
This example is close to how she would be as a Dharani:
The plume would be in the other hand and she would have a crossed vajra and no mount, but that particular plume is a mirror or for some reason has a picture of someone's house.
She rarely has companions, but this is unmistakably her, with some more peacock plumage, and who's getting involved appears to be Jambhala but I'm pretty sure there is a breast:
It may be another one of her own forms.
However from taking a clue about Krishna Yamari, here he is as main feature, and she is present and has somehow osmosed the Hydra:
This being from the same Collection that starts with Nagarjuna and includes these serpentine Parnasabaris, and seeing here who is involved. And now having the full hood, she has moved to a position of seniority.
This helps indicate the meaning of her being Messenger for Tathagata Family Mothers such as Marici, Pratisara, and Grahamatrika.
Archeologists refuse to name one of the best-kept Tara artifacts:
The top is well-known as Amitabha with Vajrapani and Lokeshvara. Tara you almost have to call Vasudhara, she is pouring out gems. Beside her is a fairly standard varada pose and another with more gems. At front, these are honored by Naga Kings with serpent hoods. It is easy to see this as Cintamani-inspired Vasudhara, and hard to come up with a reason to call her something else.
We can scroll up a bit to find the same two bodhisattvas in relationship to her. They are part of the path to the serious Hook union involving Guru's Activity as Takki. Meanwhile with Krishna Yamari we find Guru in primordial Dharmakaya form. It seems that Red Yamari is mostly Yamari's Pancha Jina with Vetali consorts, and the dark one here is more of a saga. He is doing something with other deities.
On the throne, we see her varada gesture balanced with Abhaya mudra of Amoghasiddhi, and, this is not in such good condition, but it is an Eight Copies Vasudhara doing the same thing:
Akshobya's Vasudhara is Kanaka or Golden colored and is the one who uses a retinue, and would be related to Janguli and Parnasabari. Here, she does mudras of "new" families added to the Three of Kriya, same as enthroned Tara, and also is getting mutiple colors into her background. The point of her retinue seems to be introducing the syllable Srim.
Her Akshobya version is basically the same as Ila with corn, except he is her crown. And so her devis start forward or East and are Srivasudhara, Vasusri, Srivasumukhi, and Vasumatisri. They emerge from their syllables, which would give Srim, Vam, Srim, Vam. They are all the same, no different items or families or anything. This is perhaps the difference of Bhu and Sri, lower and higher Kamala, Vasudhara and Aparajita. I am not sure, but to do Akshobya or Vajra Family, she would start like this instead of Cintamani.
They changed slightly and nothing starts with S. I am not sure it is truly a mantra, as it does not say "repeat" or anything like that, so if we take the names at face value, S is there.
The current Asian version appears to give five deity names as:
om śrīṃ vasumukhīṃ svāhā | om śrīṃ vasuśrī svāhā | om śrīṃ vasuśriye svāhā | om vasumati svāhā | om vasumatiśriye svāhā
No name exactly starts with S, but the syllable is present.
So it is going to push Vam and Srim into their certain roles, as Aparajita does with Jrim, Cintamani and Bharati with Brim. Each form takes on a slightly different character. So if you do this right, you would not attempt this Sri until having a pretty nice Yellow Vasudhara to start with.
Sri in chanting form becomes seed syllable Srim, the Lunar one. In Ayurveda, It is much like milk in nature, and in qualities very sedating and sleep-promoting. It is nurturing and is also the mantra of the Cosmic Cow in Hinduism as Go-Mata, the Mother-Cow, of which the earth itself as seen as an energy.
The mantra “Śrīṃ” is said to have a feminine and cooling energy that helps calm and cool the mind and is good for anger and rage and other fiery emotions. It relates to shriya (prosperity). It relates to the Hundu Goddess Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and prosperity and also aggravates the Ayurvedic dosha or biological humor of Kapha (phlegm). Śrīṃ as the sound “Sha” relates to the Soma-shakti and Apas or Waters, making the sound of a stream (sha).
For the most part we have taken an ancient Vedic trinity and trained Sarasvati to become Atharva Veda Green Vasudhara. Gopala starts at Jamdhi the base and Durgottarini is the summit of Mt. Meru. One would become skillful with the whole circle, retinue, several kinds of mantra and colors. This would have stable function whereby a Celestial Deity could come to occupy it.
After her forms have been activated, then she is close to such a stage anyway.
Esoteric Vasudhara is the "public face" of Varahi. And this one is supposed to be an Amoghasiddhi version by her crown. This is hard to find, but her faces should be Saffron, Honey, and Vermillion, and here she could perhaps be under a Kinnara which is equivalent:
And then, in this Newari version, if not with Green Janguli below her, it is someone showing pretty much the same thing, and receiving a stream of gems. Around the Kinnara are serpent-hooded Yakshis. In the same way Vajrasattva is the door into any Guru Yoga, this charged-up mystery Vasudhara is the door to Completion. To continue, Bharati--Bowl must be very powerful, mandatory for Varahi.
Six Arm Vasudhara is an Anuttara deity with her own Vasudharoddhesha text. From Pam comes a lotus from which comes Bhrum, then a moon disc with Vasudhara. Here she is Samhbogakaya and her crown emblem is Viswa Vajra (Amoghasiddhi). This kind holds a rosary. In Nepal, she is the link or public face of the secret temples of Varahi, her exoteric double. Her left face should be orange-red of the morning sun, which is Vajrakumari or hypostasis of Varahi as generatrix. Middle face is the yellow of noon, herself. The right face is vermillion of sunset, Varahi in her matured forms.
Here is sort of a reversal of what we keep finding as White Tara being Pandara in disguise. Nothing identified except for 19th century Nepal. White Ganesh and Vairocana emanate an unusual Eight Armed White Tara with the faces of Grahamatrika or Parasol. She has reversed Amitayus or someone like that, and her own red influence is only one face. At the lower edge, if not Janguli, it is close, and in this white-centered version, you find Amoghasiddhi with a whitish serpent hood:
The entities who could be said to gain this hood are Parnasabari and Amoghasiddhi. Their only known relationship is within Dharani. This group could be described as Akshobya deities mixed with Sarasvati and Vasudhara of various names. Vasudhara is at least somewhat intended as Queen of Dharanis. The main Kamadhenu or wealth cow is the Sanskrit alphabet. Which sounds very much like the birthplace and origin of mantras, starting from single letters and small blends of one syllable.
So there seemed to be reason to invoke Manohara or Hook, but this will be used for other things than Takki for a long time. Powers get redistributed. Here is White Jambhala with the Yellow and Red Dakinis having switched items:
Is Hook Ila someone? The reason why this is significant is because we are mainly trying to polish Nagarjuna. And so it is not completely random that Rasavidya is the main term for Alchemy in which mercury is white seed and sulphur is red seed. Rasankusi is the consort of Bhairava here, she is a Gold-in-the-furnace colored alchemy goddess, having four hands, with a garland, trident, gesture of assurance. And so "rasa" means "taste", however it also means Mercury. And her name combines this with ankusha, elephant goad, or Hook as we normally stylize it. In those articles they also remind us that Ravana usurped Kubera out of Lanka.
Tantric Nagarjuna was such an alchemist. And historically, around the 11th century, this Brahmanical alchemy system came into the hands of Siva tantra or they are more or less the sole custodian. Rasankusi is considered Parashakti. According to The Alchemical Body, her mantra is:
Aim Hrim Srim Klim Sauh
Almost the same as Kubjika's:
Aim Hrim Srim Phrem Sauh
These are extensions from Bala Tripusundari:
Aim Klim Sauh
And both five syllable mantras work as the transmutation of five elements in the alchemical rite. However, we find that in Rasankusi's rite, Kubjika is being used as a broom like Parnasabari.
In Buddhism, Vajrapani wields the ultimate hook, and his "goad mantra" uses Takki along with Jah and Hum. That really emphasizes his subjugation of Mahadeva. The difference with Yellow Hook is that she is the only one who can control the reactive Mercury or white seed. This is the ultimate form in the alchemy system. Her highest name is Mercury Hook.
So while we take a White Sherab which indicates a physiological state increasing by degrees, it appears that Yellow indicates atma vidya and control; Parashakti knowledge higher than Sundari; higher Kamala. Vasudhara shows this pretty strongly by being Yellow washed with Red and primacy given to her Ila or Yellow form. She is more difficult and more esoteric, only vaguely available to a beginner level, but if we look at Yellow starting from a simple Fruit Picker, leading us through the Forest and to Meru, everything having to do with the One Initiator, and the supreme Yellow forms of Rasavidya and Lakshmi Tantra, it may be nowhere near as immediate and powerful as Red, but has all to do with its cooling and with completion.
In post360, Vasudhara shows her role in the illustrated version of Sadhanamala.
Prajnaparamita was based on Hrih, and there are five variations on it. Hers is usually written as Hrim.
The idea of "m" at the end of a syllable means it is a "chantable" form--slightly nasalized and drawn out. And so all the syllables work this way. Ha, in chantable form, is Ham, Va becomes Vam, and so on. The written style adds a bindu or dot on a syllable to give it this "m" sound. So this Ksha here on the ceiling:
Looks like this in the ajna syllables:
There is an Om stuck in the middle for good luck or something, the mantra is Ham Ksham, or a chantable form of Ha and Ksha.
Ha (Akasha syllable) is the right eye or petal, and Ksha (Garuda syllable) is the left. The latter is also for Pratyangira Narasimhi. This syllable is already a compound of Ka and Sha, and it is similar in Persian, but in Greek and English it comes out as Chi or X: Xerxes is the Greek name of Persian King, Kshaya-Risha. Sometimes it may go a little differently, if ka or sha was emphasized, so for instance Sanskrit "Ten" is Dasha, becoming Greek Deka. You don't always get a one-to-one correspondence when traveling thousands of miles and years, but generally this pattern can be found. Anyway, try chanting "X" and then try "Ksham", and we will probably find the latter works much better.
So, those ajna syllables are also used in Kalachakra, where Ha remains formless (Akasha). Fifth verse of Kalachakra says: "From the vajra-kāya, described as ten existences, body, awareness, space, wind, fire, water, earth, stable, moving, and the gods unseen and uncreated, originate the site of creation of mantras, and Lord of Men, there again are released. In this way one who understands this properly is not a beast and their mind is free from conceptualisation."
Stable means inanimate, something possessing five elements; animate possesses six, or has awareness added. By "unseen", it means these gods are formless, or are constituted only of consciousness. bindu – moon (body); visarga – sun (awareness); nāda – space; i – wind; ṛi – fire; u – water; ḷi – earth; ma – inanimate; kṣa – animate; ha – formless realm. Some of those correspondences are just Sanskrit grammar. In this list, the crescent shape, visarga, is the sun. The fully-rounded bindu is the moon.
The Vimalaprabhā explains that these letters are to be written one on top of the other, and strengthened, so that the letters "ḷi", "u", "ṛi" and "i" become "la", "va", "ra" and "ya". They then form the Kālacakra monogram, "hkṣmlvryaṃ", with "kṣa" being written below and to the left of "ha", then "ma" below and to the left of "kṣa", and so on.
Om Ham Ksha Ma La Va Ra Ya Sva Ha is how that series forms.
Here, Ham Ksha is Kalachakra--Vishvamata. It also works with Om (Kaya Vajra), Ah (Vach Vajra) , Hum (Citta Vajra), Hoh (wisdom), or, is the highest initiation of the Kriya basics we are starting with.
So with Tara, her first letter is Ta, and the chantable form becomes Tam. Here she is associated with the elements, and there is no dot given to the vowel "A":
Marici is the same way; Ma becomes Mam for her. Ratnasambhava is Tram, which is not as obvious as Ah for Amoghasiddhi. Hum, Hrih, Dhih, and Dhrum are the other important ones. So, at least in many cases, the seed is just the first letter of the name, and in visualizations, they arise from it, just as the full name unfolds from the first letter. In this case, Prajnaparamita is more complex, related to Hrih and Dhih. It is, of course, quite difficult to find Sanskrit letters in a Buddhist context, but they are abundant elsewhere. Each chakra has a syllable. We don't want to go much into hatha yoga and use vibrations to affect our centers physically. Other chakra seeds are Lam – muladhara, or root chakra, Vam – svadhisthana, or sacral chakra, Ram – manipura, or solar plexus (navel) chakra, Yam – anahata, or heart chakra, Om - sahasra or crown chakra. You can see some in the same order Kalachakra puts it.
In mantras, Aham, "I", is often abbreviated to 'Ham. In its own context, Aham Brahmasmi means "I am Brahman". Ahamkara, bringing in the term for hand, maker, created thing, is the ego. The 'ham is like an ellision where sounds of words join, rather than an English contraction like "don't", more like French "je t'aime"; the first just makes the word "not" shorter, the second makes "te aime" a little easier and more eloquent to say. In Sanskrit, "So aham", or "I am that", becomes so'ham, and when this sound is mirrored, it makes Hamsa, "swan", so you get Soham Hamsa. The swan is the adept degree in Adi Sankara's system. Even if we're not an adept, if we tell ourself we're the swan nicely enough times, we'll start believing it. If we believe it, maybe we'll act like it. If we act like it, we will succeed.
Therefor is is grammatically incorrect to say Ham Ksham means I am Narasimhi, that would be Aham Ksham. Sometimes it is spelled hum, because it has a soft sound, whereas the mantric Hum is long, like Hoom. That's just the spelling and pronunciation that has been set up in Roman characters. English is way more complicated; why "good food" doesn't rhyme, can't really be explained, that's just how it is. Something like that in Sanskrit would have a diacritical mark so you could see it. Most Sanskrit words have soft, short vowel sounds; Ham definitely should not sound like English "ham" or a low-sounding "hahm", these kind are all like "sum".
Part of the concept here is to get behind the formation of speech, to see what it means for a single letter to arise from void, and follow the formation of words and so forth into full form. In the average person, there is no awarekness of this, it is knee-jerk and automatic, verbiage spews forth of its own accord, which is the activity of the defilements. It starts upon first waking, which is why HPB suggested awakening tranquilly and pronouncing Om. That's about as basic as it can be, but it does start to thwart the trend of mental chatter.
Hrih is a compound of Ha, Ra, and I (Ya). One Chinnamasta practice involves dissolving it into I, wind (blue drop), Ha, semen (white drop), and Ra, blood (red drop), and moving them in the channels. One should probably not jump into this Vajrayogini stuff just because it is available. Much better off to build it first on its own as a syllable of Prajnaparamita. Otherwise, it is just hatha yoga. Need the grounding and mental work first. Of course, during this time, it can be understood that there are drops, but we need to get used to turning the mind off and back on again in a simple, brief way first, in order to have stability.
So in general correspondences, those are Ha, white, akasha, then Ra, red, fire, and I or Ya, blue, which is wind, not meaning the air element, but life force. Or, as chakras, throat, solar plexus, heart. Put together as Hrih, this is a seed for Prajnaparamita, Amitabha, Kurukulla, and Hayagriva, so it does not follow the pattern of initial letters. These kinds of syllables are not letters, they are combinations, as this one uses three individual letters.
Hrih in Siddham, Tibetan, Devanagari:
In Dharma Sangraha, hri, with no ending, retains its meaning as shame, i. e. to blush. It is immediately followed by apatrapa, understood as conscience. This word also carries the meaning of shame and its opposite, shameless, but the latter is designated as ahrikata, like a negation of hri. "Umbrella" is ataprata, different word.
Unless we know the exception, initials almost always work for deities, such as Am for Akashadhatvishvari and mantra Om sarva buddha jnana am svaha. In her case, it is A with bindu. And so on to Pam for Pandara, Lom for Locana, and Mam for Mamaki.
Curiously, Japan actually keeps the Sanskrit syllables. Tibet does too, their whole alphabet is based on it, but it is all with an accent as you can see above.
Kukai treats Hum as Pancha Bhuta or Five Elements:
That is Sanskrit Hum in the center in three colors. The syllables from the east are ha, u, a, m, although the spoken order is ha a u m. According to the Drikung, "The blue Hung syllable symbolizes the minds of the Buddhas of the three times. It has the nature of space, which is blue, clear, unceasing, empty, and brilliant. In essence it is the Dharmakaya, the nature of reality-as-it-is, which is beyond the scope of words, thoughts, and expressions. The circle [at the top of the syllable] symbolizes Akshobya and the dharmadhatu wisdom. The crescent moon symbolizes Vairocana and the mirror-like wisdom. The top symbolizes Ratnasambhava and the equality wisdom. The letter HA symbolizes Amitabha and the discriminating wisdom. The Aa and U symbolize Amoghasiddhi and the activity accomplishing wisdom. Thus the syllable Hung in essence represents the five Buddha families."
Hum, itself, is blue, but can radiate the five colors:
At the end of a syllable set:
Ha, Ham, Hoh, Hrih, Hum.
In Japan, Ha and Ham are for Ksitigarbha and Acala. Jah, hum, vam, hoh are intended for four bodhisattvas. In Yamantaka sadhana, the white seed syllable KSHIM of Ksitigarbha is on each of the 2 eyes. On each of the ears is the black JRIM of Vajrapani; on each nostril is the yellow KHAM of Khagarbha; on the tongue is a red RAM in nature of Avalokitesvara; on the forehead is a green KAM; at navel a white SAM of Samantabhadra. On the forehead, the green syllable KAM of Sarvanirvaranaviskambhini is to bless the body sense power; the white SAM at the navel is to bless the mental sense power.
Ekajati's seed is Bhyoh (Jo). Ma is the basis for the mansion, Ham and Ksha are Kalachakra-Vishvamata. V is always Vam, never bam, Vam being the Father half of E-Vam. Saraha's Pitheshvari Tara is not a simple Arrow Dakini, she has eight arms and no arrow, and syllables in five places: Bhrum, Hrih, Hum, then yellow A at the navel and green Kham in her secret place, so the one is a bit advanced. Taranatha is silent about Mayuri and Janguli, who have been replaced in the five-deity retinue by Pratisara and Varahi.
Janguli can be a "Jah" goddess; in Sadhanamala, her last version mentions Ah Hri Hum, as well as Jah Hum Vam Hoh. Her first form arises from a white or Sukla Hrih, and this is her syllable mantra. Also refers to the combination Ah Hri Hum. In Tibet, this mantra is kept with Om mani padme hum as a water or milk offering to pretas.
Emanation of the full Peaceful Deities uses Om Ah Hum Bodhicitta Mahasukha Jnanadhatu Ah. Skandha mantras include Om Jinajik (Tathagata), Hum Vajradhrk (Vajra), Sva Ratnadhrk (Ratna), Am Arolik (Lotus), Ha Prajnadhrk (Amoghasiddhi). The corresponding Prajnas are Mum Dhatvishvari (White Tara), Lam Dvesarati (Locana), Mam Moharati (Mamaki), Pam Ragarati (Pandara), Tam Vajrarati (Samaya Tara). This proceeds with all the Bodhisattvas, and also purifies the Catuskoti.
Through the enlightened intentions of the Four Female Gatekeepers, the entrances to the four types of birth (womb, egg, sweat, etc.) will be obstructed, And the four immeasurable aspirations will grow within the mental continuum, While [externally] the four corresponding rainbow lights [white, yellow, red and green] will appear. Here, Om Hum Sva Am Ha forms the basis for the enlightened intentions of the Peaceful Deities. These syllables may also be used in the five main chakras to radiate multi-colored light. This is a good version to go over.
A Shakta version of seed mantras goes:
Prana Shakti: Om, sound shakti: Aim, Solar shakti: Hrim, Lunar shakti: Shrim, Electric shakti: Krim, Magnetic shakti: Klim, fire shakti: Hum, stoppage (Stambhaya) shakti: Hlim, stabilizing (Shanti) shakti: Strim, transcending shakti: Trim.
This is explained further in Shakti Mantras. It follows from the root principle that universal life underlies all, and sound means all vibration, beginning from the first vyuha or deviation or subconscious desire for sound. They do not mention the fact that the syllables include "Ya". However we understand that Hrim is really for Heart; Aim and Shrim are more specifically to Sarasvati and Lakshmi. Krim is Kali and Klim is akarsana--Krishna. Trim is a fiery version of Tara. If Trim is understood especially this way, then Tram is related or is another form. They also include Hum as Agni.
Here are many compounded Shakti mantras in Devi Rahasya tantra. Or Sixty Chapter summary. Maheshvari's should be concealed; it refers to Scraps and to Pisacha. Bagalamukhi refers to Kilaya. And then they give a shakti spelled Mahaturi, described as "the Transcendent Fourth", who uniquely uses "tr" based seeds as:
Om Trum Traum (Trom) Mahaturyai Namah
An alternate spelling Mahaturiya makes her look a little familiar. "Fourth" has to do with Within and Beyond the Three Cities or Tri-pura or Manipura. Everything to do with form vs. transcendence. Turiya is short for "chaturiya", meaning "fourth", in the sense of the silence around Triple Om. Her seed "tr" looks vaguely similar to "turiya", and, whether the sound/spelling blended and separated into this Mahatari being the same as Sadhanamala's Mahattari, one cannot be sure, but circumstances and context push them pretty close together no matter how you look at it.
Planetary mantras may be confused with the shakti the planetary lord is presumed to hold.
If Cintamani is Brihaspati--Brim, a Jupiter seed, there is at least a partial list like these where "Sum" is pronounced with long oo like "Hum" and the others are short:
Sum--Surya--Sun, Som--Soma--Moon, Kum--Kujaya--Mars, Bum--Budha--Mercury, Brim--Brihaspati--Jupiter. The rest are Hrim--Venus, Klim--Saturn, Ram--Rahu, Came--Ketu (also Gam--Ganesh).
Angarakaya is allowed as a name for Mars as Maha Lakshmi is for Sukra--Venus or Rama for Surya--Sun. I believe we may also use "Ca" for Candra--Moon. So there may be minor changes, as some of those mantras are just the initial, and for instance Moon may be Soma or Candra.
David Frawley puts it this way, where Planet plus Shakti is something like Buddha plus Prajna. So for example the "Srim" of Mahasri is placed with "Som" for the Moon:
Sun – Om Hrim Sum Suryaya Namah
Moon – Om Shrim Som Somaya Namah
Mars – Om Krim Kum Kujaya Namah
Mercury – Om Aim Bum Budhaya Namah
Jupiter – Om Strim Brahm Brihaspataye Namah
Venus – Om Klim Shum Shukraya Namah
Saturn – Om Hlim Sham Shanaye Namah
Rahu – Om Dhum Ram Rahave Namah
Ketu – Om Hum Kem Ketave Namah
In this way, for example, the Moon "is" Som--Soma, and however it has Sri for Shakti. Similarly, Shakti Sarasvati is Hrim attached to the sun.
His concept is slightly different, as for instance we mainly use Strim as Shanti or Pacifying:
Sun – Hrim, Harana Shakti, the power to hold, energize, attract and fascinate.
Moon – Shrim, Sharana Shakti, the power of refuge, surrender, peace and delight
Mars – Krim, Karana Shakti, the power of action, work, motivation, and transformation.
Mercury – Aim, Vachana Shakti, the power of articulation, calling, guiding and teaching.
Jupiter – Strim, Starana Shakti, the power of expanding, unfolding, blossoming and evolving.
Venus – Klim, Kama Shakti, the power of love, delight, contentment and fulfullment.
Saturn – Hlim, Stambhana Shakti, the power of delaying, stopping, holding, and terminating.
Rahu – Dhum, Dhavana Shakti, the power of obscuring, hiding, protecting and preparing.
Ketu – Hum, Havana Shakti, the power of offering, sacrifice, destruction and transformation.
Starana as listed there is much closer to Brim and Brihaspati. It has somehow gotten murky and shown up as "Brahm" in the unified mantras. Generally it is Brim in most astrological versions, or Om Brim Brihaspataye Namah. Each planet can be taken through further iterations and layers. We mainly are going to do that with Tara--Shakti for ourselves, like Ganesh, and relegate Jupiter and each planetary lord, so to speak, to his own sphere.
Klim is used by Manmatha and Kurukulla, who definitely carries magnetic Manohara hook power. This one is made of:
Ka--Kamadeva or Krishna or water (Union of Bliss and Emptiness in Buddhism)
La--Indra or earth (same in Buddhism)
I--Tusti or fire (Air or wind in Buddhism)
M--Sukha (visarga)
Nada--wind
Bindu--sky
Klim:
The syllable becomes more common with Varahi and Chinnamasta and at least Hindu Hayagriva. It seems to simultaneously define itself as being Red--Kama--and also Blue--Krishna. As much as Hrim is the Maya syllable, Klim is Kama. Called the deluder of the three worlds. The resolution, or trailokyavijaya or conquering of the worlds, is to orient base desire towards the desire for non-dual gnosis or Ka.
According to Puri Jagganatha tradition, this very Klim is the syllable for him:
"The Kama Gayatri in the daily sandhya practice of Gaudiya Vaishnavas is coupled with the Gopala Gayatri mantra that is the same basic mantra used in Jagannatha temple for daily worship:
klim krsnaya govindaya gopi jana vallabhaya namah
klim kamadevaya vidmahe puspa-banaya dhimahi tan no ‘nanga pracodayat
I offer my worship to Krishna, Govinda, the Beloved of the gopis. May Ananga, Kamadeva, inspire us. I meditate on Kama Deva, who carries the arrow made of flowers.
The bija mantras used in the daily puja are Srim for Balabhadra (Ugratara), Hrim for Subhadra (Bhubanesvari), and Klim for Jagannatha (Dakshina Kali). It is also very important to know that all the bija mantras used in all rituals & ceremonies (including those of the Vaishnava tradition) are taken from the Sarada tilaka tantra."
Vimala is his Bhairavi and he is also found with Lakshmi in the following way: "Jagannatha is sitting with Lakshmi (who sits on His left thigh) on a red lotus flower. Both have reddish intoxicated eyes, and Lakshmi wears two yellow pieces of cloth (as upper and lower garment). The worshiper invites Him to manifest in his heart with this meditation: om trailokya mohana hrsikesa apratirupa manmatha sarva stri hrdaya karsana agaccha agaccha namah In the center of the lotus mandala sits the Bija mantra klim (the Kama Gayatri bija mantra), and the first 8 petals around the lotus center are the 8 Shaktis Vimala, Utkarsini, Jnana, Kriya, Yoga, Prahvi, Satya and Isana" according to Tantric Jagganatha.
Jagganatha's use of two mantras exactly paints the red and blue magnets as seen either straight from the syllable Ka, or, in his seed mantra, Klim, which uses it with both meanings.
Klim is Akarshana or the magnetic action we intend Hook to commit--here is the different view of it in Dark Blue.
This shows the handling of Krishna:
It shows Namasangiti Manjushri over Manjushri and Wrathful Sarasvati. Not only is she not doing any wrathful activity, she has switched into Dharmachakra or teaching moment as shown by Vairocana influence here. And so this is, so to speak, a shakti we want to be able to handle, as if it were a living magnetic snake or something. This becomes the Klim seed in the Hook action. Jah can just mean we are trying to target Janguli. So if we train that one line, Vajrankusi Akarsayah Jah, by itself, it can be understood as requesting Manohara to draw in Janguli by this Klim magnetic power.
As the first line for the four gatekeepers of the solar plexus, it would simultaneously make her available to cure poisons. And so in the Namasangiti, this is with the scenes about Sword and Lion Speech attached to Sarasvati in this way. This form of Manjushri from the Namasangiti Tantra belongs to the Yoga Tantra classification, however many early mahasiddhas chose to comment from the Anuttarayoga level of explanation while others made associations with the Kalachakra Tantra. White Manjushri arises from the Siddhaikavira Tantra of the Kriya classification.
Then we could maintain our Hook is more magnetic than like a violent fish hook.
Bowl is a higher degree for Bodhisattva Offerings and so that comes out in the fourth mandala. Solar Plexus is where we are aiming as the first major change from spiritual tapas or awakening. And so we want the Gatekeeper Activities to be repairing and strengthening this chakra, while at the same time it has the extended mental meaning about how we are going to use it with Pledge Beings. And again here it is grounded from a pretty simple Blue Tara. The surpassing amount of Dark Deities mostly has goddesses we have covered except for Bon or native Tibetan. We lack the proximity to say we have Ekajata or Mahacinatara, so we are going more from the universal meanings to Mahavidya Ugra Tara and Blue Sarasvati.
Wrath will be harnessed by Aparajita and turns Yellow and comes under control. The other colors are Vasudhara. And so mandala four is Wrathful and the others are not. Everything we are using in three is semi-Wrathful. One can start the entire quintessence this way, until the first truly fierce goddess would be Day/Night Tara. Therefor she would have to mark the end of mandala three. It's not really even a mandala, but just an association of things. If we take this step and get a semi-Wrathful in each color, then we will have achieved All Buddhas Four Armed Sukla Sita. Then we could add Very Fat Wrathful Night Tara, immediately patterning the inversion or reversal of color or space with a full strength spark.
Visually, the result of this would be a new round of all colors in wrathful and tantric aspects. Symbolically, that Four Armed Sita, plus Sarasvati, plus intense Vajra, is Janguli. She is here to neutralize poisons, i. e. fix the colors. She has her White form, whereas Vasudhara does not. She has Peaceful and semi-Wrathful aspects. Parnasabari gets more severe. Mayuri is more passive and is beautified by the process of devotee's transmutation. Janguli is the devotee's actual Hydra or handful of their own shaktis. The eventual inverse of this White Janguli is Green Vasudhara--Dhanada, or, a high progression of a mantra cycle started with Janguli's initial, Jah.
Once the thing is started, then in the future mantra cycles, Red will only appear as Lion head with Chain Vajrashrinkala, and Manohara herself will move on to higher purposes. We are taking two weapons as Red as our intro to Red because Manohara is described as the object of the meditations. So in this sense, she is really a higher deity, and the outer gatekeeper task falls in the hands of a yogini from here. This would mean we have successfully made Nirmanakaya at least with respect to Manipura, and what we mainly are trying to do, is generate this, and protect it.
Tara and Manjushri are giving us a pretty united look at something just in starting the main mantra cycle with this view of Manipura Chakra.
We have a slightly different Manjushri system from a different interpretation of verse four. Manjushri blends with Sarasvati to make the complex Dhimma, but what does he mainly do on his own?
Anthony Tribe heavily studied the NMAA by Vilasavajra, the Nama Mantra Artha Avalokini or Explanation of the Name Mantras, a commentary on Namasangiti. His description states that this is the complete reverse of ordinary seed syllables: instead of being generated from it, Manjushri works from the "outside in", in order to create the syllable "a".
Now if we go back to Zhitro Hundred Deity, "a" is the gate from which all of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities flow. In other words the Manjushri practice will place us at the feet of that. The syllable will "work", therefor the hundred deities will work. Essence of Vajrayana explains common Amitabha Transference, and that there are other kinds. It says the Ka syllable as in Heruka means Union of Bliss and Emptiness. Karma Chakme's Commentary on Transference reiterates this along with more detail. He mentions that Tibet has texts but no lineage for transference to another body. This is not our concern. The first article explains it rather well. Becoming a Buddha is an eonic journey we are not likely to realize in this lifetime. Transference Yoga is therefor the supreme method in dealing with death.
NMAA develops the gnoses in an unusual order: Mirror, Equality, Discriminating, Dharmadhatu (which is unexplained), Praxis (Amoghasiddhi). This last is different because it emerges from Nirvikalpa Jnana or radiant non-dual, non-discursive state achieved from the previous gnoses.
This focus on Amoghasiddhi is the same as in the Tsonkhapa initiations, he becomes the sum of five gnoses, very similar to the quintessence of Tara.
At this point the practitioner is disembodied, not to become re-embodied until emerging as the Vajradhatu deity. Roughly put, Mahavairocana--Bodhicittavajra--Manjushri means the same as Adi Buddha--Vajradhara--Vajrasattva. They are all kind of equivalent, but are sets of relationships mainly based on "at the heart of". One goes through these hearts to finally reach the "a" syllable. In this case, one starts from the "outside" of Mahavairocana, and "a" is in Manjushri's heart inside him. This process is described as closer to Abidharmic philosophical analysis than the reverse method is. It does begin the process of emanation and retraction of light rays, purified by Tathagatas.
Specifically, Mahavairocana has in his heart a moon disc, on which is Adi Buddha, having in his heart a spoked wisdom wheel. At the hub of this, Manjushri is born from "A". The wheel has six colored spokes and four bands. The spokes have the Six King Mantras. The first mantra from the mantravinyāsa segment of the NS is visualized on the innermost band, and with the twelve vowels from NS v.26 being visualized on the second. On the rim outside of the spokes is arranged the second mantra presented in the mantravinyāsa, and on the remaining fourth band is mentally placed the Sanskrit consonants, beginning with the letter KA and ending with the letter HA.
Six Tathagatas will each replace Mahavairocana in the middle as the mandala deity cycles. Each Tathagata has Adi Buddha in his heart, again with a wheel whose spokes match the syllables of the related King Mantra. Seed syllables given for Tathagatas are, Amitabha, Hrih; Akshobya, Hum; Vairocana, long Ah; Amoghasiddhi, short Ah; Ratnasambhava, Om; Bodhicittavajra, A. The visualization is a temple featuring an exterior square enclosure with four corners, four gates and four arches and an interior circular enclosure containing a maṇḍala with empty thrones for the deities.
Vilasavajra says there are seven mandalas since Mahavairocana contains the six ancilliary Tathagata mandalas, and himself is the subject of Vajradhatu mandala. That is a different Vajradhatu version than in Tattvasamgraha, where Vairocana is the occupant. The difference is the latter can only be found in Pure Land or Akanistha, and the former is all-pervading non-dual gnosis. But in this view, Mahavairocana is himself again Bodhicittavajra among the Six Kings, so there are still only Six Families. So to make Seven Families work, the question is mostly is of who is Bodhicittavajra and are there grounds to make chapter four its own family.
Some of this also comes from a study relating Namasangiti to Borodpur, which, like Tribe, works on the assumption of Six Families. It says Dharmadhatu Vagisvara was added in the 10th century, and so the old Sadhanamala versions of him were not directly related to Namasangiti. Because of this, I believe, it is stated there are Seven Tathagatas.
Bodhicittavajra is more or less Vajrasattva of any Six Buddha system, so this NMAA explanation would be the same as Samvara, Diamond Realm, or any similar system that simply sticks him on top of the hierarchy. They have not changed Amoghasiddhi. They have given the Dhyanis in an unusual order which firstly would make this a Vajrabhairava tantra with Amoghasiddhi representing a high stage.
This probably is pretty accurate towards the semi-esoteric system.
What is more interesting is the meditation. It's an extension of Guru Yoga; if I stick to the Sarma names, there is Vajradhara and Vajrasattva already. Within the main practice, I can re-spawn Vajrasattva directly from Vajradhara in order to deepen or enrich the bond. And this would just be Manjushri with "a" inside Vajrasattva.
So if by Vajradhara we really mean universal bodhi itself, then surely there have been those who happen to have reached it by non-Buddhist methods. It persists whether Buddhas arise in the world or not. Vajrasattva is really a specific way of localizing this, or placing it in the microcosm, Buddha's way on our Jambu or Mahar Loka. This has a lot to do with Akshobya and the Hum syllable. And so it is kind of hard to say either one of them is different from Vajra Family, or sometimes Tathagata or another Family they may be associated with. Therefor, if one, Vajrasattva, can be said to have one, it would be hard to deny the same of Vajradhara, even though the main thing that backs this up is that Tsonkhapa technically allows it.
I am not sure they have such unique families, as they are different levels of the intent of Five Families bundled in Amoghasiddhi. They could be said to have unique Wisdoms. Cosmically it is the same as saying the Central Sun is the source of consciousness, and the visible sun is its local reflection. So man would only truly partake of the seventh wisdom in Nirvikalpa, which, itself, is hard to dispute that it is the intention of Amoghasiddhi. That is why it is interesting the standard NMAA commentary places him highly.
We are not joining the initiate system, simply by being outsiders with an interest. In which case we should not have Vajrabhairava as any beginner practice. Because we can make Vajrasattva Samaya, and this is how we really have to do anything, it seems best to proceed mildly, keeping him at the beginning and having the intermediate steps before Mirror Wisdom and Vajrabhairava.
If the major Dharmadhatu Vagisvara was not originally included, this is to say it is a type of "completion" like the closely-related Kalachakra. The Sarma cycle is intended to convey the full teaching, which in earlier periods, there was no one to comprehend them. Same as all wheel-turning episodes. Six Buddha system is not much of a mystery as it can be found in some of the earliest expressions of Avalokiteshvara and Vajrasattva. If Seven is esoteric, meaning not publicly expressed, it could be said to have been obscured by Six for almost all the history of Vajrayana.
The meaning I get from his name is he is simply Vagisvara from stage two, after having gained Dharmadhatu Wisdom, fifth, which arises in stages, which is the Vajradhatu, sixth, which, when complete, is increased to perform at equality with Tathagatas, seventh, which makes one a Vajradhara.
Our meaning of having Vajrasattva first and taking over the Karma Family of Mantra and Vidya should bear on the fact that he is already a purifier with a large mantra which should be the beginning of other mantra. Hopefully this includes some realization of Mahamudra. Amoghasiddhi is intended to represent the success of Vajrasattva bond, mantra, Mahamudra, Dharmadhatu, and quintessence. Although this does change Six Buddhas a little bit, it remains fairly close to Vilasavajra and Tsonkhapa having uncommon explanations of Amoghasiddhi which render him much more of a magical being than saying he is in the north and associated with smell and perfect karma.
Here is the Sanskrit alphabet. Vowels are first with some "r" sounds, and then the consonants are arranged by how they are spoken:
This shows how the vowels and special marks are added to the syllable Pa:
Corresponding consonants:
Exoteric chakras:
From Red, it goes Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham, then two Oms (some say Ah for ajna). We say the colors are backwards, in terms of consciousness or the noumenal path.
Prajnaparamita common mantra:
Om ah dhih hum sva ha.
The visarga mark like a colon is aspiration. These kinds of syllables echo, dhih, hrih, hoh. Ah can be understood as Mahavairocana plus all its other meanings, dhih is like Dhyana. Adding a bindu, Ah would become its fullest form, Ahm.
In a Letter to Franz Hartmann, HPB says she was never allowed inside the the "Shakang" or private temple of the Tashi lama near Shigatse. She mentions "Om tram ah hri hum, which figures are roughly drawn sometimes on the Melong "mirrors" --- (a disk of brass) against evil spirits --- for the mob." She also refers to "Meilha Gualpo, the androgyne Lord of the Salamanders or the Genii of Air, look like this "sphinx;" but her lower body is lost in clouds, not fish, and she is not beautiful, only symbolical." The only instance I know of "meilha" is in a sadhana of Mahakala: sumpana meilha marpo. The "sphinx" was atop a pillar and half woman, half "fish", or most likely a Naga. On statuary, I don't think you can confuse fish for clouds, but as nagas, they greatly resemble mermaids. Not many deities can actually be counted as androgynous like Ardhanarisvar. There is pal ye she gyi gon po ma ning nag po, which is the Black Eunuch form of Maning Mahakala, a transcendental or Bhagavan class. There is also Bhurkumkuta (Wrathful Vajrapani), who changes sex without changing names. This one is a healer; more along the lines of healing an individual person, whereas Parnasabari is more against the public spread of contagion. Evidently similar to Acala, whose wrathful reflex is female Mamo Botong. Krodhini Bhurkumkuta is a Black Ucchusma form from Mahasiddha Drupangsa.
HPB also says Avalokiteshvara is androgynous. An older version of the name is Avalokitasvara, meaning the second half is not "ishvara", but "asvara", or without sound, meaning something like sound no longer heard, but seen. This version is the source of the original Chinese translation, Kwan Shi Yin or Guanzizai, prior to the female Kwan Yin. This method retains "svara", or sound, and so is the Avalo-kita of svara, sound, or hears the world's sound. Sri Lankans just use the name Natha Deva. The older name traces to the fifth century; the newer one is not found before the seventh. "Lok" has sometimes been given the double meaning of "observed" and "world" (loka). Avalokita has the direct translation, "observed". "Kita" on its own would be an expression of contempt, and there is no "Avalo" without some kind of ending. Sound is itself the Brahman; especially the resemblance of inner life-force winds making vibrations in the body, to how physical sounds are produced. Svara can be noise, but suggests higher orders such as voice, vowels, musical notes. Shabda also covers a range from Om, to speech, to noise. The strength of Chinese is they copied manuscripts from 2nd-6th centuries, unsubjected to revisions (such as emplacing "ishvara"). A modern Japanese article compares these and concludes upon "one who observes thinking". In Gandhari, svara can also mean "thought", and in the verses, "pronouncing the name" is less common than "thinking of" the Bodhisattva. Author seems unaware of the doctrine of sound "no longer heard, but seen", and admits to doing linguistic guesswork, although it is very thorough.
In an attempt to figure out what Hartmann's friend saw, HPB chicken-scratched both the Pancha Jina syllables and another set of cards or blocks. The psychic friend drew a decent approximation of a Tibetan temple after handling an unidentified Mahatma letter to Hartmann. HPB almost repeats Schlagentweit's mistake of placing the visarga on everything:
So we can tell that because answering a letter would spoil her concentration to work on The Secret Doctrine for a whole day, she had a weak skandha, and/or her one-pointedness was not of Bodhisattva strength. So she made G. R. S. Mead answer the mail. She was heavily versed in Sanskrit and in the Indian classics, her glossary being a major inspiration for many of these posts, one word speaks volumes. This carried through into Indian Buddhism where she is always very true to the philosophy. But she does not seem to have the same level of detail with the many intricacies of Tibet. The above is a very basic spelling error, or speling airer. Again, she indicates her "lodge" is not Tibetan, but has a nucleus at Shigatse, where the Panchen Lama knows the international "nobles etrangeres"; a few of the Tibetan lamas are also adepts, most are not. From what we can tell, this scene dissolved by around the 1930s.
Siddham script of Om tram ah hrih hum:
The main variation, or more likely original format, for Pancha Jina syllables is Om Ah Hum Svaha. In that case, sva is Ratna and ha is Amoghasiddhi. Amitabha can be Hrih or Ah, Amoghasiddhi is Ah or Ha, Ratnasambhava Tram or Sva. Vairocana and Akshobya do not change. This version of course is almost the same as Prajnaparamita mantra.
Om tram ah hrih hum would need to explain Tram. It is often shown out of order:
Elizabeth English gives Tram as the syllable of arrows and arrow shield. In some older manuscripts, Ratnasambhava has Kham, while Amoghasiddhi has Am or Tram. We don't find Ratna in any danger of having Ra or Ram for his initial. Tra could be "protect", or to cut, da-tram, a gift or a sickle; to liberate or transport, similar to Tara. I guess no one explains it because it is too obvious; there is no "Tra" syllable, and so this one can only be the combination of Ta and Ra. Ta has no chakra or element. According to Bardor Tulku Rinpoche, "TAM is birthlessness, that phenomena are unborn (skye med, Tib). This refers to the unborn nature of all the Taras and to the simplicity & unconditioned quality of the dharmakaya. Because the deity is unborn, she is beyond all conditions. To use the words of Gampopa, it is said that nirvana is in essence empty, and is unestablished or non-existent. In its manifestation or appearance it is blissful. Samsara is in essence empty, and unestablished or non-existent, and in its appearance or manifestation is of the nature of suffering and confusion. From the ultimate point of view they are the same in that they are both empty and unestablished. From a relative viewpoint, however, they are different in that samsara is suffering resulting from ignorance, and nirvana is happiness resulting from the absence of ignorance. This ultimate, unborn, and empty nature of samsara and nirvana is what is meant by the syllable TAM." This is none too far from Prajnaparamita and the general Tara mantra in meaning. Unborn is Aja, Ra is Fire, we are sort of back at the beginning with Mesha-Aries by combining these.
Hum can be the seed syllable for vajra, as can Vam, which is also for Vajravarahi. Her rite casts a circle somewhat differently, seeming to use four walls instead of a circular fence, and having this arrow shield. Mantras here for the components are:
Ground (bhumim): Om medini vajribhava vajrabandha hum
Walls (prakaram): Om vajraprakara hum vam hum
Roof (Panjaram): Om vajrapanjara hum pam hum
Canopy (vitanam): Om vajravitana hum kham hum
Arrow shield (sarajalam): Om vajrasarajala tram sam tram
Encircling blaze: Om vajrajvalanalarka hum hum hum
It adds a step to subdue any entities that were caught inside the fence. Then adds the cemeteries inside. Varahi has no palace in this one. Kham is equivalent to Ham in representing Space or Akash. Sukham is an excellent space; duhkham is a painful one.
We are trying to get to Bodhisattva level. Here, our mantra is going to operate Offering Goddesses based from the same weapon syllables:
Jah is the seed for Dhupe Pravesa: the fragrance of ethical discipline that permeates the minds of those to be trained.
Hum is the seed for Puspe Avesa: the extensive cascade of flowers of enlightenment into the minds of those to be trained.
Vam is the seed for Dipasukhini: Aloka dispels fundamental ignorance with the lamp of pristine cognition
Hoh is the seed for Gandhe Citta Hoh: satisfying the minds of those to be trained with a flowing stream of nectar
Outside or after these are Wrathful Bodhisattva Gatekeepers proceeding from Hum and Om.
In this version, the Peaceful Bodhisattva ring uses the male Maitreya, Nivaranavishwakambin, Samantabadhra, Manjushri:
Mai Dharani Svaha
Thilim Nissarambhaya Svaha
Hum Sarajaya Svaha
Mum Sri Am Ragaya Svaha
Jah Dhupe Pravesa
Hum Puspe Avesa
Vam Dipasukhini
Hoh Gandhe Citta Hoh
Those are Buddha Speech.
Looking further in, the next ring consists of Buddha Mind. This is to Ksiti, Akashagarbha, Avalokiteshvara, Vajrapani. The meanings of the goddesses are Lasya, "may I, endowed with a sensual demeanor, receive the commitments of all buddhas". Malya says "I should maintain the commitments of all buddhas through mnemonic incantation and meditative stability". Gita says "I am attracted towards sentient beings like a sweet melody". And Narti says "I must attract sentient beings through enlightened activities such as dance".
Ksim Hi Rajayah
Tram A Garbhayah
Hrih Ha Hum Padmabhatamah
Jim Kurupana Hrih
Hum Lasya Samayas Tvam
Tram Malya Samaya Hoh
Hrih Giti Rago'Ham
Ah Nrti Ragayami
So it simply has seed syllables first.
These layers of rings or petals in the subtle body contain the Pancha Jina core or kernel. Outer Activities get us started, and the Bodhisattvas are only real once attaining Purity of Sense Objects. Stability is required in order to benefit from the inner circle of Prajnas.
In this, Mum Dhatvishvari is natural purity, Lam Locana is the councilor of all buddhas, Mam Mamaki is the caretaker of sentient beings, Phyam Pandara is not covered by defective blemishes, and Tam Tara liberates beings from cyclic existence. "Phyam" is sometimes given in places using a more familiar "Pam".
Mum Dhatvishvari
Lam Dvesarati
Mam Moharati
Phyam Ragarati
Tam Vajrarati
Being the set of Prajna mantras to correspond with Am Arolik, etc., according to Choying Tobden Dorje, Complete Nyingma Tradition. So for Peaceful Buddhas and Prajnas, the first line gives their enlightened intention, followed by the Families:
Om Ah Hum Bodhicitta Mahasukha Jnanadhatu Ah
Om Jinajik
Hum Vajradhrk
Sva Ratnadhrk
Am Arolik
Ha Prajnadhrk
Mum Dhatvishvari
Lam Dvesarati
Mam Moharati
Pam Ragarati
Tam Vajrarati
The original Pancha Jina stamp comes from Guhyasamaja, and runs as follows:
"The Tathagatas present in the Assembly requested the Lord Bodhicittavajra to define the Tathagatamandala or the magic circle of the five Dhyani Buddhas and in response to their request, the Lord sat in a special Samadhi (meditation) called the Jnanapradipa (lamp of knowledge), and his whole form started resounding with the sacred sounds of VAJRADHRK which is the mantra of the Dvesa family. No sooner the words came out, the sounds transformed themselves into the concrete shape of Aksobhya with the earth-touching signal (Mudra).
Then the Lord sat in another meditation and soon became vibrant with the sacred sounds of JINAJIK, the principal mantra of the Moha family. The sounds condensed themselves into the concrete form of Vairocana with the Dharmacakra Mudra and was placed in his front in the East.
Next with a third Samadhi (meditation) the Lord became resonant with the word RATNADHRK the principal mantra of the Cintamani family and soon became condensed in the human form of Ratnaketu with his favourite signal of Varada (gift
bestowing) and was placed to the south of the Lord.
The Lord thereupon took a fourth Samadhi and became resonant with the sacred sound of AROLIK, which is the principal mantra of the Vajraraga family. The vibrations soon grossened themselves in the human form of Amitabha with the signal of Dhyana (meditation) and was placed behind the Lord in the west.
Next, the Lord assumed another Samadhi and soon became resonant with the sacred sound of PRAJNADHRK, the principal Mantra of the Samaya family. The vibrations after condensation gradually assumed the shape of Amoghasiddhi with his characteristic symbol of Abhaya (assurance), and was placed by the Lord in the north.
Then the Lord sat in a series of special Samadhis, five in number, and became resonant with five different mantras. The vibrations in like manner were condensed in the form of five goddesses as female counter- parts of the five Tathagatas already named and were placed in their appropriate positions.
Thus, the Lord in the first Samadhi became resonant with the sound DVESARATI which transformed itself into the form of his own queen and was placed on his own seat.
Next, he became resonant with the sound MOHARATI which took the shape of a goddess and was placed in the eastern direction as the queen of Vairocana.
Thereafter he became vibrant with the sound RSYARATI which took the shape of a goddess and was placed in the southern direction as the queen of Ratnasambhava.
Next in another Samadhi the Lord became vibrant with the sound RAGARATI which soon took the concrete shape of a goddess and was placed in the western direction as the queen of Amitabha.
Then in a further meditation the Lord became resonant with the sound VAJRARATI which took the concrete shape of a goddess and was placed in the northern direction as the queen of Amoghasiddhi.
When all the Tathagatas were associated with their female counterparts the Lord sat in four more meditations and through these created four guardians of gates for the four cardinal directions.
First, he sat in the Mahavairocanavajra Samadhi and became resonant with the sound YAMANTAKRT. These sound vibrations soon assumed the concrete shape of a violent deity, fearful to the Tathagatas, and was placed at the eastern gate.
Next, he became vibrant with the sound PRAJNANTAKRT. The sound vibrations soon assumed the form of a violent deity, fearful to the Vajra process, and was placed at the southern gate.
In a third Samadhi the Lord became vibrant with the sound PADMANTAKRT which soon took the form of a violent deity representing the speech of the Tathagatas and was placed at the western gate.
Finally, the Lord sat in another Samadhi called the Kayavakcittavajra of the Tathagatas, and became vibrant with the sound VIGHNANTAKRT which soon took the shape of a violent deity representing the body, speech and the mind of the
Tathagatas, and was placed at the northern gate."
Arolik means pure or unstained. Jinajik is in Namasangiti verse 36; something like "vajra profound, He’s vajra intelligence, the knower of things and how they exist". Profundity of vajra; non-dual wisdom; literally, seizes by the conqueror; the conqueror is Mahasukha. Drik is "he who sees", related to drishti, or vision. Guhyasamaja uses the name Ratnaketu, from the Golden Light Sutra, Suvarnaprabhasa, or Altun Yaruq in Uyghur. It is about golden light from a drum; at this time, Amoghasiddhi was still called Dundubisvara or "drum sound". His family is called Samaya, which resembles the way in which we placed Vajrasattva in Karma Family and advance Amoghasiddhi into a family that...doesn't exactly seem to be different, but more intense and accomplished. The sutra itself has Sarasvati, Lakshmi, and Dhrda swearing to protect whoever upholds it. Golden Light may be obtained here, and we may note the lama has accepted that a recording is adequate for oral transmission. That is probably fine for all of the basics.
According to Sakya Pandita or Sapan, the ketu above is not "comet" like the planet of death, but "pinnacle", so the dhyani's name is Jewel Pinnacle. Early Sakyas were
very concerned about the incorrect transmission of dharma. They experienced a period of shutting down various tantric street performances, and then sealed the first transmission. So they currently only use a few of those, and are much more reliant on Sarma or new translation. See "A Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes" where Sapan is not so much pressing his personal view, but taking a very analytical approach to eliminate confusion. More commonly, ketu can be a ray or rays of light, or a banner, even as a token of splendor. It sill means the South Node as a special case, but here, it is more like banner on the summit of victory, dharma's peak, and being jewelled, is also splendid. In Varaha Purana, it is also a mountain near Lake Manasa and Mt. Meru.
This is probably a superior name, the newer one is just like Padma-sambhava, a being born of a lotus. Somehow it would seem incorrect to assert that a dhyani is born. It does make sense to say he is not seen or known until one climbs dharma's peak.
The other name change, Dundubsivara to Amoghasiddhi, has no confusion because they are totally different.
So those are some basics from Kriya, based on Guhyasamaja, one of the oldest and generally considered Father tantra. This class is considered less advanced than Mother and non-dual tantras. One example of how this is, would be the body mandala. In this system, the body becomes the thirty-two sacred sites. The Samvara or Mother tantra body mandala uses sixty-two nerve branches or tips, with an individual deity for each. However, Vajrayogini smooths this into thirty-six deities and uses them at the source of the nerves in the heart chakra. Therefor, this style is the most advanced, most direct, and we would impulsively feel something like "well just give me it". Traditionally this has been after a twenty-year study of something the size of an encyclopedia, numerous retreats and practices, before even entering a tantric college where one would still climb through Father tantras and so forth.
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To summon a deity in a more advanced method, the first part, generating the fire into the deity has four practices:
1) dispelling the interferers of the fire
2) purifying the fire in emptiness
3) generating the fire into the deity
4) making offerings and praising
Dispelling uses the mantra Om Vajra Amrita Kundali Hana Hana Hum Phat. While you are reciting this mantra, you should do this meditation: from your own heart, the wrathful deity, Amrita Kundali, is transformed. His holy body is green-blue in colour, and he has one face and two arms holding a variegated vajra and bell. The variegated vajra (a double vajra which has different colours) is in his right hand. His left hand holds the bell. He is adorned with wrathful ornaments and flames are emitting from his holy body.
If I look at that mantra for a moment, it splits, since there is a Vajramrta, and then Amritakundali, whose Families are confused.
Purifying should be called Visuddha mantra or something: Om svabhava shuddoh sarva dharma svabhava shuddoh ham. Concentrate on the emptiness of the fire and that your transcendental wisdom of seeing emptiness brings in the deity. It purifies by the realization of emptiness, purifies whatever just happened by understanding it to be non-dual, and removes it.
The other one is Emptiness or Sunyata mantra: Om sunyata jnana vajra svabhavatmatko 'ham. A bit more direct saying this is what I consist of.
Generating the fire into the deity includes:
a) the limb of nearing, which is generating the samaya being.
b) the limb of nearing the attainment, which is blessing the three places of body, speech and mind.
c) the limb of attainment, which is the entering of the transcendental wisdom.
d) the limb of great attainment, which is initiating and sealing with the owner of the race, which means with one of the Dhyani Buddhas.
In some cases, nearing may be described at the deity's syllable melting into a vajra which then becomes the deity, the first purifies the subtle, and the second, the gross body.
Nearing the attainment is meditation on Om Ah Hum in the Three Places. On (your) Hum, a white moon disc with a deity's particular symbol is placed., which can emit purifying nectar.
The attainment is that the deity's red heart rays become hooks and grab its transcendental form from the natural Abode along with the Dhyani Buddhas. One then uses Jah Hum Vam Hoh. Jah hooks it to the crown; Hum causes it to merge; Vam chains it, makes it inseparable; and Hoh cultivates great bliss and wisdom.
Great attainment initiates and seals the crown, which means the Dhyanis initiate the wisdom being. Prajnas pour nectar on the deity and its sire arises from the residue coming out of the crown.
4) Offerings and Praise. This can be followed by exercises in removing old karma. One can apologize about the mistakes in mantras and other techniques by substituting the deity's name for Vajrasattva in Hundred-syllable mantra. One may abide the deity in the fire and the sound of its mantra. When done, the transcendents returns to their Abode, the Samaya or Pledge being to the ordinary fire.
Tara has a special way of saying goodbye, or at least Chittamani Tara, who turns out not to be the same as Cintamani Tara. She is an emerald Tara with two blue lotuses and Amitabha for sire, intended to do anuttara. This style comes from Mahasiddha Takpuwa Dorje Chang. She will leave during the eight dissolutions of death:
1. Field of Merit and universal environment sinks into Tara: mirage vision.
2. Tara absorbs into TAM: smoke vision.
3. A-chung into TA: vision of sparks.
4. TA-body into head: dim flame vision.
5. TA head into crescent: white vision.
6. Crescent into dot: red vision.
7. Dot into flame (nada): dark vision
8. Flame disappears: clear light vision.
Then do the meditation of the three kayas.
Cintamani Sutra is different and related to multiple forms. In a sadhana of unknown authorship, Cittamani has been conflated with Cintamani. More interestingly, the emerald form is a wisdom being inside Pandara. Cintamani is just the jewel, or an old name for Jewel Family; Cintamani Chakra would be wish-fulfilling wheel, which would show "khorlo" in Tibetan. The tree itself may be of different kinds, such as parijata or mandara.
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Green Vasudhara is also similar to Taranatha's Five Deity Blue-Green Tara, except her retinue uses White Pratisara with a lotus supporting a vase with a gem, Yellow Marici, Red Varahi, and Black Ekajata. This is the normal Tam arising Tara of Amoghasiddhi that has Two Arms. These are another level of Four Activities and have their individual mantras starting with Shanti or White Pacifying instead of Hook.
Pacifying: Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Shantim Kuru Svaha
Increasing: Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Pushtim Kuru Vaushat
Magnetizing: Om Tare Tuttare Ture Vashat Trailokya Vasham Kuru Vashat
Subjugation: Om Tare Tuttare Ture Hum Phat Shatrun Maraya Phat
In this composition, we get: a readily-available Peaceful Protector, Pratisara, who is a Bodhisattva; the most important Bodhisattva, Marici; and her Vajravairocaniye and Vajravarnaniye attendants. So that adds the Buddha Taras by personal names to the Four Wrathfuls of the activities mantra, and then Four Offerings would complete the Kashmiri Vasudhara retinue. As we do this, we're installing generation and completion stage and bodhisattva nature. The second two are wrathful in this circle, although with Vasudhara they are all Prajna aspected. Again, it is reflecting different goddess levels within the Hundred Deity Peaceful and Wrathful Deities, and the sequence of approaching them. We are trying to get a Red Varuni to effect this full formation in her opposite Green Vasudhara.
Here is an example of such a Peaceful Activity cycle with a type of Manohara called Secret Accomplishment Arya Rakta Tara:
There she has Vasudhara in the center of Four Peaceful Activities and Marici riding her pig in an adventurous fashion. Almost as if to say there is such a thing as a peaceful hook.
Most of the images posted so far view much better individually, so that they either fit the window, or, most of them can be expanded to bring out greater detail. I have scoured them rather heavily, but have been able to find a clear match for the one who seems to be needed, Cemetery Sita.
This picture is attached at the end as the only way I could figure out how to do it. Due to that, we will add a prior series of Prajnaparamita goddesses so it tells our story almost note for note.
The final Sita picture is not from sacred art, but was illustrated to show in the translated Sadhanamala. It should be easy to detect, since having two flowers in the left hands is extremely rare, if not unique; but I cannot find this form anywhere. Here, we would keep in mind that her hair top-knot is made of braids, and the primary emblem on her diadem should be Amoghasiddhi. Also, they lost her name, because it is Sukla, not Sita. Her sadhana technically exists in Tibet, but is not used much. Her original reads:
"The worshipper should conceive himself as Sitatara, who is three-faced, and six-armed. Her right face is yellow and the left blue in colour, and the faces are endowed with three eyes each. Her three right hands show the Varada mudra, the rosary and the arrow, and the three left carry the Utpala, the lotus and the bow. She sits in the Ardhaparyanka attitude, sits on and shines like the moon, and bears the effigy of Amoghasiddhi on her crown of matted hair. Her head is embellished by five severed heads and the crescent moon. She is decked in many ornaments, is twice eight years old, and resides in the midst of the eight cremation grounds. Thus meditating..." This is a partial translation of the second phrase, noting that astasmasana means Eight Cemetries, and there is more before vicintya or "thus meditating", which is followed by "repeat this mantra". The missing hrccandra term appears to be something like heart, moon, and a seed syllable. She obviously isn't exactly Sita if having colored faces.
If from a different manuscript, the comparison would be:
Mostly the same expect the ellided part is before vicintya.
Her mantra refers to Acala, and then "animitta" is causeless, or unconditioned salvation, combined with a form of vara, referring to giving, varada "boon giving" gesture. In the symbolism, it appears Four Arm Sita gains Five Buddha crown, and Six Arm Sita uses Amoghasiddhi as the chief, enters the Eight Cemeteries and casts a Fence. She may have a feminized version of Acala; as a comparison, the same thing describes Lalita at a mountain range: "Similarly the Vindhyachala is reputed to
be the abode of Devi Lalitha. She has the name vindhyācalanivāsinī - vindhyākhye acale parvate nivasatīti tathā । LS(336)." The range is usually just called Vindhya, and when they add acala, it just means mountain. The main interperative meaning is immovable, she does not get sucked out the cemetery gates (senses), her Fence doesn't break, and also we see a basis of Hum-arising, Vajra Family being crowned with Amoghasiddhi, which is identical to Vajradaka. Amoghasiddhi has definitely changed from a hazy Karma deity who comes first and just kind of passes by; he has gone to a unique and superior stage of meditation which seems to grant Garuda to Vasudhara and Vajradhara himself.
Six Arm Sita, who has disintegrated the components of green by having yellow and blue faces, is crowned by a green deity. If related to Acala, he plays right into the same theme; he consorts Mamaki, as does Vajrapani, becoming "blue or green" in the same dual family role, and finally this is the same with Vajradaka.
This obscure goddess is a major check on stability, and seeds the line that goes to the height of Generation Stage.
This is duplicated in practice by the Mandala Offering, an outer Mt. Meru mantra. Here is a Tibetan explanation which includes Gegma, or, the Tibetan name of the Seven Syllable goddess. Vajrabhumi is the first component, and Fence is usuallu called Rekhe. The basic mantra then skips the tantric intensifications, but continues with the same components to be built into the full circle. This may be used for example after Seven Limb practice:
LONG MANDALA OFFERING
OM VAJRA BHUMI AH HUM Great, powerful golden base.
OM VAJRA REKHE AH HUM Diamond-hard fence.
This iron fence encircles the outer ring.
In the center Mount Meru, king of all the mountains,
in the East is the continent Purva-Videha,
in the South Jambudvipa,
in the West Apara-Godaniya, and in the North Uttarakuru.
In the East, are the islands Deha and Videha,
in the South, are Chamara and Apara-Chamara,
in the West, are Satha and Uttara-Mantrina,
in the North, are the islands Kurava and Kaurava.
In the East is the treasure mountain,
in the south the wish-granting tree,
in the west the wish-granting cow,
in the north is the unsown harvest.
Here are the precious wheel, precious jewel, precious queen, precious minister, precious elephant, precious horse, precious general and the great treasure vase.
Here are the beauty goddess, garland goddess, song goddess, dance goddess, flower goddess, incense goddess, light goddess and the goddess of perfume.
Here are the sun and the moon.
Here is the precious parasol, the banner of victory in every direction.
In the center all treasures of both gods and men.
This excellent complete collection, I offer this base to You, Great Compassionate One, together with your deity-entourage.
Please accept with your compassion, these offerings made by all suffering beings and bestow your loving blessings, on me and my countless mothers.
This ground I offer, as Buddha-fields, resplendent with flowers, incense and perfume in the center Mount Meru, four lands, sun and moon, may all sentient beings enjoy this Pure Land.
IDAM GURU RATNA-MANDALAKAM NIRYATAYAMI
The full version will add Tent and Fire and operate internally. Looking at the cosmology of this standard Thirty-seven Point Offering, we see the Eight Offering Goddesses in Sambhogakaya. This is something like the peaceful resolution of wrathful battles occurring in the Eight Cemeteries until this Fence meditation is stable. These are the Sister class which is either a bunch of demons, witches, violent Durga and Kalaratri out of control, or, we pacify and transcend them on a practice related to Acala, whose female reflex is Mamo Botong, or Queen of Space, the only Wisdom Being among Mamos: Purification of Sense Objects.
Deciphering the medieval labyrinth actually works. Again, the trouble with posting this sort of thing on a Theosophical or Buddhist site is they tend to be extremely literal. You are basically allowed to say "x document says y", and Buddhists seem particularly averse to non-Buddhist explanations such as Puranas. That heavily clouds the issue. So in looking at the lost Taras from around Nagarjuna's time--which are the ones in Sadhanamala--we found several examples of important things that went missing. And mostly these are of an intermediate level, or things that are the bridge between plain Mahayana and the advanced deities like Samvara and Chinnamasta.
There are huge weaknesses in a color-based classification like "White Tara". Also, it is hard to find any reason why they developed lists of "Twenty-one Taras", which do not agree with each other, and have little to do with Sadhanamala. There turns out to be a sort of exception somewhere in Nyingma, and, after working on it for a while, we get something pretty close to that set.
More importantly, after parting some clouds, we looked at who Dhanada is, and rather emphatically, she is the knowledge and means to cast a circle--which comes right after Six Arm Sukla, who laid the ground for it. So this is fundamental and essential. Furthermore, she is identical to the one that Taranatha calls "Green Vasudhara". There is an appropriate image for her, but it has no name. So now we know what it is. This is something not really even mentioned in Buddhism--it comes from Atharva Veda.
Further, in Nepal, Vasudhara is the goddess who, so to speak, leads you across the courtyard and places you at the door of initiation. So it is not a matter of us needing to choose what that consists of--it is pretty much right there in her meanings, once you get them together in one place.
This intermediate style of meditation does not really require intricate mandalas. It mostly works from Two Armed forms in the various colors. This is of course one goddess, who functions differently according to the colors and mantras. This can be operated without some of the Tibetan complexities, or the fact of them having so many Protectors and Wrathfuls, you lose sight of the fact that the end goal is simple, peaceful deities of the heart. Granted that grinding up and mostly disposing of the normal human mind, at some point, is going to require all that. Likely to vary by individual. The main reason that so many traditions have surfaced is to deal with any kind of mind, to resolve every possible question, and so forth. That's not the goal here. We are just trying to gather those meditations which are foundational to the Path. And so yes, there are basic Taras who do this.
Green Tara is a well-known start to the whole thing, any outer method is fine for her.
Blue Tara showed up early in Namasangiti as Blue Sarasvati, who is Wrathful, but still simple.
White Tara easily comes forward as the deity of the main Mahayana text, Prajnaparamita. So this has exercises with White Sarasvati, Prajnaparamita, and then Nagarjuna's White Vajra Tara. Many White or Sita Taras are a disguise--they are really Pandara, in Amitabha's Red Family. Others are more properly called Sukla.
Yellow Tara includes a strange peaceful set of Akshobya goddesses: Parnasabari, Janguli, and Vasudhara. Almost everything else he produces is dark and violent.
Red Tara arrives as special forms of Vasudhara. Particularly these are the Cup or Bowl, and the Hook. Those are unavoidable if one was to get any rites to work.
Once this spectrum is unveiled, then one arrives at Green Vasudhara, being Dhanada, the full circle. If you could do this, you would be a supreme candidate for initiation. The meaning of circle casting is obviously given in other places, but is a bit backwards: people can take an initiation and then learn how to do it. Here, we are going to learn and practice first, and of course it is aimed towards those who may have the aptitude, but stand little to no chance of ever seeing a real Vajrayana guru. At the same time, we largely bypass most of the time-consuming ritual behavior that comes with "lower tantra". Just keeping what is needed for someone to spend twenty minutes after work or something like that. Each little lesson or stage should take weeks or months, but it is definitely a Path, unrelated to using the same Lord's Prayer the same way fifty years from now.
In trying to compose this, it goes all over the place, and so the relevant Vasudhara posts are 344 starting with Parnasabari, 352, and then back to 330 for Dhanada. That's just how editing goes in moving from unorganized partial clues, to a usable format. Same idea as the mini-contents in prior posts. It's never 100% linear and always cross-combines with other things, but those are the places that will mainly be about her. It elevates her from this outer door to that of Shamballah. No, you can't jump it or just go there.
For ease of use, the really big book with hundreds of images is catalogued with the original triple panels under Rinjung Lhantab, Nartang Gyatsa, and Vajravali and may have additionals up to around 40190. The following numbers are larger individual views. It is a bit repetitive; you find Manohara with Dhanada, and then later, Manohara with Cintamani. It can probably show almost every possible permutation, except the things we want that did not get used much after India.
Here are the excavated remains of Vikramashila which reveals it to be half-Hindu with oddities such as two lions sharing a common head.
Here are Rinjung Lhantab deities as they are placed in order originally. This is pretty much what you get if you filter the first third of the book for only the basic goddesses:
Dharmachakra generally would be understood to mean Prajnaparamita, even though this does not continue her two lotus style. The two main forms of Prajnaparamita are shown later with Manjushri.
This is the very next frame which incorporates well-known Sarasvati of any background with the two most well-known Taras in their standard poses.
Nagaraja conceivably can express Janguli to us, considering this is Tibetan style produced relatively recently in Mongolia. It also shows the groups of frames are somehow related to themselves. Janguli is intended to transform multiple skandhas, and perhaps gain Form or Rupa Kaya, meaning Nirmana and Sambhoga Kaya considered together.
This is Day/Night Tara, Pitheshvari, and Cintamani:
That is what you could call Wrathful Fat White Vajra Tara, followed by one of the first, and more importantly Pitha-explaining Taras. Then a secret type of Yellow earth fire which is immune to normal ones. If we look at these groups, it may not be amiss to see a central deity explained or supported by those around it, which, in this instance, would suggest White Vajra Tara plus basic Yellow Tara are what summons this Red fireball who should be connecting us with our own internal Pithas.
The very next one is Manohara, Green Vasudhara--Dhanada, followed by what seems to be a seated Cintamani or Yellow Vasudhara Ila Devi:
Next is introduced Yellow Jambhala with White Tara. Next is simple Green, White, and Yellow Tara. Then Peaceful Varahi, Wrathful Blue Tara, and Eight Arm Green Tara holding a parasol. After her, one I'd guess is Mahasri. The proper Prajnaparamitas are shown, Followed by Four Arm Sarasvati with Red Mirror Goddess and a Yellow:
Marici starts the next group. Kurukulla and a series of dakinis are emphasized before Bowl Bharati, who is immediately followed by this roster:
The bowl has been forwarded to a Red Vajrayogini and then Varahi and Guhyajnana. On the small scale, the bowl itself is preliminary for Varahi, and on the larger scale, Guhyajnani is how we commemorate Manjushri setting up Nepal in the first place, herself also primarily being the bowl or cup in the esoteric Varuni method.
Later, Six Arm Parnasabari appears with Thousand Arm Parasol and her own Red form:
Since we are in a position to show this Parnasabari is about Janguli and Nagaraja, and, our intention here is to make this real inner Janguli able to manifest and emerge from what the massive Parasol is supposed to be, it seems to be described similarly here. Parasol is in the troubled position of suggesting to us that the female Aparajita--Two or Six Armed--is Parasol in a Yellow disguise having released her item. This is a mysterious parallel to the more obvious Red Pandara--Usnisa deities also appearing White.
As a result you find Amoghasiddhi in serpent hood, which can be obtained on the male side through Wrathful Vajrasattva--Kila, and with the goddess, is very close to the stage meant by Cemetery Tara and Dhanada-Vasudhara. She begins to be called Yogeshvari.
Parnasabari's own wrathful forms follow the above. Bhurkumkuta and Shabala Garuda appear. Eventually, with her Peaceful Green form, she surrounds Hayagriva:
She has a lot of Wrathful moments but is not a consort. Vasudhara is never very angry, but with her particularly there are all the degrees of contact. So she is an Anuttara deity, but she has a lot of antics besides union. Most don't. Parnasabari is going to heel Death Manjushri and Horse Head. Vasudhara is milking the best parts of it. Horse plus Kinnara apparently makes Vajrapani, which we have the syllable for, and Bhutadamaru gesture for him. She's putting everything into position.
These images don't show up until after a whole bunch of wrathful and tantric deities. Manohara and Ila are further along. The book itself rather obviously cannot be in linear order, since the fourth image is the highest Three Reds of the Sakya school--so right there at the beginning, Manohara is consort to Takki. Most of the strips and small groups of strips appear closely related, but otherwise, I do not know why it would show Completion Stage first. Nevertheless, the sequence shown here is fairly confirming towards the scheme we have excavated so far. Tibet seems to lack the grand presentation of Day/Night that we found as Mahamaya Vijayavahini in Calcutta. The style here is much more beginner level, and is in order of the book, just with the male focused and highly tantric parts picked away.
It seems to be in "clusters"; it starts with the highest Reds and then explains their beginning cycle, it shows various iterations of dakinis such as the drum (Niguma) or staff (buddhadakini) kind, it has a mostly Avalokiteshvara section, an area mostly for Manjushri, and so forth. Somewhat like the Sadhanamala does.
It ignites a Vajra torch, so to speak, and stashes it with Vasudhara for safe keeping, and gets to an understated if not completely missing Green Vasudhara who is a circle, a door, a definite point in meditation, requiring that torch and some quintessence. We are considering the Wrathful Rite as somewhat of its own track, and looking at multiple wisdoms or shaktis. We have some of the Nagarjuna way of White Vajra Tara now, which makes the whole thing fairly well populated with some amount of the correct practices, from the mindset of seeking a pith or core of the medieval Indian system.
The book's art of the above style uses a few Six Arm Sitas which are likely all Grahamatrika.
Cemetery Sukla casts Vajra Fence, so, she would be immediately prior to Dhanada, who is the whole circle. We'll award some quiet irony to post 360 for gathering the final element for that.
Re: The Serpent, the Black Sun, HPB & St. Germain
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